The North Wales Hospital: Hidden Now Heard
Known locally as ‘Denbigh Mental’ the
hospital is situated just outside the town
of Denbigh and was formerly known as
“The North Wales Mental Asylum”.
The site was purpose built in the 1840s
as a psychiatric hospital.
For most of its life it primarily housed
residents with what we today call
mental ill-health rather than learning
disabilities. It was thought they had a
dual diagnosis of learning disability
and a mental health condition.
“Look back now with what I’ve learnt since
there were probably people with Asperger’s . People used to think they had a schizoid type of mental illness but I would, now looking back think more likely that they had Asperger’s syndrome or some type of autism” - Clwyd who worked at the North Wales Hospital from 1956 to 1995.
The Hospital closed in 1996 and the
site’s fate is now uncertain.
