Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum
Encyclopedia
The Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum, later Knowle Mental Hospital and Knowle Hospital, was a psychiatric hospital
near the town of Fareham
in Hampshire
, southern England
, opened in 1852 and closed in 1996. It was built to the designs of J Harris, architect, under the provisions of the Lunacy Act 1845, and some of the construction of the hospital was undertaken by prisoners of war from the Crimean campaign. The first medical superintendent was Dr Ferguson and the first twenty patients were admitted from the workhouse in Fareham, situated at the junction of the Old Turnpike with Wickham Road. For about a year, in 1857/58, the head gardener at Knowle, Henry Coe, engaged in a personal correspondence with Charles Darwin
concerning horticultural matters, especially about the cultivation of kidney beans.
In 1879, the Portsmouth Borough Asylum (St James' Hospital) was opened in Southsea
, and Knowle provided care for the rest of Hampshire; later, Park Prewett Hospital in Basingstoke
took over responsibilities for the northern half of the county. The staff at Knowle developed working relationships with the Royal Hospital Haslar
and Netley Hospital
, both important local M.O.D. hospitals. In the later Victorian period, the staff were led by Dr John Manley, medical Superintendent for over thirty years. His assistant was Dr Pater, the brother of Walter Pater
, the eminent Victorian man of letters and Oscar Wilde
's tutor at Oxford.
In the 1960s, Knowle was the setting for Dr Ronald A. Sandison
's psychotherapy practice. Sandison moved to Knowle from Powick Hospital
in 1964, and remained at Knowle till 1975. Sandison (1916–2010) was the influential founder of the Wessex Psychotherapy Society and he was one of many British psychiatrists intrigued by the possibilities of psychotherapeutic approaches to schizophrenic illness. In 1965, Knowle became the hub of the Wessex Post-Graduate School of Psychiatry, headed by Drs Ian Skottowe, Angus Galbraith and Stephen Mackeith. With the establishment of the medical school at Southampton University in 1971, the university department of psychiatry originated at Knowle Hospital, and was led by Professor James Gibbons, Richard de Alarcon and Brian Barraclough. Barraclough's research on suicide
gave an international reputation to Southampton psychiatry. Following the departure of the Southampton city services to the Royal South Hants Hospital in 1979, Knowle became the provider of mental health services to the linked boroughs of Fareham
and Gosport
. Also, the Knowle site housed the regional service for child and adolescent psychiatry and the forensic psychiatry
services under the leadership of Dr Malcolm Faulk.
When Knowle closed in 1996, local services devolved to Gosport War Memorial Hospital and Hewat House (in Gosport) and to the Meadows in-patient unit and the Osborn Centre in Fareham. Regional forensic services remained on the Knowle site, at Ravenswood House. Nowadays the Knowle site is primarily a residential development
, although the NHS
establishment (Ravenswood) still offers psychiatric accommodation to a limited number of patients.
county
should build an asylum
if they had not already done so, or should join with another neighbouring county to achieve the same goal. For the Hampshire
asylum, a 100 acre (0.404686 km²) site was located, known as Knowle Farm, close to Fareham
. Purchased towards the end of the 1840s, work began on the asylum - to be known as the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum - in 1850, and the asylum received its first patients in December 1852.
By 1856, the asylum had expanded to take 400 patients, and growth continued throughout the century - with over 1,000 patients at the asylum by 1900. In the 1950s, Knowle housed almost 2000 patients. Both male and female
patients were admitted, and were expected to work on the farm
, in the kitchens and in other trades to help support their community. Knowle had a number of features unusual for a county asylum - a splendid church constructed out of the local (Fareham red) bricks (used more famously for the Royal Albert Hall
in London), and its own pub, the "County Arms".
Knowle Halt, a small railway station on the Eastleigh to Fareham line
, served the asylum from 1907. The station, close to the village of Funtley
, was closed in 1964. Trains from the Meon Valley Railway
, a cross-country railway in Hampshire, also served Knowle Halt.
The asylum was renamed Knowle Mental Hospital in 1923 and then became Knowle Hospital in 1948, finally closing in 1996. Secure accommodation for patients with mental illness
is still provided by Ravenswood House, whose buildings are adjacent to the old hospital.
Over 5,500 former patients of the asylum are buried in Knowle Cemetery
. Before 1886 the burial locations were not recorded. Up to four patients could be buried in the same plot, although never on the same day. The last burial at the site took place in 1971. A few remaining iron cross
es, used to mark the graves, were removed from the site in 2001 for secure storage, pending a decision to relocate them.
. The accession number for the collection is 48M94/ and many records relating to former patients are held, including admissions information, case notes, discharge and death registers, postmortem reports and a burial register. A number of these records are contained in volumes that are still subject to a 100-year closure rule; any work on those volumes, for records outside the closure period, must be undertaken by an archivist at the records office on behalf of the public.
