Mid Wales Hospital (formally known as The Brecon and Radnor Joint Asylum), nr. Talgarth, Wales
-WARNING!!! -EXTREMELY PICTURE HEAVY -VIEWING THIS THREAD MAY CAUSE YOUR COMPUTER TO SELF DESTRUCT!!! =;o)
Built -1900
Opened -1903
Closed -1980's / 1990's
Hello again everyone!
After taking over me Old's computer for the evening, here's me 2nd report from the weekend visit to Wales, which will probably be my last ever personal "road trip" (apart from the DP meet of course!).
Anyway, I digress -on with the report!!!
So, having had a successful visit to Denbigh the previous day, Dystopia, ImmortalOwl and me headed down to Mid Wales Hospital, just outside the pretty town of Talgarth. Before I go any further, again, I must thank ImmortalOwl for his invaluable directions and for showing us a way into the Hospital (which, I must say, was pretty easy when you know how!)
So, under the cover of the last hour of darkness before dawn, we were in!
To be honest, I didn't have a clue where we should be heading (as this Hospital is layed out in the "compact arrow" floor plan, and all the crazy angles threw me off and it took me an hour or two to get me bearings). But the ever dependable ImmortalOwl was there, and expertly guided us through the twists and turns until we found a good place to wait for the sun to come up. We refrained from using the flash on our cameras, so the first few pics are a little fuzzy due to my "can't be bothered to buy even a cheapo tripod, so I'll just try to hold it steady" style of picture taking!
As it got lighter and lighter, the first thing that struck me was the general condition of this place. Okay, there was the odd areas of damp, and some stripping out had taken place at some point, but it has to be the best kept place I've visited. You had to look long and hard to find a broken pane of glass in the many tall and narrow windows. In fact, where the place had damage, it seemed to be caused mostly by natural decay. Thanks to ImmortalOwl, we got to see just about all the accessable areas (I say accessable as conversion works have started in some of the outbuildings and the Administration Building and Chapel are sealed tight and have pretty real looking cctv cameras all around them). The strangest thing was going to open a door, and finding it locked. I'm guessing this is a sign that the local chavs / chavettes and vandals of other descriptions have yet to discover this place (and let's hope it stays this way). We came tantalising close to an old upright piano in one of the Wards, only to discover that on our side of the door, there was no door knob!
After seeing some of the original cells / seclusion rooms, we headed to the gem of this place -the Recreation / Main Hall. Wow, it's absolutely stunning, and virtually untouched, save for some of the parkey flooring taken up and carefully stacked in neat piles. Interestingly for me, I noticed that the floor underneath is concrete, so perhaps this has kept the Hall safe from the fire vandals, and will continue to do so. At this point, it's probably a good time to make you aware that the former Nurses's Residence, just located to one side of the Main Hall, has been converted into private housing, so please respect these people, and is probably best if you don't get noticed by any of these new residents, as they will probably take more notice / offence than your everyday Mr / Mrs Security. Once again, we would have had no idea if it hadn't been for ImmortalOwl's knowledge -or should I say "eagle eyes"!!
So, we took many pics of the Hall, before getting up higher to view it from the ever dependable Projection Box position. Disappointingly, there was no access open to get up above the Hall's roof (sealed up tight, so there went one possible way of getting panoramic views of the Hospital buildings). We did also look at the water tower (which is a later open metal tower type), but the bottom sections of ladder are no longer there
Whilst wandering around the Wards, the angular layout reminded me of Rauceby, from seeing Simon's pics.
We continued around the main buildings, coming across the Hospital Musuem, which contained an array of lethal looking contraptions and instruments of torture!!!!! Parts of the corridor system have been demolished, opening up the Courtyards. I'm guessing this is because they weren't considered worthy of retention, and will make it easier to gain access when they start to convert the main buildings. Also, I reckon that these areas will make nice communal gardens Looking outside, I noticed old hoop-top railings which encircled the Asylum buildings. My guess is that this is the original perimeter fencing, marking the edge of the Airing Courts? Nice to see that they are still here. The ones at Severalls were taken down in the 1960's. Think they were called "ha-ha's", although, I personally can't see the funny side!
Right, so after a rather lenghtly intro, here are the pics of my visit.
Is this yours Barney?!!!
