Brockhall Village is a

gated community A gated community (or walled community) is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences ...

in the

Ribble Valley Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The total population of the non-metropolitan district at the 2011 Census was 57,132. Its council is based in Clitheroe. ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England and home to the training facilities for

Blackburn Rovers F.C. Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

The village is in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Billington and Langho Billington and Langho is a civil parish in the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England, covering the villages of Billington and Langho and the hamlets of York and Old Langho and the gated community called Brockhall Village. According to th ...

and is north of

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

. It is built on the site of a former hospital.

Brockhall Hospital

Brockhall Hospital was claimed to be one of Europe's largest mental institutions. It was built in 1904 as an Inebriate Women's Reformatory, later becoming a hospital for people with

learning disabilities Learning disability, learning disorder, or learning difficulty (British English) is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficult ...

. The hospital was closed by the

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 " ...

in 1992 as part of the government's

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 ...

policy.

Brockhall Village

Property tycoon Gerald Hitman (who died on 4 June 2009) was the man behind the Brockhall Village development. Originally from London, the successful businessman made his fortune in the North East, buying and selling property leases and freeholds. In 1982 he bought a package of deeds to properties in

, among them a 999-year lease for Brockhall Hospital, at Old Langho. A decade later when the hospital closed he was able to develop the land to form the multimillion-pound Brockhall village, a

, which now contains more than 400 homes, as well as the Blackburn Rovers' training ground and a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

, restaurant, and a few other local businesses including a gym, hairdressers, coffee shop, and more. Hitman also built his unique home in the village,

The Old Zoo The Old Zoo is a modern country house in Brockhall Village, Lancashire, England, south-west of Clitheroe. It was finished in 2000 on the site of the old petting zoo of Brockhall Hospital. It was designed through a competition held by RIBA. The ...

, which he had recently sold. It had been on the market for £2million. The property was described by one expert as the "best contemporary house built in Britain since the 1930s" and featured of grounds including more than 100 sculptures. It also included a hot tub, swimming pool, a large pond, an outdoor "chapel", a tennis court; a beech maze and a croquet lawn. In 2004 he opened the gates to his gardens for tours, priced at £5.

References

External links

Directions to Brockhall
from Blackburn Rovers website.

{{authority control Villages in Lancashire Geography of Ribble Valley Gated communities in the United Kingdom