Sunday, 23 March 2025

Insane Guide to England’s Most Haunted Asylums

asylums
Cockermouth Mental Hospital, now converted to an Old People's Home (Wikimedia Commons)

Don't arrange to have me sent to no asylums...

England has an unfortunate reputation of pioneering some of the most iniquitous mental asylums in Western history; existing buildings and surviving ruins still retain some of their sinister atmosphere -and other, more dreadful things.

Let us visit some of these reminders of (slightly) less enlightened times, including one particular establishment that I might have resided at - but hasten to add, not as an inmate. Or indeed as an overseer/doctor.

Bethlem Royal Hospital, aka St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital and BEDLAM

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Interior of the Bethlehem Hospital (Wikimedia Commons)

The notorious Bethlem establishment was founded in 1247, located just outside the London city walls in Bishopsgate Without. It moved a short distance to Moorfields in 1676, then St George's Fields in Southwark in 1815, and lastly to Monks Orchard (Beckenham) in 1930.

The word ‘bedlam’, meaning uproar and confusion, is derived from the hospital's nickname, representative of the worst excesses of the old asylums and some of the modern ones. What tormented spirits stalked the various homes to the hospital?

The Madness of Bedlam

The Bethlem asylum has inspired several horror books, films, and TV series, including 1946’s Bedlam, starring Boris Karloff.


The Haunting of Bedlam?

(Excerpt from The Lordprice London Experience)

The most famous ghost of (modern) Bedlam is the sad spectre of poor Rebecca. At a merchant’s house by London Bridge lived a lovely young girl by the name of Rebecca. She fell head over heels in love with a handsome young Indian man who had come to lodge with the family. So besotted was she that when he packed up his bags to return to India she was shocked that he hadn’t loved her quite nearly as much as she’d loved him. She helped him to pack his things, hoping all the while that he would change his mind and agree to stay. But all she received was a gold sovereign that he slipped into her hand before leaving forever. The grief of her spurning was too much for her mind to handle and she snapped, soon being admitted to Bedlam Hospital.

The golden sovereign he had given her was gripped firmly in her fist for the remainder of her short life, the final token from her lost love, never to be given up. When she finally wasted away into death it didn’t go unnoticed by one of the guards who prised the coin from her hand and then buried her without her most prized possession. It was after that the guards, inmates and visitors all began to report a strange sight indeed. A wan and ghostly figure began to roam the halls of Bedlam, searching for her lost love token, her spirit refusing to be put to rest until she had it back in her hand. It is said that she still wanders the halls to this day, looking for that stolen coin to make her whole once more.

Nearby where I used to live, a wall was built with some of the bricks from one of the previous incarnations of Bedlam, although it doesn’t say so here, but I’ve seen ‘em:

Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum

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The former Friern Hospital/Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum (Wikimedia Commons)

Friern Hospital (formerly Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum) has now been converted to Princess Park Manor and Friern Village; I was tempted to buy an apartment there once, but tales of its former use and possible unwelcome inhabitants put me off, together with the vaguely ‘off’ feel to the place - and this was before I knew of its former use.

Popstar Adam Ant stayed there following a suicide attempt in 1976; I met him a couple of times in 2000s Soho when he was again semi-unhinged, but he’s apparently better now.

Asylums in literature

P.G. Wodehouse's novel The Code of the Woosters (1938), has a scene where Jeeves suggests that a character is ‘eccentric’; Wooster responds: "Eccentric? She could step straight into Colney Hatch, and no questions asked." The asylum is also mentioned in C.S Lewis’ The Magician's Nephew (1955). When evil White Witch Jadis demands that residents of London bow down to her, the Cockneys reply, "Three cheers for the Hempress of Colney 'atch!"

In G. K. Chesterton's The Man who was Thursday (1908), the asylum is again referenced as a byword for madness, “And now, in the name of Colney Hatch, what is it?”

Bracebridge St. John’s Hospital, Lincolnshire

St John's Hospital, Bracebridge Heath, Lincolnshire (2010 - Wikimedia Commons)

Now unsurprisingly a luxury housing estate, the hospital was designed by John Hamilton and James Medland in the ‘Italianate’ style as the Lincolnshire County Lunatic Asylum, opening in 1852, becoming Bracebridge Pauper Lunatic Asylum in 1898 and Bracebridge Mental Hospital in 1919.

