Rainhill Hospital

[Johnbeddows]

The History of Rainhill Hospital and the Wellbeing Time Team.
Rainhill Hospital was opened in January 1851 and by 1936 it was the largest psychiatric hospital in Europe. It was designed to provide 'asylum and comfort for body and mind' for individuals experiencing distress.

It finally closed it's doors in 1991 making way for the governments care in the community programme. Very little is left of the building and the beautiful grounds that once surrounded the hospital and so the Wellbeing Project would like to be instrumental in preserving the history of the hospital and would like your help.

  a.. Are you an ex patient or a relative of a patient and would like to share your memories, thoughts and feelings about Rainhill Hospital?
  b.. Are you an ex member of staff who would like to tell us about your work and life experiences there?
  c.. Maybe you are a member of the local community and would like to give us an insight into what life was like living nearby the hospital.
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then we are eager to hear from you.

http://www.wellbeingproject.co.uk/wbtimeteam.htm

[cavegirl]

Hi John

I'll pass this link  to my fiance as he lived in Rainhill up to a few years ago - he would have been 25 in 1991 so would remember the hospital and the area well, up to it's closing.  He worked as a psychiatric nurse for a time - though not at that hospital.

Thanks for this.

Regards
Kathryn

[cloggers child]

I lived not too far from Rainhill Hospital all my life. and do not have any good memories of the place.

If the siren went it meant a patient had escaped and you grabbed the children and shut your doors and windows.

There were patients allowed out of the hospital unattended and going into the parks and behaving horribly in front of women and children

There was also a secure unit within the hospital grounds where a murderer in for life was allowed to roam the grounds and he actually murdered another patient and hid her body in a tunnel in the grounds.

We also had over the years patients who had given up all hope and who had leapt in front of the trains going to Liverpool from Eccleston Park,
and other stations towards Manchester.and Wigan.

They also found some women who had been in that hospital for 70/80 years who had been put there for having had a mental aberation (getting pregnant whilst unmarried) and totally forgotten about by everyone and were sadly totally institutionalised.

The area is now a housing estate.

The Hospital was exceptionally large it had two towers within the grounds which were exactly one mile apart and visible from a distance.

[scouse_mouse_2000uk]

I have very sad memories of this place, my sister was a patient for eight months. She had a personality disorder. It was a vile place, smelt of pee, the mile long corridor had cigarette butts on every window ledge, the patients would try and light them up to get one last drag out of them. it was so sad, my sister should never of been placed in there. It was very sad to see, the various places they have now, are not much better. Lynn

[northern_rose]

They also found some women who had been in that hospital for 70/80 years who had been put there for having had a mental aberation (getting pregnant whilst unmarried) and totally forgotten about by everyone and were sadly totally institutionalised.

That seems to be a common story for all such institutions. My husband tells a story of a similar place he worked in Yorkshire where a new manager decided to read everyones records and not only found ladies as you describe but also a  man admitted in 1918 with "shell shock" who had been awarded several medals.

[cloggers child]

The place was horrible, it was so badly infested with cockroaches that after the new houses were built on the site they too had a major problem from them.

They said they were coming from what had been the cellars and basements of Rainhill and had just been filled in with rubble etc to make a base for the houses to be built on.

Cockroaches that are not seen in modern buildings these days were in horrendous numbers.  Can you imagine what those patients had to put up with.

[Doedoe]

my mother  was a patient at the hospital for 4 years after my father died in 1975, when ever I went to visit she was  cared for very well and seemed very happy  in her own little world. the staff could not have done any more for her  than they were doing  under the  conditions they were working . They never knew when I was turning up , .I can only praise all who worked on Ulleswater ward and say thank you  for caring for  my mother
Doreen

[cloggers child]

This is no criticism of the staff they had to make the best of the buildings etc.,

The big problem was with the authorities that kept people there for as long as 70/80 years for no good reason.  I wonder if the having a child out of wedlock was still looked upon as a mental aberration and you could be locked away for 70/80 years, what member of the public would think of that.

That is the criticism.