Tone Vale Hospital was built in 1897 and closed in 1995. This is now pretty much totally converted into homes, and a few leisure services.
The main recreation hall is really the only derelict piece of interest left. Situated bang in the middle of the development, it contains a curious selection of junk – presumably from people now living in the converted parts…
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I worked here during student holidays in 1958. Several of the patients seemed more sane than the staff and begged me to intervene with management to get them out on parole as they had been wrongly diagnosed as sectionable under the mental health act. I was too young and unknowledgeable to argue and risk being dismissed. It was particularly disturbing to know of patients who were forced against their will to submit to ECT but not obvious that they suffered long-term harm as a result. The sense that the staff always presumed in their own favour even though they knew they were out of their depth on the subject of treating mental illness successfully came over strongly. I learned that there was little prospect of anyone being rehabilitated to normal life and that the most the staff could do was to experiment on the patients and keep them subdued with suitable medication. Those people who were placed in an adjoining wing and were less seriously disturbed, predominantly those who had had nervous breakdowns, did seem to have a fair chance of recovery. To quote “Yes Minister” it seemed to be a piece of Civil Service logic – “Something must be done; this was something, therefore this was to be done”!
Hi I spent nearly 1 year here as a patient, and used to be a patient at merryfields children unit, as my mum and dad did not want me, since then i have moved to portsmouth and got a family and built my my life.. But the tone vale hospital will always haunt me for the rest of my life, as i was inserted with drugs which made me go silly, to shut me up,, and hey all i got it tourettes, which is very mild and i am now 41 years of age, i must come down there 1 day to have a look and see wot it looks like now……
hi i was a patient in merryfields childrens unit i was taken and left there because my parents said i had a bad temper although i have tried to block most of it out i know i used to receive beatings from members of staff so i can relate to what you are saying the thought of what happened to me there scares me to death i am married now and have 3 children it would be interesting to hear from anyone else who went there i am now 46
My father, John Pears, worked at Tone Vale in the 60s and early 70s first in Accounts and then in Supplies. I worked at the hospital during school holidays at the OT Pet Farm, in Accounts, Supplies, X-Ray and Records.
I saw many incidents of abusive behaviour to patients but also incidents of kind, compassionate interactions.
My father died on Sunday (1st Feb) and I would like to pay tribute to the exemplary way he ran the Supplies Dept during his time there.
I was at Merryfeilds in 1993 for one year I was there because I was out of control. They did very little for me ther including not diagnosing the illness I now suther from. The whole place was out of control. Illeagal drugs were rief, as was selfharming. Things with now good with me but the place still haunts me.Iwould be interesting to compare notes with anyone who was there.I am now 31
I was a petient at merrifields in 1992 and would like to get in touch/contact with anyone who was a patient there either around the time I was there or at any other time. If you’d like to get in contact email me at dfallen24@hotmail.com my names David Allen
I was a patient on Mary Ward my time in Tone Vale will haunt me for the rest of my life. I was only 16 years old and in a mixed adult ward. All i know i was druged and abused by male staff I still have problems going out 34 years later.All i needed was love. I do remember the awful back wards and being made to help in wards where the elderly were dying the smell i can still smell it today.Corridors full of old men and women wondering not knowing where they were. it was terrible. Thank god it will be never like that again
hey im 15 years old and its my dad who has converted the old tone vale and i would be for ever great full if you could email me as ive heard so meny storys and it intrest me very much to hear others i have allso me giffted with being able to talk to the spirts here in tone vale ive been sykick since i was 7 so please email me as my arnty is writeing a book on the place to so is trying to find storys thank you
my email:xx-play.girl.for.play.boy-xx@hotmail.com
I was put into merryfields in 1977- 1979 under a sec 28 but these 28 days lasted 2 years. yes i was a bit out of control but hay i was a kid, but some of the things that happened to me and some of the other kids are now totally illegal. i was 14 yrs old and never took drugs, within 8 hours of arriving i was pined on the floor and given an injection by three members of staff all because i wanted to go home. i remember a young boy of 7 getting badly beaten by two members of staff because they couldn’t handle his problems. i personally wittensed sexual abuse by staff members. i tried to run away from the unit three times and twice i was caught by the police and my punishment was days on end in the TIME OUT ROOM which was a small room with one mattress and a thin sheet and nothing. the drugs they gave me and the other kids would keep us quite and unable to do much at all, the drugs they gave me was ligatel and mogadon i was given this three times a day. i totally lost two years of my life out of my face. since merryfield it took me 37 years to stop being drug and alcohol dependent. Ive now been with my partner for 10 years and am now happily settled. i hope other people who read this remember how it was. and if anybody would like to get in contact to chat at any time please leave your e-mail address and i will get back to you. p.s i wish you all all the luck in the world.
