Pool Park Asylum - Ruthin, North Wales...

 

 

The estate of Pool Park, or as it is sometimes spelt, Pool Parc, has been around a long, long time and was originally one of several deer parks where the owners of nearby Ruthin Castle could hunt. In the 1500s the Salesbury family bought the estate and divided it in two, one half remaining with the father William Salesbury, and the other part going to his son and heir Charles. Charles died with no male heir so his line stopped. The original house and the estate then passed into the Bagot family when Charles' daughter married Sir Walter Bagot.

In 1862 the original house on the estate was re-built in a mock Tudor, half timbered style. No expense was spared on the interior where elaborate wood panelling graces the rooms and corridors and a magnificent oak staircase, complete with ornamental wood carvings, sweeps majestically down two flights of stairs mirrored left and right, into the grand entrance hall. The staircase is said to have originally come from a former bishop's residence called Clocaenog.

Whilst still remaining in the family's ownership the house was not actually lived in by the Bagots throughout much of the 1800s and then in 1928 they lost it all, lock, stock and barrel, on a bet at the races!

In order to make the sale of the estate quick and easy the land was split into lots but a Llanwrst timber merchant got the lion's share, subsequently felling and selling much of the timber from the surrounding forest. The house was not sold but was eventually leased to Sir Henry Tate of Tate & Lyle's sugar fame.

In the mid 1930's Pool Park was bought by the local health authority with the intention of converting it into a convalescent home for 80 male patients, and then during the war this was increased to 120. A prisoner of war camp was also built in the grounds!

In 1949 the house became a mental hospital to take some of the pressure off nearby Denbigh Asylum which was by now creaking at the seams. At this point female patients began to be treated as well. During the late 60s and early 70s mental asylums in the UK were progressively closed and Pool Park was no exception, finally closing it's doors in 1989.

The house was sold in 1992 but whatever was planned for it does not seem to be happening and now sadly anything of value within the building is rapidly being stripped out, presumably for re-sale. In view of the fact that this is a Grade II listed building I would have thought that the stripping of the interior in this fashion was actually illegal but then I'm not at all well versed in building/architectural law etc. What is without a doubt however is the fact that within the space of just one year the upper floor has gone from being in a reasonably sound state to a jumble of heart breaking water induced decay - previously intact wooden flooring in the corridors and rooms is now a mess of rotten boards and fallen plaster with holes appearing through to the floors below. The kitchen wing has all but lost it's ceilings and is an almighty mess, and the magnificent staircase which was such an impressive feature of this house, is now being stripped of all it's ornate wooden carvings and even the posts and hand rails. The old steel central heating pipes are sawn through and the cast iron rads are almost all gone. Few windows survive intact now and I could not find the famous inscription naming the original builder in the entrance hallway.

Bizarrely, we did find what looked like two brand new wall hangings/paintings still in bubble wrap standing on a table in the hall!.

 

And in the best traditions of urb-ex we looked but did not touch!

 

Our visit in August of 2011 came about after we had seen numerous reports on our favourite urb-ex forum which included some really cool photographs. Parking the car a considerable distance away we approached the building quietly and soon saw what we took to be a security cabin. Carefully back tracking we made our way in a huge circle through some seriously dense undergrowth until we came down a slope through rhododendrons to the rear of the building. Here we gained entry easily through a window that has been removed and then never boarded up. We found ourselves in the kitchen wing. We moved very quietly through the building until we could see the hut clearly out of a front window... uninhabited!!!

Duh...

We continued taking photographs until we heard someone else moving around, whether in or just outside the building we could not be sure. Eventually they disappeared and so then we were able to carry on our explore in peace. It appears they were nothing more than walkers and had not entered the building but were talking up close to a broken window on the ground floor - not good for one's inner peace and equilibrium frankly! Anyway, after three hours or so of exploration we left the building the way we had entered and took some exterior shots at the front before we finally made our way back to the car. What a great little explore! Although this building is in a sad state it is refreshing to see little if any graffiti anywhere. What sickens me though is the sight of such a beautiful building decaying so rapidly now.

