Fair Mile Hospital

Fair Mile Hospital (aka Fairmile Hospital) was a Lunatic asylum built in 1870 in the village of Cholsey, 2 miles (3 kilometers) 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.

Fair Mile Hospital
Front facade
Fair Mile Hospital is located in Oxfordshire
Fair Mile Hospital
Shown in Oxfordshire
Geography
LocationCholsey, Oxfordshire, England
Coordinates51.56989°N 1.13957°W / 51.56989; -1.13957
Organisation
Care systemNHS
TypePsychiatric
Services
Bedsover 1,000
History
Opened1870
Closed2003
Links
ListsHospitals in England
Main entrance of the hospital.

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.[1] 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.[1][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.[4]

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.[8][10] New housing occupies other parts of the site, largely confined to areas previously used for ancillary structures.[11]

References
  1. "Fair Mile Hospital". UK: Berkshire Family History Society. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  2. Sloan, Liam (22 September 2010). "Pictures shed light on history of Cholsey psychiatric hospital". Oxford Mail.
  3. "Asylum at a village's heart". Oxford Times. 25 June 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  4. "A History of Fair Mile Hospital 1870–2003". UK: Berkshire Record Office. Archived from the original on 18 July 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  5. "Fair Mile Hospital". UK: The National Archives. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  6. "Fair Mile Hospital". Oxfordshire Health Archives. UK: NHS. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  7. Walker, Ed; Stevens, Mark (19 February 2015). "Life in a lunatic asylum: Fair Mile hospital history revealed". GetReading. UK. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  8. "Fair Mile at Cholsey". Thomas Homes. Retrieved 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" (Press release). Thomas Homes. 21 September 2011. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  10. "FAIR MILE HOSPITAL". Historic England. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  11. "Former asylum site brings 350 new homes to village". Oxford Mail. 2 August 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2018.

Further reading
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