Where is whittingham asylum

Today, this technology is used to help diagnose epilepsy and other brain disorders. A meeting of student nurses on 18 July resulted in a number of complaints about cruelty and ill treatment being submitted to management. At first, the complaints were covered up but eventually, the hospital management committee launched an investigation.

They discovered a number of major issues at the facility. These included patients being locked outside or in washrooms and cupboards, patients being dragged by their hair, patients being fed on only bread and jam, patients strangled with a wet towel until they passed out, patients being punched until they lost consciousness.

There was an incident in which two male nurses poured methylated spirits into the slippers of one patient and into the dressing gown pocket of another and set them alight. Further to this, major issues were found within the buildings such as pest infestation, leaks and damp.

There was also found to be a culture of petty theft on the wards and of serious fraud and embezzlement in some administrative offices.

A shot of the site of the building much later and on another side to the above. It is in much worse state of dereliction. Whittingham Hospital went into decline after the investigation as parts of the facility were closed. New medication in the s and s led to a reduction in mental health facilites in general in this period. In the early s, services at Whittingham began to be wound down and it eventually closed in A new, smaller mental health facility called Guild Lodge was built on the site and opened in The Guild Park housing development was planned for the site with new homes to be built however the economic downturn of the late s halted the development.

My grandmother was in Whittingham Asylum for about 30 years, she actually passed away in there when she was My father used to visit her every 6 weeks and taker out for lunch, sometimes she brought one of the other residents with her, we lived in Congleton in Cheshire. It was a long journey before the M6 was build. She died in there aged I was a young child and used to be quite frightened going there. I was born in Blackburn and used to go walking on Longridge Fell and Pendle … and I never knew this place existed.

One imagines horrors in mental hospitals before the first effective drugs were discovered in the s, but the reminiscences people have recorded here paint a different, gentler picture, on the whole. I wonder whether some mentally ill people would lead better, fuller lives living in managed care facilities rather than trying to cope on their own, isolated, dependent on medication, perhaps shunned by ignorant or cruel neighbours.

We know that many of the homeless population have a mental illness that has contributed to their homelessness, and they need a community to make their lives worth living again. I visited twice in the 3 yrs she was resident there.

The place terrified me, I was only 8 at the time. They thought she was albino at first because she had bright white hair. Such sad scary memories of this place. Hello Michelle, I have just found this site and have no idea when you posted your message. I am shocked to read the previous messages on here.

I have wonderful memories of working on the Deaf Ward. The staff were lovely without exception. From the consultant Psychiatrist Brendan Monterio and formerly John Denmark who I met briefly and was also a lovely man and very invested in the Deaf Community , through to the nurses, support staff, cleaning staff and everyone else who worked there.

We had Deaf members of staff working there who were in positions of authority and would never have stood for the abuse of Deaf patients. All of the staff without exception treated the patients as we would have treated members of our own family. Shenton; J A Black; M. Clark; F. Knapman; M Lavery; S. Moon; Betty Smith; D. If there is anyone you would like to contact, please feel free to use this site as a go-between. The Health and Safety Executive were called to site in order to form agreements on safe working practices for the contract, given the state of the buildings and a safe way forward was agreed.

The planning of each phase of the operation needed to be undertaken whilst working alongside site. Ecologists TEP. The main concern was the bat population that existed within the buildings which resulted in 3 large bat barns being constructed on the site as well as 90 bat boxes, in addition daily checks for ground nesting birds had to be undertaken, over 80 bats of various species were re-housed. No demolition work could take place until all of the roof slates had been individually removed and each building section cleared by the Ecologists.

All of the buildings had to be demolished in a controlled manner with asbestos and ecology issues being the main priority.

After de-slating and clearance, buildings were slowly dismantled using a 27m high reach Liebherr fitted with a selector grab, materials were then separated at ground level by standard machines in readiness for either recycling or offsite disposal. Building slabs and foundations were removed, backfilled and levelled as part of the contract. There existed approx. The ducts were checked and cleared of any asbestos contamination, broken out and backfilled. Technical Demolition Services worked alongside WYG Consultants as well as the Health and Safety Executive in a coordinated effort to manage the difficult issues around asbestos removal.

In many areas of the site due to the poor condition of the buildings it was not possible to undertake asbestos surveys and therefore there was limited information available.

Inspections of suspected areas were undertaken by all parties using MEWP access where possible. Serious accounts and complaints of abuse, fraud, cruelty and mis-treatment arose in By , the largest complaints were addressed to the Hospital Management Committee including accounts of patients being locked outside, in cupboards or washrooms, patients being left untreated, patients being dragged by their hair when not obeying, patients being hit, patients only receiving bread and jam or slop to eat, that some wards were infested with vermin and some wards were too hot, too cold or damp.

After this the Matron and Head Male Nurse retired early, two male nurses were convicted of theft and another nurse was imprisoned for assaulting an elderly patient who died after the attack. Finally, Whittingham Asylum closed its doors in and the site became known as Guild Park. The Guild Lodge opened on the outskirts of the site in and has re-purposed and demolished a few of the outlying buildings.

The Guild Lodge provides mental healthcare services to a small portion of patients.