Officially opened in January 1906, St Cadoc’s Hospital is one of few original asylum buildings which is still used today. Although the majority of the site is sitting unused, mental health services for children, adults and the elderly are still provided on site, including in some of the original wards. In 1891 Newport was constituted…
View More
We recently embarked on a roadtrip across Scotland, focused on abandoned asylums and other hospitals. We photographed a total of eight, six of those being former asylums. The variations and similarities in their architecture was most interesting, with changes to asylum design being apparent. This varied from the streamlined design of the Georgian Royal Murray…
View More
Headley Court Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) was once one of the leading rehab centres in the UK. The 58-bed facility helped injured servicemen and women with rehabilitation and prosthetics and even went on to treat veterans. Corporal Andrew Garthwaite, was the first person in the UK to receive a mind-controlled prosthetic limb and spent…
View More
The Rainham/Purfleet area has been in use by man since the days of the so –called ‘Cavemen’. You can see some of the petrified tree trunks still remaining today from a 6,000 year-old Neolithic forest, opposite the very northern end of Wennington Marsh, in the Thames foreshore. However, much of Rainham came to use in…
View More
Also known as ‘Curtis & Harvey’s Explosive Factory’ this massive site feels somewhat like the Wild West and is accompanied by loads of sheep. It covers an enormous area of the southern Thames Estuary once threatened by Boris Johnson’s plans for an airport, but now remains as a private farm known for its historical significance….
View More
Talgarth is a small, quaint market town in mid-Wales and as of 2011 was home to less than 2,000 people. Driving through the narrow country roads you’ll eventually get to two large concrete gate posts – the original entrance to the former Mid Wales Hospital, known as Talgarth Asylum. Due to increasing demand on other…
View More
The Corringham Light Railway was a line built in 1899, opened in 1901, as part of access to the Kynochs munitions factory on the site of what is now Coryton. It went from the London Fenchurch/Tilbury/Southend line at Thames Haven down to Corringham and Kynochtown to allow for transport to and from the munitions site…
View More
SM UB-122 was a World War One German submarine, or U-Boat, in the German Imperial Navy which was first commissioned in March 1918 after a year of construction. The 183ft warship was armed with 10 torpedoes and a 3.46 inch deck gun which would have been operated by the 31 men and 3 officers onboard….
View More
Tucked away in an isolated field bordered by the A130 and a railway in Shotgate, near Wickford, Essex, lies two memorials constructed in 1920 to a tragic plane crash which occurred on 7th March 1918 at Dollyman’s Farm. The incident occurred at night when the two young pilots were flying from the RFC Rochford and…
View More
Stow Maries is a village and civil parish in west Essex. In September 1916, during the first World War, an airfield was established at Stow Maries for the Royal Flying Corps. By 1919 the need for airfields lessened and Stow Maries was closed. The site was then considered for development as an airfield during the…
View More