The effectiveness of the new psychotropic drugs lead to a major changes in the Mental health system with an increasing growth in outpatient treatment by 1959 and shorter stays for those admitted to the hospital. This change has been described as the therapeutic revolution and lay the foundations for the move towards community care which marked the final thirty years of the hospitals life. The government made its first public commitment to community care and phasing out the countries many large mental hospitals in 1961. Outlined by the then Health secretary Enoch Powell in his "Water Tower" speech in March of the year. The plans proposed a ten year program of transferring mental heath services to outpatient care supported with psychiatric units attached to district general hospitals. The Heath secretary went as far as calling for the out right closure of all the countries "Water Tower" mental hospitals seeing no future role for them. As it happened this plan took a lot longer than 10 years to achieve but from the 1960's the hospital population began to steadily decrease. The attitudes to mental illness with in the country as a whole was changing during the 60's and much of the stigma attached to a mental illness was dispelled just as in the 1920's this changing attitude resulted in a new name for the hospital, the word mental was dropped and it became simply the Mid Wales Hospital.

An increase in outpatient treatment lead to a dedicated modern clinic extension on the west side of the main building which was added in 1965. Increases in the number of patients responding to treatments was resulting in more discharges from the hospital throughout the late 1960's and 1970's. In an effort to prepare patients for life outside of the hospital a detached Occupational Therapy building was added to the west of the main building in 1974. Here selected patients were employed in manual tasks paralleling working conditions in the outside world. The Occupational therapy building would later become the Powys School of Midwifery which was not linked to the the rest of the hopspital's administration. Around the same time a beauty parlor and hairdressers was added in a small extension within the west airing court.

The move towards care out side of institutions had slowed during the 1970's although a continued commitment to a community based care initiatives had been made by successive governments few facilities had been developed to allow the wholesale discharge of patients from the old asylums. This provision did not materialise until the election of the Conservative Government in 1979 who placed renewed emphasis on running down the counties network of dedicated mental hospitals towards eventual closure. The "Care in the Community" green paper of 1981 introduced a number of measures to transfer funds for mental health provision away from the NHS to local authorities and voluntary associations, for the provision of community based programs and hostels backed up with acute units and psyciatric wards at general hospitals for those requiring inpatient treatment. The program allowed the NHS a period of seven to thirteen years to develop and implement program to transfer patients out of the mental hospitals identified for closure. The first changes to be seen at Mid Wales was the sale of the hospitals outlying properties Rhyd y Beiny and Wern Fawr farm's along with 5 of the homes along hospital road.

Powys NHS trust began to implement is care in the community program in 1990 and began a gradual transfer of service from Mid Wales hospital by the mid 1990's the hospital's inpatient population had been reduced to an average of 140 mainly geriatric cases, the hospitals total capacity was reduced to a total of 179 beds. The hospital still supported a range of services including occupational therapy, outpatient day care, psychology, psychiatry, physiotherapy, electro convulsive therapy, and chiropody. The district substance and alcohol misuse centre was also based within the hospital. From 1994 onwards the hospital was declared surplus to requirements by Powys NHS Trust as the final stage of closure began, the hospitals remaining services were transferred to the nearby Bron Llys Hospital. Mid Wales was vacated by the end 1997 and closed shortly afterwards. The entire site including a 43 acres of land with 200,000 square feet of hospital buildings, plus 5 large family sized houses, a chapel , tennis court and cricket pitch, was advertised for sale in June of that year. It took over two years to find a buyer for the old hospital when the estate was sold by sealed bid in October 1999 for £355,000. The sale of the hospital immediately resulted in a scandal both because of the low sale price achieved and the alleged involvement of a Welsh Office minister and his wife in the sale. The sale was called in for inquiry by the Welsh Audit Office, who found no evidence of wrong doing involved in the disposal of the hospital. One of their conclusions regarding the low sale price concerned the lack of development potential of the hospital buildings. A conclusion which has been proven by time, nine years after the controversial sale the hospital buildings still have failed to find a new permanent use.

