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Report - - Hellingly Hospital, Hellingly - Dec 2008 | Asylums and Hospitals | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Hellingly Hospital, Hellingly - Dec 2008

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tumbles

Drama Queen
Staff member
Moderator
Hellingleeeeeee, or is it Hellinglie? Of course the locals will tell you the later. Visited this place twice in space of a month or so. First time a full day roam with Fiendicus, Lula, Sinnerman & Highriselights. Security seemed to have gone at this point which was kinda pointless as the place was absolutely trashed to an inch of its life. However despite being so trashed it still seemed so much more enjoyable than a comparitable level of trashed at, say, Cherry Knowle. Work had me not too far from here shortly after the first visit and finishing early I stopped by for another quick explore - the second time mainly focused on Park House which was an acute villa outside of the main compact arrow. Treating acute patients it still had the remains of the frame of a padded cell.

History:
Originally known as the East Sussex County Asylum, Hellingly Hospital lies on the hills of East Sussex just outside Hailsham. The complex was built on 400 acres of land that was formally the Park Farm near Hellingly Village. The East Sussex County constructed their own Asylum after they ended their joint ownership of the First Sussex County Asylum, St Francis, in Haywards Heath. St Francis was subsequently owned and operated by the Brighton Borough Authority. Concurrently, the West Sussex County constructed a similar complex at Graylingwell Farm in Chichester.

In order to construct their Asylum, East Sussex purchased 400 acres of land known as Park Farm from the earl of Chichester for £16,000. Hellingly Hospital was to be one of the most advanced Asylum designs of its time and was designed by the prominent architect George Thomas Hine, Consultant Architect to the Lunacy Commissioners. Planning for the building began in 1898 and GT Hine designed the hospital in his trade mark compact arrow form, with the male wards to the west of the site. An Acute Hospital, known as Park House, was built on the site and designed to hold approximately 15% of the total patient population. A number of villas and a separate isolation hospital were also constructed on the grounds. The buildings opened on July 20th, 1903, with a final cost of £353,400. Hellingly was to become a very large hospital, accommodating just under 2000 patients at its peak. The hospital finally closed its doors 1994 and has lain abandoned and derelict since. In mid-2010, work started to clear the site and develop the land into a housing estate, the chapel, villas and a small section of the main building were retained and converted.


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tumbles

Drama Queen
Staff member
Moderator
Perhaps the best thing about Hellingly however was stumbling across an old maintenance room by the water tower. 2ft deep in mud in places it suddenly dawned on us that there were around 40-50 bakelite phones burried in the mud in various states of complete ruin. At some point they'd been replaced with more modern units. Probably the original phones use at the hosptial many still had ward or doctors numbers on them.

It would be rude not to save what would otherwise end up in a skip. It took me 9 years to finally get around to fixing them both up as the wall mounted one sat forlorn in my garage waiting for my attentions!

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Seffy

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Really nice mate. Always been impressed with the work you put into those phones too!
 

mookster

grumpy sod
Regular User
Now you're making me all misty eyed. My first ever explore, my favourite asylum, I loved every inch of the ruined place. The main hall was so evocative, it still is today looking at old photos from the great age of asylum exploring.

I only went there twice - once as my first explore and then again a few months later when thankfully we managed to cover almost the entire site. Sadly by that time the bulldozers were already ripping into Park House, we could hear them working the whole time we were there so I never got to see the remains of the padded cell.
 

Six

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
You have a picture of the room of stuff!! I saw that room on my first visit and never came across it again - whether it was cleared out at some point I have no idea.

I visited Hellingly so often, I knew my way round by the end. It was always my favourite asylum.
 

CatfishCKY

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Nice report there, Tumbles. Loved that place, such a shame it got butchered in the renovations.
I remember a room of stuff too, my friend was going to save one of the mini TV units but we had to leave it, it was too heavy to keep carrying!
 

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