I don't pretend to be an expert or a great historian, the best source to read in
my opinion is A PLACE IN THE COUNTRY -
This book is out of print but with a little searching a copy can usually be found.
In 1837 Hertfordshire and Huntingdonshire started sending their lunatics to the Bedford
Asylum. This was built in 1812 with a capacity for forty patients but it was running
out of room for the living and the dead. In 1852 a survey was commissioned with recommendations
for improvements to the old Asylum, a report was prepared which stressed the importance
of moral treatment which called for a therapeutic environment, good food, fresh air
and exercise. It was a fact that the Bedford Asylum was no longer capable of providing
this sort of treatment and care. The improvements and alterations were proved to
be too costly for the old building and a committee was formed to draw up plans to
build a new Asylum.
Originally Cambridgeshire wanted to join with Herts, Beds, Hunts,
It was agreed in 1853 that an Asylum would be built for the four counties but by
the summer of that year Cambridge had got impatient with the other three counties
and would not give in to the Bedfordshire committee's demands of not wanting to move
the Asylum out of town, they also wanted compensation if that happened for the loss
of income. An agreement could not be found and Cambridge dropped out.
This left Herts,
Beds, Hunts to go ahead with plans for the new Asylum which would be called "Three
Counties Asylum."In 1856 George Fowler Jones was appointed architect for the new
Three Counties Asylum, He had built the new Cambridgeshire Asylum on the outskirts
of town at Fulbourn. {see pics below taken 2007}
