History
The hospital was built between 1846 and
1848 and the plans were drawn up by Thomas Fulljames (A North Wales
Hospital Society was formed in 1992 and they are the custodians of
significant documentary and oral historical material.). The hospital was
made due to poor publicity about the appalling treatment Welsh people
suffering from serious mental illnesses who were forced to seek
treatment in English asylums. Joseph Ablett, a local landowner, donated
the original 20 acres of land for the hospital complex in about 1842.
The buildings are now surrounded by 126 acres of wooded, landscaped
grounds. Plans for it were laid in 1842 and building actually commenced
in September 1844. It was the first mental hospital to be built in
Wales.
The original U-shaped complex is in
restrained ‘Tudorbethan’ style: built of locally sourced limestone
ashlar, with local sandstone dressings and slate roofs. It is listed
Grade II* because it is an exceptionally fine and pioneering example of
early Victorian asylum architecture. It is recognised by specialist
building historians as the best of its kind in Wales, and particularly
notable for the (relatively) benign regime its original plan and
management represents. The imposing gate piers announce a formal avenue,
originally designed to have gardens either side, which is the main
approach to the principal entrance, which faces northeast. A series of
walled garden enclosures were constructed within the shelter of the
U-shape, where gender-segregated inmates were required to take daily
exercise.
An extension to the Hospital in 1867
closed the open rear of the U-shaped main building and provided two
twin-bayed wards to either side. Further extensions and new building
works were carried out between 1903 and 1908. Two large private
dwellings near the Hospital were purchased and extended in 1926, and two
villas and a new nurses’ home were built in 1934. Additional ward
accommodation was built in 1956, when the Hospital reached its peak
capacity of 1,500 patients and there were further additions, links and
extensions constructed until the closure announcement in 1987.
The Chapel is listed for its special
interest as a fine example of an 1860s asylum chapel; the Bungalow is
apparently of special interest as an ingeniously planned late C19th
isolation block; the Lodge and Gate Piers are included as good examples
of their type and as an integral part of the site; the Nurse’s home is
considered a good example of Neo-Georgian hospital architecture which
retains original detail and was virtually intact at the time of listing
– the Erdigg Ward is a building of lesser importance.
The listed buildings are of two periods
— the (mainly) C19th “Tudorbethan” stone structures and — the rendered
C20th “Neo-Georgian” Nurses Home and Erdigg Ward. Although these two
adopted styles of building are radically different in plan, materials
and function, their setting in the landscape is of primary importance,
and must not be compromised by unsuitable positioning of new structures
and car parks.
Most Haunted - Village of the Damned filmed in the North Wales Hospital
Denbigh 25-31 October 2008
Material adapted from
http://www.princes-regeneration.org/
