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Report - - St. Mary's Mortuary and Vagrant cells, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire - August 2015 | Asylums and Hospitals | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - St. Mary's Mortuary and Vagrant cells, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire - August 2015

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slayaaaa

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Intro

Another morgue, DEAD PEOPLE FRIDGESSS

Biiiiig thanks and props to Mockneyreject, who drove about mad and spotted the boards up on something else near which lead to me throwing a mad excitable fit when I saw this tucked away at the side.

Had a good day, thanks for putting up with me! :)

Hope you enjoy the report?

History

Work house turned hospital, this place, unlike most others, retained some of it's original features from it's Workhouse early years. The whole Vagrant's block had been retained. Why they did this was unclear, but a small section of this small block was converted into a small Mortuary that would service both St Mary's and Melton Mowbray cottage hospitals.

Here's some history of St Mary's and it's past:

Up to 1834
A parliamentary report of 1777 recorded a parish workhouse in operation in 'Melton Mobray' with accommodation for up to 40 inmates. In 1835, there was a workhouse in the town on Back Street.

After 1834
Melton Mowbray Poor Law Union officially came into existence on 26th March 1836. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 56 in number, representing its 54 constituent parishes as listed below:

County of Leicester: Ab-Kettleby, Asfordby, Ashby Folville, Barsby, Branston, Brooksby, Buckminster, Burrough-on-the-Hill, Burton Lazars, Coston, Great Dalby, Little Dalby, Dalby-on-the-Wolds, Eastwell, Eaton, Edmondthorpe, Freeby, Frisby-on-the-Wreak, Gaddesby, Garthorpe, Goadby Marwood, Grimston, Harby, Hoby, Holwell, Hose, Kirby Bellars, Long Clawson, Melton Mowbray (3), Nether Broughton, Old Dalby, Pickwell with Leesthorpe, Ragdale, Rotherby, Saltby, Saxby, Saxelby, Scalford, Sewstern, Somerby, Sproxton, Stapleford, Stathern, Stonesby, Sysonby, Thorpe Arnold, Thorpe Satchville, Twyford, Waltham-on-the-Wolds, Wartnaby, Welby, Wycomb and Chadwell, Wyfordby, Wymondham.​
County of Nottingham: Over Broughton.
Later Additions: Bescaby (from 1858), Shoby (from 1858), Sysonby with Eye Kettleby (from 1894).​

The population falling within the Union at the 1831 census had been 17,872 with parishes ranging in size from Brookesby (population 10) to Melton Mowbray itself (3,356). The average annual poor-rate expenditure for the period 1833-5 had been £9,433 or 10s.7d. per head of the population.

A Union workhouse was built in 1836 at the east side of Thorpe Road in Melton Mowbray. It was designed by Charles Dyer and adopted an elongated H-plan layout, rather than one of radial layouts more popular at the time.

A vagrants' block was located at the south of the workhouse. It contained work cells for stone-breaking at the southern side. The cells walls contained outlet grids (now bricked up) through which were placed the small pieces of broken stone.

The nearby vagrant cells were for vagrants, or tramps, passing through the town.

At the time it was illegal to sleep on the streets so the vagrants either had to rent a room somewhere in the town or, if they had no money, sleep in the cells.

Melton Civic Society vice-president and local historian Jenny Allsop suggested one way to save the piece of history would be to move the vagrant cells brick by brick to another location.

She said: "The vagrant cells are an important part of the town's heritage. It's not a very nice part of our history but a part we can't ignore.

"It wouldn't look good if they destroy something which could be so easily rescued. It's only a small building and I'm sure it could be removed by experts. Perhaps it could be moved to somewhere in Melton and used for educational purposes."

Civic society secretary Dinah Rudman added: "The cells are exactly as they were when the last vagrant walked out of the door.

"They're very interesting and we feel they're a very important part of Melton's history."

As reported in the Melton Times in 2001 Government officials rejected pleas to have both buildings listed. Officials said the buildings didn't meet standards set out by English Heritage guidelines.

The Melton Times asked the Leicestershire County and Rutland Primary Care Trust what its plans were for the two buildings.

A spokesman replied: "As part of the community services strategy we will be developing a plan for the Melton Mowbray Hospital site over coming months. No decisions have been made yet."

The vagrant cells are set to feature in a forthcoming programme on BBC4's Edwardians season.

Interesting List of residents: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/MeltonMowbray/MeltonMowbray1901.shtml#Inmates

Further reading: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/MeltonMowbray/
http://www.meltontimes.co.uk/news/local/town-s-piece-of-history-could-be-lost-1-464848

Pictures

Have some messy pics about dead people things, No doubt MR's pics will be better :D

Mortuary

External

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Fridgez

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A rather bare and empty Chapel of rest

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Skylight

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FYAH

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Why do dead people need to be comfy?

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May the force be with you

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Uno

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Lock you in

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Special waste

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Plans

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Cells

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Chimney

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Best served chilled

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mockney reject

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
An awesome day out, 8 different locations visited , 400 miles covered :D

I'm pooped, I'll stick my pics up tomorrow lol
 

Bigian88

The Massive Mancunian
28DL Full Member
20609906636_75e5a525d0_c.jpg


The lighting on this reminds me of the Umbrella Corp logo from the Resident Evil franchise :)

UmbrellaCorporation_bigger.png
 

slayaaaa

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
20609906636_75e5a525d0_c.jpg


The lighting on this reminds me of the Umbrella Corp logo from the Resident Evil franchise :)

UmbrellaCorporation_bigger.png


Milla is hot.
Still need to see Retribution...
:S

Thanks for the comments! Again, there's more to see at this site and a lot of it has been there for a long time.
 

slayaaaa

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I'd like to make it very clear we did NOT break into this building. Whether or not this:

"As it was pointed out to me, one bit of advice I would give is if your desperate for a pic of a mortuary fridge make sure that you don't post pictures online with the glass in the door intact and the door nailed shut and the next lot of pics from inside the place! Massive fail!"

Was directed at us or not, I'm not willing to involve myself in "Urbex Drama" as there isn't much that annoys me more. If it was not directed at us, then I apologize. But I'm not sure where anyone has seen pictures of the glass intact. This would be because the glass was never intact, or at least it wasn't when we found the place. We did not break it, nor did we force our way into the building at all. We left it how we found it. Maybe someone found it before us that I'm not aware and broke into the site? I don't care. We were simply opportunistic.

Want proof? I'm happy to provide it, if you're impatient, check Google Street view (taken in May shows the glass not intact.) We visited in August, I can provide proof for that if necessary.

Thank you. Have nice, drama free, Sunday. :)

(Mods, delete if you feel it's appropriate)
 

hamtagger

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Who said that was about you? As for drama, aren't you the one starting it with the above eager and swift defensive reply to a general statement that was made in another thread? Drama over
 

slayaaaa

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Who said that was about you? As for drama, aren't you the one starting it with the above eager and swift defensive reply to a general statement that was made in another thread? Drama over

Not interested in arguing, I was covering my back in case this was brought forward to anyone willing to investigate etc.
 
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