Mid wales Hospital had been one of Talgarth's main employers and the closure of the hospital had a huge impact on the economy of the small town, the redundancies made at the hospital and lack of custom from patients and visitors led to many small businesses closing within the town itself even today many small shops are boarded up and vacant. As the owners of the former hospital struggled to find a use for the slowly deteriating buildings the site changed hands a few times until it was reopened as the Black Mountains Business Park in an attempt to bring new employment to the town of Talgarth, a few small businesses moved into workshops within the hospitals engineering and laundry buildings. Even the mortuary building found a use with a local sandwich maker. The project never really took off thou and most of the business have since moved on, today the hospital once again sits virtually empty and abandoned, The whole site has recently changed hands once again hopefully the new owners will be successfully in their efforts to breathe new life into the buildings without resorting to the demolition ball.

I have visited the remains of Mid Wales Hospital on a number of occasions over the past two years though it took me a long time to make the journey up to the closest asylum ruin to my home. After a hours drive from home I was making my way through the small mid wales town and up the long approach road towards the hospital, Although the main buildings are hidden from view, the road is lined with plain cast iron fence which would be at home surrounding any institution of the same period, workhouse, school or asylum. A little further along the road the hospitals main gate was flaked by two stone pillars now carrying modern signs pointing the way to the business park. I drove past the gate and carried up hospital road to find a convenient parking space near a row of garages and nissan huts left behind by the military hospital.

Not far from my parking place the abandoned occupational therapy department lay , like most hospital buildings dating from the 1970's it is a very unimpressive low profile breeze block and brick building constructed purely for function than any architectural merit, looking very similar to the small industrial units it was intended to introduce to departing patients. The first time I visited the building was sealed shut and very little could be seen through the mildewed and cobweb encrusted windows but just one month later a fire escape was hanging open from its hinges a discarded wheelchair lying in the grass nearby. Stepping through the empty doorway the interior exactly matched the spartan exterior inside the exposed block walls were painted in faded white wash except for the occasional caricature of disney characters including a very sinister Mickey mouse. The building itself was divided into a number of long workshops now home to collection of unneeded hospital furnishings looking very much like a medical jumble sale. amongst the collection of old wardrobes mixed with hospital bed tables and MFI flat pack furniture lay the hospitals dental chair alongside some of the bowl dryers from the hairdressers. Away from the workshops a second wing was divided up into smaller rooms a little more comfortably decorated with wall papers and carpets, this area was once fitted out similar to the rooms of a house to assess how a patient would cope in the world beyond the hospitals iron fence. In the corridor leading to these rooms the hospitals laundry cards had been abandoned still piled with tea towels and bedding adorned with "Mid Wales Hospital" and "Powys NHS Trust".

From the Occupational therapy unit a small flight of stairs leads upwards towards the main building alongside wards 5 and 6 west not far from the 1960's clinic extensions, and the hospitals main drive which lead us round in front of the main building in between the administration block and chapel. While standing outside the front of the chapel a car approached up the main road not wanting to be asked to leave without seeing more of the building I quickly headed round the back of the chapel to escape from view and ran straight in to the sole grave stone in what must be the hospitals burial ground. The stone itself was barely noticeable in the thick undergrowth which now covers the plot. Pulling back the entangled brambles and ivy I recognised the familiar shape of a military grave stone baring the name of Private J Lewis of the Welsh Regiment, who died during the great war maybe a shell shocked patient at the hospital returned from the western front. Once the car had gone we emerged from behind the chapel heading over to the small mortuary building nearby. The building itself was shut tight but a small window gave a clear view into the empty interior the sandwich company which used it following the hospitals closure obviously had no use for a mortuary slab. The first time I visited the administration block was in use as the offices of the business park and clearly secured and maintained to we steered clear not wishing to pry into the owners business, but on my last few visits the building had been vacated allowing me a seek peek of its attractively tiled and wood paneled interior one of the finest parts of the hospital building luckily its edwardian interior had escaped any modernisation unlike many other hospitals of the same period.

