There was a number of planning requests made for the hospital site once it had closed. The Department of Health and local health authority in the 80’s prepared a ‘site development brief’ at the same time it became known they had intended to close the hospital, where the site was referred to as Hortham Park. They had suggested that many of the original 1930’s buildings were in good condition and could in fact be retained into the future of the site. None of the buildings were listed so were not officially protected by any means. The recommendation was being made that the land would be useful to a large company to build a new headquarters base there.
Known planning applications:
1989 – High technology manufacturing and supporting facility
1996 – Erection of building for use as child psychology clinic (on land now occupied by 20 Hortham lane)
1997/98 – B1 type offices x2- both withdrawn
1998 – Orange (telecommunications) plan on building national headquarters, they later pulled out
2006 – Full planning permission given to Taylor Woodrow/Barrett to build 270 homes on the site
The Hortham Village development created 270 homes on the former hospital site. Demolition and surveying started in late 2005 and was completed by early 2007. The demolition was met with some delays as the presence of Bats nesting and Asbestos in many of the buildings meant that it had to be sympathetically and strategically dealt with. It was developed in ‘balanced manner’ that meant it retained most of its parkland and green space, building the majority of the homes on the previously occupied spaces. The southern part of the site now has large open tended lawn and slightly further south is left to the elements as a nature reserve. What was the old cricket pitch is mostly still intact and undeveloped in to another lawn lined by trees.
I can’t slate Barratt/Taylor Woodrow as preserving any of the buildings, by the time planning permission was granted would have been close to an impossible task, the buildings were in such poor state of repair due to years of neglect and vandalism. I do however believe that during the design state, some more consideration to its previous history could have been brought into consideration, for example using the ward names as road names, or building some sort of plaque/memorial to the staff and patients that lived there.
Very few parts of the original site exist today at what is now Hortham Village, they include the Hospital post box by the original main entrance, some of the latterly added concrete post and steel chain link & barbed wire fencing surround the site on the southern and western edges.
Staff housing
I’ve included these houses here as I wasn’t sure where else to put them. Sixth staff houses were built next to the site fronting on Hortham lane, sometimes referred to as married quarters and included in the original plans. These were 3 sets of semi-detached houses and I believe they were sold off by the Department of Health in the 80 or 90s. Two lots of them though may have been sold later, as they were included on redevelopment plans in the late 90s. Thankfully all of them survive today, however one set was combined to create one much large house, which is listed as 22/24 Hortham Lane now. Most of them have had extensions to the existing layouts.
Next to the staff housing, was a single ‘Woolaway’ Bungalow, built in the 1950s as a ‘half way house’ for patients at Hortham to learn household tasks so they could get used to settling in to the community. This according to some documents it is listed as 20 Hortham lane and from what I understand it was an independently ran ‘Child Psychology Unit’, in 1996 I believe the owners had planned to redevelop the site building a new unit and adding carparking. Number 20 was not included as part of the 2006 Barratt redevelopment. In 2008 the then owners wanted to retain the derelict Bungalow and restore it, but add a driveway. This never actually materialised despite planning being permitted. In 2011 another proposal for the site was made, but this time to demolish the bungalow and build a new house on the site.
Medical Superintendents house, later Nurse Training Unit
Number 14 Hortham lane. This house also luckily survives today and is used by a charity called Kids – Russell House. It was originally the Medical Superintendents house and later on when they no longer filled that specific post, the house was used as a Nurse Training Unit for student nurses. It clearly has been extended and heavily modified for its current use, and looking at some of the gallery photos of the home it appears very little of its original features have been retained.
Colony Farm
After the farm was sold off in the 50’s. It appears to have been in private hands for the next 40 years and used for agricultural use. In June 2016 it was put up for sale and later sold to Bristol Rovers football club who use it for training ground. They name the grounds ‘The Colony’ which is fitting remembering the history of the site. The buildings survived until 2020 when they were demolished. The barn on the far left still exists but has been modified and modernised.