It all started in 1815 when the foundation stone for St Lawrence's Lunatic Asylum was laid. Within three years, the mental hospital opened containing 112 cells and accommodation for 72 patients. It made Cornwall the first county in the South West to provide an asylum for the insane prior to the 1885 Act which stated that asylums had to be built in certain area
St Lawrence's Hospital, before it was demolished (Image: Matt Hodgson)
Not long after the hospital was built, the words "Lunatic Asylum" were dropped from the name and the institution became well known across the county as St Lawrence's.
Until recently the hospital was fairly self-contained with facilities including a cinema, theatre and full-time blacksmith. St Lawrence's had its own farm and patients were involved in activities including gardening and other farm work.
Historically, the hospital was heated using coal fires and doctors would prescribe patients to move the coal from the bunkers to the boilers as part of their therapy.
The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (JRSM) found an admission book, kept at Truro's County Record Office, dated 1870-1875. Its researchers said it was the only surviving one for Bodmin hospital.
A majority of the patients at the time were labelled as having mania, it reported on its website. The other two most common mental illnesses recorded were dementia and melancholia. Although illnesses' definitions evolved throughout history, mania is described as a mental illness causing periods of great excitement and overactivity. Dementia is now well-known as a disorder causing memory and personality troubles and melancholia is a severe depression.
In its heyday the hospital catered for more than 2,000 patients. However in the 20th century some practices and rumours affected its reputation.
A nurse at the hospital from the 1920s named HG Woods explained unnerving details to Charles Thomas Andrews for the latter's book The Dark Awakening, citing that meals were terrible for patients and staff.
"The diet was revolting," he said. "It even shocked those of us who had just returned to civilisation after four years of active service and were not easily shocked.
"Breakfast was at 7.30 a.m. The majority of the patients ate in Foster Hall where they would find the tables laid out with a large dessert spoon and a basin to each place accompanied by a half pound hunk of bread smeared with the cheapest of margarine.
"There was porridge, for those who could eat it, served in the basins and, when the porridge was consumed the same basin was filled with about one and a half pints of cocoa. To patients who worked on the farm or on the grounds or garden there was fried rusty bacon and potatoes."
Mr Woods said the conditions significantly improved over the years.
After 1948, St Lawrence's started to offer geriatric care, which was also affected by rumours and inspections.
The Socialist Health Association explained that, in 1967, a book entitled Sans Everything contained "serious allegations of ill-treatment of elderly patients in Government Hospitals" including Bodmin hospital.
It reported on its website that the Minister of Health and the the South Western Regional Hospital Board tasked an independent committee to look into the allegations.
The two-week hearing heard the testimony of a former nurse who said she had been hired at St Lawrence's in September 1964.
"When I was new on my ward, and not been issued with a uniform, one old lady said to me, 'You aren't a nurse, dear; you can't be. You don't hit us or shout at us'," she told the hearing.
She also explained how some patients were allegedly begging her not to hit or drag them in a way that suggested they were used to such a treatment.
The committee eventually concluded that there was no "substance" or "evidence" in the allegations of cruelty by staff to patients at St Lawrence's Hospital.
By the latter part of the 20th century, government policy of caring for the mentally ill was changing.
Over the last 35 years national healthcare policy has moved from institution-based care to reintegration into the community-based treatments with patients spending time in group homes, hostels and their own homes.
In the mid-1990s plans were devised to close St Lawrence's and re-provide healthcare in the form of acute mental health inpatient units, older person units and a psychiatric intensive care unit.
As part of the ethos of not separating mental healthcare patients from the community, it was agreed that these facilities would be brought together on a single site providing both mental health and community hospital facilities. St Lawrences closed in 2002 .
I visited St Lawerences quite a few times between 2010 - 2011 as back then it was quite local . Sorry about the quality of the photos ,afraid back then i only had a little point and shoot camera , i just used to go exploring more to see the places than to photograph ... Im glad i got to see and go into St Lawrences as i believe a lot of the site was knocked down for new housing and the listed buildings were also converted .
