Prudhoe Hall Colony
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Prudhoe Hall Colony was built in 1913 by designs from architects J.G Burrell and J. H Morton & Sons of South Shields who where appointed by the Northern Counties Joint Poor Law Committee.
The grounds were purchased by the Joint Poor Law Guardians of Newcastle for the sum of £19,199.00.
The Colony was originally built for "Feeble minded children" as they where called at the time. And was designed as three self contained villages including a mens village, womens village and the childrens village although the childrens village was never built.
The hospital was designed with a dispersed and open aspect which capitalised on the inherited character of the wooded parklands that preceeded the hospital rather than the traditional institutional atmosphere created by the earlier Victorian Asylums.
Although the original designs of the hospital were never implemented the design did have significance as Prudhoe was one of only a few innovative hospitals that were built to the so called "Colony system" which were built after the passing of the 1913 Mental Defficiency Act. Making them less institutional and informal unlike the typical Victorian style asylum architecture.
After World War I the site was greatly enlarged and also renamed to Prudhoe Mental Hospital, the expansion happened in two seperate stages, the first stage was during the 1920s and 1930s and the second stage in the 1950s and 1980s.
After the expansions were complete the hospital could house 1,500 patients. Which during the 1970s made Prudhoe Mental Hospital the 5th largest mental institution in the UK.
From the 1970s onwards though the hospital was gradually closed down, in 2005 virtually all of the site was closed leaving only a very small section still active.
Since 2005 over 90% of the hospital has been abandoned and left to decay, tragically it has suffered from vandalism which given the fact that 10% of the hospital is still actively in use is quite surprising.
The majority of the buildings are now boarded up leaving only one or two still accessible. Inside the accessible ones though little remains.
The only saving grace for this site I think is its layout, the parkland style village design works quite well and covers almost 96 hectares which is quite a considerable piece of land.
An interesting site, but only due to its history.
Date : 2009 : Location : Northumberland : Explorers : Havoc : Jaff Fox
