The Brecon and Radnor Joint Asylum, opened in 1903 becoming the Mid Wales Hospital Talgarth, in 1921.
Originally called the Brecon and Radnor Joint Asylum on opening in 1903, the name was changed in 1921 to the Mid-Wales Hospital. Medical staff included a Chief Female Officer and a Head Male Attendant. There was also a farm, and service departments, which included a tailor, baker, shoe maker, printing shops, kitchen, laundry and church. There were also market gardens which consisted of about 8 acres.
The first patients at the hospital were admissions mainly from the Brecon area but numbers also arrived from towns further afield such as Swansea and Shrewsbury. Although initially intended to cater for 352 patients, at one point at the end of 1925 there were 455, stretching the resources to the limit. Some of this overcrowding was attributed to World War One.
In the early years the records reveal descriptions of mental illnesses such as dementia, epileptic insanity, delusional insanity, chronic mania, recurrent mania, alcoholic mania, melancholia. It was accepted that mania could be brought on variously by a number of causes, including of course, venereal disease and perhaps more unusually “disappointment in love”.
In 1974 the Powys Health Authority came into being and assumed control, with matters changing again in 1993 with the formation of the Powys (NHS) Trust. The hospital was closed in 2000 with some facilities being combined with nearby Bronllys.
THE MID WALES HOSPITAL SCANDAL
THE DISPOSAL OF THE HOSPITAL
The Mid Wales Hospital was sold in October 1999. It was closely related to the Welsh Office/Assembly as they were the official owners. For a number of years it was occupied and used by the local Health Authority as a mental health hospital. The sale seemed to have had all the hall marks of inside trading.
It was sold to one of its former chief medical officers and his wife. Alun Michael MP, who was the Secretary of State for Wales and then the Assembly First Minister, was implicated with having a direct involvement with the disposal and sale to the successful purchasers. Although this was later refuted, it was found that all normal procedures , including sealed bids, inventories and district valuations were abandoned by the authorities involved with the disposal. The AGW investigation also uncovered what appeared to be a pay back scheme , whereby the Health Trust arranged a compensation payment of £128,000 to be paid to the new owners a few months after completion.
This meant that a 43 acre site with 200,000 square feet of hospital buildings and floor space, plus 5 large family sized houses, a chapel , tennis court and cricket pitch, was bought for a cost of only £227,000 (two hundred and twenty seven thousand pounds ).
The slate roof tiles alone have been valued at 2 million pounds.
The site at the moment is undergoing great change with some demolition taking place soon. The owners are especially concerned about people visiting the place due to a group of people performing some form of ritual in the wards recently wearing horses and other animals heads.
I photographed lot of the buildings exteriors and was lucky enough to be allowed to photograph a section of the admin building.
http://midwalescountylunaticasylum.fotopic.net/
Wards e7 e8
The original Isolation Hospital
Chancefield House
Originally called the Brecon and Radnor Joint Asylum on opening in 1903, the name was changed in 1921 to the Mid-Wales Hospital. Medical staff included a Chief Female Officer and a Head Male Attendant. There was also a farm, and service departments, which included a tailor, baker, shoe maker, printing shops, kitchen, laundry and church. There were also market gardens which consisted of about 8 acres.
The first patients at the hospital were admissions mainly from the Brecon area but numbers also arrived from towns further afield such as Swansea and Shrewsbury. Although initially intended to cater for 352 patients, at one point at the end of 1925 there were 455, stretching the resources to the limit. Some of this overcrowding was attributed to World War One.
In the early years the records reveal descriptions of mental illnesses such as dementia, epileptic insanity, delusional insanity, chronic mania, recurrent mania, alcoholic mania, melancholia. It was accepted that mania could be brought on variously by a number of causes, including of course, venereal disease and perhaps more unusually “disappointment in love”.
In 1974 the Powys Health Authority came into being and assumed control, with matters changing again in 1993 with the formation of the Powys (NHS) Trust. The hospital was closed in 2000 with some facilities being combined with nearby Bronllys.
THE MID WALES HOSPITAL SCANDAL
THE DISPOSAL OF THE HOSPITAL
The Mid Wales Hospital was sold in October 1999. It was closely related to the Welsh Office/Assembly as they were the official owners. For a number of years it was occupied and used by the local Health Authority as a mental health hospital. The sale seemed to have had all the hall marks of inside trading.
It was sold to one of its former chief medical officers and his wife. Alun Michael MP, who was the Secretary of State for Wales and then the Assembly First Minister, was implicated with having a direct involvement with the disposal and sale to the successful purchasers. Although this was later refuted, it was found that all normal procedures , including sealed bids, inventories and district valuations were abandoned by the authorities involved with the disposal. The AGW investigation also uncovered what appeared to be a pay back scheme , whereby the Health Trust arranged a compensation payment of £128,000 to be paid to the new owners a few months after completion.
This meant that a 43 acre site with 200,000 square feet of hospital buildings and floor space, plus 5 large family sized houses, a chapel , tennis court and cricket pitch, was bought for a cost of only £227,000 (two hundred and twenty seven thousand pounds ).
The slate roof tiles alone have been valued at 2 million pounds.
The site at the moment is undergoing great change with some demolition taking place soon. The owners are especially concerned about people visiting the place due to a group of people performing some form of ritual in the wards recently wearing horses and other animals heads.
I photographed lot of the buildings exteriors and was lucky enough to be allowed to photograph a section of the admin building.
http://midwalescountylunaticasylum.fotopic.net/
Wards e7 e8
The original Isolation Hospital
Chancefield House
