Blackberry Hill Hospital is an

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...

Fishponds Fishponds is a large suburb in the north-east of the English city of Bristol, about from the city centre. It has two large Victorian-era parks: Eastville Park and Vassall's Park (once the Vassall Family estate, also known as Oldbury Court). T ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, specialising in forensic mental health services, operated by the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust. The hospital also offers drug and alcohol rehabilitation inpatient services, and is the base for a number of community mental health teams. Opened as a prison in 1779, many of its buildings and the co-located Glenside campus of the

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

(UWE) are

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. From 1948 until 2005, the site was also a geriatric hospital, for many of those years being the major geriatric hospital in

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

. In 2009, of the site, incorporating the oldest buildings, was sold to the UK Government's

Homes and Communities Agency Homes England is the non-departmental public body that funds new affordable housing in England. It was founded on 1 January 2018 to replace the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). HCA in turn was established by the Housing and Regeneration Act 2 ...

, for redevelopment as part of a wider regeneration project.

History

Stapleton Prison

The site first came into use as a prison in 1779, during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, when it was developed to house Dutch and Spanish prisoners of war who had been landed at

Bristol Docks Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of . It is the former natural tidal river Avon through the city but was made into its current form in 1809 when the tide was prevented from going out per ...

. After

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

recognised the 13 United States of America as free and independent in 1783, the prisoners were sent home. The site formally adopted the title 'Stapleton Prison', but was under utilised in civilian use, and was again expanded from 1793 after the commencement of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. A third prison building was completed in 1804, used most recently as nurses' accommodation. After the

Treaty of Paris Treaty of Paris may refer to one of many treaties signed in Paris, France: Treaties 1200s and 1300s * Treaty of Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian Crusade * Treaty of Paris (1259), between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France * Trea ...

of 1814, the prisoners were again repatriated. Writing in

London Labour and the London Poor ''London Labour and the London Poor'' is a work of Victorian journalism by Henry Mayhew. In the 1840s, he observed, documented and described the state of working people in London for a series of articles in a newspaper, the ''Morning Chronicle'' ...

, published in 1862,

Henry Mayhew Henry Mayhew (25 November 1812 – 25 July 1887) was an English journalist, playwright, and advocate of reform. He was one of the co-founders of the satirical magazine ''Punch'' in 1841, and was the magazine's joint editor, with Mark Lemon, in ...

recounted a letter sent by the secretary of the Bristol Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1808: 'Sir, I took my horse and rode to Stapleton prison ... Inclosed are some of the drawings which I purchased in what they call their market ... They wished to intrude on me a variety of devices in bone and wood of the most obscene kind ... I purchased a few, but they are too bulky for a letter. This market is held before the door of the turnkey every day between the hours of ten and twelve.’

Stapleton Workhouse

Used as a naval stores, and then a school for naval boys, after a

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

outbreak in 1834 led to overcrowding of Bristol's first

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...

at St Peter's Hospital, the

Bristol Corporation of the Poor The Bristol Corporation of the Poor was the board responsible for poor relief in Bristol, England when the Poor Law system was in operation. It was established in 1696 by the Bristol Poor Act. The main promoter of the act was a merchant, John ...

rented the old prison. After purchasing the site in 1837, they began to make alterations, adding to the walls separating the different sections of the site. In 1861, they demolished many of the oldest prison buildings, and built the main structure of what later become Blackberry Hill Hospital. On the 1880 Ordnance Survey map it is shown as the Bristol Union Workhouse.

Stapleton Institution

At the start of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the site was turned over to become Stapleton Institution for the Maintenance and Workshop Training of Certified Mental Defectives. The facility housed and then trained those assessed as mentally defective in domestic and industrial crafts, so that they could be deployed in the war effort. After the end of hostilities, these housing and post-assessment training activities continued.

Stapleton Hospital

After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the National Health Service Act 1946 turned the informal retention activity into a full mental health facility, under the title Stapleton Hospital. Records show that on take over by the NHS, the facility was caring for 837 patients: 350 under the

Mental Treatment Act 1930 The Mental Treatment Act 1930 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom permitting voluntary admission to, and outpatient treatment within, psychiatric hospitals. It also replaced the term "asylum" with "mental hospital". It was repealed ...

; 152 mentally handicapped; 80 social misfits. Even after takeover, the previous regime stayed in place, with patients assessed as capable enough working for their keep in the hospital's kitchens, bakery and for local farms. However, in 1948 it became Stapleton Hospital for Geriatric Illness.

