Whittingham Asylum
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Whittingham Asylum was built in 1869 from designs by Mr. Henry Littler, architect of Manchester. The site originally covered 60 acres and cost £338,000.00 to build. The bricks used for the construction where actually made on site.
The site was built in four sections St Luke's (the Main), followed by St John's (the Annex), then Cameron House, and lastly St Margaret's (the New or West Annex).
This also included a water tower, church and a hospital for infectious diseases. The asylum even had its own private railway station for the conveyance of patients and visitors to the asylum.
Whittingham was the fourth County Lunatic Asylum and at one point was the biggest Asylum in Europe, housing over 3000 patients.
In 1918 the New West Annex (St Margaret's) was taken over by the military to care for the wounded and the sick, there are four graves in the asylum cemetery from WWI casulaties and one from WWII. These are now cared for by the War Graves Commission.
In WWII the military once again took over the asylum and over 3,500 patients had to be evacuated. At this point Whittingham was the largest mental hospital in the country.
Its also worth noting that the first EEG machine was produced at Whittingham by Dr C S Parker and Mr Charles Breakall from surplus war materials.
After the war though conditions worsened at Whittingham and patients where abused by staff on a regualer basis, and where also engaged in fraudulent activities and theft.
Inquests where held and the relevant offenders where dismissed, it was at this time that the NHS reviewed its mental health policy and Whittingham started to eventually relocate its patients and offer new treatments for mental health patients.
The asylum closed down in the 1995 and has remained derelict ever since although planning permission was approved in 2003 for 584 homes, offices, recreational facilities and a primary school.
One section, St Margarets has already been demolished, whilst the rest of the site is in a bad state of disrepair and very dangerous in parts.
I must admit I have never been a fan of places like these but after seeing Whittingham in person I thoroughly enjoyed it, the scale is immense and the natural decay breath taking, despite its poor condition it is very photogenic in parts and definatley worth seeing.