Yup, you've guessed it -just a few more to follow!!
-WARNING!!! -EXTREMELY PICTURE HEAVY -VIEWING THIS THREAD MAY CAUSE YOUR COMPUTER TO SELF DESTRUCT!!! =;o)
Built -1900
Opened -1903
Closed -1980's / 1990's
Hello again everyone!
After taking over me Old's computer for the evening, here's me 2nd report from the weekend visit to Wales, which will probably be my last ever personal "road trip" (apart from the DP meet of course!).
Anyway, I digress -on with the report!!!
So, having had a successful visit to Denbigh the previous day, Dystopia, ImmortalOwl and me headed down to Mid Wales Hospital, just outside the pretty town of Talgarth. Before I go any further, again, I must thank ImmortalOwl for his invaluable directions and for showing us a way into the Hospital (which, I must say, was pretty easy when you know how!)
So, under the cover of the last hour of darkness before dawn, we were in!
To be honest, I didn't have a clue where we should be heading (as this Hospital is layed out in the "compact arrow" floor plan, and all the crazy angles threw me off and it took me an hour or two to get me bearings). But the ever dependable ImmortalOwl was there, and expertly guided us through the twists and turns until we found a good place to wait for the sun to come up. We refrained from using the flash on our cameras, so the first few pics are a little fuzzy due to my "can't be bothered to buy even a cheapo tripod, so I'll just try to hold it steady" style of picture taking!
As it got lighter and lighter, the first thing that struck me was the general condition of this place. Okay, there was the odd areas of damp, and some stripping out had taken place at some point, but it has to be the best kept place I've visited. You had to look long and hard to find a broken pane of glass in the many tall and narrow windows. In fact, where the place had damage, it seemed to be caused mostly by natural decay. Thanks to ImmortalOwl, we got to see just about all the accessable areas (I say accessable as conversion works have started in some of the outbuildings and the Administration Building and Chapel are sealed tight and have pretty real looking cctv cameras all around them). The strangest thing was going to open a door, and finding it locked. I'm guessing this is a sign that the local chavs / chavettes and vandals of other descriptions have yet to discover this place (and let's hope it stays this way). We came tantalising close to an old upright piano in one of the Wards, only to discover that on our side of the door, there was no door knob!
After seeing some of the original cells / seclusion rooms, we headed to the gem of this place -the Recreation / Main Hall. Wow, it's absolutely stunning, and virtually untouched, save for some of the parkey flooring taken up and carefully stacked in neat piles. Interestingly for me, I noticed that the floor underneath is concrete, so perhaps this has kept the Hall safe from the fire vandals, and will continue to do so. At this point, it's probably a good time to make you aware that the former Nurses's Residence, just located to one side of the Main Hall, has been converted into private housing, so please respect these people, and is probably best if you don't get noticed by any of these new residents, as they will probably take more notice / offence than your everyday Mr / Mrs Security. Once again, we would have had no idea if it hadn't been for ImmortalOwl's knowledge -or should I say "eagle eyes"!!
So, we took many pics of the Hall, before getting up higher to view it from the ever dependable Projection Box position. Disappointingly, there was no access open to get up above the Hall's roof (sealed up tight, so there went one possible way of getting panoramic views of the Hospital buildings). We did also look at the water tower (which is a later open metal tower type), but the bottom sections of ladder are no longer there
Whilst wandering around the Wards, the angular layout reminded me of Rauceby, from seeing Simon's pics.
We continued around the main buildings, coming across the Hospital Musuem, which contained an array of lethal looking contraptions and instruments of torture!!!!!
Parts of the corridor system have been demolished, opening up the Courtyards. I'm guessing this is because they weren't considered worthy of retention, and will make it easier to gain access when they start to convert the main buildings. Also, I reckon that these areas will make nice communal gardens Looking outside, I noticed old hoop-top railings which encircled the Asylum buildings. My guess is that this is the original perimeter fencing, marking the edge of the Airing Courts? Nice to see that they are still here. The ones at Severalls were taken down in the 1960's. Think they were called "ha-ha's", although, I personally can't see the funny side! Right, so after a rather lenghtly intro, here are the pics of my visit.
Is this yours Barney?!!!
Yup, you've guessed it -just a few more to follow!!
Last edited:
