# Barrow Gurney Mental Colony, Bristol Sept 08



## silverstealth (Sep 3, 2008)

Bristol City Mental Hospital 

An early start saturday morning to meet Tumbles then off to barrow, Its located in the middle of the woods and stands isolated and to be honest pretty grim. 

Big thanks to Tumbles For The Tour...

Barrow Hospital 

Date opened: 3rd May 1939 

Location: Wild Country Lane, Barrow Gurney, 
nr. Long Ashton, Somerset 

Architect: Sir George Oatley, of Bristol 

Layout: Colony Plan 

Used During The War By The Military. 

Planned & built just prior to WW2 to provide the necessary number of beds for Greater Bristol, as Glenside had become increasingly overcrowded, it was not actually used for transferred patients to ease this pressure until after the end of the war. 

It is understood that it was 'commandeered' for servicemen who had been injured during the war, especially those suffering from psychological distress and conditions with a stress related component - which we might now term Post-Traumatic Stress, given the horrific nature of conflicts and the harrowing impact such profound experiences had over time.


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## krela (Sep 3, 2008)

silverstealth said:


> An early start saturday morning to meet Tumbles then off to barrow, Its located in the middle of the woods and stands isolated and to be honest pretty grim.



You think? I think it's lovely around there, it's just a bit spooky being so quiet.


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## silverstealth (Sep 3, 2008)

krela said:


> You think? I think it's lovely around there, it's just a bit spooky being so quiet.



I just have memories of the last time I went in the middle of a thunder storm through the blair witch woods..


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## krela (Sep 3, 2008)

silverstealth said:


> I just have memories of the last time I went in the middle of a thunder storm through the blair witch woods..



Bah, wimp! 

The woods would have been lovely at one point in time, there's wheelchair accessible pathways weaving through them all, all severely overgrown these days though.


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## silverstealth (Sep 3, 2008)

krela said:


> Bah, wimp!
> 
> The woods would have been lovely at one point in time, there's wheelchair accessible pathways weaving through them all, all severely overgrown these days though.



Its always the way, once the people leave these places soon take on a whole new perspective.. 

Are there any old pictures of this place whilst in operation.?


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## krela (Sep 3, 2008)

The only ones I know of are in bristol records office and I havent got around to going there for them yet.

There's some here too but the site was mostly closed when these were taken. 

It wasn't the kind of place for photographs, the wardens were pretty hot on people who werent supposed to be there, stuck in the middle of nowhere snoopers were kinda noticed.


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## rookinella (Sep 3, 2008)

Most of the leftover nutters from Barrow went to Bristol General hospital which is closing in 2009. I wandered in there when I broke my foot to have a look around but the closed wards were blocked off with big padlocks. That place will be epic when it's fully shut.


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## krela (Sep 4, 2008)

rookinella said:


> Most of the leftover nutters from Barrow went to Bristol General hospital which is closing in 2009. I wandered in there when I broke my foot to have a look around but the closed wards were blocked off with big padlocks. That place will be epic when it's fully shut.



No they didn't, the majority of them went to the new psychiatric health unit on Callington Road in Brislington... it was purpose built to replace barrow gurney.


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## Looloo (Sep 4, 2008)

And the odd one or two were totally inappropriately placed in Bristol Council EPHs, where the staff aren't trained to deal with them. Smaaaart.


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## rookinella (Sep 4, 2008)

krela said:


> No they didn't, the majority of them went to the new psychiatric health unit on Callington Road in Brislington... it was purpose built to replace barrow gurney.



My mistake, I just heard that from the caretaker of the place. Maybe he meant only the old folk.


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## krela (Sep 4, 2008)

rookinella said:


> My mistake, I just heard that from the caretaker of the place. Maybe he meant only the old folk.