From 2000 onwards, the site was redeveloped by Berkeley Homes as Knowle Village - an exclusive development of apartments (using the former hospital
buildings) and new houses over 53 acres (214,483.6 m²) of the grounds. The principal northern (east-west) building, northern administration building, superintendent's house, chapel and staff cottages were retained and converted to other uses, whilst the central north-south connecting structure and south block were demolished. 130 of the 520 new dwellings were created within existing buildings. As part of this redevelopment there are affordable homes available at Knowle Village, through the government-led shared ownership initiative part-buy, part-rent, with Thames Valley Housing.
The Chapel was refurbished by Berkeley Homes, at a cost exceeding £400,000, who later transferred ownership of the building to Winchester City Council
for £1, with an additional gift of £28,000 to provide some funding for future maintenance costs. The building, which is listed, is now leased by the Knowle Chapel Buildings Association for community use.
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
near the town of Fareham
Fareham
The market town of Fareham lies in the south east of Hampshire, England, between the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth, roughly in the centre of the South Hampshire conurbation.It gives its name to the borough comprising the town and the surrounding area...
in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, southern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, opened in 1852 and closed in 1996. It was built to the designs of J Harris, architect, under the provisions of the Lunacy Act 1845, and some of the construction of the hospital was undertaken by prisoners of war from the Crimean campaign. The first medical superintendent was Dr Ferguson and the first twenty patients were admitted from the workhouse in Fareham, situated at the junction of the Old Turnpike with Wickham Road. For about a year, in 1857/58, the head gardener at Knowle, Henry Coe, engaged in a personal correspondence with Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
concerning horticultural matters, especially about the cultivation of kidney beans.
In 1879, the Portsmouth Borough Asylum (St James' Hospital) was opened in Southsea
Southsea
Southsea is a seaside resort located in Portsmouth at the southern end of Portsea Island in the county of Hampshire in England. Southsea is within a mile of Portsmouth's city centre....
, and Knowle provided care for the rest of Hampshire; later, Park Prewett Hospital in Basingstoke
Basingstoke
Basingstoke is a town in northeast Hampshire, in south central England. It lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon. It is southwest of London, northeast of Southampton, southwest of Reading and northeast of the county town, Winchester. In 2008 it had an estimated population of...
took over responsibilities for the northern half of the county. The staff at Knowle developed working relationships with the Royal Hospital Haslar
Royal Hospital Haslar
The Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire, England was one of several hospitals serving the Portsmouth Urban Area. The Royal Hospital Haslar officially closed as the last military hospital in the UK in 2007...
and Netley Hospital
Netley Hospital
The Royal Victoria Hospital, or Netley Hospital was a large military hospital in Netley, near Southampton, Hampshire, England. Construction started in 1856 at the suggestion of Queen Victoria but its design caused some controversy, chiefly from Florence Nightingale. Often visited by Queen Victoria,...
, both important local M.O.D. hospitals. In the later Victorian period, the staff were led by Dr John Manley, medical Superintendent for over thirty years. His assistant was Dr Pater, the brother of Walter Pater
Walter Pater
Walter Horatio Pater was an English essayist, critic of art and literature, and writer of fiction.-Early life:...
, the eminent Victorian man of letters and Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's tutor at Oxford.
In the 1960s, Knowle was the setting for Dr Ronald A. Sandison
Ronald A. Sandison
Ronald Arthur Sandison was a British psychiatrist and psychotherapist who was a well-known early pioneer in Britain of the clinical use of LSD in psychiatry...
's psychotherapy practice. Sandison moved to Knowle from Powick Hospital
Powick Hospital
Powick Hospital was a psychiatric facility located on outside the village of Powick, Worcestershire. Founded in 1847 as the Worcester County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum, it was designed by architects John R. Hamilton & James Medland of Gloucester and opened in August 1852...
in 1964, and remained at Knowle till 1975. Sandison (1916–2010) was the influential founder of the Wessex Psychotherapy Society and he was one of many British psychiatrists intrigued by the possibilities of psychotherapeutic approaches to schizophrenic illness. In 1965, Knowle became the hub of the Wessex Post-Graduate School of Psychiatry, headed by Drs Ian Skottowe, Angus Galbraith and Stephen Mackeith. With the establishment of the medical school at Southampton University in 1971, the university department of psychiatry originated at Knowle Hospital, and was led by Professor James Gibbons, Richard de Alarcon and Brian Barraclough. Barraclough's research on suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
gave an international reputation to Southampton psychiatry. Following the departure of the Southampton city services to the Royal South Hants Hospital in 1979, Knowle became the provider of mental health services to the linked boroughs of Fareham
Fareham
The market town of Fareham lies in the south east of Hampshire, England, between the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth, roughly in the centre of the South Hampshire conurbation.It gives its name to the borough comprising the town and the surrounding area...
and Gosport
Gosport
Gosport is a town, district and borough situated on the south coast of England, within the county of Hampshire. It has approximately 80,000 permanent residents with a further 5,000-10,000 during the summer months...
