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Report - - Great Barr Hall/St Margaret's, Birmingham - Jan 2021 | Asylums and Hospitals | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Great Barr Hall/St Margaret's, Birmingham - Jan 2021

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vw_golf_nutter

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
The Scott Family and the Great Barr Hall site date back to the 14th century.
The Grade II listed building which now stands on the 557 acre estate was built in 1777 as a family home for Baronet Sir Joseph Scott. It replaced the previous house named Nether House. There were 6 lodge houses for this grand Manor House. It is a nine-bay mansion in the Strawberry Hill Gothic Revival style.
The Scott Family lived in this house, extending it over the years until 1909 when the last family member Mildred Bateman-Scott died.
The property was sold at auction in 2011 to The Walsall and West Bromich Union for £28'000. They converted Great Barr Hall in to a Children's Home for the under 5's, Children of the Workhouse and of illegitimate births. It took quite a while to get the building ready for use as it had no running water, no gas or electricity, previously raw sewage was dumped straight in to the lake!
As well as the main Hall they also erected 2 further buildings to serve as Children's Homes, Sanders House (1926) and Derby House.
In 1914 the Union started work developing homes on site for the Mental Defective who were overcrowding the Workhouse.
In 1918 Prince Edward House and Wells House were completed for male patients.
In 1921 Lavender and James House were completed for female patients.
The site was named Great Barr Park Colony.
Over the years more buildings were added to create a Colony for the High Functioning Mental Defective and the site was self sufficient with patients working on site. Women would do laundry, sewing and cooking and Men would do farming, gardening, shoe making, brick laying or tailoring.
In 1948 the NHS took over the site and it was renamed St. Margaret's Hospital.
The main hall was abandoned in 1978 and the Hospital started closing down in departments not long after this. The last few residents left the site in 2004.
In 2006 the site was sold to Bovis Homes and the Colony buildings demolished. A new estate called Nether Hall Park has been built in the original horse shoe design.
The deal with English Heritage was that Bovis Homes had to do up Great Barr Hall in order to be allowed to build the new estate, unfortunately this never happened as they estimated the renovation of the hall would be in excess of £20million and would leave them out of pocket.
The Hall has been left to fall down however it is for sale for £7 million with 153 acres and 2 lakes!

Driving up the central road towards the old colony site there is still an impressive white building at the top of the hill, built to resemble to original administration block from Great Barr Park Colony.
The site was never an asylum despite a lot of people stating it was. There are no original Hospital/Colony buildings left.

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Walking up what would have been the original tree lined driveway to the hall you come across a beautiful bridge giving you a sense that your coming up to something important

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And then you come to this beauty surrounded by woods...

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There used to be a lot more of this building to the left along with a clock tower but it was demolished in the 1950s and other bits look to have fallen down...

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I watched a few videos before I went to this place and a lot of people have said this place has 'tunnels to the asylum'... this isnt true. There is a very big cellar underneath the house which was used to store food and provisions but there are not tunnels as such, certainly not long enough to link to other buildings on the estate.

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Love how you can still see where the pictures were on the wall. Im guessing the doors were bricked up when the Hall was turned in to a Childrens Home because they turned the first floor bedrooms in to dormitories and perhaps knocked walls down so didnt need all the doors - just a guess....

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You can see here how big the house used to be...

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The Chapel which was built alongside the house, it was joined by a small courtyard. The Chapel was never used as a chapel it was used as a Trophy and Billiard room.

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This gravestone reads 'The Mare of Arthur Scott - The Bounder - Died Oct 1901 Aged 29 yrs'

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This building has previously been described as an isolation block and the last bit of the asylum... this is not true. This building is what is left of Sanders Home which was an annexe of the Children's Home used to house the babies

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The last building on this site barely has anything left, just a few walls and a flooded toilet block.. I think this is the remains of Derby House which was also an annexe of the Children's Home

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If only I had the money I would love to buy this site and do it up :-(

Thanks for looking!
 

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Bazza74

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Can see why it’s not been saved! Nice detail in your report makings for a good read, good job.
 

Lehtz

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Wow! Cool to see this after so long. I visited here in 2002 and it was a mess then! But probably a more interesting explore as the majority of the buildings were still standing. Amazed the hall is still so intact TBH. Looking at my pics from the time the hall still had some remnants of stairs back then (see pic).

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vw_golf_nutter

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Its a shame I'm a bit too late but at least I got to see it at all, shame I missed the colony buildings they look interesting
 

Lehtz

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Its a shame I'm a bit too late but at least I got to see it at all, shame I missed the colony buildings they look interesting

It was quite an unusual place as I recall. The fact that there was a small road network across the site added to the post-apocalyptic feel of the place. It really was a burnt-out ruined mess of a place even back then, with a lot of the roofs stripped of slates. The hall however is still an amazing building, despite its awful state of ruin and with the little attached chapel is definitely still worth a mooch around.

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Kiorayla

28DL Member
28DL Member
Im so happy to see some of this still remains, This is where i used to skip classes when i went to Barr Beacon, is there still security with dogs there? There used to be many years ago, Knowing this is still here i will definitly go down and take a visit :D
 

Rosary_Boy

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Good report, it's past it's best now but good update. I've never seen that gravestone before!
Missed that Gravestone myself but good too see it
The Wine sellers is worth a good look around but not if its pissin it down lol
 

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