(Click photo to view original source)
There was a great deal of disquiet evidenced in the parish, when it was first mooted that a mental hospital was going to be built on the doorstep of their small rural village.
Well, the hospital was to contain a couple of thousand inmates staffed by five hundred nurses who were to be drawn from the four corners of the British Isles and eventually, even further afield.
It put shivers up the spines of not a few people.
On looking back, one can, as it were, witness the first elements of the ‘not in my backyard’ approach.
Along with this of course, was the controversy caused by Cecil Frank Raphael’s sudden, and to some extraordinary, decision to up sticks and sell Porters Park Estate, of which he was the owner, to Middlesex County Council, by which means they were able to establish the hospital on its grounds.
At the time, rumour abounded that he had sold up in umbrage at the Parish Council’s decision, of which he was a member: the Council went against his advice to have trust houses built, rather than a memorial to commemorate the dead of The First World War.
Whatever the feelings in the village, the building of the ‘model hospital’ got the go ahead.Work started in 1934 and the first unit was opened by King George V and Queen Mary on the 31st of May in that self-same year.
It was not to be too long into its stride when the Second World War took place, necessitating the building of air raid shelters, the digging of trenches and the installation of a fire service, along with the hospital taking in the casualties of war, and in the event, being also classed as a military hospital.
During those dangerous years, the hospital suffered from a few fire bombs being dropped on its premises
Despite these attacks, the hospital post war made a number of medical advances.However, the war effort had left the country pretty well impoverished and this was reflected in the patient’s personal clothing. Due to the lack of funds it was not unusual to see shell-shocked patients somewhat unkempt, with an uneasy gait shuffling through the village with shrunken trousers at half mast, or females with loose ill-fitting dresses that had seen too much time in the laundry press.
Societal changes brought urgency to new thinking on the institution of the hospital, in particular its vast expenditure.
Into the picture, at this time, came the eminent, not to say unorthodox psychiatrist, Dr R. D. Laing, with his forward thinking views, who operated from the Tavistock Clinic London.
Now, one of his disciples, Dr David Cooper, took up the reins of reinventing the purpose of the hospital; again not without controversy.
His aim was to create smaller units of patients who were self- sufficient, to exist in ‘half way’ houses as a stepping stone towards independent living in the wider community.
(Published in Shenley Village Matters – Issue 32, Page 27, Autumn 2024)