Turning along side the administration building we could see the laundry was occupied by a carpentry business the tiny courtyard between it and the administration building stacked high with timber. Here we could see the first signs of demolition. a double corridor would have linked the laundry, Administration and Wards 5 and 6 East but instead of its stone walls we could see straight into the eastern airing court. On this side of the hospital all of the connecting corridors had been demolished leaving their tiled floors exposed among the undergrowth and rubble. Where the corridor once entered the laundry a breeze block wall now protected the privacy of its new occupants but all along the high stone walls of the wards which surrounding us were the wooden doors where the corridors once connected to the villas.

One small section of the corridor survived along the back of the laundry building heading towards the block which housed Wards 5 and 6 East. at the end of the corridor a heavy set of wooden doors lead to a short section of wood lined corridor and a flight of steps up in to the ward itself. We entered into the dormitory block of Ward 5 East. Wards 5 and 6 were Nightingale wards where the patients shared a single large common bed room which made it easier for the inhabitants to be observed easily by the nursing staff. The dormitory of the nightingale ward was a open space bathed in light from the rows of high windows along both its walls, two rows of beds would have lined the the ward while it was in use, but today the ward was empty save for the faded green carpet and a lone chair. Along the northern side of the ward a row of five empty doorways now lacking their doors lead in to the seclusion rooms just large enough for a bed and small table which would have housed the more disruptive patients just like the main dormitories the seclusion rooms are now empty of any signs of life.

At the opposite end of the dormitory two open arch ways lead through to the wards day room which would have been sitting room and social space for the wards residents it to was empty of its furnishings, accross the floor the were scattered accessories for board games Junior Scrabble and Risk. The pavillion housing Wards 5 and 6 was laid out in the shape of a squared of C. The dormitory and day room occupied the upright stroke of the C we left the day room thorough a heavy polished oak door to enter the top horizontal stroke of the C which housed a long tiled corridor the floor lined with terracotta tiles and the walls with what at first appeared to be polished stone but on closer inspection were industrial strength floor tiles affixed to the wall in the hospitals later days. Along this corridor a number of doors opened out into the the wards supporing rooms, a small kitchen and the nurses offices only the tiles on the wall and a pin board to give away their original purpose.

At the end of the corridor a doorway would lead back out onto the now demolished corridors while a stairway led up towards the second floor ward. Heading upwards the stair way divided with one short flight leading into Ward 4 and another leading back into Ward 6. along with the main corridors the ward buildings touch and interconnect at their corners giving an alternative entrance and exit from each ward. Heading up into Ward 6 we entered an identical corridor to the one below the tiled floor led us past another row of nurses offices and another small kitchen through an open doorway into the day room. The day room itself easily dated by its furnishings the wall paper and round plastic light fittings straight out of the 70's. Just like Ward 5 the day room linked on to a dormitory but unlike the one below it the patients of Ward 6 were treated to a little more privacy, each patient given a small wooden partitioned space which housed a built in wardrobe, dressing table and space for a bed all screened of by a curtain. Above each alcove a pop tape label still identified the last patients to have used the cublicles. In the far corner of the dormitory a closed door led us in to the lower stroke of the C shape of the pavillion where another tile corridor was lined with solid oak doors leading into another row of seclusion cells, in each of these a heavy oak shutter hung over the windows which could be locked over the small windows blocking out the light or locked open into a small alcove in the walls along side the window pane. Leaving Wards 5 and 6 behind we traced our steps back to the door way of Ward 4.

