Severalls Hospital was a

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 ...

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

, Essex, England. It was managed by the

North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust was an NHS Foundation Trust which provided mental health services in Essex, England. It had offices at Ipswich Road and Severalls House Complex in Colchester; the Chelmsford & Essex Centre, ...

History

Early history

The hospital was designed by Frank Whitmore, the county architect, and William Town using an

echelon formation An echelon formation () is a (usually military) formation in which its units are arranged diagonally. Each unit is stationed behind and to the right (a "right echelon"), or behind and to the left ("left echelon"), of the unit ahead. The name of ...

layout. The foundation stone was laid by Sir Thomas Barrett-Lennard in June 1910 and it opened as the Second Essex County Asylum in May 1913. Villas were constructed around the main hospital building as accommodation blocks and there was a detached building for the medical superintendent. The hospital covers a 300 acre site and the administration building is Grade II listed. The nurses' home was extended and the whole facility was renamed the Essex and Colchester Mental Hospital in the 1930s. In August 1942 the hospital was subjected to a bombing by the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

. Three 500lb bombs were dropped on the west wing of the hospital and 38 patients were killed, many of which were buried in nearby Colchester Crematorium. Immediately after the bombing a 21-year-old nurse of the hospital, Murial Jackson, attempted to save patients and was able to direct doctors to the injured using just a torch.

Psychiatric experiments

In the 1950s psychiatrists experimented with new treatments on patients using practices now considered unsuitable such as the use of frontal

lobotomy A lobotomy, or leucotomy, is a form of neurosurgical treatment for psychiatric disorder or neurological disorder (e.g. epilepsy) that involves severing connections in the brain's prefrontal cortex. The surgery causes most of the connections to ...

. A project was subsequently initiated by the North East Essex Mental Health Trust to research this.

Joan Busfield Joan Busfield (born 22 June 1940), is a British sociologist and psychologist, Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex and former President of the British Sociological Association (2003–2005). Her research focuses on psychiatry and men ...

, Professor of Sociology at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the an ...

, proposed a former research student of hers, Diana Gittins. Funding was secured by the Trust and the study commenced in May 1995 for a two-year period. In her book ''Madness in Its Place: Narratives of Severalls Hospital, 1913–1997'', Gittins, summarised her research, noting that often women were admitted by their own family, sometimes as the result of bearing illegitimate children or because they had been raped. As they would not always (or were unable to) carry out daily tasks, they were considered to be insane and some were even subjected to

electroconvulsive therapy Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatry, psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroco ...

and lobotomy.

Closure and redevelopment

The hospital joined the

National Health Service 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 1948. After the introduction of

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 ...

in the early 1980s the hospital went into a period of decline. Most of the hospital was closed in the early 1990s; a remaining section used to treat elderly patients was eventually closed in March 1997. The North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust announced the sale of the site to a consortium of

Bellway Bellway plc is a residential property developer and housebuilder based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The company was founded in 1946 by Jo ...

Taylor Wimpey Taylor Wimpey plc (formerly Taylor Woodrow plc) is one of the largest home construction companies in the United Kingdom. The company was created from the merger of rivals Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey on 3 July 2007. It is listed on the Lond ...

and

Bloor Homes Bloor Homes is an English housebuilder based in Measham, Leicestershire. History The company was founded by John Bloor John Stuart Bloor (born 16 June 1943) is a British billionaire businessman. His business, Bloor Holdings, owns both Bloo ...

in February 2016. The consortium submitted plans to redevelop the site for residential use in July 2018.

References

External links

The Time ChamberPhotographs of Severalls HospitalAerial map of Severalls from Googlemaps
{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1910 Defunct hospitals in England Former psychiatric hospitals in England Hospitals in Essex Hospitals established in 1913 Hospitals disestablished in 1997 1913 establishments in England 1997 disestablishments in England Grade II listed parks and gardens in Essex