. Also, the Knowle site housed the regional service for child and adolescent psychiatry and the forensic psychiatry
Forensic psychiatry
Forensic psychiatry is a sub-speciality of psychiatry and an auxiliar science of criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry...
services under the leadership of Dr Malcolm Faulk.
When Knowle closed in 1996, local services devolved to Gosport War Memorial Hospital and Hewat House (in Gosport) and to the Meadows in-patient unit and the Osborn Centre in Fareham. Regional forensic services remained on the Knowle site, at Ravenswood House. Nowadays the Knowle site is primarily a residential development
Housing estate
A housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...
, although the NHS
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
establishment (Ravenswood) still offers psychiatric accommodation to a limited number of patients.
Historical Notes
By the mid-19th century the County Asylums Act and Lunacy Act (1845) had made it a requirement that every United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
county
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
should build an asylum
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
if they had not already done so, or should join with another neighbouring county to achieve the same goal. For the Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
asylum, a 100 acre (0.404686 km²) site was located, known as Knowle Farm, close to Fareham
Fareham
The market town of Fareham lies in the south east of Hampshire, England, between the cities of Southampton and Portsmouth, roughly in the centre of the South Hampshire conurbation.It gives its name to the borough comprising the town and the surrounding area...
. Purchased towards the end of the 1840s, work began on the asylum - to be known as the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum - in 1850, and the asylum received its first patients in December 1852.
By 1856, the asylum had expanded to take 400 patients, and growth continued throughout the century - with over 1,000 patients at the asylum by 1900. In the 1950s, Knowle housed almost 2000 patients. Both male and female
Female
Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...
patients were admitted, and were expected to work on the farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
, in the kitchens and in other trades to help support their community. Knowle had a number of features unusual for a county asylum - a splendid church constructed out of the local (Fareham red) bricks (used more famously for the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in London), and its own pub, the "County Arms".
Knowle Halt, a small railway station on the Eastleigh to Fareham line
Eastleigh to Fareham Line
The Eastleigh-Fareham Line is the railway line from Eastleigh to Fareham in the United Kingdom. At Eastleigh, trains join the South Western Main Line for onward travel to Basingstoke, Reading or to London Waterloo. At Fareham trains join the West Coastway line for onward travel to Portsmouth or...
, served the asylum from 1907. The station, close to the village of Funtley
Funtley
Funtley – from the Anglo-Saxon, "Funtaleg", meaning "Springs", formerly known as Fontley – is a village located to the north of Fareham, Hampshire, England, within the borough of Fareham. Originally it grew due to the development of a quarry there, used to extract the clay that was...
, was closed in 1964. Trains from the Meon Valley Railway
Meon Valley Railway
The Meon Valley Railway was a cross-country railway in Hampshire, England that ran for between Alton and Fareham, closely following the course of the River Meon. At its northern end, it joined with the Mid-Hants Railway to Winchester, the Alton Line to Brookwood and the Basingstoke and Alton...
, a cross-country railway in Hampshire, also served Knowle Halt.
The asylum was renamed Knowle Mental Hospital in 1923 and then became Knowle Hospital in 1948, finally closing in 1996. Secure accommodation for patients with mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
is still provided by Ravenswood House, whose buildings are adjacent to the old hospital.
Over 5,500 former patients of the asylum are buried in Knowle Cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
. Before 1886 the burial locations were not recorded. Up to four patients could be buried in the same plot, although never on the same day. The last burial at the site took place in 1971. A few remaining iron cross
Cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run obliquely, the design is technically termed a saltire, although the arms of a saltire need not meet...
es, used to mark the graves, were removed from the site in 2001 for secure storage, pending a decision to relocate them.
Genealogy
All documents and records of the asylum that still exist are held by the Hampshire Records Office in WinchesterWinchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
. The accession number for the collection is 48M94/ and many records relating to former patients are held, including admissions information, case notes, discharge and death registers, postmortem reports and a burial register. A number of these records are contained in volumes that are still subject to a 100-year closure rule; any work on those volumes, for records outside the closure period, must be undertaken by an archivist at the records office on behalf of the public.
Current use
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
buildings) and new houses over 53 acres (214,483.6 m²) of the grounds. The principal northern (east-west) building, northern administration building, superintendent's house, chapel and staff cottages were retained and converted to other uses, whilst the central north-south connecting structure and south block were demolished. 130 of the 520 new dwellings were created within existing buildings. As part of this redevelopment there are affordable homes available at Knowle Village, through the government-led shared ownership initiative part-buy, part-rent, with Thames Valley Housing.
Local government in the United Kingdom
The pattern of local government in England is complex, with the distribution of functions varying according to the local arrangements. Legislation concerning local government in England is decided by the Parliament and Government of the United Kingdom, because England does not have a devolved...
for £1, with an additional gift of £28,000 to provide some funding for future maintenance costs. The building, which is listed, is now leased by the Knowle Chapel Buildings Association for community use.
Further reading
- Burt, Susan (2004), Fit Objects for an Asylum: the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum and its patients, 1852-1899 (Ph.D. thesis). Southampton: University of Southampton.