[Sharon]

The History

Shelton Hospital was custom built and opened in 1845 at Bicton Heath, Shrewsbury. The building was designed by George Gilbert Scott (the great grandfather of the architect who designed Battersea Power Station and the Red Phone Boxes, Giles Gilbert Scott) and William B Moffat. The Asylum was designed in the Corridor Layout that was prolific at the time, being symmetrical so that males and females could easily be segregated. The total cost of the original building came to £17,000. The hospital opened on the 18th of March, 1845, with a capacity of 60 patients. By the opening, the patients requiring treatment had increased to 104. At its peak in 1947, the hospital had 1027 patients.

In 1968, a fire ripped through a ward killing 21 of the hospital's most severely mentally ill female patients. Most of the women were asleep and some were unable to move from their beds without assistance. The fire is thought to have been started by a discarded cigarette and it was found that none of the nurses were trained in fire evacuation procedures.

Over the years the hospital had its own cricket and football sides, a band, a farm supplying food to the hospital, jobs for patients and even a brewery. In Victorian times these places were designed to be self-contained, it was an institution so people who were admitted there often ended up living there their whole lives. Often the staff also would stay there for years and their children would eventually become staff there so you would have generations of people who had worked at the same place. Some of the treatments carried out there 100 years ago would now be seen as appalling and primitive, but knowledge and understanding of mental health was not what it is today and the public’s attitudes took time to change. The grade II listed building, which has been much adapted over the more than 150 years since it opened, closed as a hospital in September 2012. Its role has now been taken over by a new mental health village nearby called The Redwoods Centre, home to around 200 patients.

Shelton has now been bought by Shropshire Homes and is being turned into luxury flats, work starts in September 2014.

[Hugo L.]

Pretty neat, and not at all as creepy as most other abandoned mental hospitals out there.

[tash]

love it! next year i want to make a trip to england for urbex :)

[1Monster666]

I just love that card to the sister.... Great It was so thoughtful of her to send a card telling her that outside that place in the free world their are butterflies flying....lol

[kellyhound]

didn't expect the interior to be so clinical decorated

[Kelseecat65]

Super clean!!
Awesome post!!

[sugarbubble]

Nice pics. The birthday card makes it even more real if that makes sense.

[luton loyal]

[mord95]

Awesome post. I hope he buildings aren't going to be demolished, but restored instead to fit their new purpose.

[GregK]

Its a shame they will probably be demolished. I would love to visit.