Yes a ward full of elderly with severe senile dementia may have been moved there, I'll try and find out as my best friends fiance is a nurse in Bristol General. Might be able to pump her for more information on the site too


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## graybags (Sep 4, 2008)

*BG*

Nice to see these pics, when I was in Part two training at Haslar,one of my instructors told me that he used to work here when it was the Royal Naval Hospital Barrow Gurney

G


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## Flaxington (Sep 4, 2008)

krela said:


> No they didn't, the majority of them went to the new psychiatric health unit on Callington Road in Brislington... it was purpose built to replace barrow gurney.



purpose built with reduced beds and next to a 24hr tesco


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## krela (Sep 4, 2008)

Kirkbride said:


> purpose built with reduced beds and next to a 24hr tesco



Aaaah, but it still has the magic ECT suite.


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## tumbles (Sep 4, 2008)

krela said:


> Bah, wimp!
> 
> The woods would have been lovely at one point in time, there's wheelchair accessible pathways weaving through them all, all severely overgrown these days though.



He means the woods leading on from the back of the southside wing, that come out on the A38.. they were fun at 1am in the morning with howling march winds and the odd unexplained noise 

I think one more visit will complete the site.. the Northside residential wing, the mother and toddler unit and finally that bloody elusive rec hall


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## smileysal (Sep 4, 2008)

Looks like a lovely building, and inside very clean, and bright. Don't know where it's grim tho  Apart from the Dentists 

The woods surrounding it look great too, if a little more overgrown. All in all a lovely building in a lovely setting.

Nice pics,

 Sal


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## tumbles (Sep 4, 2008)

smileysal said:


> Looks like a lovely building, and inside very clean, and bright. Don't know where it's grim tho  Apart from the Dentists
> 
> The woods surrounding it look great too, if a little more overgrown. All in all a lovely building in a lovely setting.
> 
> ...



Trust me, Barrow is grim in places.. such as the Southside Sick ward











and the OT wing that joins up with the female administration block






Still a good little explore though, best done sooner rather than later due to the rapid destruction of the place.


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## freebird (Sep 4, 2008)

What a great place! All pics, bar the three put on by tomarse, show the place as being in suprisingly good nick. Great pics, looks like a good explore!


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## LivingFire (Sep 4, 2008)

Lovely pictures mate, this is what I like! 

In an earlier report, someone mentioned that this place is infested with bats, was this a problem for you?

Also, anyone know on the status of this place? When's it due for demolition/conversion or any sort of building work?

Thanks,
Phil.


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## silverstealth (Sep 4, 2008)

LivingFire said:


> Lovely pictures mate, this is what I like!
> 
> In an earlier report, someone mentioned that this place is infested with bats, was this a problem for you?
> 
> ...




I only saw one bat in the room where the dentists chair is, so no real problems there..

Not sure of the status though mate.


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## krela (Sep 4, 2008)

LivingFire said:


> Lovely pictures mate, this is what I like!
> 
> In an earlier report, someone mentioned that this place is infested with bats, was this a problem for you?
> 
> ...



The bats are mainly in the service tunnels (don't get excited, they're not exciting), not in the main buildings.

The status is that they're planning on keeping most of the buildings but converting them. Planning permission is in to turn the place into a bit of a colony/office park keeping most of the infrastructure and all the trees/woodland. It's still in planning stage though so it's at least a year off, or more in the current economic climate.


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## LivingFire (Sep 4, 2008)

Cheers Silverstealth & Krela!

In other pictures I can see signs alerting you of asbestos.. how much of a danger really is this? Surely it can't be much of a danger, having only closed in 2006!

Also, do Police dogs really train there? I've heard those signs are usually bullshit 

Sorry for all the Qs haha.

Thanks


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## krela (Sep 4, 2008)

LivingFire said:


> Cheers Silverstealth & Krela!
> 
> In other pictures I can see signs alerting you of asbestos.. how much of a danger really is this? Surely it can't be much of a danger, having only closed in 2006!
> 
> ...



Yes the police dogs train there, yes the building is full of asbestos - its not a problem in most of the buildings, its a huge problem in the service tunnels.

Most of the buildings closed in the early 90s, just a few remained functional until 2006.


