The centre was hailed as Europe's largest drug and alcohol clinic when it was set up in the historic former tuberculosis hospital in 1997 but administrators were called in during summer 2008 and the clinic was closed in 2009. Built in 1898/9 by the firm of Boulton and Paul of Norwich and opened in 1899 as a sanatorium for well-off patients, this was one of the first private hospitals of this kind to be built in England. The complex is a rare surviving example of a timber-framed prefabricated hospital building.
The hospital was transferred to the NHS in 1957 and gradually fell into disrepair. After being purchased by Adapt Ltd in the 1990s, the complex underwent a major refurbishment and was used as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation unit that was re-named the "Diana, Princess of Wales Treatment Centre" shortly before re-opening.
Modelled on similar hospitals in Germany and Switzerland, where open-air treatment had been pioneered, a number of wooden huts were set up in the hospital grounds, some of which can still be seen, each adjoined by their own tiny wooden toilet hut built in a similar style. Here patients could spend time in the open air sheltered from the elements.
This was a beautiful building and the area and atmosphere was calm and peaceful. We didn't get into the main building but did the nurses annexe and the huts scattered about in the Bracken hills.
The hospital was transferred to the NHS in 1957 and gradually fell into disrepair. After being purchased by Adapt Ltd in the 1990s, the complex underwent a major refurbishment and was used as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation unit that was re-named the "Diana, Princess of Wales Treatment Centre" shortly before re-opening.
Modelled on similar hospitals in Germany and Switzerland, where open-air treatment had been pioneered, a number of wooden huts were set up in the hospital grounds, some of which can still be seen, each adjoined by their own tiny wooden toilet hut built in a similar style. Here patients could spend time in the open air sheltered from the elements.
This was a beautiful building and the area and atmosphere was calm and peaceful. We didn't get into the main building but did the nurses annexe and the huts scattered about in the Bracken hills.
