Fair Mile Hospital Explained

Fair Mile Hospital
Location:Cholsey
Region:Oxfordshire
Country:England
Healthcare:NHS
Type:Psychiatric
Beds:over 1,000
Founded:1870
Closed:2003
Map Type:Oxfordshire
Coordinates:51.5699°N -1.1396°W

Fair Mile Hospital (aka Fairmile Hospital) was a lunatic asylum built in 1870 in the village of Cholsey, 2miles south of Wallingford and north of Moulsford. The asylum was built next to the River Thames between Wallingford and Reading, formerly in Berkshire but, following the boundary changes of 1974, now in Oxfordshire.

History

The UK 1845 County Asylums Act required all counties to provide residential treatment for those with mental illness.[1] [2] A hospital was designed by Charles Henry Howell and followed a corridor-plan lay-out. Construction began in March 1868.[3] The hospital was opened as the County Lunatic Asylum for Berkshire in 1870.[4]

The hospital subsequently became known as the Moulsford Asylum, until 1897 when it became Berkshire Lunatic Asylum.[5] It then became Berkshire Mental Hospital in 1915.[5] The architect George Thomas Hine designed extensions for the building in 1898. The hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948 under its final name, Fair Mile Hospital.[6] At its peak, the hospital held over a thousand patients.[7] The facility closed in 2003 when use had declined due to modern mental health policy and treatment.

The Victorian buildings remain substantially complete, having been converted to dwellings.[8] The housing development, called 'Fair Mile', opened in 2011.[9] The extant buildings are Grade II listed.[10] New housing occupies other parts of the site, largely confined to areas previously used for ancillary structures.[11]

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Fair Mile Hospital . Berkshire Family History Society . UK . 22 August 2015 .
  2. News: Pictures shed light on history of Cholsey psychiatric hospital . . Liam . Sloan . 22 September 2010 .
  3. Web site: Asylum at a village's heart. 25 June 2015. Oxford Times. 3 November 2018.
  4. Web site: A History of Fair Mile Hospital 1870–2003 . . UK . 22 August 2015 . dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20150718080752/http://www.berkshirerecordoffice.org.uk/albums/fair-mile-hospital/ . 18 July 2015 .
  5. Web site: Fair Mile Hospital . . UK . 22 August 2015 .
  6. Web site: Fair Mile Hospital . Oxfordshire Health Archives . . UK . 22 August 2015 .
  7. Web site: Life in a lunatic asylum: Fair Mile hospital history revealed . Ed . Walker . Mark . Stevens . GetReading . UK . 19 February 2015 . 22 August 2015 .
  8. Web site: Fair Mile at Cholsey . Thomas Homes . 11 April 2018. A landmark redevelopment in rural Oxfordshire forming part of a vibrant new community at Cholsey Meadows. Set within over 100 acres of Registered Park and Garden, and boasting direct access to over a mile-long stretch of River Thames, Fair Mile is truly an exceptional development. The former hospital site, with beautiful Grade II listed Victorian buildings has been sensitively transformed to create dramatic, spacious, energy efficient family homes..
  9. Thomas Homes Launches Fair Mile Redevelopment . Thomas Homes . 21 September 2011 . 11 April 2018.
  10. Web site: FAIR MILE HOSPITAL . Historic England . 12 April 2018.
  11. Web site: Former asylum site brings 350 new homes to village. 2 August 2013. Oxford Mail. 3 November 2018.

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