Report - Mid Wales Hospital, Talgarth - December 2012

Seffy · Feb 18, 2013

Mid Wales Hospital (Brecon and Radnor Joint County Asylum), Talgarth - December 2012 (Revisit)

Tumbles, Sinnerman and Seffy.

Some history, as lots of people already know about this place...

The Mid Wales Hospital, originally the Brecon and Radnor Joint Counties Lunatic Asylum was a psychiatric hospital in Talgarth, Wales. The building, designed by Messrs Giles, Gough and Trollope of London followed the compact arrow plan and was built at a cost of Â£126,000. It was opened amid public ceremony on March 18, 1903, by the Rt. Hon. Lord Glanusk who said of it "everything has been done that human ingenuity could devise for the happiness and safety of the inmates, and under the blessing of God, for their speedy restoration to health." Like other contemporary institutions, the asylum was designed to be self-sufficient, and had its own private water, electricity, heating and sewerage systems as well as a considerable agricultural estate on which able-bodied patients worked to produce food for the hospital. As well as residential wards, the hospital had a large recreation and dining hall, kitchens, workshops "in which the patients [were] encouraged to spend their time profitably", a tailor, bakery, shoe-maker and printing shops as well as 8 acres of market gardens.

This is a particular favourite of mine, often thought of as the forgotten asylum, it lies deep in mid Wales and still boasts a hall, chapel and administration building, even if the ceiling is on the verge of collapsing.

This place has fascinated me ever since I got into this exploring malarky. It's fairly small in size, as far as the asylum goes, but there is still lots to see despite this, including a complete recreation hall. Sadly, the place is suffering from the weather more and more by the day, which isn't helped by the lack of roof tiles on nearly every single building. It's been this way for over four years now, and I think the end is nigh for the place. Very sad indeed.
The hospital has been neglected in so many ways over the last 10 years or so, and it comes down to the fact that the people who should care about the place, just don't. On the recent visit, we walked around to the east wards to find a JCB had 'accidentally' driven into the side of the building at some point, I wander why? The whole site is now more open than it ever was, which is usually a blessing for explorers, but there's a part of me that wishes someone would seal it back up again to preserve what can be preserved.

See this link for details of the original sale back in 1999, otherwise known as the Mid Wales Hospital scandal.

This was my last explore of 2011, and was also my last of 2012. A very nice way to end each year, and who knows, maybe there might be at least a couple of buildings left to finish off this year with too!