by Ian Wheeler
Jack Woolley was Head Male Attendant when this view of No. 1 Ferry Cottages was taken in about 1906. His son Gerald (far right) later managed the stores and married Annie Kirk, pictured in Chapter 10. (Spackman collection)
The c.1870 terrace at Ferry Cottages, pictured in 2014. (Author’s collection)
A second row was proposed in 1911, the architect being a Mr W. Roland Howell – no obvious relative of C.H. Howell. The design incorporated cost-saving features, such as a split-level layout that followed the contours of the ground. When asked, in rather lofty tones, why the designs incorporated earth closets, the practical Howell pointed out that there was little alternative, since no sewer was available. His considered view was that earth closets were healthier than cesspools and that the gardens were large enough that the soil could be dug into them.
The extremely local firm of Boshers – directly across the Reading Road – submitted the lowest tender to build all six cottages for £1,657 8s 9d but the Committee was sold on the idea of spending only the £1,460 estimated by Howell and ordered reductions in the specification to achieve this, such as cheaper bricks and plaster, deleting a soakaway, thinner doors and gravel paths instead of paved. As this did not produce the desired result, Howell was paid for his services and a different architect engaged.
The cottages were finally approved in April 1911 at a cost of £1,662 17s 3d, but suffered protracted problems from leaking roofs, which may prove that you get what you pay for.
Boshers’ unrivalled proximity may have won them numerous other contracts, such as South Lodge, Brightwell House, alterations to various wards, the Work Therapy building, new kitchen, extension of the sports and social club premises and a new roof for the George Schuster Hospital, most of which are mentioned below.
South Lodge
The medical superintendent originally enjoyed a four-storeyed residence attached to the south-west frontage, commanding a splendid view from the main gate to the asylum’s front door and having private gardens to its rear.21 For the superintendent’s convenience, the house was connected to the asylum buildings by a curving corridor with a castellated roofline22, although the corresponding disadvantages of this arrangement can readily be imagined. More to the point, a connecting door direct from the house to the Female dormitories was installed in 1886. The reason for this is unclear but Dr Gilland’s final monthly report contains his complaint of much disturbance by noises from the dorm, ‘which permeate the entire house’. The castellated outside corridor was demolished some time after 1958: traces of its presence can still be discerned.
Proposed in 1929 and recorded as nearing completion in March 1931, a spacious, modern, detached house was built on land in the western corner of the site, previously used as a football ground. Known as the South Lodge, this was the ‘Super’s house’ for several decades and the original residence was adapted to house twenty-six female patients in an ‘open’ ward. This had been achieved by 1932. South Lodge later became surplus to requirements and by 1988 was used as a crèche. Meanwhile, the original residence had become office accommodation.
The 1870 superintendent’s residence, restored and once again a home in 2014. Note repairs to the end wall, following removal of the fire escapes. (Author’s collection)
Italian student nurses De-Bin Artemio, Antonia Cassella, (unknown) and Renato Zito on the Oval in 1958. Note the original shape of the arch to the left and the castellated corridor on the right. (Renato Zito)
Ranged left to right along the near boundary are the Bungalow, Work Therapy, Stores (roughly centre), Laundry and Transport, with the remains of the farm at the right. The Villa and Brightwell House are top left and South Lodge upper right. (Spackman collection)
South Lodge is centre right. The Schuster is in the distance and its boiler house can be seen just above the sports and social club premises, which are to the left of the car park. We also get a glimpse of the heated greenhouses near the A329 Reading Road. (Spackman collection)
The Villa and Brightwell House
In 1933, the decision was made to construct a detached ward block alongside Ferry Lane. It was to accommodate 100 female patients who did not require the close supervision of the main hospital, and who consequently enjoyed considerable freedom. From the outset, this large building was known as the Villa.23 Progress with construction was slow, as observed in November 1934 by the Commissioners, who expected it to open in January 1935. By July of that year, it was said to be almost ready for furnishing and expected to open in September, yet it was not until the first week of July 1936 that forty-eight female patients ‘of well-behaved chronic type’ had moved in. In 1941 it had to be divided into two wards, later known as Kintbury and Lambourn, to help cope with a wartime influx from another hospital. Brightwell House, built at the same time and connected by a passageway, housed the matron24 and, later, administrative staff.
By the 1970s, declining patient numbers made the Villa available for use as the Newlands Day Hospital. Reflecting new thinking in the form of group therapy, Fair Mile’s Winterbourne Therapeutic Community, which opened in 1967 under Chief Psychiatrist Dr David Duncan, moved from the admissions wards (the Schuster) to the Villa in 1975. Day patients – typically suffering from anxiety, stress, neurosis, loss of confidence, eating disorders or drug problems, rather than a mental disorder – benefited from this approach. The Winterbourne Unit later moved to Moreton ward before relocating to Reading in August 1995 as Fair Mile eased towards closure.
