"The lunatic is on the grass
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the loonies on the path"
OOPS! Nothing to do with me Guv......... honest
Right then, best stick to the path
Lancashire’s first County Lunatic Asylum: It opened its doors in 1816, and was officially named The County Lunatic Asylum for the County Palatine of Lancaster.
By 1891 it housed just over 1800 lunatics
Additional buildings and "villas" (for posh fee paying "clients") continued to be built up to the beginning of WW2, with a now greater capacity of 3200
It looked less encouraging with every step I took, fencing, sealed and boarded up windows, and it was a darkening afternoon.
Well Ok let's go and ask at reception.
Walk on.
Following the building round as I had now got inside the flimsy harras fencing.
C'mon, Let's moooooooch!
Nope no one at reception to help out
It has been awhile since I have enjoyed a mooch like this, pitch black inside these big old corridors and rooms, the wind blowing, disturbing anything loose, the silence, only disturbed by my footsteps in the detritus, just a head torch to guide my way.
Orgasmic
Even the simplest things gladden my heart!
"The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more"
The NHS owned properties in the local neighbourhood, to house its medical staff, one is currently for sale at £200k for a 3 bed semi.
It is lucky I eat a lot of carrots, and I guess my eyes are now adjusting to the gloom as I made my way along corridors, into rooms. seeing the unseen, the hidden treasures.
Please tune up your violin strings!
20 years ago, I was unfortunate to be standing to close to an explosion, the resultant pressure wave fucked my ears to the point where I am virtually deaf, tbh the only reason I have got ears is to hang my glasses off. But hey so what, I can live with it: it is not the end of the world.
So when I hear something it has too be pretty loud. I heard voices at least two talking.
It stopped me dead in my tracks, two thoughts together within a split second
"The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me 'til I'm sane
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There's someone in my head but it's not me"
I never did discover where the voices came from, who knows if there was an option 3....I never heard them again.
Rocket science!
It seems these units were mixed sex adult acute wards with patients in an age range from 18 – 65 years. Suffering from a number of different mental health illnesses such as depression and mood disorders.
Admitted to the ward because they cannot be managed safely within the community.
Beats shoving them in straight jackets and padded cells I guess, but in the words of Richard Ashcroft
Now the drugs don't work. They just make you worse
That's the weirdest thing to stumble upon, in very good condition too, it could easily sell for over £2k
This place as you can imagine was huge, I got lost a couple of times, finding a set of stairs that were useable I ventured upstairs, where at last there was a little bit of daylight.......
......a little too much daylight in places
I was having a bit of a play with DoF
The institution started its decline in the 1980's with the introduction of " care in the community'. It closed its doors in 2013, and stands derelict as a Grade 2 listed building.
So that's it, I don't think I visited every corner, the light would be fading soon.
It must have taken me another half an hour or so to find the window to escape through, my internal radar was acting below standard.
Where are those voices when you need them.
"And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon"
Brain Damage lyrics © BMG Rights Management
