CAN you remember Colchester when a Gothic asylum used to loom on the skyline?

Now it is a thing of the past but the building itself was open until as recently as thirty years ago.

Where the imposing Essex Hall hospital once stood, blocks of flats now stand off Station Way, perfect for the thousands of commuters travelling in and out of Colchester North Station every day.

But many Colcestrians will remember looking up to see the Eastern Counties Asylum for Idiots, Imbeciles and the Feebleminded.

The building once stood by the station, having been opened in what was formerly a hotel, and these images from our archives show how imposing it was.

When it was built in 1859, the hospital was only the second of its kind in England - the first was the infamous Bedlam.

But in many cases there was actually nothing wrong with those who sometimes ended up living within the hospital walls for year.

Historians say some were in there because they were left on their own when their family emigrated while others became institutionalised having only gone in for a brief stay.

But at Essex Hall, teaching and training took precedence, and it was at Essex Hall where the term “special care” came into common use.

Gazette:

This is what could be seen from the road before it was demolished

The original building was a great, Gothic-style house with tall chimneys, which was extended to cope with demand over the decades.

By the 1900s, the hospital had become the Royal Eastern Counties Institution for Mental Defectives and the hospital was taken on by the NHS when it was established in 1948, along with Colchester’s seven other hospitals.

Severalls Hospital, which opened in 1913 as Essex County Mental Hospital, was originally a branch of Essex Hall.

It closed in 1997 and has been demolished and the land is in the process of being re-developed.

Essex County Standard archives show the hospital in better days, as well as the vast excavated site which made way for homes.

Essex Hall actually closed in 1985 but attitudes toward treating people with mental health issues were already changing.

Records reveal there were 66 residents in 1862 and this increased to 245 by 1897.

Children formed the bulk of this number with the initiail stay being for five years.

But 20 per cent of these would make the Gothic building their permanent home, often having nowhere to go when they left.

Gazette:

The original stone sign commemorating the launch of the asylum

Training was a major part of life there and there were a number of activities including sports and crafts.

By the 1890s patients were making staff uniforms, repaired clothing, shoes and bedding and mats and mattresses.

A nearby piece of land was also acquired in 1892, known as Poplar’s Farm, and livestock bought in by way of teaching agriculture to the men and boys.

Two years later a house was bought in Clacton, to send patients on holidays.

  • Have you got any old pictures of Colchester you would like to share? Email gazette.newsdesk@nqe.com.