 

Below you can view the best of the photographs which we took at this site.

 

If you wish to view any of these pictures in a much larger size then just click on the thumbnail of your choice and it will open a full size picture in a secondary window...

 

 

The front of the Grade II listed Pool Park Asylum building in August 2011...
 

Around the back - the seriously overgrown rhododendrons and deciduous trees effectively shield access...
 
A bizarre single story polygonal building attached to the kitchen block...
 

Sky line and rooftops...
 

Within the kitchens - the hotplate range and prep tables...
 

Oven...
 

Boiler...
 

Now that's what I call a Magi-Mix!!!
 

The serving hatch...
 

Intercom/telephone in the kitchen servery...
 

Was Mr. Davies the former night porter?
 

Pot washing range...
 

Dining room?
 

Is this for real or did it end up here by accident?
 

Ground floor - dormitory, ward or day room?
 

Female ablutions block...
 

Water damage is bad in the kitchen wing...
 

First floor view across the kitchen wing roof...
 

Serious water ingress has made some upper floor areas very unsafe...
 

First floor bathroom...

 

Painted wooden wall panelling...

 

Urinals adjacent to a male ward or dormitory area...

 

A side corridor leads back to the main first floor corridor, again with beautiful wooden panelling "desecrated" with cream gloss...
 

Just one of many fireplaces on the first floor...

 

A view from front to back of the house...

 

"The Chair"...

 

This highly photogenic chair appears to move randomly around the house depending on which forum you happen to be looking at...
 

Art or simple pornography? You decide...



 

The wood panelling on the second floor walls is original...



 

Previous pictures taken as recently as the beginning of this year (2011) show this second floor corridor in a largely undamaged state but only 7 months on it is already through in holes and very spongy under foot elsewhere...
 

Wires linked bell pulls in the bedrooms with a central signalling board in many old Victorian houses. Here bell pull wires can be seen running down the wall and over their pulleys to make the right angle under the floor boards...
 

TJ...



 

The second floor bedrooms have quite low ceilings. I imagine these were servants quarters in the time the house was built...


 

 

 

 

Formerly part of the estate, these fields now appear to be part of the adjacent farm...
 

I wonder what has run down inside this vent to cause such a mess?

 
Rafter/eves access from a second floor bedroom...

 

Ornamental spire on the roof...

 

I wonder what this was all about?

 

View through the fire escape down towards the adjacent farm buildings, the asylum boiler house chimney is visible to the right...
 

Across the roofs...
 

Ornate cast iron fire basket in a second floor bedroom...
 

What must this have looked like once?
 

A narrow stairwell leads up to the roof...
 

The water tanks are built on the roof within a small wooden hut...
 

Built in wardrobe Victorian style...
 

That is one serious mushroom!
 

Back down on the first floor main corridor again...
 

The ornate, oak master staircase, now sadly depleted...
 

One of the few remaining carved wooden panels on the staircase...
 

Carved oak balustrades turn the corner....
 

From the side...
 

 

From the grand entrance hall...
 

Inside the front door...
 

More evidence of the removal of the original decoration...
 

Peeling magnificence...

 

The radiators either side of the door in this room have fans built in to push the hot air out of the units...
 

Asylums always seem to have a concert hall no matter how small the asylum is..
 

This was originally a drugs cabinet...
 

Old beds and chairs down in the cellars...
 

Cellar store room...
 

...and another...
 

Staff meal bills discarded in the cellars...
 

Ventilation of the cellars to the outside air...
 

The cellar steps...
 

Some form of alarm panel...
 

"there's a future for you in the fire escape trade...
 

"...come up to town" !!!
 

The back of the building is badly over grown...
 

Mysterious steps disappear into the dense rhododendron jungle!
 

 

 

The side of the building furthest from the kitchens...
 
Skyline and rooftops - a variation on a theme!
 
It's a crying shame to see this building dieing by inches...
 
Thanks for looking!

...and finally, one last view before we go...