The County Lunatic Asylum, on Lancaster Moor, opened in 1816, and since enlarged, is a stately quadrangular building of stone, with a handsome front, relieved by pillars of the Doric order, and could hold up to 2,400 patients.
The annexe completed in 1882 at a cost of £125,000, occupies a site comprising an area of about 41 acres. The buildings are constructed of stone; in the centre of the block over the main entrance is a clock tower about 100 feet in height, and there are smaller ones at the front extremity of each wing.
The building also includes a fine dining hall 120 feet long by 60 feet wide and 60 feet high.
Hey,
I have family who live in the original building (now a housing estate) built by Thomas Standen. I was wondering if anyone had further information e.g. plans or diaries or anything really about the ‘other side of the road.’
Looking forward to hearing from you
I spend some time in their around 1972 but cant really remember how long, what for or much about it.
Oddly I don’t feel I have shut it out of my mind for negative reasons, after all it was 40 years ago. I was their when Trevor Normington was their and he was one of the “naughty boys” and to be avoided. Imagine my terror when a couple of years later he appeared at my secondary school.
I do vaguely remember the layout, sleeping in dorms (some boys crying them selves t sleep), birdwatching, going to church, going to a cinema over at the main hospital. I don’t feel scarred in any way, in fact Lancaster is one of my favourite areas of the North West
HI Colin Thanks,
you have jogged my memory even more,
I remember David Quinn,(Quinney) he used to be the one that jabbed the bad boys, and take us for walks, he also taught me about Bird watching as the land around there was full of wildlife.
Dr Rogers i think i spent time at his house one week just before christmas so did Matthew.
Matthew Appleton and i where good friends then, as i had met him in earlier years in Blackpool.
i vaguely remember Rose and Joan Sansome.
Thank You for the update.
I was in the unit for 9 months ending august 1972
had a look at it today on my way up to Scotland. It has been converted into 2 grand private houses.
My psychiatrist was Dr Rogers who topped himself.
I remember David Quinn and nurse Rose and Joan Sansome.
Other “inmates where Matthew Appleton and Trevor Normington.
I remember also guys getting “the jab” and going on “regression”.
A weird part of my life!!
Thanks for replying Steve S. I’ve just ordered the book you recommended. I hope you have been able to move on in life despite your bad experiences. Although I have moved on pretty successfully on the whole, I still wonder what happened to all the other lads who shared that experience. I keep wondering if there is a way to find them and follow them up.
HI Jan
shame all this stuff is secret, you should read a book, called deliver unto lions by david austin. or google him he is on u tube ect, he suffered the same in Oakdale childrens unit, thats what made me want to know more, although i had put all that stuff in the back of my head until now.
I was the first girl in the children’s unit in 1968. I remember my stay very clearly, good and bad. I did not experience it as a brutal place and remember the kindness of many of the staff especially the porter called Terry who used to bring trays of bacon in the mornings for breakfast, I have a photo of all the boys and me sitting in a huge tree in the grounds where we used to go for walks, We used to hide sweets in loose panels under our wardrobes because we were supposed to keep them in a communal cupboard in the office to share. We were only allowed home for the weekend once a month which was hard. My psychiatrist was Dr Currah wh used to ask me to make clay models of people I didn’t like and smash them up. I did it to please h was ten years old, but thought it was a mad thing to do!
Steve
Thank you for the post, I remember getting the jab if i didnt conform, you have made things a bit clearer now, i will still keep researching things. Thanks Again.
Steve S, I can fill in some of the memories for you.
The place was hell on earth. You turned in to the place from Quernmore Road. The unit was in a lodge opposite the main hospital building. My enduring memory is of the downstairs layout with the classrooms, the TV room and the kitchen. Remember the cramped dining room? After they had pushed in the slops that they liked to call food, they hauled in the medications trolley.
Valium? Thioridazine, anyone? Refuse to take the tablets and they used to crush them up with spoons and force the powder down your throat. Get really out of line and you were give a jab. If you turned out of the dining room, left took you back to the kitchen, straight ahead took you to the office where they kept the day books, and left took you to Dr. Ross’s office.
And the great thing about the drugs is the fear that when given to children, they cause birth defects in later life.
And with a start like that in life …things can only get better.
I was in lancaster moors childrens unit in the 70s but im sure it wasnt attached to the hospital, i would like to find out more.
but my mind is blank on dates, maybe the building doesnt exist anymore.
im sure it was another unit away from their, i remember we used to go for long walks play football ect, sleep in dorms, i dont remember going to school,i remember taking lots of phycological tests.
No its listed with planning to turn into mixed residential use.
http://www.englishpartnerships.co.uk/lancastermoor.htm
It would make a wonderful hotel!
What will they do to the buildings? Level them like they did to Danvers? nobody will like to live there! I feel very sad. After all only miserable human being once lived there.