Barrow Gurney Hospital closed in 2006 and had the dubious honour of being the dirtiest hospital in the country. I can’t even begin to write an introduction that details this location’s history. If you are interested, please check out this excellent write up on Forlorn Britain.
Barrow Hospital occupies a huge, foresty site. Unfortunately time was against us, so we only saw a few buildings…
Southside
The main building we explored was “Southside” which contained a large number of wards and other rooms. There was also a small chapel of rest and body fridge.
The Southside building was one of the first to close, and is in the worst condition. Corridors are flooded. Windows smashed up. Rooves are falling in. etc..
And there was a wonderfully complete small dentist room. This now houses some bats.
Dundry Villa
Dundry Villa was home to Barrow’s acute unit for mentally ill patients.
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looking for people, families/relatives or nurses that used to either work or be a patient , or know about barrow gurney hospital when it was a working hospital. and who wouldnt mind being interviewed and possibly filmed for a documentary in bristol. (possibilty of it being aired on tv) please get in touch either via here or 07767 289 612
@ Leo ,
I would be quite interested in being interviewed ..
Have a unique story to tale .
My mother was in and out of Barrow Hospital in the mid eighties , have memories visiting her when I was little kid , even have some pics of her with my sister when she was a admitted on the mother and baby unit for mums suffering from post natal depression .. Sadly my mother bipolar relapsed and again have memories of visiting her at Barrow in the early nineties in particular at Redcliffe Ward , John Carey House and the old intensive psychiatric Unit called Ashton Unit , before the new build of Brockley House.
Again , early 2000 to 2003 .. Was doing my Mental Health Nurse training at UWE (GLENSIDE) , had a lot of student placements at Barrow Hospital .. I have worked on East Villa (my favorite/the cleanest ward – Rehab for severe and enduring mental health client aka burnt manic depressives or schizophrenics ) , Dundry Villa ( Acute Mental Health Ward – Cacthment area was inner city Bristol ) , Brockley House (Locked Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit – Hated the ward ) … When I qualified I did a few ad hoc shifts on Leigh Assessment Unit (Geriatric) and Dundry again .. Moved to London in 2006..
I was an inpatient in John Carey ward with bipolar disease duribng the 70`s and during a period of 18 months, spent 9 months there with 3 0r 4 admissions. The consultant was Dr. Barker but the Doctor I dealt with mostly was Dr Joanna Eckert. I did art therapy with Roy Thornton and during a spell of hypomania I covered the walls off the Art Room with paintings I had Tricyclics by the handful which messed up my bladder and ECT which was not helpful. I was put on lithium eventually and began a slow recovery and stayed on this treatment for nearlym 5 years. Happily I never relapsed
my sister lived in the lodge house for 3 years after it was closed we had some really lovely times wandering through the buildings. we had loads of apples from the orchard, herbs from the herb garden and saw lots of wildlife.
wonderful times before they started demolishing.
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I trained at Barrow 1979-1981…very mixed memories of clinical areas,although did enjoy working on Blagdon and Dundry Villas…got in a little trouble taking patients to socialise in local pub and not being able to persuade a couple of alcoholics to return to the hospital! Many,some hazy,memories of the staff social club!
When I left the area I gave Barrow Gurney Parish Council a book about the history of the hospital. I hope they still have it or know where it is kept. I can’t remember who wrote it but it was to commemorate an anniversery.
Both my parents (Trevor Wright Snr and Peggy Wright) worked at Barrow from 1949 until my dad’s reirement in approx 1983. Dad was a Charge Nurse on West Villa and Blagdon Villa but did a long stint as Principal Counsellor for the Bristol, then Avon, Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse working with Travers Cousins before returning, as a Charge Nurge, back in charge of Blagdon Villa. Mum was a night nurse working on B ward (I think) but oftern working opposite my dad at Blagdon. Memories, as a young toddler, of sitting drinking orange sqaush or otherwise being entertained by a patient whilst my parent’s handed over a shift!
We lived at the the then Staff Cottages (now Orchard Drive) which, although isolated from Bristol was a wonderful place to grow up in. Hundreds upon hundreds of acres of primieval and untouched woodland to wander through and play in.
Its a pity that the ethos of peace and quiet as part of therapy for those with enduring mental health problems was sacrificed on the altar of PFI. Barrow, unlike the old Victorian Asylums and if properly refurbished, would possibly have cost less then the new hospital and have retained the old concept of allowing patients to gently exercise around beautifully kept grounds.
My treatment, as someone with bi-polar, was centred at the former Susan Britten Wills Unit (BGH) but have lived in London for a long time.
Finally. For those who would like to go the Glenside Museum has lots of artifacts from Genside and Barrow. It fgives an insight to how treatment was given and how things were. Mental Health History is not the sexiet of subjects but its important that its history is not forgotten. In Bristol its history began with Dr John Carey in the late 17th Century and the first wards for the insane at what was to become St Peter’s Hospital, the for runner of the Bristol Ayslum, Glenside Hospital and Barrow Hospital. Please visit the site at
http://www.glensidemuseum.org.uk/
Best wishes
Trevor
My partner, now sadly deceased was in Barrow Guernay Hospital in 2006 not long before it closed. He was severly depressed and we hoped for him to receive treatment there. Unfortunately they gave him so many drugs he couldn’t even hold his head up and just dribbled onto the table. They did not bother to even try and treat him. The ward was disgusting and the food they dished out looked over a week old. I was so disgusted with it that I got him discharged and took him home. He was 34 yrs old at the time.