History
Before becoming a hospital, the Amman valley hospital was a private house called ''Frondeg'' and the last family to live there before its conversion were the Folland family before they moved elsewhere and Henry Folland decided in 1924 to give their former home to the community by converting it into a cottage hospital that would serve the needs of the community, however due to issues with funding, and disagreements over what purpose the hospital would serve, this would take around a decade to come to fruition, long after Henrys death, leaving it to his wife Lilly Folland to carry out his wishes. despite community disagreement mrs Folland wanted the hospital to become a community cottage hospital, one that would be well equipped to serve the needs of everyone in the community, by 1929 Frondeg had been converted into a 12 bed hospital. progress stagnated for several years once again due to lack of funding from the council and community (this was pre NHS times) eventually Mrs Folland fronted much of the funding herself and the main hospital was finally opened on the 3rd of June, 1936, and started to accept its first patients on the 18th. By this point the hospital had fourteen beds with provision to take twenty one in an emergency.
In 1948 the NHS was founded and took over the hospital and at one minute past midnight on July 5th 1948 the first NHS baby was born in the hospital. Two years later the new maternity block was opened by Mrs Folland aproximately 100 yards away from the main building on 16th of December 1950. The building cost about £40,000 and the contractor was T. Richard Jones (TRJ) of Betws and the architect was Major Gilbert Davies. Unfortunately in April 1984 the East Dyfed health authority decided that due to money shortage, changing needs of the community low numbers of beds being used and and the fact that only 117 babies had been born there in the last year that the maternity wing would be closed, much to the disapproval of the community.
today the main building is still an active hospital, albeit a very quiet one and the old maternity block at the back has remained empty since the eighties. there has been many moves over the years to demolish the building and repurpose the land, however this has been blocked by the council.
the explore
The building now is definitely showing the effects of being stood empty for around 40 years. In the kitchen and adjoining corridor the roof has collapsed and there is major ingress of water, as well as the integrity of some internal walls being questionable at best. while a lot of the beds and equipment was left in the hospital, much of it is now vandalised, broken or has been moved into a large pile in one of the rooms (something which was not the case previously looking at old urbex photos). the hospital is quite notorious with the local riff raff, as the building is full of graffiti, empty cans and bottles, rubbish and evidence of vandalism and fires. as well as one area where there is suspiciously human looking faeces right in the middle of a corridor (so watch where you step if you go). to be honest the building is trashed and full of rot however there are some interesting elements if your not one who's bothered about how trashed it is as a whole. there's an original privacy screen/curtain, some beds and one original cot that hasn't been destroyed as well as what looks like equipment steriliser, baths and a few sad looking chairs and one or two of the original call bells still whole on the walls. this is surrounded by lots of upturned furniture and storage
the maternity building is only a ground floor and is comprised of a long corridor lined with rooms such as staff offices, storage and delivery rooms with a cluster of rooms each end and a larger room at each end of the corridor, which were likely the wards. the kitchen is still recognisable and full of equipment although its pretty trashed and full of water due to the caved in roof. it was a pretty easy although simple explore due to the level of abuse the building has taken and it not being the biggest hospital but theres still one or two nice original elements, the whole place is well boarded up so make sure to bring a good light/flash as its not the lightest inside in the daytime let alone if you go at like 3am like i did
Before becoming a hospital, the Amman valley hospital was a private house called ''Frondeg'' and the last family to live there before its conversion were the Folland family before they moved elsewhere and Henry Folland decided in 1924 to give their former home to the community by converting it into a cottage hospital that would serve the needs of the community, however due to issues with funding, and disagreements over what purpose the hospital would serve, this would take around a decade to come to fruition, long after Henrys death, leaving it to his wife Lilly Folland to carry out his wishes. despite community disagreement mrs Folland wanted the hospital to become a community cottage hospital, one that would be well equipped to serve the needs of everyone in the community, by 1929 Frondeg had been converted into a 12 bed hospital. progress stagnated for several years once again due to lack of funding from the council and community (this was pre NHS times) eventually Mrs Folland fronted much of the funding herself and the main hospital was finally opened on the 3rd of June, 1936, and started to accept its first patients on the 18th. By this point the hospital had fourteen beds with provision to take twenty one in an emergency.
In 1948 the NHS was founded and took over the hospital and at one minute past midnight on July 5th 1948 the first NHS baby was born in the hospital. Two years later the new maternity block was opened by Mrs Folland aproximately 100 yards away from the main building on 16th of December 1950. The building cost about £40,000 and the contractor was T. Richard Jones (TRJ) of Betws and the architect was Major Gilbert Davies. Unfortunately in April 1984 the East Dyfed health authority decided that due to money shortage, changing needs of the community low numbers of beds being used and and the fact that only 117 babies had been born there in the last year that the maternity wing would be closed, much to the disapproval of the community.
today the main building is still an active hospital, albeit a very quiet one and the old maternity block at the back has remained empty since the eighties. there has been many moves over the years to demolish the building and repurpose the land, however this has been blocked by the council.
the explore
The building now is definitely showing the effects of being stood empty for around 40 years. In the kitchen and adjoining corridor the roof has collapsed and there is major ingress of water, as well as the integrity of some internal walls being questionable at best. while a lot of the beds and equipment was left in the hospital, much of it is now vandalised, broken or has been moved into a large pile in one of the rooms (something which was not the case previously looking at old urbex photos). the hospital is quite notorious with the local riff raff, as the building is full of graffiti, empty cans and bottles, rubbish and evidence of vandalism and fires. as well as one area where there is suspiciously human looking faeces right in the middle of a corridor (so watch where you step if you go). to be honest the building is trashed and full of rot however there are some interesting elements if your not one who's bothered about how trashed it is as a whole. there's an original privacy screen/curtain, some beds and one original cot that hasn't been destroyed as well as what looks like equipment steriliser, baths and a few sad looking chairs and one or two of the original call bells still whole on the walls. this is surrounded by lots of upturned furniture and storage
the maternity building is only a ground floor and is comprised of a long corridor lined with rooms such as staff offices, storage and delivery rooms with a cluster of rooms each end and a larger room at each end of the corridor, which were likely the wards. the kitchen is still recognisable and full of equipment although its pretty trashed and full of water due to the caved in roof. it was a pretty easy although simple explore due to the level of abuse the building has taken and it not being the biggest hospital but theres still one or two nice original elements, the whole place is well boarded up so make sure to bring a good light/flash as its not the lightest inside in the daytime let alone if you go at like 3am like i did
