Susan Stamp's Pictures of Leybourne

For whom the bell tolls

Leybourne Grange Hospital Leybourne Grange covers an extensive 270 acres and was once home to 1200 patients with various degrees of mental disability. Administration was housed in an old manor house which is now totally boarded and alarmed probably because of marble floors and an ornate staircase which supposedly lies within. Patients lived in a total of 27 villas which split them into male, female and children as well as by the level of their deficiency, to cater for the patients there was a swimming pool and gym a concert hall which I think doubled as a place of worship there being no obvious chapel on the grounds and a sickness hospital complete with x-ray room. The colony was designed to be completely self sufficient with its own farm, industrial laundry huge boiler house with enormous water tanks, a kitchen garden and workshops. There were houses for married staff and a large nurses block too. Later additions included a social recreation center a hairdressers and a school for 16-20 year old's on the edge of the site which is still in use. In 1992 the colony began to implement closure with patients gradually leaving until total closure in 1996. Today the buildings are facing demolition due to the need for new housing in the area. I visited the site again on August 11th 2009 and was very sad to see that the demolition process had begun. A true piece of history now lies in part, as a pile of rubble.

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Leybourne, Buildings and Structures, Bygone Era, Trees and Woodlands, Kent