Very interested to read the comments about Merrifield Unit, especially those made by Christopher Witts and Kenny.
I was a patient there myself during the second half of the ’70s (I definitely knew Christopher, and I think I knew Kenny too – not sure without a surname).
I don’t think I witnessed the kind of horrors described by Kenny, but it was certainly a grim place. Some staff were caring and had integrity – others less so (much less so!).
Yes, abuse did take place there. I don’t recall the ‘time out room’ as such (described by Kenny), but I do recall a so-called ‘baby’s punishment room’ – perhaps it was the same room? I remember a young teenage girl with learning difficulties being confined in there (though the door was unlocked) with all her clothes taken from her. I remember seeing her standing naked in the doorway while a visitor to the Unit was asking me for directions somewhere. To my shame, I was more concerned that the visitor shouldn’t see this naked girl, rather than drawing attention to her and how this was a terrible abuse.
I also remember two very young male victims of sexual abuse (by an older boy) being told, in front of a gathered meeting of all the kids, that they had to share the blame for what happened as they had ‘got their weapons out’.
By the way, Christopher and Kenny, you won’t know me from my initials as my surname has changed, but you may remember that I wrote to Fred Clarke (brother of Arthur C Clarke) asking him if he’d come and give us a talk (he lived very closed by) – and he did!
Having made my comment (above) I’ve thought more about it, and if anyone is still suffering from traumatic memories of Merrifield or Tone Vale (as some people clearly are), then I would personally recommend that you consider finding a Human Givens therapist (just Google ‘Human Givens’). Unfortunately, Human Givens isn’t widely available on the NHS (though it is in some places) so it will cost a bit (my own therapist in Brighton charges £60 a session). I know everyone’s different, but I’ve found Human Givens to be the most helpful psychological therapy I’ve come across.
Incidentally, I did wonder a few years ago whether it would be worth starting a Merrifield Survivors group/website – but I didn’t do anything about it as I wasn’t sure how helpful it would be to dwell too much on the past.
Also, I didn’t put my email address on my last posting as I wasn’t sure about putting it on a public forum connected with this particular subject, but if Kenny (or any other Merrifield survivors) would like to get in touch, you can contact me at:
futurepast@eschaton.org.uk
I work close to what was the mental hospital, it is now apartments and looks absolutely beautiful, I made enquiries about the building as I was not aware of it’s history – all I was told was that it was previously a mental hospital and that it is haunted, so I looked it up on the internet and I have read all of your comments, my heart goes out to all of you who have suffered under the hands of ‘the caring society’ and I do hope that you can find some peace from the past. Good luck to all of you for your future. L
Hi – interested to see this site. I was an inmate of ‘merry’ fields in the early 1990s. Ellie – I am sure I knew you. Did you have long blond/brown hair and under Doctor Kenny by any chance? This place is so haunting and only exacerabted my current mental health problems instead of making me better.
Hi, I know this is a long shot, but I am trying to find some information about my late mother.Was anyone ( Staff or Patient ) at Tone vale in 1939? Like i say its a long shot, but you never know?
hi, i was in merrifields in 1991 found that some of the staff were good but some had very limited training which made there handling of situations pretty bad.
My grandparents James Binding and Emily Broomfield met at Tone Vale when they were both working there.They married in 1908 and came to Canada. My grandmother remembered with sadness the patients who were admitted and then forgotten about, One woman who had what must have been a depressive episode, had her husband and children emigrate to Australia. Because she had no one to sign her out she was required to remain, even after she recovered. My grandmother had some nice pieces of crochet to her by a patient. One time another patient called my grandmother over and hit her and knocked her out. My grandparents said that the patients and staff got together for dances, which we quite jolly. (not the dangerous patients, of course.) My grandmother was a very kind and gentle person, and did what she could to help her patients. Before working at the hospital, my grandparents had worked as servants from the time they were children.