Report - Whittingham Asylum, Lancashire - May 2012

[Seffy]

Whittingham Hospital (Whittingham Asylum) - May 2012

Visited with djflava, wordsfromluke and a non-member.

As with most of the asylums, the history has been covered on here and elsewhere many times, but just in case you haven't read about it, here's a snippet from Wikipedia:

Whittingham Hospital, whose grounds adjoin the village of Goosnargh, grew to be the largest mental hospital in the country, and pioneered the use of electroencephalograms (EEGs). During its time it had its own church, farms, railway, telephone exchange, post office, reservoirs, gas works, brewery, orchestra, brass band, ballroom and butchers.
In 1866, the three Lancashire lunatic asylums at Prestwich, Rainhill and Lancaster were deemed to be full. The building of Whittingham Asylum began in 1869, originally to accommodate 1000 patients. It was built from brick made from clay dug on site from a pit which later became a fish pond.
The hospital officially opened on 1 April 1873. The large site included an Anglican church, a Catholic chapel, a recreation hall (also used as a ballroom) and several farms.

We made an early morning entry, even though not as early as first planned, and after a near miss with security, we were in.
This one had been on my list for a while, but just didn't get round to getting up north and doing it. Although it is trashed, I still maintain it was worth it. But when I say trashed, I mean trashed. Even just looking at reports from the place from less than a year ago, it has gone downhill drastically since. Every other step you take, you end up sinking down slightly, there are holes in most of the sections of roof, meaning that everything is completely damp and rotten, making walking through the place full of surprises!

We explored the place uninterrupted, and apart from a slight detour to get out, the day went smoothly.

On with some shots.

Thanks!

 

[Seffy]

Continued: