St John's Church

As with all Victorian Institutions of the day, religion played a great part and, it was to this end that a Church was built within the grounds and was named St John's. The contract for the erection of a Church and a Chaplain's house was awarded in September 1871, estimated costings being £4,632.00 and £1,579. 8s 2d respectively.

The house was subsequently not erected at the time and when it was the cost had risen to £2,000! An organ was purchased and installed in the Church at a cost of £250 and arrangements were made to provide heating by means of hot water, heated by gas.

St John's Church was Church of England, and provision for Roman Catholics was made in a room set aside in one of the wards. In June 1875 the Church was licensed by the Bishop of Manchester. The first hospital chaplain was the Rev W T Palmour. The Asylum cemetery was consecrated in 1895, again by the Bishop of Manchester and the chaplain was subsequently awarded 2/6d for each burial service performed.

Some difficulty had arisen in 1870 between the visiting Magistrate and the Vicar and Churchwardens of St Mary's Church in Goosnargh. The Church were anxious to limit the number of burials in Goosnargh cemetery to those members of families already buried there. From what information (to date) we have been able to obtain, it would appear a facture had occured in relations with the hospital and the village. The Committee of Visitors stated that they had no intention of providing a separate burial ground for the insane! However, whatever the outcome, a cemetery was created within the hospital grounds next to St John's Church. Basically this was divided into two halves, one for people who could afford to bury their dead and the other half as a Pauper's Cemetery.

As newly recruited staff, the authors both visited the cemetery and have various memories of the layout and graves. There are five War Graves in the cemetery, four from the First World War and one from the Second.

The last Chaplain in post, the Rev S Timbrell, made a point of burying the last few patients to be interred there in each corner of the cemetery. Alas, this, it would appear was a wasted gesture. At our last visit to the site, there was no way of identifying where any graves other than the War Graves were! The only indication is that the name plates from the individual graves have been gather together and placed on a pile of stones. The cemetery is virutally unrecognisable and is now listed as being "grassed over"; there is no evidence of the Pauper's cemetery at all!

St John's Church is the only building on the entire site to be 'listed', and has Grade II listed status, contrary to the belief of many people who worked there thinking that St Luke's frontage and the Ballroom had preservation orders on them - they do not!

The End is Nigh!

Following the inquiry, a number of changes were made, the "rotten apples" were removed and, in conjunction with the 'modern' approach to Psychiatry as opposed to Lunacy and Mental Illness, with the modern drugs available, changes were obvious!

The hospital grounds were an open parkland used by the majority of patients either on their own or with the assistance of ready and willing staff, all eager to put the past behind them and prove the value of the institution. A breath of fresh air had been breathed into the old Victorian structures. Various forms of 'therapy' were instituted which included the likes of occupational therapy, industrial therapy, and resocialisation became the by-word of the day - resocialisation into the modern world, and all staff were encouraged to these ends. Although, if truth be known, the end was in sight, it was a simple matter of the realisation of the loss of such an 'institution' and its established grounds that made people unable to accept this.

The wrongs had been put right, the place was functioning to the credit and benefit of both patients and staff, and the community, and "Asylum" was offered in the real sense of the word!

It only became evident and 'in your face' when a new management team were introduced. Ken Ashton at the time, although a nurse, was also a staff representative, and one day asked the new management team what their objectives were. - they responded, "to close the place".

At this time a new Psychiatric Unit had been opened attached to the new general hospital in Preston - what a difference, no green pastures; no tranquil atmosphere; no parklands, only a small unit from which patients were restricted in their movements and subjected to the goings-on in a busy general hospital.

The long stay patients had either been returned to their point of origin or placed in supposedly suitable units dotted about Preston. People who had been put into Whittingham by society were now being moved out. It is interesting to note that on the scale of trauma, death of a nearest and dearest being the top, moving home is second! Whittingham was the home of these people who had been in there for years and they had no say in their movement and placement.

The rapid close down was almost complete; patients had been 'relocated'; staff had been moved far and wide, the school of nursing had been moved, along with nurse training to a new era, not necessarily better, and most certainly not conducive to "hands on" patient care! It is now necessary to obtain a degree to become a nurse. This like other 'political' initiatives was and is sadly lacking, and, at the end of the day, who looses out?

Having unfortunately had to take retirement on the grounds of ill health, Ken Ashton one day attended a meeting of professional nurses, prior to giving up involvement completely, and was dismayed to hear an undergraduate student nurse say to her mentor, a district nurse, "when I am qualified and your age, I don't want to be going about wiping bums and the like, I want an office of my own" - nursing?

The staff at Whittingham have argued long and hard that, whilst accepting that the old outdated Victorian buildings were no longer suitable, the site itself was of immeasurable benefit for patient care and for the provision of care for the people for whom it was intended, even taking into account the march of time and progress. Small, purpose built units should have been errected on site, particularly with the long stay patient population in mind, to create a small theraputic community, shielded from everyday stress and pressures, which would allow people to get well in measured time. Some units have been built on the site, but they are primarily forensic and/or secure. The remainder of the land is supposedly to be sold for building a new housing estate.

One of course has to ask who are we to say these things, after all, we do not sit in some anonymous office in a far distant place, with no connection to the patients, staff or area, making decisions which affect local issues, the welfare and well-being of people. Obviously people who have seen and experienced such places do not know better than those political mandarins when it comes to the care of our fellow man.

The End

Towards the end, the staff side insisted that management allow them to have appropriate input into the redundancy and replacement of staff. A difficult task was emarked upon to ensure that as many staff as possible were found alternative employment and that redundancy was kept to a minimum. It was with a heavy heart that on that fateful Friday evening, Ken Ashton closed the office for the last time, and being, what felt like the last person on earth, walked down the corridor of St Luke's and closed the front door behind him on his final journey away from Whittingham. The door was now frimly closed to an era and a way of life.

The Future?

Even before the new large general hospitals were built is was recognised that they were unsuitable for today. It was also recognised that small Psychiatric Units attached to large general hospitals would not work, in fact, it was generally agreed that this was a very bad idea. Why then did this happen? It has long been argued that places such as Whittingham served the community for the purposes for which they were intended, and indeed, served very well - Whittingham even catered for the overflow of some surgery from the general hospital in Preston at the time, having its own theatre and surgical wards (two), so one has to ask of the old addage, "if it ain't broke, why try to mend it?"

How much money has been spent (squandered), money much needed for the NHS, on such things as Trust Corporate Image? New offices, more administrative staff, increased levels of management with meaningless titles - why?

It would appear that someone, somewhere, has an avowed intent that all traces and memory of Whittingham are to be erased. We have no intention of letting this happen and hope that you will support us by keeping this site alive.

There has been considerable talk about the re-use of the Whittingham site. The current, and most popular theory, is that it is to be used for the construction of an "expensive housing development". One can but wonder who would pay for these "expensive" houses which, although built within wonderful grounds, will no doubt have sight of a 20' security fence? Additionally, having been refused entry to St Luke's on the grounds that it is dangerous, why is the division surrounded by such a comprehensive security fencing? When we asked the agents about entry and the future use, they advised us that entry could not be allowed and that the building may be used in the future as office accommodation - offices within an expensive housing development?