Mid Wales Hospital, Talgarth, June 2022
Like most current and former mental institutes and asylums across the UK they have all operated under numerous names, for the most part The Mid Wales Hospital (Ysbyty Canolbarth Cmyru) has been referred to as Talgarth Asylum over the years although from opening to closure it operated under the guises of:
The Brecon and Radnor Joint Counties Lunatic Asylum, Mid-Wales Counties Mental Hospital, The Mid-Wales Hospital and informally as Talgarth Asylum.
General Overview: from one of the most North-Eastern wards.
Like most current and former mental institutes and asylums across the UK they have all operated under numerous names, for the most part The Mid Wales Hospital (Ysbyty Canolbarth Cmyru) has been referred to as Talgarth Asylum over the years although from opening to closure it operated under the guises of:
The Brecon and Radnor Joint Counties Lunatic Asylum, Mid-Wales Counties Mental Hospital, The Mid-Wales Hospital and informally as Talgarth Asylum.
General Overview: from one of the most North-Eastern wards.
History
Primary Sources: (links)
County Asylums
Tumbles' 2020 Report
Wikipedia
Not seeing opening until 1903, the North and Mid-welsh counties featured a fairly low population density in comparison to other English cities across the borders and the funding for a county asylum failed to make any feasible sense in comparison to simply sending patients cross the boarder, which was a common practice through the 1800's.
Over time it was seen that Welsh speaking patients housed in English asylums were receiving poorer treatment and an article written by medical superintendent Dr Samuel Hitch bought this to public attention in 1942 which soon lead to amendments within the 1845 County Asylum Act and 1845 Lunacy Act.
This built upon the 1808 and 1828 County Asylums Act which had failed to make much of an impact up to this point, seeing the creation of less than 10 facilities all of which were constructed outside of Wales.
These acts updated were interlinked with one-another and primarily focused on ensuring poor, criminally insane or those within workhouses had access to mental healthcare as well ensuring conditions were upheld for patients. The primary focus of this amended act saw the need for each county to house a county asylum both across England and Wales.
Although the results were not instant, pressure for counties to provide psychiatric care began to grow with Wales starting to see a growth in asylums starting with denbigh. The construction for denbigh was under the combined efforts and funding of five North-Welsh counties which ensured the need and capacity for such an asylum could be met.
The principle for joint county asylums would become a reoccurring theme across wales and in 1851 the counties of Monmouthshire, Breconshire, Herefordshire and Radnorshire had joined to create the Abergavenny joint counties lunatic asylum as a means to create a treatment centre for the four sparsely populated counties.
From 1951 to 1890 the asylums' capacity rapidly grew to a point where it was beginning to struggle. This increased stress from four counties worth of patients on the single facility saw the four managing counties break apart leaving the existing asylum under the control of Monmouthshire whilst Herefordshire went alone to create their own facility and leaving Brecon and Radnorshire to create their of asylums. With these two remaining counties forming of small population densities the idea of a joint county facility was the plan pursued once again.
By 1900 the founding of this new hospital was underway with architectural designs coming from Messrs Giles, Gough and Trollop of London who used the now proven compact arrow asylum layout. Like most structures of this design most facilities were duplicated with the areas less frequented by patients centralised and shared by the segregated genders when required such as the hall and administration. To the eastern section stood six female wards and opposing this on the west stood six male wards which are nearly identical in design. The six wards themselves were again divided up into specific needs such as sick, admissions or infirm patients with this mirrored on both wings.
Apart from gender the only other main feature separating the hospital was the placement of the boiler house along the rear of the men's wing and the laundry drying rooms along the rear of the female wing.
The mortuary, chapel and later isolation wards were located just across the from the main hospital.
The three year construction process saw the asylums opening in 1903 with initial patient numbers shortly growing to over 350 as local admissions were supplemented by patients from further counties.
The initial treatments offered within dated back to the Victorian mindset of treatment with the logic that sheltering patients in a calmer environment to the outside world would hopefully allow a patients mental illness to recover over time. For thoes more restless of violent they would be restrained.