The Villa (Lambourn and Kintbury wards and later the Newlands Day Hospital) in about 2001. (Spackman collection)
Brightwell House shortly before demolition in 2010. It stood just to the north of the Villa. (Bill Nicholls)
A relaxed session at the Winterbourne Unit in 1972. It was also known as the Therapeutic Community. Charge Nurse Bob Wright is smartly dressed on the left. (Spackman collection)
Projection Room
After many years of prevarication, a cinema projector arrived in 1939 and was housed in an ugly, brick room tacked on to the Recreation Hall. The result would nevertheless have been greatly appreciated by patients and staff alike, who could now have access to newsreels and features that were otherwise either out of bounds in nearby Wallingford or inconveniently timed for shift workers.
The Male and Sisters’ Hostels
The pressures of the Second World War swelled the hospital’s patient population to its peak of around 1,400 plus staff. After the conflict, it was still customary for nursing staff to ‘live in’ and, anticipating the recruitment drive that followed the war, two utilitarian, single-storey hostels were put up behind the hospital in 1950. These housed fourteen male nurses – mostly trainees and junior ranks – and fourteen Sisters (later including staff nurses). The Male hostel stood behind Male 8, just beyond an access road. During its time, under its official name of Barbrook House, it was unsurprisingly the scene of much mischief but, on a relatively serious note, former male nurse Mike Reynolds tells of a row of poplar trees that stood nearby. One day, a male student was in the hostel toilet, bothering nobody, when one of the poplars crashed through the roof a matter of feet away. The trees were cut down shortly afterwards but the hostel was repaired and served for many more years.
The projection room, no lovelier in 2010 than it was in 1939. (Bill Nicholls)
The Sisters’ hostel, officially Winterbrook House, was situated rather more privately, a short distance south-east of the main complex and just inside the Ferry Lane boundary. Before long, it had – one must assume fairly – earnt itself the soubriquet The Virgins’ Retreat and there was a strict rule that male staff were not permitted in the building after 10 p.m. History has little to say about the success of this policy.
Being cheaply made, the hostels were cold in winter; post-war student nurses can still tell tales of their shortcomings. Although put to other uses, both buildings survived up to the hospital’s closure.
The OT Huts
To vacate space in the main hospital, Occupationa
l Therapy operated from two wooden huts, arranged in an L shape, near the back of the Recreation Hall. These were put up in 1950 and served until OT moved in with Work Therapy in about 1964.
A view of Fair Mile from around 1970, which can be compared with the site plan here. (Spackman collection)
Staff Houses in Papist Way
Other post-war arrivals, in the early 1950s, were two pairs of semi-detached houses, more or less opposite Star Terrace in Papist Way. One of these was occupied by Mr Harper, Clerk of Works, and the others by senior medical staff. One pair was modified in 2000, becoming Cholsey House, a home for nine male patients, which offered a measure of independent living combined with twenty-four-hour nursing assistance.
Bucklands, Whitecross and Chalmore House
The 1947 Commissioners’ report observed, for the umpteenth time, that shortage of decent staff accommodation was adversely affecting recruiting. ‘No medical officer has a house. The quarters which are available are quite unsuitable for single men of professional standing and far less so for those with wives and young families.’ There was still no nurses’ home, although plans existed, awaiting an opportunity. In 1952 the Visitors opined that no staff should have to sleep in the side wards.
The hostels (here) relieved the pressure to some extent but several substantial local properties were eventually taken over for this purpose. Bucklands, on the Reading Road a mile towards Wallingford, was the first, housing twenty-two female nurses in 1952. Slightly further away and just inside the hamlet of Winterbrook stands Whitecross, then ‘A charming country house, capable of development’ which, from 1953, was used by eighteen nurses and two assistant matrons. Just outside the centre of Wallingford is Chalmore House, acquired in 1958 for male nurses. These fine properties suffered from being adapted into nurses’ homes and Whitecross in particular required extensive restoration when it passed back into private ownership.
The George Schuster Hospital
Many alternatives were used (at one time a sign clearly read George Schuster Ward) but ‘Hospital’ was the official designation of the long-awaited twenty-four-bed admissions and treatment unit that opened in 1956. For most staff and locals, ‘the Schuster’ was adequate. New ground was broken on the far side of Ferry Lane, although the Schuster’s boiler house stood just inside the Fair Mile boundary. Sir George Ernest Schuster, KCSI, KCMG, CBE, MC was an eminent barrister, financier, administrator and politician who, in 1951, became Chairman of the Oxford Regional Hospital Board. He was concerned that his own wife’s depression should be treated in a modern facility and financed this radically innovative building.
The new hospital’s architecture, by the distinguished firm of Powell and Moyra, was ultra-modern and raised a few eyebrows in conventional, post-austerity Cholsey. With extensive glazing and a topsy-turvy roofline, it challenged old ideas about the design of healthcare facilities and won an RIBA award.
Part of the Schuster’s mission was the treatment of schizophrenics and depressives and it was equipped for the then-fashionable technique of electro-convulsive treatment (ECT). Despite gaining a poor reputation and declining with the advent of better drugs, ECT was valuable and, with refinements, remains an option of last resort.
