Tripolar. fact, fun, fiction.

INSANE, BUT NOT DAFT.

Hi, my name is Stan Murphy. I am RMN RGN and have been nursing for 48 years.
I am interested in the history of mental health,
concerned about the future of the NHS, and as a union official, I am responsible for staff welfare and retired members.
My aim is to report up to date issues highlighted in the media, and also to open up a e-mail group for all staff, past and present to contact each other and in some instances record their memories, or share information.
I am employed in the E.C.T. suite at Bowmere hospital, Chester (Previously known as the West Cheshire Hospital, The Deva and Moston Hospitals).

Brief history of hospital.
Bowmere hospital is situated on the Countess of Chester Health Park, Liverpool road Cheater.
There has been a mental hospital on this site since 1829.
1829. Opened as the County lunatic asylum. Cheshire.
1855. Chester lunatic asylum.
1870. Chester County lunatic asylum.
1920. The word asylum was dropped.
Became Upton mental hospital.
1953. Deva Hospital.
1970. West Cheshire hospital.
1984. On Wednesday, 30/5/84, The Chester Health Authority announced that Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Wales, had agreed that all hospitals on the West Cheshire site shall, from the above date , would be collectively called the 'Countess of Chester Hospital'. including the mental hospital, but because it was managed by a different health trust, later returned to its previous title.
2005. Opening of the new mental health unit, Bowmere hospital. unit.

click picture ..

THE BEST IS YET TO BE.
175th Anniversary History of the West Cheshire hospital., with memories from the Moston and Manor hospitals.

Barrow Gang

Click picture.

The now empty Dunham and Hale wards. Most of the Victorian asylums, and Chester was typical, were classical buildings with well kept grounds, although the public generally saw only high walls, gates, and most noticeably the water tower and chimney. The Chester water tower is built of brick, rather than stone, and is of a neat, red tiled, pyramid shape. It had a utilitarian function, to store water pumped from the well below as part of a self-sufficiency that was predominant at one time in most asylums, prisons and large institutions. The present chimney replaced an earlier one , and has been reduced in size. Three bricklayers, Joinson, O'Brien and Edwards, inscribed their names, with the date '1920' on three bricks built into the base.

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