1. The History
The hospital was designed by GT Hine and construction started in 1897 and was concluded five years when the institution opened in 1902. Kesteven County Council oversaw the hospital and it was renamed the Kesteven Mental Hospital in 1924 and then again in 1933 as the Rauceby Mental Hospital. During World War Two, the site was requisitioned by the RAF and renamed the No.4 RAF Hospital Rauceby. It was responsible for treating crash and burns patients under the direction of RAF Cranwell. The wartime Burns Unit itself was located in Orchard House. It was built alongside the main hospital on the site of the hospital's orchard. This was one of the last parts of the site to remain in NHS following the closure of the Mental Health Hospital in 1998.
Plan of the site:
David Wilson Homes began redeveloping the site in 2004. The iconic water tower was controversially demolished in early 2006 David Wilson Homes cited subsidence caused by the long hot summer of 1976. Subsequently the site and the immediate vicinity have been officially renamed as Greylees. In 2012 the site was used as a set for the controversial horror movie "The Lucifer Effect". The unscripted flick featured eight people who volunteered to be locked inside the reportedly haunted Lunatic Asylum for three days. It got a little too real when two of the cast were hospitalised and the police became involved.
This aerial picture shows the extent of the hospital in its heyday:
The buildings that are now left in an oval-shaped compound are a fraction of the former hospital's enormous site, which has been subject to a redevelopment into a maze-like top-end housing estate. That said, a number of the institution's iconic buildings remain. The elegant admin block (see below, pictured circa 1905), the chapel (undergoing refurbishment, although this appears to have stopped), the red-brick ward buildings and the conservatory.
Barratt Homes submitted an application for 106 homes at the site in May 2016. Plans involved the demolition of Blocks A-F and conversion of Blocks G, L and M to dwellings. The conservatory would be retained while 100 new homes, a 2,500 square foot commercial building and a 2,500 square foot community building would be built on the freed-up space. At a public meeting in March 2017 the councillors on the planning committee rejected the plans because they involved demolishing too much of the historic structure. Barratt Homes then asked Sleaford Town Council if it would be willing to buy the building off them for £917,674 at a meeting on March 29. Barratt Homes appealed but government planning inspector, David Rose, dismissed the appeal, stating that Barratt “needed to do more to explore all potential options for the retention, conversion and use of those buildings.” As a consequence, the 9.1-acre site was put on the market with estate agents Lambert Smith Hampton with a guide price of £1m. However, it now quoted as being “No longer on the market.”
In September 2020, Stamford-based Invicta Developments bought the site from Barratt. They stated that their intentions were “to convert the old ward blocks to residential units, the construction of new builds and potentially offering the old admin building for flexible use of community/retail uses.” Despite the latest development, the site still remains derelict with any sort of redevelopment yet to commence.
2. The Explore
Embarrassed that I’ve done two reports on this place and not actually been inside. On both previous visits there was on-site secca and a man sat in his hut. Wanted to crack this place and it proved third time lucky. Bizarrely they have erected one of those green plastic-coated wire fences around the site but secca have given up the ghost. So once over the fence I had the run of the place. All the buildings were also accessible.
While to those who remember the halcyon days of exploring asylums, this place may no longer hold that much interest, such that it has been knocked around and stripped. A for a good idea of how it looked in the early days, see @dweeb and his excellent report from back in the depths of Spring 2005 HERE for those of us that missed the boat first time round, this at least gives us a feel of what the places were like. After an hour and a half looking round here, I made my way out and had one more look at the photogenic admin block.
3. The Pictures
First up, the wonderful admin block:
Inside it is pretty bleak. The once lovely interior has been ravaged. No more so than all the lovely tiles that were chiselled of the walls. At least the floor mosaics remain:
The banister is still in situ:
The upper floor is pretty grim:
The roof is pretty shot:
On to the men’s wing and Cedar and Willow Wards.
Main room on the lower floor:
Plenty of peeling paint:
And fragments of the ward’s former décor:
Up to the higher floor:
Love this old wallpaper on the upper floor:
Who nicked the end wall?
Looking back towards the admin block:
Back out and it’s all looking a bit ragged:
Just can’t get enough of the former Conservatory:
To be continued...