The George Schuster Hospital in about 1970. The Common Room shows off its upside-down roofline. The Super’s house is upper left and the Sports and Social Club stands to the right, just beyond Ferry Lane. (Spackman collection)
Part of the eye-catching George Schuster Hospital in its prime. (Spackman collection)
The Schuster’s Common Room. (Spackman collection)
The Schuster’s interior layout employed long, straight corridors with many doors opening on to them. An informed source pointed out that this kind of scenario is apt to trigger schizophrenic episodes, so it is perhaps fortunate that the building’s award was limited to its appearance. The structure did not prove durable, the flat roof leaking through the years 1959 to 1962 and inferior materials causing other problems that culminated in a new roof in 1989. The familiar story of neglected redecoration had left it very shabby by 1967.
Remembered as a happy environment, the Schuster was the first part of the Fair Mile complex to be demolished for redevelopment but did not go down without a fight. Like many 1950s buildings, it was packed full of asbestos, the removal of which halted work for some time.
New Dormitories, c.1958
Now well established as Fair Mile, the hospital suffered continued pressure on patient and staff accommodation and construction of two two-storey dormitories was started late in 1957. Their ground floors extended Male 2 (Blewbury) and Female 2 (Basildon), while the first floors added space to Male 3 (Compton) and Female 3 (Caversham). In common with much of the forward-looking architecture of the time, middle age found them short on visual appeal and they were demolished without ceremony during the redevelopment process, a fact appreciated by the residents of the properties that now overlook their former locations.
The 1957 extensions to Basildon (ground floor) and Caversham (first floor) wards, admittedly not at their best in 2010. (Bill Nicholls)
Stores, Sewing Room and Laundry
An area lying between the farm and the Bungalow, originally laid to orchards, was grubbed out in 1955 and made the site of a new Group Stores in 1956. It lasted only a few years before burning down. By 1960, its replacement stood nearby, and was connected to the sewing room and the new laundry that arrived the same year. A photograph can be found here.
Work Therapy
After operating in inadequate conditions, Work Therapy and Occupational Therapy jointly acquired a new building in about 1963, on the former orchard site. The north-light roof structure and lack of opening windows caused complaints about overheating.
Work Therapy in the early 1960s. The ‘sun room’ attached to Male 8 (Hermitage) ward can be seen through the window. (Spackman collection)
Mattresses stored in the derelict Work Therapy building around 2010. (Bill Nicholls)
Notes
21 The gardens later became a tennis court, which can be seen in some of the aerial photographs.
22 Also visible in the 1870 engraving in Chapter 1.
23 Journals of around 1935 make passing references to ‘the old villa’, which still existed, but no clear idea of what this might have been has come to light, unless it was the original superintendent’s house.
24 The Commissioner’s report of 1935 states explicitly that the house was for female staff working in the Villa but first-hand witnesses are sure it was for the matron. Arrangements changed from about 1955 and the matron had an apartment above the administration block in the 1960s.
5
THE PATIENTS
Readers are bound to want to know about the patients, who were the raison d’être of Fair Mile, but the fact is that most of the case notes are closed to public scrutiny under the hundred-year rules of confidentiality and those stories that can be viewed would take up considerable space. Also, it is in questionable taste to put anyone’s limitations on public display. A limited selection of early case notes can be seen on the Berkshire Record Office’s web site www.berkshirerecordoffice.org.uk.
Without being intrusive, let us try to picture the people whose lives were shored up and repaired by Fair Mile’s work. If nothing else, this chapter attempts to illustrate the hospital’s concern for individuality and dignity.
Although the term ‘pauper lunatics’ – meaning those without the means to pay for care elsewhere – is little used in the asylum’s records, its core objective was their cure. But this was not a free-for-all service; Victorian awareness of the costs involved meant that admission was not granted unless strict criteria were met. Private, fee-paying patients were not admitted until 1872, and then in limited numbers.
The very first page of Dr Gilland’s admissions register in September 1870 lists four cases of congenital idiocy; thirteen of dementia due to brain fever, sunstroke, paralysis, epilepsy, intemperance or unknown cause, one of melancholia and
two of mania. This is representative of the 111 patients accepted that year and the pattern in 1909 was similar. For many years, patients were classified according to the difficulty of caring for them, rather than their particular illness.
The supposed causes of insanity make interesting reading and an 1882 document lists, among many more predictable sorrows, ‘intemperance’, ‘hyperlactation’, ‘religious excitement’, ‘masturbation’ and ‘the climate of India’. Sad to tell, the curing of the first and last of these did not show a good rate of success.
‘Criminal lunatics’ were not usually accepted, being normally confined in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum at Crowthorne, which opened in 1863 and bore many similarities to the Moulsford Asylum. One early exception to this, in May 1887, occurred when the Secretary for the Home Department arranged for five Pentonville inmates to be received. Much later, a ‘secure unit’ was set up at the Bungalow to house an overflow of Broadmoor patients. Local folklore suggests both that they were approaching parole and that the security was not tight enough.
TABLE X CAUSES OF INSANITY: an intriguing table of causes of insanity from 1885. (Reproduced by permission of the Berkshire Record Office)