My commission to photograph the churches of the North West of England (owned by the Churches Conservation Trust) has given me a rare opportunity to photograph some remarkable historic interiors. Not only that, but I have been privileged enough to meet the volunteers that look after the buildings.

Such meetings has brought about many stories behind the  buildings. Stories about the building of the church, or the installation of a new organ, or the memory of a loved one. Other stories have included tales of the unexpected and  heroic.

I have heard them all with an open and knowing heart – but never, I repeat, never have I witnessed such a soul destroying story on my travels as that of Brockhall Hospital.

I have captured the story in a single image (above) of the monument that remains to commemorate the people that died within it’s walls.

For those that cannot read the text I have repeated it below.

Before that, it remains for me to simply list the names that the hospital has had since 1904 – such telling appendages give a remarkable insight into our society and its development. Here they are:

1904 – Lancashire Inebriates Reformatory

1915 – Brockhall Hospital for Mental Defectives

1959 – Brockhall Hospital for the Mentally Subnormal

1974 – Brockhall Hospital for Mentally Handicapped People

1991 – Brockhall Hospital for People with Learning Disabilities

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The full text reads

“In an isolated institution located to the north east of this stone there lived from 1904 to 1992 a large number of people who were thought to be too strange, too difficult or too challenging to be cared for in their own communities. The institution in turn was called Lancashire Inebriates Reformatory (1904) Brockhall Hospital for Mental Defectives (1915) Brockhall Hospital for the Mentally Subnormal (1959) Brockhall Hospital for Mentally Handicapped People (1974) and Brockhall Hospital for People with Learning Disabilities (1991). Although those who lived there carried heavier burdens than most they were part of our common family.

Brockhall Hospital closed its doors in 1992 and the land on which it stood was acquired by Gerald Shimon Hitman of Newcastle upon Tyne who raised this stone as a memorial to those who ended their days in the hospital and are buried here. God full of compassion grant perfect rest beneath the shelter of your presence to these your children who have gone to their eternal home. Master of mercy, cover them in the shelter of your wings forever and bind their souls into the gathering of life. It is the Lord who is their heritage. May the be at peace in their place of rest.”

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