0600 another early morning, were to begin it was visiting hours at the Newsham Park Hospital/Asylum and time to tke my feet on a walk to gain the magnificent photos of this grade II listed historical building which according to people is one of the most haunted places in Liverpool, so let's check it out ..........
Newsham Park Hospital is a grade II building in Liverpool and now lies derelict but was previously a hospital to which it was the Liverpool Seamen’s Orphan Institution
So lets start from the beginning in 1869, there was no institution in Liverpool for the support and education of the orphans of British Seamen and the first moves to establish such an institution was made by a group of leading Liverpool ship-owners in 1868
There became sponsors for this project which comprised of a group of ship-owners and merchants who for some time had been concerned how best to help the widows and families of deceased Merseyside men including those lost at sea.
Members of public were invited to attend a meeting at the mercantile marine service association rooms on 16th December 1868, at which the resolution to found such an establishment was proposed by Ralph Brockleband and Bryce Allen, both leading ship-owners and philanthropists along with James Beazley another leading ship-owner was invited to be the chairman of the committee to establish an orphanage.
So on the 9th August 1869 The Liverpool Seamen’s Orphanage Institution opened in temporary rented accommodation in Duke Street, and by the end of that year there where 46 boys and 14 girls in residence.
In May 1886 Queen Victoria herself and visited the institution and added her name to the list of patrons and by 1899 there were 321 children in the orphanage while 508 were receiving outdoor relied in forms of monetary grants and clothing, children of all religious denominations were assisted with preference given to orphans of British Seamen connected with the Port of Liverpool .
POST WAR AND CLOSURE
In 1946 preparations were made to return to Newham park but with great expansion in the country social service schemes many parents were reluctant to place their children in the orphanage and this led to a gradual decline in the number of residential children as well as new laws prohibited children under 11 being educated at the same school as older children, and younger children living in an institutional school and despite Newsham Parks endowment, financial difficulties increased and eventually on the 27th July 1949 the orphanage closed its doors for good.
Carrying on through history in 1954 the Newsham Park Orphanage reopened but this time it became a hospital with a psychiatric department and received an influx of patients with severe mental problems, however the hospital stopped taking new patients in 1988 and by 1992 all the remaining patients and staff were moved and relocated.
THE ASYLUM
In 1992 with closure of Rainhill Lunatic Asylum the inmates were moved to Newsham Park Hospital taking up 90% of its space, 1.6 million was spent on the hospital so it could house new patients and there are still notices on boards in the school block and paper work in the property that dates back. In 1996 all recored of patients and staff have been closed for 100 years from 1997 when the building was finally vacated of patients and staff.
CURRENT STATUS
So where are we today the site is now owned by a developer and they have a planning application to refurbish part of the historic buildings into an events venue including kitchen facilities, dining restaurant and bar, function rooms and seminar facilities.
HAUNTED SITUATION
However with reported sightings of ghosts including a small child on the top floor corridor and shadowy figures on Ward G. visitors to the basement have reported an uneasy feeling and dragging noises have been heard from the dining room while nobody is there, the building now hosts both private and public nocturnal ghost hunts and it have now opened to ghost hunting events, but will this magnificent building be turned into a public place to go or shall the ghosts or hauntings remain forever allowing nobody full access to their territory, we shall have to see ….
So another adventure took place in the Urban Exploration world as i take on more and more each time to discover what history was like back then and become one with the history whilst learning along the way, so I leave you with this ......
STAY WITH THE ADVENTURES AND ALWAYS CONTROL HOW YOU BECOME ONE WITH NATURE AND DISCOVER WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON WITHIN THE UNIVERSE WE WALK ON WITH OUR TWO FEET AND TRAVEL DOWN A URREY PATH TO BECOME THE ADVENTURER WITHIN OUR SOAL
