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Wednesday 6 June 2012

Whittingham Asylum - June 2012

Having previously flown over Whittingham Asylum I decided to have mooch, so Urban Spaceman and myself decided to brave the bank holiday traffic.

Here's a bit of info


Whittingham Hospital, whose grounds adjoin the village of Goosnargh, grew to be the largest mental hospital in the country, and pioneered the use of electroencephalograms (EEGs). During its time it had its own church, farms, railway, telephone exchange, post office, reservoirs, gas works, brewery, orchestra, brass band, ballroom and butchers.

In 1866, the three Lancashire lunatic asylums at Prestwich, Rainhill and Lancaster were deemed to be full. The building of Whittingham Asylum began in 1869, originally to accommodate 1000 patients. It was built from brick made from clay dug on site from a pit which later became a fish pond.

The hospital officially opened on 1 April 1873. The large site included an Anglican church, a Catholic chapel, a recreation hall (also used as a ballroom) and several farms. The site closed in 1995 and now sits slowly rotting in development hell.

Welcome to the asylum !!!!

Whittingham Asylum

Whittingham Asylum

The whole place is overgrown, slowly rotting, trees growning from chimneys, bushes swallowing whole buildings - buzzing with bees.

 Whittingham Asylum

Whittingham Asylum

 Whittingham Asylum

 Whittingham Asylum

 Whittingham Asylum

 Whittingham Asylum

 Whittingham Asylum

 Whittingham Asylum

 Whittingham Asylum

This place was so peaceful, I think any return visit will involve a macro lens as the insects and butterflies are everywhere. The variety of birds was amazing, rabbits everywhere and I even had a field mouse run over my foot.

****we went back !!!! ****

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