Birch Hill Hospital.

Birch Hill Hospital dates back to 1871 when it was originally Dearnley Work House.

The site originally occupied 24 acres and was purchased for £2,500.00 George Woodhouse and Edward Potts where the architects used and by 1877 the Work House was opened at a total cost of £85,000.00

In 1902 an infirmary was added to the grounds and then at the start of WWI the military took control over the hospital until 1948 when the National Health Service (NHS) was formed, since then it has remained a hospital, mainly for the mentally ill.

The hospital has quite a chequred and macabre past and in recent years has seen controvesy and police investigations in one form or another with the suspicious deaths of at least 5 patients.

A nurse is thought to be behind the deaths of the patients and also accused of injecting them with illegal drugs as well as indulging in illicit sex acts with them, two of the dead patients where exhumed in 1998 pending forensic investigations.

Police have also used sniffer dogs in the actual wards in an attempt to stop patients from consuming and dealing drugs to each other.

The other year a female nurse was attacked on the grounds and stabbed, the hospital was also fined £20,000.00 by the HSE after a patient fell from an open window to her death.

More recently a patient attacked another patient which resulted in death and a murder trial follwed to which a conviction was made.

On top of this the hospital has been the target of numerous break-ins, thefts and arson attacks with at least around 6 this year alone.

The hospital is now virtually empty with only the front section still being used for the mentally ill.

On our short and very brief explore of the place we bumped into a bunch of Pikeys stripping the place of copper wiring, they where how ever rather helpfull with directions and did warn us of the hammer wielding security guards who patrol the grounds.

Inside, virtually the entire site is vandalized, burnt out or stripped, in many ways it reminds you of Withington hospital in Manchester.

The risk of being taxed of the Pikeys, assaulted from security or bumping into the resident mental patients is probably more exciting than actually exploring the place, as it is rather dull and morbid.