Much strange phenomena has been reported from within the hospital grounds; when it closed, two removal men were employed to clear the building, but unholy shrieking made them leave pronto. People walking near the former asylum have regularly heard ghastly screaming, whilst the fire brigade has even been called to the building when residents have reported sightings of strange lights. Back in September 2010, a photograph taken by a miscreants who snuck into the property was printed in the Lincolnshire Echo, showing a creepy white figure looking out of one of the windows.

The Homestead tavern in nearby Bracebridge Heath is set on the former hospital grounds, with staff and customers reporting seeing ghostly nurses and patients in the pub. Presumably not asking for booze and salty bar snacks.

Severalls Hospital Colchester, Essex

Severalls Hospital (Wikimedia Commons)

The hospital opened as the Second Essex County Asylum in May 1913. Villas were constructed around the main hospital building and there was a detached building for the medical superintendent. The hospital's history consists of almost unrelenting misery...

In August 1942, the hospital was bombed by Hitler’s Luftwaffe. Three 500-lb bombs were dropped on its west wing and thirty-eight patients were killed. Ten years later in the 1950s, psychiatrists experimented with new ‘treatments’ at the hospital, such as frontal lobotomies - most of the 'patients' here were healthy people, admitted by their own families or friends for non-medical reasons.

Diana Gittins writes in Madness in its Place: Narratives of Severalls Hospital, "...often women were admitted by their own family, sometimes as the result of bearing illegitimate children or because they had been raped. As they would not always (or were unable to) carry out daily tasks, they were considered to be insane and some were even subjected to electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomy." By the early 1980s, the hospital went into a state of decline, most of it closing in the 1990s, with the final section shut down in 1997.

There were the usual plans to redevelop the area into residential homes, although most people would obviously prefer not to abide in a place of awful tragedy and mistreatment. Nowadays those brave enough to explore the building report hearing female screams, as well as apparitions and shimmering orbs hovering in the air.

Nocton Hall, Lincolnshire

Nocton Hall (Wikimedia Commons)

The original structure dates back to a stunning 1530. Since then, there have been two reconstructions. Several prominent people have been residents of the house, the most notable being Frederick John Robinson, 1st Earl of Ripon (1782-1859) who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a brief 5 month period across 1827-8.

During the First World War, the house was used as a convalescent home for wounded shell-shocked US officers. During WWII, the British Army used the house, after which it was taken over by the RAF, with an extensive hospital developed on the grounds. The house reverted to private use in the 1980s, but in 2004, a major fire left the building in a parlous state, a burned out shell:

Given that Nocton Hall has stood in various iterations since the 12th century, it's hardly surprising that the Nocton Hall estate is on the haunted asylums list.

The ghost of a crying young woman was said to roam the halls and particularly enjoy haunting one specific bedroom in the building. Several staff members who stayed in this room were awakened on separate occasions at four-thirty in the morning to find the apparition of a young girl standing at the end of the bed. She was sobbing, speaking incoherently and crying about a 'devilish man' who had 'done this to her.'

It’s believed that this was the spirit of a young servant girl who was murdered by the owner’s son after he got her with child.


The Grey Lady’ apparently stalks the Nocton Hall grounds but there is no clue as to who she was. Other hauntings include that of a soldier who is seen standing on a staircase of the derelict building and some of the previous patients.

St. Andrew's Hospital (formerly Norfolk Lunatic Asylum)

Wikimedia Commons

Originally named the Norfolk County Asylum, the establishment opened in 1814 and later became known as the Norfolk Mental Hospital and then St Andrew's Hospital in 1923, closing in April 1998. People who either worked at or visited the hospital reported experiencing paranormal activity. One ‘witness’ said they saw apparitions whilst working on turning the building into apartments, which included the morgue (nice).

There are more such haunted asylums and mental hospitals, which we will explore anon.

Fancy a break?

