Talgarth Asylum-Mid Wales Hospital.
In the midst of the Brecon Beacons, the Mid Wales Hospital stands in utter, hopeless neglect, having been largely unoccupied for a decade. The large psychiatric hospital closed in 2000 due to a combination of factors including its relative isolation and changes to mental health care in England and Wales. Controversially sold to the resident Chief Medical Officer for just £227,000, the optimism surrounding its conversion and re-use as a business park was extinguished when the global recession forced bankruptcy in 2008. Since then the owners have begun asset stripping the hospital, removing many of the slate tiles (valued at £2,000,000). Water ingress and rot have swiftly and inevitably followed and the whole place has become a sad, decaying mess.
This obvious pessimism contrasts markedly with feelings at the time of its opening more than a century ago. The building, designed by Messrs Giles, Gough and Trollope of London and built at a cost of £126,000 was originally the Brecon and Radnor Counties Joint Lunatic Asylum. It was opened amid public ceremony on 18th March, 1903, by the Rt Hon. Lord Glanusk who said of it "everything has been done that human ingenuity could devise for the happiness and safety of the inmates, and under the blessing of God, for their speedy restoration to health." Although the population of the two Welsh counties remained small, by the end of 1925, 455 patients were resident. Like other contemporary institutions, the asylum was designed to be self-sufficient, and had its own private water, electricity, heating and sewerage systems as well as a considerable agricultural estate. As well as wards, the hospital had a large hall, kitchens, workshops "in which the patients [were] encouraged to spend their time profitably", a tailor, bakery, shoe-maker and printing shops as well as 8 acres of market gardens.
