Whittingham mental hospital was completed in June 1875 as the fourth Lancashire County Asylum. Designed by county architect Henry Littler, the asylum was located 7 miles from the nearby town of Preston.The hospital was founded in 1869 and grew to be the largest mental hospital in Britain, and pioneered the use of electroencephalograms (EEGs).
At full capacity the asylum was home to 3,533 patients making it the largest populated in the UK and second largest in Europe.The entire site like so many others from the Victorian era thrived off its own self-sufficiency. The asylum owned its own railway station, farmland, a water tower, cinema, brewery and butchers. The exception to self containment was that coal supplies used to be brought up to the hospital by horse and cart prior to the extension that was made to the railway line (shut down in 1957).
In the early 1920s, the facility was renamed “Whittingham Mental Hospital,” and after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the military used the St Margaret’s Division as an emergency hospital to treat both military and civilian casualties until 1946.Once the new treatment centre opened in Preston, the Whittingham Hospital was shut down in 1995.
Within the grounds of the old hospital Specialised Services cover secure inpatient mental health services, specialist community teams and prison and offender healthcare services. Inpatient services are provided at Guild Lodge, which is based within the grounds of Guild Park, Whittingham, Preston. It opened in July of 1999 and initially housed up to 54 people, within 4 separate units who, required care that is delivered in a highly structured and organised way. It caters for both men and women from Lancashire and South Cumbria. Since that time it has developed to a point where by the end of 2011 it will house up to 154 people across 13 separate clinical areas. It has a range of gender specific services offering secure mental health assessment, treatment and rehabilitation. There are varying levels of security comprising of 8 Medium Secure wards, 3 Low secure Wards and 2 Step Down units. The service has a range of state of the art therapy, recreation and sporting facilities to support the recovery process. Over 400 staff are employed within the service across a range of disciplines including medical, nursing, social care, psychology, occupational therapy and pharmacy as well as a range of support staff and services. The service also offers a range of after-care and assessment and advice options.
MentalHealthGB 