An excursion to sunny Wales:

The Brecon and Radnor Joint Counties Lunatic Asylum, Talgarth, Wales

The Talgarth Asylum (Wikimedia Commons)

From Totally Haunted (2018):

The site is in such a bad state of dereliction, I think it has to be one of the worst we have investigated. We eventually found a way in and that was more by luck than judgement. Everything seemed quiet for some time with no activity and the place felt peaceful and calm. Then things started to happen. We started to hear footsteps coming from all around the hall, not being able to pin point where they were coming from. Maybe it was the residual sounds of the long-forgotten patients as they danced around the ballroom. We also heard a few knocks coming from the far end of the hall but our cameras were struggling to pick up sound or picture from that far away. There was a chair on the stage where we were stood and I asked if anybody would like to come and sit in the chair, then something was thrown. By this point the atmosphere seemed to have changed a bit and it wasn’t so peaceful anymore.

Almost straight after the first thing was thrown something else was thrown but from a different area and it was closer. After that it seemed to go quiet again, but not for long. I heard what I thought was a growl but to be sure I asked Cameron who was stood beside me if it was his stomach to which he replied “No” but he and Jack had both heard it too. Then straight away I heard it again behind me so I turned to film that area and then something was thrown right by me.

While doing research on the asylum I came across an article from Wales Online; this picture was taken of the admin building and something (or someone) was captured in one of the windows...

Denbigh Lunatic Asylum


Designed by architect Thomas Fulljames, the Denbigh asylum was opened 1848. A hospital for up to 200 people with psychiatric illnesses, but by the 1950s it housed 1,500 patients. The institution was gradually wound down as a healthcare facility from 1991, finally closing in 1995. Now (of course) being thought of as luxury apartment complex.

Said to stand on grounds cursed by witches who were once tried and executed there, it is believed that their spirits still roam the ruined hospital and surrounding land. Here were performed early remedies for malaria, insulin shock treatments, use of sulfur-based drugs, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and personality-changing prefrontal lobotomy treatments, introduced in the early 1940s. Paranormal investigators have reported their evidence on the website Totally Haunted.

TV show Most Haunted Live paid the asylum a visit in October 2008; unexplained bangs, crashes and unusual sounds and sightings were recorded and a special Halloween live exorcism conducted.

Asylum (1972)

Further afield, in New York City, the asylum at Roosevelt Island, formerly Blackwell’s Island/Welfare Island, before that Varkens Eylandt, and originally Minnehanonck (‘Nice Island’ in Lenape).

Stories include encounters with the spirits of former patients and staff, weird sounds, cold spots, lingering old cigarette smoke, and former resident ‘ Big Jim’ who murdered another patient with a bedpost.

The Norfolk Lunatic Asylum (St Andrew's Hospital) Wikimedia Commons

Punishment Of Luxury - Laughing Academy

Michael Sembello - Maniac

The Nutt House (1989) Episode 1


Stephen Arnell’s novel THE GREAT ONE is available now on Amazon Kindle; his new work, THE FORTUNATE ONE, will be published later this Spring.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-One-Secret-Memoirs-Pompey-ebook/dp/B0BNLTB2G7

Thursday, 13 March 2025

Wild Ancient Fayres and Horned Rituals of Olde London Town

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Scene outside a Highgate tavern, 'Horns', 1796 (Wikimedia Commons)

Ancient London Fayres

Greater London has many arcane traditions centred on the annual ancient fairs granted by monarchs to the various ‘villages’ in the area. I lived in suburban Pinner for much of my younger years, where thousands flock to an event established by King Edward III in 1336. As with many London fairs, the occasion in its earlier days was often rowdy, licentious, and even violent, with fears stoked of ‘outsider’ ne'er-do-wells entering the village, keen on mischief of all kinds.

Pinner Fair – 29 May 2024

Aside from the fair (and being the former home of Sir Elton John), ‘Metroland’ Pinner has some fame as the place where the ‘Floating Coffin’ of William and Agnes Loudon can be observed:

Ancient origins of horn fairs

The Charlton Horn Fair

"More like a carnival of the very worst and most vulgar class than any fair in the country." The Morning Chronicle, 1857

During the c17 Restoration period flotillas of boats would fill the Thames, bringing would-be merrymakers down from London to Charlton: “It was a carnival of the most unrestrained kind, and those frequenting it from London used to proceed thither in boats, disguised as kings, queens, millers, &c., with horns on their heads; and men dressed as females, who formed in procession and marched round the church and fair.” (Old and New London: Volume 6.)