The hospital was designed by GT Hine and construction started in 1897 and was concluded five years when the institution opened in 1902. Kesteven County Council oversaw the hospital and it was renamed the Kesteven Mental Hospital in 1924 and then again in 1933 as the Rauceby Mental Hospital. During World War Two, the site was requisitioned by the RAF and renamed the No.4 RAF Hospital Rauceby. It was responsible for treating crash and burns patients under the direction of RAF Cranwell. The wartime Burns Unit itself was located in Orchard House. It was built alongside the main hospital on the site of the hospital's orchard. This was one of the last parts of the site to remain in NHS following the closure of the Mental Health Hospital in 1998.
Plan of the site:
David Wilson Homes began redeveloping the site in 2004. The iconic water tower was controversially demolished in early 2006 David Wilson Homes cited subsidence caused by the long hot summer of 1976. Subsequently the site and the immediate vicinity have been officially renamed as Greylees. In 2012 the site was used as a set for the controversial horror movie "The Lucifer Effect". The unscripted flick featured eight people who volunteered to be locked inside the reportedly haunted Lunatic Asylum for three days. It got a little too real when two of the cast were hospitalised and the police became involved.
This aerial picture shows the extent of the hospital in its heyday:
The buildings that are now left in an oval-shaped compound are a fraction of the former hospital's enormous site, which has been subject to a redevelopment into a maze-like top-end housing estate. That said, a number of the institution's iconic buildings remain. The elegant admin block (see below, pictured circa 1905), the chapel (undergoing refurbishment, although this appears to have stopped), the red-brick ward buildings and the conservatory.
Barratt Homes submitted an application for 106 homes at the site in May 2016. Plans involved the demolition of Blocks A-F and conversion of Blocks G, L and M to dwellings. The conservatory would be retained while 100 new homes, a 2,500 square foot commercial building and a 2,500 square foot community building would be built on the freed-up space. At a public meeting in March 2017 the councillors on the planning committee rejected the plans because they involved demolishing too much of the historic structure. Barratt Homes then asked Sleaford Town Council if it would be willing to buy the building off them for £917,674 at a meeting on March 29. Barratt Homes appealed but government planning inspector, David Rose, dismissed the appeal, stating that Barratt “needed to do more to explore all potential options for the retention, conversion and use of those buildings.” As a consequence, the 9.1-acre site was put on the market with estate agents Lambert Smith Hampton with a guide price of £1m. However, it now quoted as being “No longer on the market.”
In September 2020, Stamford-based Invicta Developments bought the site from Barratt. They stated that their intentions were “to convert the old ward blocks to residential units, the construction of new builds and potentially offering the old admin building for flexible use of community/retail uses.” Despite the latest development, the site still remains derelict with any sort of redevelopment yet to commence.
2. The Explore
Embarrassed that I’ve done two reports on this place and not actually been inside. On both previous visits there was on-site secca and a man sat in his hut. Wanted to crack this place and it proved third time lucky. Bizarrely they have erected one of those green plastic-coated wire fences around the site but secca have given up the ghost. So once over the fence I had the run of the place. All the buildings were also accessible.
While to those who remember the halcyon days of exploring asylums, this place may no longer hold that much interest, such that it has been knocked around and stripped. A for a good idea of how it looked in the early days, see @dweeb and his excellent report from back in the depths of Spring 2005 HERE for those of us that missed the boat first time round, this at least gives us a feel of what the places were like. After an hour and a half looking round here, I made my way out and had one more look at the photogenic admin block.
3. The Pictures
First up, the wonderful admin block:
Inside it is pretty bleak. The once lovely interior has been ravaged. No more so than all the lovely tiles that were chiselled of the walls. At least the floor mosaics remain:
The banister is still in situ:
The upper floor is pretty grim:
The roof is pretty shot:
On to the men’s wing and Cedar and Willow Wards.
Main room on the lower floor:
Plenty of peeling paint:
And fragments of the ward’s former décor:
Up to the higher floor:
Love this old wallpaper on the upper floor:
Who nicked the end wall?
Looking back towards the admin block:
Back out and it’s all looking a bit ragged:
Just can’t get enough of the former Conservatory:
To be continued...
