# One flew over the cuckoo's nest



## Ellis (Apr 21, 2012)

This will prob get pitted but anyway - 

Watching one flew over the cuckoo's nest tonight haven't seen it for a while, and just made me think how true are the stories in some aspects to things that may have happened in asylums now derelict.
They are properly a bit extreme but it does make you think if walls could talk and all. 

other than the legally dead book about denbigh does anyone else know of true or based on true books about the asylums as though it might make grim reading it would be interesting to learn of what used to happen. 

Would like to know if any of you guys who have been in asylums have wondered this?


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## UrbanX (Apr 22, 2012)

I have Diana Gittens book "madness in its place" which is a series of real accounts from Severalls. Interesting reading. 
Don't know any fiction-Based-on-reality, but Theres gotta be loads out there!


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## UrbanX (Apr 22, 2012)

Also have most of the patient records from St Andrew asylum. I obtained them from the medical history department at University of East Anglia.


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## PaulPowers (Apr 22, 2012)

Having spent 13 months in a hospital as a teen I can honestly say it wasn't too bad.

Good food, entertaining company, Sky Tv and my own room. 

The thing to remember is most films and books won't give a realistic portrayal as it just wouldn't sell.

Having said that from what I've read the Victorian establishments were horrific


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## banshee (Apr 22, 2012)

i remember seeing some of the patients ,walking about in a daze behind a massive locked gate at friern barnet.they used to have a fair every year and the kids used to try and sneak around were we shouldn't have.can't remember anything else but the sight of them behind the massive locked gate wondering about zombie like !! some used to escape and my mates dad nearly knocked one over as he ran in front of him.when he got out of the car to see if he was ok he asked if he could run him over! he later jumped to his death of the railway bridge nearby.can't imagine what went on in there.


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## Munchh (Apr 22, 2012)

This website has become a virtual memorial for the survivors of Tonevale Hospital and Merrifield Childrens unit. It does give graphic accounts of life for patients here in their own words. 

http://www.derelicte.co.uk/tone-vale-hospital

There is also a book by an ex-patient, David Austin (Delivered unto Lions), based on his personal experience. 

The '70s saw the worst of Tonevale.


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## oldscrote (Apr 22, 2012)

A good local study on the history and treatments of Roundway hospital Devizes was done by a chap called Frank Steele in a book called down pans lane,worth a look if you can find a copy,the only one I could find after a quick search just now was here

http://www.localgiftstore.com/shop/...-Roundway-Hospital,-Devizes-1851-1995-19916~0


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## stevejd (Apr 22, 2012)

don't forget that film was set in a US asylum, at that time period things were very different to the UK's methods of treatment. My nurse tutor in the 70's used to say that the quickest way to treat minor mental illness in the USA was a ticket to London and not be locked away. In the UK we used to tolerate the excentrics of life with more leniency than the US, may be less so today.


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## mummyshambles (Apr 22, 2012)

I have the Dark Threads by Jean Davison, based on experiences at High Royds..


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## mersonwhoopie (Apr 23, 2012)

Not quite an asylum, but it did make me wonder. In Marconi's, we cam across a room that had more dead flies than floor!!! I just pictured an old angry man in that room, getting more and more pissed off about the amount of flies that kept coming in!!


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## tumbles (Apr 27, 2012)

Munchh said:


> This website has become a virtual memorial for the survivors of Tonevale Hospital and Merrifield Childrens unit. It does give graphic accounts of life for patients here in their own words.
> 
> http://www.derelicte.co.uk/tone-vale-hospital
> 
> ...



Yep there is some crazy stuff about ToneVale. My website has a lot of comments too 

http://www.whateversleft.co.uk/asylums/tone-vale-hospital-taunton

Defo worth buying David's book if you are interested in day to day life. 

Also check out Silent Minority & Out of Sight on YouTube.. it's pretty harrowing.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az2fTYud0us[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI2UNbd7lxY[/ame]


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## SNAKEBITE (Apr 27, 2012)

I live not far away from what was St Francis Mental home in Haywards Heath.
The father in law used to work there in the maintenance dept.

Some of the stories and sights were frightening but the day to day buisness was normal.

That being said long after the place "shut" they had the high security patients still there as they had nowhere else to take them!

I knew a couple of people who ended up in the "Annex" which was a low security wing and they reckoned it was the life of reilly, they were even allowed out shopping!


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## Munchh (Apr 27, 2012)

tumbles said:


> Yep there is some crazy stuff about ToneVale. My website has a lot of comments too
> 
> http://www.whateversleft.co.uk/asylums/tone-vale-hospital-taunton
> 
> ...



Thanks. 

Does gel with what I know about the place from a childhood friend who was there late '70s. Interesting to see the same sort of comments from ex-patients as the site I linked. As a group they're gravitating to any such sites as may introduce or reintroduce them to each other. Better therapy than they ever received at Tonevale. 

I believe the Asylums really were an 'institution' in every sense of the word.


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## UE-OMJ (Apr 27, 2012)

UrbanX said:


> Also have most of the patient records from St Andrew asylum. I obtained them from the medical history department at University of East Anglia.



You did an awesome post on this place....

[ame]http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=17235[/ame]

...the records you mixed in with the photos were fascinating.

Can you post more please? I'd love to see an entire post containing nothing but records like that.

Steve


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