Powick Hospital

Powick Hospital
(previously Worcester County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum)
Collett's Green - the former hospital
Geography
Location	Powick, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom
Organisation
Care system	Public NHS
Hospital type	Psychiatric
Services
Beds	1000 (approx.)
History
Founded	1847
Closed	1989
Links
Lists	Hospitals in England

Powick Hospital was a psychiatric facility located on 552 acres (223 ha) outside the village of Powick, Worcestershire. Founded in 1847 as the Worcester County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum, it was designed by architects John R. Hamilton & James Medland of Gloucester and opened in August 1852. Situated between Worcester and Malvern on former farmland known as White Chimneys, the asylum was originally erected for the accommodation of 200 inmates but was later extended and by 1858 had 365 patients. By the 1950s it had around 1,000 patients and major research and experimentation in the treatment of chronic depression and schizophrenia was being carried out. The asylum closed in 1989 leaving Barnsley Hall Hospital in Bromsgrove as the remaining psychiatric hospital in the county. Most of the complex has been demolished to make way for a housing estate. The main building, however, was converted into flats and the Superintendent's Residence was converted to company offices.

Overseeing management of the asylum was carried out by a committee of visitors, while treatment of patients was the responsibility of a resident physician and qualified assistants. Patients were employed to carry out much of the everyday work and maintenance in a variety of workshops for various trades, a gas works, a farm, brewhouse, bakehouse and a chapel.

The doctors at the Asylum in the 1870s showed a remarkably enlightened attitude when they instituted a series of orchestral concerts there, as well as the Friday night dances for the inmates. Elgar, as a young violinist in the district played in the concerts from 1877, and in January 1879 succeeded Fred S. May in the post of Band Instructor. In 1879, at the age of 22, Elgar composed a number of works, the Powick Asylum Music, for the attendants' band. His job consisted of conducting the Asylum Band, made up of the staff of the Asylum, and composing music for the Friday dances. The authorities paid him £4 per annum less than his predecessor, no doubt because of his inexperience, but he received about £30 per year, plus 5 shillings for every polka and quadrille and one shilling and sixpence for accompaniments to the Christy's Minstrels ditties of the day.