Manor Park Hospital

Renamed under the NHS reforms of 1956, Manor Park Hospital retained its geriatric illness brief. The hospital was staffed by eight consultancy teams, and much of its workhouse-related architecture was removed, reducing ward sizes, and replacing farming and work areas with gardens. In the 1960s Manor Park Hospital was the major geriatric hospital in South West England. Patient turnover rose despite bed numbers gradually declining from about 650, to about 430 in 1977, due to length of stays decreasing.

Blackberry Hill Hospital

From January 1993, the hospital site merged with the adjacent Glenside Hospital, originally built as a lunatic asylum, to become the jointly named Blackberry Hill Hospital. Patients of Glenside were assessed for capability, with many placed within the

Care in the Community Care in the Community (also called "Community Care" or "Domiciliary Care") is a British policy of deinstitutionalisation, treating and caring for physically and mentally disabled people in their homes rather than in an institution. Institutional ca ...

programme, while the residual were moved into new buildings constructed on the former Manor Park site for their long term care.

Geriatric services

Geriatric services were initially run by the Frenchay Healthcare Trust, which took in patients from a wide area. In 1997, the newly created

North Bristol NHS Trust North Bristol NHS Trust is a National Health Service trust that provides community healthcare and hospital services to Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset, England. The trust employs over 8,000 staff delivering healthcare across ...

(NBT), merging the operations of

Frenchay Hospital Frenchay Hospital was a large hospital situated in Frenchay, South Gloucestershire, on the north east outskirts of Bristol, England, which is now closed. In 2014, it contracted to a few brain and head injuries services. It was managed by North Br ...

and

Southmead Hospital Southmead Hospital is a large public National Health Service hospital, situated in the area of Southmead, though in Horfield ward, in the northern suburbs of Bristol, England. It is part of the North Bristol NHS Trust. The 800-bed Brunel Buildi ...

, took over the running of these services and focused on patients from the trust catchment area. In June 2005, NBT closed inpatient services at Blackberry Hill Hospital, transferring most services to Frenchay Hospital and Southmead Hospital, with the objective of improving services while reducing costs. Stroke services, orthopedic rehabilitation services, dementia services and intermediate care services were moved from Blackberry Hill Hospital. A small respite care service was transferred to Thornbury Hospital. Associated with the move, an inpatient service for elderly mental health patients run by Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership Trust (AWP) at Blackberry Hill was enlarged in size. Some geriatric outpatient services remained at the site, including the Memory Service. However, in 2006 AWP took over the running of the Memory Service, following the national model of Mental Health Trusts running this service. A charity for research into Alzheimer's disease, BRACE, and the Regional Quality Control Laboratories continued to use the site under a lease from NBT until July 2010.

Psychiatric services

In 2005, AWP created, two new secured facilities at Blackberry Hill. The first was a refurbishment of the secure in-patient care facility to create the Wickham Unit (or Wickham Low Secure Service). The second in new buildings to the rear of the site provided a medium secure facility, known as Fromeside (or Fromeside Medium Secure Unit). In 1996, the Avon and Gloucestershire College of Health (along with the Bath and Swindon College of Health Studies) became part of the

(UWE), and the Glenside site became the UWE Faculty of Health and Social Care. In 2013, AWP was given a formal warning by the

Care Quality Commission The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England. I ...

over low staffing levels at its medium-secure unit on the site.

Redevelopment

In 2005, North Bristol NHS Trust transferred most of their remaining services to Frenchay and Southmead Hospitals. In 2007, they declared the Blackberry Hill site surplus to requirements, while AWP moved some of its older people services to Callington Road and Southmead hospitals. After transferring their 10% interest in the site to NBT, AWP adult mental health services were moved to the most modern buildings at the rear of the hospital site. In 2009, the residual Blackberry Hill site was sold to the UK Government's

to be redeveloped as part of a wider regeneration project. The buildings which are mainly Grade II listed will be converted into a mixed-use development of flats, houses, shops and small business premises. In 2017, it was announced that 346 houses would be built on the site.

References

External links

Blackberry Hill Hospital at NHS Choices
{{authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1779 Grade II listed buildings in Bristol Grade II listed hospital buildings Hospitals in Bristol Psychiatric hospitals in England NHS hospitals in England Workhouses in Bristol 1779 establishments in England