9 Comments Posted by Mark Corner@hotmail.co.uk

Head shop and record shop. Now also gone sadly

Rowan is a tree. Many of the later names in use at this time had such names. High dependency literally means needing high levels of support to meet their needs. This may have included violence on occasions but other complexities also

This is in fact the rear of the main St Luke Division. By my time (I started working there in 1981) it was called The Lawns and was the main social centre for patients. It afforded amazing views of the surrounding countryside with rolling vistas. I imagine it was originally living quarters for an important person

Wow. I must have walked past that old picture so many times over the years. Got a sense of a flashback looking at that photo

As of this week the old ballroom, as it was called, had only one side wall and the rear wall with a very precarious roof but that large hanging decoration was still there - literally hanging by a thread

The Chapel was RE and was still used by the local villagers into the 90s. The pillars were common throughout the main complex of St Luke - down all corridors and within wards.

The local youths used to vandalise the place but it actually became quite dangerous. The police used the buildings to train their search dogs. The sign was likely to just deter the locals for their own safety. There was little of value by this time.

They used to put lots of photos of patients into frames and display them on the wall. It would have been lost when the ward finally closed.

I worked at the hospital until it's closure. I still work at the secure mental health unit that was built on the old St John's Division. The old hospital has now all but been demolished. It will be no more by spring 2015. Thank you for the fantastic photos. I've been taking some myself Over the last few weeks but I have none of your skill.