Ward 4 occupied the second floor of the second pavilion on the east side of the hospital, We entered from the door on the stairwell where a sign directed us to "enter the ward by the main entrance only", but with the corridors now gone this entrance was now stranded in the airing court below by a mound of rubble we didnt think matron would mind us using the door now. Pushing the heavy fire door open we found an even greater level of privacy for the patients of Ward 4. The pavilion was shaped like an inverted L and presumably would once have been divided into a dayroom and dormitory like the other wards, but here the entire space had been divided with partition walls lined with chip board into a series of small rooms. Each room was fitted out as single or twin rooms with modern flat pack furniture. At the corner of the L shape one room still had the frames of some hospital beds stacked against the wall and some wardrobes i recognised as MFI having lived with an identical wardrobe the bed room of my student accomodation.. At the end of the ward the building was once again linked in to the adjoining pavillion from the corridor we could look through a internal window into the dormitory of Ward 2, the room itself was located a few feet below us the whole pavillion had been built on a lower level to accommodate the slope on which the hospital had been constructed. Where the two blocks met a separate row of seclusion cells ran of at 45 degree angle where it would once have intercected the now missing corridor below. Back at the intersection we entered a stairwell leading downwards the small landing housed the door to Ward 2 where we found the first of a series of signs in Spanish it seems this part of the hospital had been used to accommodate spanish immigrant workers for a short while after the building closed I wonder if the knew the history of their strange new home. The sign clearly said no entry and to reinforce the point the door way had been sealed shut with a hot glue gun. Continuing downwards we reached the the door way to Ward 1, it appears that Ward 3 could only be reached from the corridor its door now blocked with rubble.

We entered the dormitory of room one another open nightingale ward with a hideous 60's carpet, gathered together in this room was a fascinating collection of medical equipment a whole range of plastic bedpans, a forest of bedside tables identical those i remember from my only hospital stay to get my tonsils removed as a child. Stacked up on top of the bedside tables were a collection of medical reference books and the log of outpatients and short stay patients and scattered across the floor were the plastic internal organs of a training skeleton. Just like Ward 4 the block we were now was also an inverted L shape a doorway in the corner at the end of the ward lead us in to a corridor leading off at 90 degrees to the dormitory. The corridor itself was once lined with a wooden wainscot which had been ripped away leaving the brick below exposed. On our right another series of heavy oak doors lead into another row of seclusion cells the only sign of life was a lonely wheelchair sat in the center of the corridor. At the end of the corridor a fine wood arch way lead thorough into the ward's day room itself empty except for some faded copies of the Sun dating form 1998. Quickly passing through the day room we headed up the staircase towards ward two past a colorful piece of patient art work on the landing.

Ward 2was almost identical to Ward 1 below it we entered thorough a the day room some plastic chairs here made an ideal spot to stop for a short break looking out of the high windows to the stunning views of the Black Mountains enjoyed by the hospital. Just like in the ward below an elegant wooden arch way lead in to a corridor of seclusion rooms behind heavy oak doors, here the 60's wall paper featured a maze of brown lines, large sections of which have been colored in with pencils leaving a rainbow mural. Beyond the corridor lay the empty dormitory we had seen from the corridor in ward 4. having reached the end of the eastern network of wards we retraced our steps back down and out in to the airing court, leaving the wards behind we moved on towards the center of the hospital and its service and social buildings.

Not far away an open door flapping in the wind lead us into the hospitals staff cafeteria, along the length of one wall a serving counter was still in place with its hot plates now filled with stagnant rain water all over the flour mold had found a home in the fallen floor tiles making it slippery underfoot along the walls the wooden frames of bench seating remained stripped of their cushioned seats. Behind the serving counter a small door lead back out side into a mountain of rubble a terracotta tile floor and the occasional white tile still attacked to the wall marked the outline of the small staff kitchen demolished along with the east corridors. Heading back inside the cafeteria another small door opposite lead into a more attractive wood lined room it two had the outline of bench seating around the walls and a few cut glass wall lights remained in place. The center of the room was dominated well carved three sided wooden box, initially we thought it was the frame of a snooker or pool table but on looking closer realised it was the doorframe collapsed inwards leaving exposed bricks around the doorway.