The regimes, although variant of gender, often involved allocating work or exercise to patients. Treatment would slowly evolve into a more scientific approach during the 1920s and onwards with mental health treated more as a medical condition rather than a personality issue. This saw therapies, although some are now no longer used, introduced to patients along with their usual routines.
As the construction of more asylums, now known more as mental hospitals, took place across wales patient numbers within asylums such as Talgarth soon started to see a decline in patients from outside the local counties with those from within taking their places. Specifically for Talgarth during 1932 upon the opening of Cefn Coed which saw most Swansea based patients transferred closer to home.
As the second global conflict began to rapidly increase the need for treatment facilities during the 1940s the Mid-Wales Hospital would be selected to house over 300 of its beds for treating soldiers suffering from what would later become known as PTSD. With numbers slowing declining towards the later periods of the war beds were handed over for use prisoners of war that also required treatment before 1947 when the hospital was mostly handed back for use by non-military patients. Within 1947 the NHS would be established and the Mid-Wales Hospital would join the service in 1948 as newer treatments, such as the then recently utilised Lobotomy and Electro Convulsive Therapy, became more common place within.
Throughout the following 1950s patient numbers sharply grew to the hospital's peak and the construction of a pair of wards just off to the north-east was authorised allowing greater capacity within as well as new X-Ray departments. Within this treatments also began to change with more medication based therapies were introduced. With further discoveries into medication based treatments more forms of therapy would be abandoned by the turn of the 1960s outpatient numbers sharply grew as patients were staying for shorter periods than before.
In 1965, to support this change in mental healthcare, a clinic was constructed along with occupational therapy departments to the west of the hospital with most the existing structures unfit for such a purpose. To prepare patients for life on the outside the occupational department had patients completing tasks that would mimic working conditions in manual tasks as well as the addition of a hairdressing/barbers salon for patients to improve conditions.
Upon the appointment of a new government the 1980's Care in The Community started to become a greater reality facing almost all of the remaining mental hospitals as this pushed towards re-directing funding away from the hospitals and instead towards local groups. This saw some of the first hospital buildings sold off and by 1990, when the Care In The Community Act was finalised, services were gradually displaced from the Mid-Wales Hospital.
By 1995 the hospital was near enough redundant and declared as surplus to requirements and in 1997 vacated.
Since closure the buildings were sold in 1999, resulting in a scandal, with the hospital buildings becoming part of the "Black Mountains Business Park" which subsequently failed to survive past 2008.
A majority of the building's roof tiles were removed around this time which has left a lot of the structure in an almost lethal state since with a lot of the connecting corridors demolished.
Admin Block: from the courtyards
The Visit.
We rocked up fairly unconvinced that this site would offer much in the way success but it made sense to give it a shot. After an awkward climb we were in and began to work our way around the hospital individually. The site is a challenge to navigate as most the flooring has deteriorated into an unusable state with some alternate routes bricked off, it took a lot of careful stepping to find a route across them.
Working East to West.
The Female Wards
These were in the worst state, no substantial floors or roofing to speak of.
Overview of some of the wards' exteriors.
The Most Intact Area of these wards, with any photogenic value.
An attempt at an overview, taken from atop of a doorframe.
The upper hallways connecting the wards to other miscellaneous areas.
What remains of one of the more communal areas, below was nothing
More corridors.
A small section of the interconnecting corridors which has mostly been demolished
Where the previous image would have lead to. The left: towards the wards and hall. The Right: towards admin.
The Central Structures
These divided the hospital, consisting of: the hall, kitchens and nurses' home.
Hall, clearly beyond its' prime.
Ground floor of the staff/nurses' bedrooms.
Very little in the bedrooms.
The Western, Male, Wards.
Externally these seemed in best condition.
Due to the external layer of ivy, these wards were rather dark.
Some of the tilework still holding on.
The individual rooms in a state of peril.
One of the few remaining communal wards.
What remains in some of the other wards.
Boiler House
Very little to speak of here.
Admin
Although the most ornate area, there was very little of interest.
A general condition of the corridors linking admin to everything else.
Some of the floor tiles uncovered.
Rising above the site, the clock tower.
Anyway, that'll be all
KP_
KP_