Writing in 1703, William Fuller commented, “I remember being there upon Horn Fair day, I was dressed in my landlady’s best gown and other women’s attire, and to Horn Fair we went, and as we were coming back by water, all the clothes were spoilt by dirty water etc. that was flung on us in an inundation, for which I was obliged to present her with two guineas to make atonement for the damage sustained.”

Nowadays, the Charlton Horn Fair is a family-friendly event, but its origins are an intriguing blend of legends and actual historical occurrences. Famous for its obsession with horns, the fair saw them worn, sold, carried, and displayed by the throngs who flocked to it.

Why?

No less than six different reasons are generally given:

A Pagan Fertility Festival

In many ancient pagan cultures, horns were traditionally associated with fertility and virility; it’s a possibility that Horn Fair began as a way to celebrate the harvest and promote fertility.

Horny King John

Bad King John, weary from hunting, entered a miller’s house in Charlton. The young, beautiful wife of the miller was at home, her husband busy milling, but he returned home unexpectedly to find the king ‘enjoying’ his wife and drew a knife on the tumescent monarch. John revealed his identity, and the miller, eventually mollified somewhat to see that this was no ordinary nookie-fiend, asked a boon of the king. He consented, granting the miller a sizeable piece of land on the Charlton side of the river Thames, as far as the point near Rotherhithe.

There was a nasty condition of John’s though - the miller would have to perambulate annually on that day – October 18th – with a pair of buck’s (cuckhold’s) horns on his head. Which gave birth to the tradition...

Putignano (Apulia, Italy) - Thursday of the Cuckolds (Wikimedia Commons)
During the horned Thursday, the "Accademia delle Corna" elects the "Great Horned of the Year" among the leading members of the population.

St Luke’s Day

The 18th of October is the saint’s day, and Luke is the patron saint of the local parish church. In medieval times, he was represented in writing with a winged ox or cow by his side – apparently a representation of sacrifice, service and strength.

The Magna Charta de Foresta

Horn Fair may be connected to the Magna Charta de Foresta (Charter of the Forest – 1217/1225), a lesser-known ancient document issued a few years after the Magna Carta. It relaxed the brutal forest laws enacted by King John (him again).

Buchel, Charles A.; Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1852-1917), as King John in 'King John' by William Shakespeare (Wikimedia Commons)

The charter also reduced the size of the land controlled by the king, making it more available for the peasants to use. So, the Charlton Horn Fair could originally have been a way to celebrate this.

The horns may have been worn as a symbol of the plebs’ new-found freedom to hunt on the land, supported by the fact that the Charlton Horn Fair, as well as several other Horn Fairs around England, date back to the reign of John’s son King Henry III, who signed the Forest Charter.

A Public Display of Sexual Licence

The Charlton Horn Fair started with a parade from Bermondsey to Charlton, with revellers wearing horns and blowing on musical versions of them. Many revellers were in fancy dress, with cross-dressing a common theme.

As with other Horn Fairs, Charlton’s became famed for indecency, with attendees engaging in drunken sexual behaviour. Daniel Defoe echoed the feeling of the more prim local residents when he wrote:

‘Charleton, a village famous, or rather infamous for the yearly collected rabble of mad-people, at Horn-Fair; the rudeness of which I cannot but think, is such as ought to be suppressed, and indeed in a civiliz’d well govern’d nation, it may well be said to be unsufferable. The mob indeed at that time take all kinds of liberties, and the women are especially impudent for that day; as if it was a day that justify’d the giving themselves a loose to all manner of indecency and immodesty, without any reproach, or without suffering the censure which such behaviour would deserve at another time.’

Daniel Defoe’s A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–1726)

Cuckold's Point - Stag worship and the Horned God ?

Some believe Celts greeted the dawning of the new year at the geomantrically-aligned site, as “Ancient Celtic religion cast the year as a contest between the gods of winter and summer for the favor of the goddess of the earth. The god of summer claimed victory at May Day, but at Samhain the god of winter, who was also lord of the dead, was victorious. Celts often depicted the god of winter with "cuckold" antlers which he shed each autumn like a stag.” (The Celtic New Year)

The fair ended in 1872 due to the many outrages committed there over the centuries. Despite the ban, the Horn Fair was unofficially celebrated in the 1920s, and made an official comeback in 1973.

Sadly sans the smut.

The 1872 The Daily News stated the fair closed due to being, "a week of burglary in the parish, the demoralization of servants, and so general a reign of the Lord of Misrule over the place that the locality took months to recover its tone."

