Tatchbury Mount Hospital

At the South West of the present site lies the remains of an oval shaped Iron Age multivallate Hillfort which was at one point part of the hospital but now stands vacant.[1] The fort is 2 hectares in size on the interior surrounded by two parallel banks 3 metres and 4.5 metres tall with a separated by a terrace 6 metres wide.[1] These banks once surrounded the entire site, but due to landscaping in the late 18th century, it is diminished on its eastern side.[1] It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument having been listed on 18 July 2000.[1]

A Roman road, given the number 423, used to run by the entrance to the hillfort, around its eastern edge and across the hospital site running North to Shorn Hill and South to Lepe.[2]

The area occupied by the hospital today was occupied by two manors in the 19th century. The eastern part of the site, now occupied by Austen House, was the site of Loperwood Manor.[3] It was later reused as hospital offices but was vacated due to poor repair in 1973 and was demolished c.1975[4] The former coach house of this manor built in the mid 19th century survives on the site and is Grade II listed.[5]

The hillfort area also contained a private house known as Tatchbury Manor which was completed in the early 19th century.[6] Tenants included Sir Daniel Fulthorpe Gooch, 3rd Baronet.[6] As part of the construction, the hillfort and summit was landscaped and planted with trees to form a formal gardens.[1] It remained as a private residence until 1927 when it was put up for sale by the Timson family.[6] The house remained in use by the hospital until it fell into disrepair around the millennium[7] and was demolished in 2006[6] having been excluded from the scheduling of the hillfort.[1]

Tatchbury Manor and the wider site was acquired by Hampshire County Council and re-opened as a colony for mental defectives in 1931.[6][8] It was a major psychiatric hospital for the Western part of Hampshire until the 1970s and at its peak contained 900 patients. It was also the administrative centre for the Coldharbour and Tatchbury Mount Management Committee,[7] the former a hospital for people with learning disabilities in Sherborne, Dorset which diminished in importance following a fire at the site in 1972.[9] Following the Care in the Community programme, the site was decreased in size as more patients were instead treated in the community and not in hospitals such as Tatchbury Mount resulting in many of the patient buildings on the site falling out of use or being demolished in the 1980s and 1990s.[7]

Daniel Rosenthal, a convicted murderer, went missing from the hospital in August 2013; he was subsequently found and returned to the facility.[10]