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Report - - Pool Park Asylum. North Wales Jan 2014 | Asylums and Hospitals | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Pool Park Asylum. North Wales Jan 2014

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Degenatron

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
After myself and Trancentral got turned away by security last time we visited about 2 years ago we felt it was time to return and get it done properly. The place did not disappoint. It also felt a bit like a Scooby Doo episode being inside a creepy old building whist a very loud thunder storm raged outside.:eek:

The estate of Pool Park, or as it is sometimes spelt, Pool Parc, has been around a long, long time and was originally one of several deer parks where the owners of nearby Ruthin Castle could hunt. In the 1500s the Salesbury family bought the estate and divided it in two, one half remaining with the father William Salesbury, and the other part going to his son and heir Charles. Charles died with no male heir so his line stopped. The original house and the estate then passed into the Bagot family when Charles' daughter married Sir Walter Bagot.

In 1862 the original house on the estate was re-built in a mock Tudor, half timbered style. No expense was spared on the interior where elaborate wood panelling graces the rooms and corridors and a magnificent oak staircase, complete with ornamental wood carvings, sweeps majestically down two flights of stairs mirrored left and right, into the grand entrance hall. The staircase is said to have originally come from a former bishop's residence called Clocaenog.

Whilst still remaining in the family's ownership the house was not actually lived in by the Bagots throughout much of the 1800s and then in 1928 they lost it all, lock, stock and barrel, on a bet at the races!

In order to make the sale of the estate quick and easy the land was split into lots but a Llanwrst timber merchant got the lion's share, subsequently felling and selling much of the timber from the surrounding forest. The house was not sold but was eventually leased to Sir Henry Tate of Tate & Lyle's sugar fame.

In the mid 1930's Pool Park was bought by the local health authority with the intention of converting it into a convalescent home for 80 male patients, and then during the war this was increased to 120. A prisoner of war camp was also built in the grounds!

In 1949 the house became a mental hospital to take some of the pressure off nearby Denbigh Asylum which was by now creaking at the seams. At this point female patients began to be treated as well. During the late 60s and early 70s lunatic asylums in the UK were progressively closed and Pool Park was no exception, finally closing it's doors in 1989.

Explored with Trancentral and Rocks. On with the pictures

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The view as you approach up the path

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The chair that has featured in countless other reports is now a bit trashed

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The kitchen

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The staircase. Sadly not as much of it left as there was a few years ago

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Lurking in the shadows.

Thanks for looking
 

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