DEVELOPMENT DIARY - Severalls Hospital
Severalls Hospital
DEVELOPMENT DIARY
Severalls Mental Hospital
Second Essex County Asylum
...past...present...future...
How things are changing..............a companion to the "LATEST NEWS" website Section
New Link Road (Northern Approaches Road -N.A.R.)
Fernholme Villa -the first to "Fall" Autumn, 2011
Hospital Site Re-development PHASE 1 (Commencing in 2012)
The Bigger Picture: Northern Colchester Proposals
Hospital Site Re-development PHASE 2 (Start date T.B.A.)
New Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services Unit (CAMHS)
~INTRODUCTION~ SINCE THE FINAL PATIENTS AND STAFF LEFT IN 1997, ALL WAS QUIET FOR A FEW YEARS. THE DECADES OF TIME HAD SOMEHOW SHROUDED THE HOSPITAL WITH A MIST OF MYTHS, MIS-TRUTHS AND MYSTERY. STANDING STILL. SILENT AND FORGOTTEN, THE HOSPITAL WAS SEEN BY SOME AS AN ENIGMA, COLCHESTER's "DIRTY LITTLE SECRET", THE NEIGHBOUR THAT FEW WANTED TO KNOW, OR EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE IT's VERY EXISTANCE. BUT THEN SOMETHING QUITE UN-EXPECTED HAPPENED -OVER THE NEXT DECADE, THE OLD HOSPITAL WAS TO RECEIVE SOME UN-INVITED GUESTS.
December, 2011 SINCE THE FINAL PATIENTS AND STAFF LEFT IN 1997, ALL WAS QUIET FOR A FEW YEARS. THE DECADES OF TIME HAD SOMEHOW SHROUDED THE HOSPITAL WITH A MIST OF MYTHS, MIS-TRUTHS AND MYSTERY. STANDING STILL, SILENT AND FORGOTTEN, THE HOSPITAL WAS SEEN BY SOME AS AN ENIGMA, COLCHESTER's "CINDERELLA", THE NEIGHBOUR THAT FEW WANTED TO KNOW, OR EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE IT's VERY EXISTANCE. APART FROM THOSE WHO HAD WORKED OR STAYED AT SEVERALLS, THE HOSPITAL FADED FROM PEOPLE's MEMORIES. BUT THEN SOMETHING QUITE UN-EXPECTED HAPPENED -OVER THE NEXT DECADE, THE OLD HOSPITAL WAS TO RECEIVE SOME UN-INVITED GUESTS. SOME WERE JUST CURIOUS TO KNOW WHAT LAY BEYOND THE SEEMINGLY IMPENETRABLE STEEL SPIKED SECURITY FENCE, NOT SO AFFECTIONATELY KNOWN AS THE "RING OF STEEL" OR THE "WIDOWMAKER". HOWEVER SADLY, THE OLD HOSPITAL ALSO ATTRACTED THOSE WHO, IT WOULD APPEAR, GET THEIR KICKS FROM VANDALISM & THEFT. THE HOSPITAL HAS SUFFERED NUMEROUS ARSON ATTACKS, MOST TRAGICALLY RESULTING IN THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE ONCE BEAUTIFUL MAIN HALL AT THE CENTRE OF THE MAIN HOSPITAL COMPLEX, AS WELL AS THE ASSISTANT MEDICAL OFFICER's RESIDENCE. IN THE YEARS THAT FOLLOWED THE HOSPITAL's CLOSURE, MANY WHO FALL INTO THE FIRST CATEGORY; THE CURIOUS, HAVE ENTERED THE VAST DERELICT SITE, WITH DIFFERENT WAYS IN, OFTEN INGENIOUS, SOMETIMES SNEAKY, MOST IMPORTANTLY WITHOUT CAUSING ANY DAMAGE, OCCASIONALLY USING EXISTING ENTRY POINTS. WHEN THE FIRST ARSON ATTACKS ON THE HOSPITAL BUILDINGS WERE REPORTED IN THE LOCAL NEWSPAPERS, IT BECAME CLEAR TO US THAT, REGARDLESS OF ANY FUTURE RE-DEVELOPMENT OF THE SITE, THE GREATEST AND MOST REAL THREAT WAS BY THOSE INTENT ON CAUSING WANTON AND MINDLESS DAMAGE TO A COLLECTION OF BUILDINGS, WHICH WHILST DISCARDED DUE CHANGES IN THE WAY THOSE LIVING WITH MENTAL ILLNESS WERE TREATED AND CARED FOR, DESERVED TO BE LEFT IN PEACE, WITH SOME INTEGRITY INTACT. PART OF THE AIM OF THIS WEBSITE IS TO RECORD AS MUCH OF THE BUILDINGS & GROUNDS AS POSSIBLE, BEFORE MORE IS PERMANENTLY LOST BY THE VANDALS & ARSONISTS, AS WELL AS BY NATURAL DECAY & RE-DEVELOPMENT. AT THE TIME OF WRITING THIS INTRODUCTION (DECEMBER, 2011), AND WITH THE FIRST PHASE OF THE RE-DEVELOPMENT OF THE FORMER HOSPITAL SITE IS LOOMING NEAR ON THE HORIZON, IT SEEMED LIKE A NATURAL PROGRESSION TO CHART THE PROGRESS OF CHANGE: FROM A LONG ABANDONED HOSPITAL, SURROUNDED BY OVERGROWN GROUNDS, INTO A NEW COMMUNITY WHICH WILL EVENTUALLY CONTAIN OVER 1,500 NEW HOMES. IT IS HOPED THAT AT LEAST SOME OF THE HOSPITAL's ORIGINAL BUILDINGS WILL BE KEPT AND RE-USED. THIS AREA OF THE WEBSITE HAS BEEN CREATED TO DOCUMENT THE INEVITABLE: CHANGE. HERE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO KEEP A TRACK OF, QUITE LITERALLY; THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS TAKING PLACE AT THE FORMER SEVERALLS HOSPITAL SITE. *PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO OTHER COMMITMENTS, THIS AREA OF THE WEBSITE WILL BE UPDATED PERIODICALLY* UPDATES WILL BE HIGHLIGHTED IN "WHAT's NEW?" ON THE WEBSITE HOME PAGE.
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Any comments or information relating to the Hospital Site Re-development? Please let us know here (click on above page link): -Current condition of the Buildings & Grounds -Do the Hospital Buildings / Grounds have a Future?
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