St. Mary's Hospital, Burghill

St. Mary's Hospital was a psychiatric facility located in the village of Burghill, Herefordshire. Founded in 1868 as the Hereford County and City Lunatic Asylum, it was designed by architect Robert Griffiths, County Surveyor of Staffordshire (extended by John Giles, Gough and Trollope) and opened in August 1871.

Establishment of the hospital

Herefordshire initially utilised subscription asylum premises within the Hereford General Infirmary site and following the 1845 act entered into agreement with the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire, Radnorshire and Breconshire to construct the Joint counties premises at Abergavenny. Breakdown of the union led to Herefordshire providing its own asylum located close to the County Town of Hereford, who funded a proportion of the development. The rural nature of Herefordshire prevented further need for accommodation. The asylum became known as St. Mary's Hospital named after the local parish church.

The new establishment in Burghill, which replaced the original Asylum in Hereford, covered 10 acres and cost £87,873.00 to build. It was completed in 1871. There were a further 100 acres of gardens, a farm and several cottages. The main asylum was divided into a block for men and one for women, each wing constructed to house 200 patients. The male block contained a workshop and brewhouse, the female block a laundry. In addition to a dining and recreation hall, there was a chapel. A gasworks in the grounds supplied the gas for lighting the building. The hospital staff included both male and female attendants, a housekeeper, cook, laundress, housemaid, kitchen maid, porter, baker, engineer and stoker. A bailiff managed the house and grounds: there was also a gardener, cowman, wagoner and some farm workers. In 1872 the rector of Credenhill was chaplain. Part of his remit was to organise entertainment for the patients, including dances, walks, and concerts. Male attendants were paid more than double the salary of the female attendants.

The asylum appears to have been a well-run establishment and seems to have met with the approval of the Committee of Visitors in the years leading up to 1889. The chairman, B.L.S. Stanhope, expresses his satisfaction that "since the Asylum was opened, there is no record of any death of a homicidal or suicidal character; a fact testifying to the careful supervision exercised over the patients." ^[1]

It seems that the care of mentally-ill patients had come a long way since the early days at Bedlam.

The 1881 Census

Census records are extremely useful to the historian studying the 19th century. With regard to the asylum at Burghill, for example, the census sheds light on several interesting features by providing information on the patients' names, occupations and ages at time of the census. A note was also included if the patient was blind, deaf, deaf and dumb or, as was the case for one unfortunate patient, all three. In the absence of special schools and support in the community for the disabled, it seems that people who were blind or deaf and dumb were sent to an asylum.

Another interesting way to utilise census data is to study the occupation of patients. If women were not employed, the occupation of the husband or father was listed. For example, one private patient was listed as a builder's daughter, another as a farmer's daughter. Patients came from all walks of life and all categories of occupation. Few were under 20 years of age and again few were over 70. Ironically, the head attendant (male, 61) had become a private patient himself.^[2]

The later days of the hospital

At the beginning of the 20th century, the asylum was enlarged due to overcrowding and verandahs were added for patients with tuberculosis. The name was changed to St. Mary's Hospital. A small isolation hospital was built in the grounds in 1911. In 1994 the hospital was closed. When most of the mental hospital was demolished to make way for a housing estate, it was first thought that the charming Italianate chapel towers might be saved. However, it soon became apparent that the towers were unsafe and had to be demolished along with rest of the building.

References

Coordinates: 52°05′11″N 2°45′19″W / 52.0863°N 2.7554°W / 52.0863; -2.7554