'Mental home' in Bridgend

[rebekahm28]

Just been told my great grandparents ran a 'mental home' on Nolton St, Bridgend.  My great grandad Percy Price died in 1941 so it would be in the 1930s. Does anyone know anything about this? I visited the house last summer, but hadn't known it was used as a home for the mentally ill, I just noticed it was a large detached house.  Percy was a miner with a poor education, so it surprises me he ran this business.  After housing his wife and 3 kids, there would only have been a couple of rooms left to use as bedrooms for patients so we're not talking about a huge home.  And my great gran did fortune telling from the cellar!!

[Arranroots]

Hi Rebekah

I hope you get an answer here but you could try asking the Bridgend and District Local History Society (scroll down the link until you get to the relevant bit)

http://www.bridgend.gov.uk/green/indexb.html#bridgendhistory

Kind regards, Arranroots 

[halfasheep]

Assuming you don't know the area, Nolton Street is one of the main streets in Bridgend. - all shops and restaurants today, and nothing I would remotely consider to be an asylum of any sort? I'm sure the majority of the shops there are as they were way back on the thirties.

Would the ''mental home'' be a sort of respite/care home? I don't think there are any residential buildings in that street, but there are one or two side streets off it with some largish houses that could fit the description - see Chapel Street, Free School Court, and Edward Street.

There is a Lloyds Phamarcy on the top corner by some traffic lights that would fit the sort of premises I would associate with that type of ''business''.

Don't supopse you have a house number?

There was the old Bridgend General Hospital that was not a million miles away (although not in Nolton Street), and there is still a hospital called Glanryhd just outside Bridgend that is a secure unit.

[rebekahm28]

We visited last summer, I do know the number but wont post it. I have photos of the house, just at the time we ddint know it was used as a mental home, we just thought it was a large house.  It was not an asylum; it was a family home where my great grandparents took in people either as respite carers, or elderly people with mental health issues.

[halfasheep]

No problem - wasn't sure if you had visited the area and could have possibly got a photo of the relevant place as I'll be in Bridgend Saturday evening.

You may want to write to/phone Glanrhyd Hospital. Archives Network Wales suggests they may hold records from the relevant time period as well to give you a little background (assuming the respite home you are on about had any sort of connection to Glanrhyd back then):

http://www.archivesnetworkwales.info/cgi-bin/anw/fulldesc_nofr?inst_id=33&coll_id=76330&expand=

[mazzie74]

Hi,

I have just received the death certificate of my Gt-Gt-Gt-Gt Uncle, Pellegrino Mazzei.

He died in the "Lunatic Asylum, Bridgend, Newcastle Higher" on 25th March 1869, aged 59.

He was admitted to the asylum on 12th October 1866. He was living with his brother in Cardiff when he was admitted, so I assume that there was no asylum in Cardiff, and Bridgend was the closest one at the time.

Glamorgan Record Office have his patient notes, and I am about to order them.

Thanks,

Darin, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

[rebekahm28]

Oh, it may have been the same then!  I visited the house that my great grandparents lived in, Im 99% sure that it was the asylum/mental home, and that they didnt own another premises...the only strange thing is that they had 3 children living there, which would be unusual!  So Im considering that it may have been some sort of respite home for elderly mental health patients, or a low-level asylum for people whose needs weren't high (anxiety, nerves etc). In 1941 my great grandad shot himself in the shed at the bottom of the garden, so perhaps it all got a bit too much!
I cant find record of another asylum in Bridgend, BUT perhaps there was one.
Rebekah.

[Mags23]

There were two "Mental" Hospitals in the Bridgend area, one was Parc Gwyllt Hospital (which I think would have come under the parish of Coity Higher), it has since been demolished and Parc Prison is now on its site.  The other was Angelton, later renamed Glan Rhyd Hospital (possible under the parish of Newcastle Higher),  it is still in use.  Both were/are within 3 miles of Bridgend town.

[achilles500]

There were 3 mental hospitals in Bridgend.
1) Parc - now Parc Prison.
2) Glanrhyd - still there
3) Pen Y Fai - now demolished and is a housing estate.

Glanrhyd and Pen Y Fai hospitals were on oposite sides of the main road from Bridgend to Aberkenfig / Brynmenyn area. It is possible that they would come under Newcastle Higher.

Came across this from another posting...

Glamorgan County Asylum
Opened at Angleton, Bridgend, 4.11.1864 (Renamed Glanrhyd by or in 1948) map
1881 Census: Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum, Near Bridgend, Newcastle Higher, Glamorgan, Wales. Henry Turnbull Pringle (married, aged 40) was the Physician Superintendent. His wife doe not appear to have been at home on census night and a nurse was caring for his one year old son.
1887 An additional hospital, Parc Gwyllt opened nearby. (renamed Parc by or in 1948) map (Angleton can be seen on the west border of the map)
Known as Angelton and Parc Gwyllt from 1887 to 1922
Known as Glamorgan County Mental Hospital from 1922 to 1948
1901 There is an entry for Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum, Higher Coyty in the 1901 Census
1905 civil parish of Bridgend formed out of portions of the parishes of Newcastle and Coity.
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica: Bridgend (Welsh name Penybont-ar-Ogwr) is a market town straddling the river Ogwr. 1901 population of urban district: 6,062. "Just outside the town at Angelton and Parc Gwyllt are the Glamorgan county lunatic asylums."
1934 Penyfai, a new hospital for admissions, opened on the Glanrhyd site
1948: Glanrhyd and Parc and Penyfai became Morgannwg Hospital
In 1979, Morgannwg Hospital consisted of Glanrhyd Hospital (416 beds) and Penyfai (161 beds), both at Bridgend, CF31 4LN, Mid Glamorgan, and Parc Hospital (845 beds), Bridgend, CF35 6AP
Parc and Penyfai are closed. Glanrhyd Hospital is active

Source... http://www.mdx.ac.uk/WWW/STUDY/4_13_TA.htm#Bridgend