Stepping out of the doorway we found ourselves in one of the two main spine corridors which lead from the administration block to join the main corridor near the nurses home. Looking towards the admin block a breeze block wall now sealed it off from the rest of the hospital buildings. So we headed towards the back of the site and a double door marked "Recreation Hall". unfortunately the door was screwed shut so for the moment we turned our attention to a stairway behind us which lead upwards , towards the back of the sites the corridor became part of a two story structure so we headed up to see what was hidden above us. The first door lead us into the the small projection booth which looked out into the main hall, The projectors were now long gone and the room housed a mountain of junk but carefully picking out way forward the four projection windows gave a perfect view down into the hall bellow.

We headed back downstairs and a set of double doors across the end of the corridor led us out into the main corridor for the first time. To our left a brick wall marked the place where demolition had stopped, just inches from it a wall mounted glass box still contained fire marshals armbands hanging on their hooks. To the right the corridor continued onwards into the heart of the hospital. We moved on finding two sets of double door also marked "Recreation Hall" this time with a gentle push they swung open revealing the social hub of the hospital. The hall was a long elegant barrel vaulted room decorated in shades of blue and pastel yellow, its wood block floor marked out with the outline of a tennis court and the whole space lit by high stained glass windows still flanked by their thick red curtains. in the early days of the asylum the hall was once one of the few spaces where the male and female patients could have mixed every weekend the men would have come from the west and women for the east to dance beneath the electric chandelier lights which still hung above us. A stage behind its arch and matching red stage curtains would have seen the occasional play or pantomime performed for an audience gathered in the hall below. Later the addition of the projection booth brought films to the asylum, but the projection booth gave us a moment of confusion looking up at the stage there were four projection windows above it too, although sealed off they clearly mirrored the four we had looked out of a few minuets before on the other side of the room. The hall appeared to have had two projection booths something I had never seen or heard of in a main hall before. To take a closer look we climbed up onto the stage and peered up at the windows all four were permanently blocked with a sheet of wood, clearly the projection booth had been moved from one side of the hall to the other. Up on the stage a backdrop from one of the last performances Aladdin lay covered in dust on one visit it was to tempting to lower the scenery rail and hang the back drop over the stage once more.

At the back of the stage a small flight of steps lead out on to the second spine corridor also running between the administration bloc and main corridor. Right behind the stage a small almost hidden door led us into another room finding ourselves behind of all things a bar. with all the acutriments of a small country pub. The shelves backed by a mirror decorated with the a whitbread brewery sign, some holes left in the counter of the bar marked the position where some beer pumps had been mounted. On the other side of the bar a small lounge room was empty now except for it's 70's wall paper and Alpine panorama over the bar. It's quite strange to find a bar in a hospital presumably it was for the staff only with the nurses block not far away down the main corridor. From the stories of the locals I hear the patients prefered to visit the loacl pub and the end of the road.

Back out on the corridor another stairway headed up just like on the other side of the hall here there the corridor was the ground floor of another two story section. On the second floor there were a number of bed room all empty except for a collection of NHS crockery some dating back to 1948. In the corridor a wall mounted wooden board allowed the occupants to signal whether they were in or out, the rooms appeared to be for on call nursing staff. About half way down the corridor a small bridge section extended out over the corridor below and lead us into another small room alongside the hall. we were at the right height to line up with the projection windows above the stage although there was no sign of them in this little room it seemed the old projection booth had been converted into a tiny kitchen for the staff rooms. At the end of the corridor a fire exit opened out on to a steel fire escape which took us down into the west airing court. Now thick with undergrowth we could hardly make out the curve of the main corridor which now surrounded us. Within the airing a small brick building stood along side the main axis corridor running from the administration block and the boiler house. It was constructed of the same brown bricks as the lower parts of the occupational therapy building and was probably erected at the same time in 1974. slipping in through the side of this building we entered a small room almost filled by a wooden screen printing press we had entered the art block. The rest of the rooms were all empty but decorated in bright colors and a few chineese characters. On our way back out we spotted a tiny corridor blocked by the remains of a hair dressers bench with the stumps of supports for two bowl hairdryers, which had been dragged out of the room beyond. Squeezing past we entered a terracotta red room with a series of sinks dumped on the floor of the hospital hair salon.

