Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Victorian Lunatic Asylum

Summary from record TQ 75 NW 123:

Post-Med Asylum

Monument Types

• PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL (MENTAL HOSPITAL, Post Medieval to Modern - 1833 AD to 2000 AD)

Full description

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Oakwood Hospital St Andrews Rd Maidstone, designed by John Whichcord Snr 1830. Gate lodges and long drive to large ragstone 3 storey 5 bays with pedimented porch on tuscan columns of four storeys. (1) The hospital complex also includes a chapel of 1848-52 (TQ 7350 5528), a clergy house of 1869, offices of 1866, a house of 1845 , a water tower of 1834-66, a dining hall of 1834-66 and a farm of 1834-66. The hospital was extended in 1904-6 by the construction of male and female blocks.

Additional information (2,3,4,5)

The provision of a county asylum was established by the County Justices in 1825 and 37 acres were purchased on Barming Heath in 1828 for the site. The original hospital, St. Andrews House, was designed by John Whichcord Snr to accommodate 168 patients and opened on the 1st January 1833. Overcrowding soon became a problem and new sections were added to the building. By 1850 just before a new asylum wing, Queen's House, was added, the hospital could hold 443 patients. About the same time a small chapel was built for the needs of the staff and patients just to the south of Queen’s House. By the late 1860's further accommodation was required and another new wing, Hermitage House was built for 400 patients. This was designed by Martin Bulmer. This building work seems to have led to a redevelopment of the hospital with new centralised offices and workshops, and the hospital farm, located between the three wings, moving to the north of the site. Patient’s conditions also improved and they were allowed to keep birds, plants and pictures were permitted on the walls. This was the last major building programme at the hospital. Two further patient blocks were built in 1904, designed by W. J. Jennings and a nurses home and training school were added in 1927.

By the time that the hospital passed into the care of the South East Metropolitan Hospital Board in 1948 it was authorised to accommodate 2055 patients, although the figure is likely to have been higher than this. In 2000 the hospital's function was taken over by the psychiatric wing of the new Maidstone Hospital and the original buildings were vacated. The site since then has been redeveloped for housing. Queen’s House, the chapel and St. Andrew’s House have been retained for housing, but the nursing home is still a nursing home.

The hospital was served by a cemetery built between 1865 and 1896, which was extended at various times. The cemetery chapel remains, but it is unclear if the cemetery is still in use or when it may have gone out of use. An archive of administration documents, patients case notes and burial registers is held at the Centre for Kentish Studies.

See also (6 and 9).

Historic building survey in 2002 included photgraphic survey and research based on primary maps and documents, together with the principal secondary sources to provide a background to the development of the building (7).

Description from record TQ 75 NW 123:
The County Lunatic Asylum was constructed sometime prior to 1870 and occupies an extensive site on the E. side of Hermitage Lane. Initially it comprised a central unit with projecting E and W wings, with a detached chapel and blocks to the N. Many more buildings added by 1908, the asylum cemetery and chapel now on the S side of Oakapple Lane. (8)

Additional Information (2,3,4)

<1> Newman, J., 1980, Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald, newman W Kent and the Weald p403 (Monograph). SKE7817.

<2> RCHME, 1990, Oakwood Hospital RCHME Historic Buildings Report (Unpublished document). SKE6729.

<3> Oxford Archaeological Unit, 1998, Queen's House, Oakwood Hospital, Maidstone DTS (Unpublished document). SKE7262.

<4> Oxford Archaeological Unit, 1998, Queen's House, Oakwood Hospital, Maidstone (Unpublished document). SKE7297.

<5> Oxford Archaeological Unit, 1998, Evaluation at Oakwood Hospital, Maidstone (Unpublished document). SKE7299.

<6> Oxford Archaeological Unit, 2000, St Andrew's House, Oakwood Hospital, Maidstone, Kent. Archaeological Evaluation Report. (Unpublished document). SKE7623.

<7> Oxford Archaeology, 2002, St. Andrew's House, Oakwood Hospital, Maidstone, Kent. (Unpublished document). SKE13221.

<8> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, Arch desk based assessment of land at Barming Heath, Lawson-Price Environmental, 1995. (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.

<9> CgMs Consulting, List of Archives Relating to Oakwood Hospital, Maidstone. Held in the Centre for Kentish Studies. (Unpublished document). SKE7624.

Sources and further reading

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