St Lawrence's Hospital, before it was demolished (Image: Matt Hodgson)
Not long after the hospital was built, the words "Lunatic Asylum" were dropped from the name and the institution became well known across the county as St Lawrence's.
Until recently the hospital was fairly self-contained with facilities including a cinema, theatre and full-time blacksmith. St Lawrence's had its own farm and patients were involved in activities including gardening and other farm work.
Historically, the hospital was heated using coal fires and doctors would prescribe patients to move the coal from the bunkers to the boilers as part of their therapy.
The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (JRSM) found an admission book, kept at Truro's County Record Office, dated 1870-1875. Its researchers said it was the only surviving one for Bodmin hospital.
A majority of the patients at the time were labelled as having mania, it reported on its website. The other two most common mental illnesses recorded were dementia and melancholia. Although illnesses' definitions evolved throughout history, mania is described as a mental illness causing periods of great excitement and overactivity. Dementia is now well-known as a disorder causing memory and personality troubles and melancholia is a severe depression.
In its heyday the hospital catered for more than 2,000 patients. However in the 20th century some practices and rumours affected its reputation.
A nurse at the hospital from the 1920s named HG Woods explained unnerving details to Charles Thomas Andrews for the latter's book The Dark Awakening, citing that meals were terrible for patients and staff.
"The diet was revolting," he said. "It even shocked those of us who had just returned to civilisation after four years of active service and were not easily shocked.
"Breakfast was at 7.30 a.m. The majority of the patients ate in Foster Hall where they would find the tables laid out with a large dessert spoon and a basin to each place accompanied by a half pound hunk of bread smeared with the cheapest of margarine.
"There was porridge, for those who could eat it, served in the basins and, when the porridge was consumed the same basin was filled with about one and a half pints of cocoa. To patients who worked on the farm or on the grounds or garden there was fried rusty bacon and potatoes."
Mr Woods said the conditions significantly improved over the years.
After 1948, St Lawrence's started to offer geriatric care, which was also affected by rumours and inspections.
The Socialist Health Association explained that, in 1967, a book entitled Sans Everything contained "serious allegations of ill-treatment of elderly patients in Government Hospitals" including Bodmin hospital.
It reported on its website that the Minister of Health and the the South Western Regional Hospital Board tasked an independent committee to look into the allegations.
The two-week hearing heard the testimony of a former nurse who said she had been hired at St Lawrence's in September 1964.
"When I was new on my ward, and not been issued with a uniform, one old lady said to me, 'You aren't a nurse, dear; you can't be. You don't hit us or shout at us'," she told the hearing.
She also explained how some patients were allegedly begging her not to hit or drag them in a way that suggested they were used to such a treatment.
The committee eventually concluded that there was no "substance" or "evidence" in the allegations of cruelty by staff to patients at St Lawrence's Hospital.
By the latter part of the 20th century, government policy of caring for the mentally ill was changing.
Over the last 35 years national healthcare policy has moved from institution-based care to reintegration into the community-based treatments with patients spending time in group homes, hostels and their own homes.
In the mid-1990s plans were devised to close St Lawrence's and re-provide healthcare in the form of acute mental health inpatient units, older person units and a psychiatric intensive care unit.
As part of the ethos of not separating mental healthcare patients from the community, it was agreed that these facilities would be brought together on a single site providing both mental health and community hospital facilities. St Lawrences closed in 2002 .
I visited St Lawerences quite a few times between 2010 - 2011 as back then it was quite local . Sorry about the quality of the photos ,afraid back then i only had a little point and shoot camera , i just used to go exploring more to see the places than to photograph ... Im glad i got to see and go into St Lawrences as i believe a lot of the site was knocked down for new housing and the listed buildings were also converted .
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I too was really pleased to have been able to see this one - it was a gem that met its fate way too early...
It definatly was a lovely asylum , i must go past and see what it all looks like now next time im in cornwall ... its a shame i didnt get better photos and more of them but luckily i can still remember it all so well at the momment lol