Leaving the hair dressers behind we went back on to the spine corridor and headed towards the administration block, just like the parallel corridor on the other side of the hall it two was blocked off with a breeze block wall as it reached the administration block. on our way towards it we passed a number of pleasantly decorated rooms some with thick shag pile carpets the doctors consulting rooms. The final room we came across was slightly more curious with a mezzanine level leading out on to an observation deck over the ground floor of the room. four large lights hung from the ceiling around a large skylight, some spotlights wera also attched to the wall. The room was now crowded with discarded paper work but next door a sluice room was still fitted fitted with liquid pumps and hand washing facilities could this have been one of the hospitals treatment rooms. Having reached the breeze block wall there was no where left for us to go except the main corridor leading us towards the west side wards and the male section of the old hospital.

The corridor on the west side must have been identical to the demolished section on the eastern side of the hospital decorated like many hospitals throughout the country the modern floor tiles were just like those in the modernised parts of the corridors at Highroyds Hospital. the west pavillions are almost identical to those on the east side and out path thorough the wards was the reverse of the route we took through the east side, so to save you from my rambling on to long i'll only discuss the highlights of thee remaining wards over on this side of the hospital. Our tour started in Ward 1 West unlike the East ward where a dormitory lead us in to a day room the entire space of Ward 1 West had been split up into rows of seclusion rooms with the same heavy oak doors. As we moved through the ward the floor disappeared from below us its fine oak floor boards removed exposing the foundations and beams below. at the end of the ward one of the door was labeled "clinic" inside it was larger than any of the seclusion cells its walls half lined in dirty white tiles. From the ceiling a small moveable spot lamp hung down in to the center of the room. At first I thought this must have been the hospital dentists, but on a later visit one of my companions found a sheet of resuscitation instructions and some labels on a wall rack were for medical supplies associated with ECT was this the ECT treatment room.

Leaving the ward where it met the corridor at its other end we bypassed the locked door to ward 3 west and climbed up towards Ward 4. Pushing the door gently opened we entered another terracotta tiled corridor this time decorated with an expensive looking green leather sofa. on the wall opposite a wood door was signposted "Chamber of Horrors", intrigued we opened the door to find a large collection of vintage medical equipment. Old wooden slide scales stood alongside some early electric driven dentist drills. The chairs matching the sofa outside were along one wall buried under a stack of cardboard boxes containing china bed pans dated from the early 1900's but the star of the collection was an early enema kit still including an unopened glass vial of saline solution from "Boots the Chemists". At the end of the corridor a sign read "Lolfa" or lounge the wards dayroom empty except for a damaged upright piano blocking the door. Moving on we made our way on to the stairs for Ward 6, the corridors up here were again lined with a wooden wainscot but it had seen better days. Now the walls are covered in the splats of exploded paintballs used as a playground for paintballers for a short period following closure. Passing through the dormitory we reached the day room and found another surprise two portable geiger counters and the casing for a shoulder mounted rocket, abandoned props left behind. Heading downwards we entered ward 5 west the last on this side of the hospital completely empty but in good condition the ward lead us on to a shot corridor into the 1965 treatment block which contained little except a pile of filing cabinet dividers they to were empty the records they contained safely removed but their spines listed the names of some of the hospitals final patients. Having seen the unoccupied and unused parts of the hospital it was time for us to to leave retracing our steps round the main corridor and out through the canteen we headed back to the car leaving the hospital quiet behind us.