The Fife and Kinross District Asylum (known as Stratheden Hospital from 1948) was designed during the first phase of newly instituted district asylums to be built in Scotland, of which five were initially built. The site has been in continuous use as a psychiatric hospital facility since the early 1860s and has been greatly expanded over a 150 year period.
The rural site at Springfield, located 2km southwest of the town of Cupar, was purchased in around 1858 by the newly established District Lunacy Board. Edinburgh architects Peddie & Kinnear were appointed by the board following a competition for the building's design in 1861. There was some delay in proceeding with the scheme while amendments to the recently introduced Lunacy (Scotland) Act of 1857 were being considered. Plans were finally drawn in 1863, and in 1864 the laying of the foundation stone was witnessed by 'a vast number of spectators numbering between 3000 and 4000' (Dundee Advertiser 1864). The main asylum block along with detached laundry and workshop blocks on a symmetrical plan, and the detached lodge and entrance gates to the north, were all completed by 1866, providing accommodation for '200 pauper lunatics' (Board of Commissioners in Lunacy Report, 1866). An Asylum Home Farm was built at the south side of the site between 1866 and 1870, to be worked and tended by convalescing male patients. In 1869 a female convalescent ward was built beside the laundry block, northwest of the main asylum building, so that convalescing patients could, by choice, undertake paid occupational therapy as part of their recovery process. A male convalescent ward (demolished 1960s) was built along similar lines beside the Asylum Home Farm in 1869.
Expansion continued to occur at the Fife and Kinross District Asylum due to increasing patient intake and various legislative and procedural changes which led to overcrowding. A detached ward block was built towards the northwest corner of the site in 1879. A hospital or 'infirmary' range (to the south of the 1866 block) was built in 1893. Hospital ward wing were added to either side in 1902, with further additions in 1912-14. The infirmary hospital range and its ward additions have not been in use since the late 20th century.
Expansion at the hospital after 1914 includes detached ward blocks, annexes, psychiatric units, staff accommodation, service buildings, stores and vehicle tenders. These buildings reflect legislative changes as well as evolving models of care throughout the 20th century and into the present (2019). Key pieces of legislation include the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913, which made changes to the way patients were categorised, and the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929, which abolished the district Boards of Control and placed the mental hospitals in the charge of the County Councils. The National Health Service (NHS) Act 1947/48 brought in significant new measures and organisational restructuring throughout Scotland. In July 1948 the Fife and Kinross District Asylum changed its name to Stratheden Hospital. The site is owned by NHS Fife and currently continues in use as a psychiatric hospital (2019).
I think they’ve tightened the security