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## tumbles (Sep 4, 2008)

krela said:


> The status is that they're planning on keeping most of the buildings but converting them. Planning permission is in to turn the place into a bit of a colony/office park keeping most of the infrastructure and all the trees/woodland. It's still in planning stage though so it's at least a year off, or more in the current economic climate.




If they are then something very fishy is going on.. the southside ward is part burnt down, stripped of everytile and will crumble over the winter. Brockley House is not only missing tiles, it's missing the entire roof. The large Administration block has lost its tiles and the roof has caved in on 4 or 5 places. 

They are even starting to remove the tiles from the villas now. The only place I've seen untouched is the Northside Staff residence and the small villa on the east between Southside and the admin/reception block. Everything else is stripped and given the winter closing in will not be looking good come spring!


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## tumbles (Sep 4, 2008)

krela said:


> Yes the police dogs train there, yes the building is full of asbestos - its not a problem in most of the buildings, its a huge problem in the service tunnels.
> 
> Most of the buildings closed in the early 90s, just a few remained functional until 2006.



Most of them were open till around 2005 I thought, the only one closing down before being the sick wards?... Dundry Villa had the high dependancy ward added in 2002 - the planning application is still on NS planning site.


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## krela (Sep 4, 2008)

tomarse said:


> If they are then something very fishy is going on.. the southside ward is part burnt down, stripped of everytile and will crumble over the winter. Brockley House is not only missing tiles, it's missing the entire roof. The large Administration block has lost its tiles and the roof has caved in on 4 or 5 places.
> 
> They are even starting to remove the tiles from the villas now. The only place I've seen untouched is the Northside Staff residence and the small villa on the east between Southside and the admin/reception block. Everything else is stripped and given the winter closing in will not be looking good come spring!



Most of the older ward buildings are totally unsuitable for use and need to be replaced, that's part of the reason they stopped using them in the first place. Allegedly there will be new buildings on the footprints of the old ones for those that can't be converted. They were planning on keeping what they could, but on investigation I guess that proved not to be viable.

Full plans are available on the north somerset planning website.


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## tumbles (Sep 4, 2008)

krela said:


> Most of the older ward buildings are totally unsuitable for use and need to be replaced, that's part of the reason they stopped using them in the first place. Allegedly there will be new buildings on the footprints of the old ones for those that can't be converted. They were planning on keeping what they could, but on investigation I guess that proved not to be viable.
> 
> Full plans are available on the north somerset planning website.



Hmm, but all the buildings were fine in January/Febuary this year. Then suddenly around April time damage of a kind not productive in any way seemed to start occuring.. maybe it's to help the revised planning applications go through easier


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## krela (Sep 4, 2008)

tomarse said:


> Most of them were open till around 2005 I thought, the only one closing down before being the sick wards?... Dundry Villa had the high dependancy ward added in 2002 - the planning application is still on NS planning site.



The sick wards being about 60% of the site... if you ignore the staff residence block.


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## Pete (Sep 6, 2008)

*Barrow Hospital*

I visited in January 2005 and this was the status at the time:

open areas:

molitor house
woodside (inc. voluntary services, hospitality and nurse's residence)
east villa - rehab
mother and baby unit (west villa)
Dundry villa (Villa D) - acute
John Carey House (Villa A) - acute
Brockley house PICU - acute
admission hospital (inc. reception, pharmacy, leigh ward (admissions), alexandra ward, elderly day hospital, mendip unit - neurophysiology and electroencephalography, social services wing )
gate house
boiler house 
mortuary
maintenance yard


closed areas:

Blagdon Villa (Villa B)
Combe Villa (Villa C)
Southside
Red house
Orchard room
OT wing (of admissions hospital)

To be fair, Southside does not make up 60% of the site, it is predominantly a single storey structure with 4 wards at most. Blagdon closed in 2003 and Combe some time before that. As Krela stated the remaining villas were transferred to Carrington Road exc. the MBU which went to Southmead.

Pete


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## krela (Sep 6, 2008)

Pete said:


> I visited in January 2005 and this was the status at the time:
> 
> open areas:
> 
> ...