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A Morning, with a View of Cuckold's Point (where the Horn Fair procession began) by Samuel Scott, c1755 (Wikimedia Commons)

Bartholomew Fair ‘school of vice’

The even more riotous medieval Bartholomew Fair was suppressed in 1855 by the city authorities for encouraging debauchery and public disorder.

Shame.

The Newgate Calendar denounced it as "a school of vice which has initiated more youth into the habits of villainy than Newgate (prison) itself."

A sanitised version of Bartholomew Fair returned just last year:

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Charlton House east side. Charlton House is an Elizabethan manor house which still lies at the heart of Charlton Village, this photo shows the Mayor declaring the annual Horn Fair open (Wikimedia Commons)

Another prong-related activity, Highgate’s Swearing on of Horns

The Swearing is an irreverent pledge traditionally given to new customers at various pubs in the north London suburb of Highgate from the 17th to 19th centuries, and has since been revived, like many folkloric events, such as New Year Wassailing.

The ancient oath consists of a series of statements read by a clerk, confirming one's dedication to general merriment and debauchery, ending by kissing or saluting a set of horns, and thence be entered in a logbook for posterity. Participants were then awarded the title of "Freemen of Highgate".

The oath, in brief:

"You must not eat brown bread while you can get white, except you like the brown the best. You must not drink small beer while you can get strong, except you like the small the best. You must not kiss the maid while you can kiss the mistress, except you like the maid the best, but sooner than lose a good chance you may kiss them both."

In Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Lord Byron mentions the vaguely bacchanalian ritual:

"Many to the steep of Highgate hie;

Ask, ye Boeotian shades! the reason why?

'Tis to the worship of the solemn Horn,

Grasped in the holy hand of Mystery,

In whose dread name both men and maids are sworn,

And consecrate the oath with draught and dance till morn."

In 2007, the venerable The Flask pub conducted the ceremony with a set of 200-year-old ram's horns taken from the Coopers Arms, as part of their beating the bounds festivities (the Roman or Anglo-Saxon tradition of whacking local landmarks with branches confirming a shared mental map of parish boundaries).

Wikimedia Commons

Becoming Freemen of Highgate conferred several privileges, including kissing the prettiest lass in the tavern; if no bonny women were to be found, the new initiate had to take whatever was on hand.

If a sleepy Freeman was in need of a rest when in Highgate, he could boot a pig out of a ditch and take its place. If there were three hogs, he was limited to chasing away the middle one and kipping between the others. A skint Freeman could have free drinks for himself and his friends at any pub in Highgate; however, if cash was found on him (or passed to his friends) he had to buy a round of drinks for the entire inn.

Stephen Arnell’s novel THE GREAT ONE, is available now on Amazon Kindle:

APPENDIX - JACK CADE’S CAVERN

Wikimedia Commons

An ancient cave known as Jack Cade's cavern (after the late-medieval Kentish rebel who may have hid there) lies underneath the site of an old stone circle at Maidenstone Hill on the edge of Blackheath Common, known as ‘The Point’.

"Of great antiquity and unknown use", the cavern was a chalk mine apparently hewed out by antler tools, containing four large and three small chambers, with a well at its farthest end.

Effigy of the Horned God at Jack Cade's Caverns. 77 Maidenstone Hill, Greenwich, London

The ancient carving of the Horned God is just within the entrance.

Party Invite to the Cavern

In 1780, a local builder discovered it and erected a cottage to claim the land, then built 40 steps down, charging sixpence a head for the curious to enter. The cavern soon became a go-to place for parties and debauchery. A bar was set up, and a chandelier hung from the roof, making it a popular spot for balls, booze, and fornication.

This naughtiness resulted in authorities closing up the ancient caverns in 1853/4. At the beginning of WWII, the local council went to assess their suitability for air raid shelters, finding perverted Victorian graffiti, wine bottles, and the seedier remains of the debauchery that had occurred under the surface world. But the caverns were assessed as structurally unsound and were closed again, with the exact location now supposedly lost, although 77 Maidenstone Hill is the most popular choice for the old entrance.

Blackheath Cavern Main Chamber August 1939

In July 2002 a sinkhole appeared on the A2 road, near to where the cavern network is thought to be. Shades of 1982’s Poltergeist?