Fairfield Hospital (Arlesey)

Fairfield Hospital in Arlesey in Bedfordshire in the UK was a psychiatric hospital from 1860 to 1999.

History

Originally known as "The Arlesey Three Counties Asylum", building of the hospital commenced in 1856 on a convert|253|acre|km2|sing=on site between Arlesey and Stotfold in Bedfordshire. The new hospital was to replace the Bedford Lunatic Asylum in Ampthill Road in Bedford, which had been built in 1812. The Fairfield Hospital was designed by architect George Fowler Jones with the longest corridor in Britain, at half a mile long. The clay for its bricks came from the nearby Arlesey Pits. The hospital opened on March 8 1860 with the transfer of 6 male and 6 female patients from Bedford Lunatic Asylum, and catered for patients from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Huntingdonshire. [http://www.countyasylums.com/mentalasylums/fairfield01.htm] . The Asylum had its own chapel, farm, laundry, railway station and fire brigade.

By 1861 the number of patients had expanded to 460, with 248 female and 212 male patients. At this time the asylum employed about 256 local people including 66 men in its garden and small farm, where produce for the asylum's kitchen was grown, and 33 women in the laundry and wash house. The Chapel and cemetery were added in 1879, with the East stained-glass window being added in 1920 in memory of the asylum's staff and former inmates who lost their lives in the First World War of 1914 to 1918. [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/frank.cooke/fairfield.htm] During and after that War the asylum treated male and female patients suffering from shell shock.

The Mental Treatment Act of 1930 changed the use of the term 'Asylum' to 'Hospital', so The Three Counties Asylum became known as The Three Counties Hospital. At its height in 1936 Fairfield Hospital catered for 1,100 patients, with the grounds of the hospital having increased to convert|410|acre|km2 through the purchase of additional farm land. Of these 410 acres 385 were cultivated.

In 1948 The Three Counties Hospital became part of the National Health Service, and, in 1960, it was renamed "Fairfield Hospital". In that year Fairfield Hospital hit the national headlines when the Hospital's Chaplain, the Reverend John Arthur Monk, married a girl forty years younger than himself in the Hospital's Chapel.

Closure

In 1981 the Conservative Government published its 'Care in the Community' report. Its aim was a more liberal way of helping people with mental health problems, by removing them from impersonal, often Victorian institutions, such as Fairfield Hospital, and caring for them in their own homes. Also, better drugs became available and this meant that patients could be treated at home. It was also meant to reduce the cost of institutionalizing so many mentally ill people. This Act lead to the closure of many psychiatric hospitals including Fairfield Hospital, which finally closed in 1999. The main building with its water towers is a Grade II listed, the façade having been restored and its interior being converted into luxury flats and health club and re-named Fairfield Hall. The grounds have also been developed into luxury housing.

The 2003 film "Requiem" starring Jason Connery was filmed at Fairfield Hospital. [http://www.zone-sf.com/requiem.html]

References

* A Place in the Country: Three Counties Asylum 1860-1998 by Judith Pettigrew. Published by South Bedfordshire Community Health Care Trust (1998)

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/three_counties_asylum History of Fairfield Hospital formerly known as Three Counties Asylum]
* [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/frank.cooke/fairfield.htm History of Fairfield Hospital]
* [http://www.countyasylums.com/mentalasylums/fairfield01.htm Fairfield Hospital on the County Asylums website]
* [http://www.institutions.org.uk/asylums/england/BDF/three_counties_asylum.htm History of The Three Counties Asylum]