I was talking more in terms of footprint than beds/capacity.


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## tumbles (Sep 6, 2008)

What's known, if anything, about the recreation hall? It was only when I was in the main reception part last weekend that I noticed it being listed on the fire alarm panel

This map must be dated about 2003-4 then, although it was picked up in southside wards.. so it clearly shows some of the villas gone.. how long had Brockley been built, can't of been long?


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## Flaxington (Sep 7, 2008)

what happened to the protected bat colonies?


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## krela (Sep 7, 2008)

They're still there...


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## Flaxington (Sep 7, 2008)

what happened to the staff social club, i know it closed years ago but is it still on the site or was it pulled down when it closed?


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## Pete (Sep 8, 2008)

tomarse said:


> What's known, if anything, about the recreation hall? It was only when I was in the main reception part last weekend that I noticed it being listed on the fire alarm panel
> 
> This map must be dated about 2003-4 then, although it was picked up in southside wards.. so it clearly shows some of the villas gone.. how long had Brockley been built, can't of been long?



The recreation hall was a detached building to the north west of Southside, adjacent to the wooded area - see link. I may be wrong, but i don't recall it existing in 2005?

Brockley is similar to other later PICU/forensic units and looks to be mid 90's in construction. That map looks of a rather odd, non-health service origin and almost home made


Kirkbride said:


> what happened to the staff social club, i know it closed years ago but is it still on the site or was it pulled down when it closed?



I think it may have been the 'Orchard room' under a previous incarnation, not 100% on that though.


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## tumbles (Sep 8, 2008)

Pete said:


> The recreation hall was a detached building to the north west of Southside, adjacent to the wooded area - see link. I may be wrong, but i don't recall it existing in 2005?



Good work with that link, when you compare it with the goole one here you can clearly see that it was knocked down. Shame it's gone but such is life.

Something very strange is going on at Barrow and I don't think all of it is legit either.


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## Pete (Sep 8, 2008)

tomarse said:


> Good work with that link, when you compare it with the goole one here you can clearly see that it was knocked down. Shame it's gone but such is life.
> 
> Something very strange is going on at Barrow and I don't think all of it is legit either.



I don't think it would have been a particularly substantial affair anyway - it wasn't part of the original plan for the site which would have had a rec hall where the orchard room is, in line with the boiler house and stores.

Does anyone know, is the fire indicator board that is frequently pictured (but not in this thread) located in the southside block? Its rthe only reference i have seen to Kenn, Nailsea and Redhill wards?

Pete


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## tumbles (Sep 8, 2008)

Pete said:


> I don't think it would have been a particularly substantial affair anyway - it wasn't part of the original plan for the site which would have had a rec hall where the orchard room is, in line with the boiler house and stores.
> 
> Does anyone know, is the fire indicator board that is frequently pictured (but not in this thread) located in the southside block? Its rthe only reference i have seen to Kenn, Nailsea and Redhill wards?
> 
> Pete



There is another panel in the reception which is much better and details all of the wards, numbers etc.

I have a picture but it's very bad, will find it for you a moment.

P.S I've only just realised how OLD that flash earth image must be, you can see them building the high dependancy block on the back of Dundry Villa, the planning application for that was 2002 according to north somerset planning website!


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## tumbles (Sep 8, 2008)

My picture of the panel is awful.. I can just make out zooming right in though







Ward 10 - East Villa

*Southside Wards*

Ward 9 - Shipham
Ward 8 - Jubilee
Ward 7 - (nothing listed, Redhill???)
Ward 6 - Kenn
Ward 5 - Nailsea

*Villas* (originally given ward numbers)

Ward 4 - Dundry Villa
Ward 3 - Combe Villa 
Ward 2 - Blagdon Villa
Ward 1 - John Carey Villa

'Central Linen Store' which presumably made way for Brockley Hosue is next to JC on the panel

The mother & baby unit appears to have a ward number but can't make it out and the administration block has C1,2 and 3 maybe?


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