{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}} {{Use British English|date=July 2015}} {{Infobox hospital | name = Knowle Hospital | org_group = | logo = | logo_size = | image = HantsCountyAsylum.jpg | image_size = 225 | alt = | caption = Former main asylum building, now apartments | pushpin_map = Hampshire | pushpin_relief = | pushpin_map_size = 225 | pushpin_map_alt = | pushpin_map_caption = Shown in Hampshire | location = Knowle | region = Hampshire | state = England | country = UK | coordinates = {{coord|50.881570|-1.204048|display=inline,title}} | healthcare = NHS | funding = <!-- use: Non-profit, For-profit, Government, Public - will generate links --> | type = Specialist | affiliation = University of Southampton | patron = | network = | standards = | emergency = No | helipad = No | beds = | speciality = Psychiatric | founded = 1852 | closed = 1996 | demolished = | website = | other_links = | module = }}
'''Knowle Hospital''' was a psychiatric hospital that was repurposed as the village of Knowle near the town of Fareham in Hampshire, southern England, which opened in 1852 and closed in 1996.
==History== A committee of nine JPs were appointed at the Easter Quarter Sessions in 1846 to superintend the erecting or providing of a lunatic asylum for Hampshire. They selected Knowle Farm as the most suitable available site, comprising 108 acres (0.43706 km2).<ref>{{cite web | url = http://calm.hants.gov.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=94048&pos=51 | title = 94048 - Knowle Hospital, Fareham (Alt Ref No 48M94), Hampshire County Record Office | accessdate = 2016-07-30}}</ref> The asylum was designed by James Harris and the new building, known as the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum, opened in December 1852.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/194555/1.hasCoversheetVersion/00250119.pdf| title = Burt, Susan Margaret (2003). "Fit Objects for an Asylum" The Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum and its Patients, 1852-1899, University of Southampton, Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Sociology and Social Policy, PhD Thesis| accessdate = 2016-07-30| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160813095526/http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/194555/1.hasCoversheetVersion/00250119.pdf| archive-date = 13 August 2016| url-status = dead}}</ref>
For about a year, in 1857/58, one of the gardeners at Knowle, Henry Coe, corresponded with Charles Darwin on horticultural matters, especially the cultivation of kidney beans. As a result of this correspondence, Darwin became involved in a minor dispute about the legality of a patient's detention at Knowle. Following his recovery and discharge, the patient wrote to Darwin, thanking him for taking a personal interest.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Charles Darwin and the Asylum Letters|journal=American Journal of Psychiatry|volume=172|issue=4|pages=321–2|publisher=Psychiatry on line|date=1 April 2015|first=Malcolm|last=King|doi=10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.14101260|pmid=25827031|doi-access=free}}</ref> A chapel was built on the site in 1875.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1267914 | title = Knowle Hospital Chapel - List Entry Summary, Historic England | accessdate = 2016-07-30 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.countyasylums.co.uk/knowle-fareham/ | title = Knowle - History, County Asylums | accessdate = 2016-07-30 }}</ref>
The asylum was renamed Knowle Mental Hospital in 1923 and then became Knowle Hospital in 1948.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=369|title=Knowle Hospital|publisher=National Archives|accessdate=4 October 2018}}</ref>
In the late 1960s, Dr Ronald A. Sandison, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who pioneered the clinical use of LSD in psychiatry, worked at Knowle Hospital.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/medicine-obituaries/7929177/Dr-Ronald-Sandison.html|title= Obituary: Ronald Sandison|publisher=The Telegraph|date=5 August 2010|accessdate=4 October 2018}}</ref>
During the 1970s, plans were drawn up to close the large county mental asylums and in 1979 mental health services for Southampton and south-west Hampshire were moved to a newly established Department of Psychiatry at Royal South Hants Hospital in Southampton.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.southampton.gov.uk/modernGov/(S(h1kflg55gb5qxijwx5rcii45))/Data/Public%20Health%20Standing%20Scrutiny%20Panel/20061207/Agenda/ShowDocumentaspPKID2995.pdf | title = KA brief history of the RSH | accessdate = 2016-07-30 }}</ref>
thumb|left|New and old buildings forming Knowle Village Part of the hospital site was home to the Hampshire Ambulance Service Knowle Training School in the 1980s.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.retiredambulancepersonnel.co.uk/gallery/v/Knowle+Training+School/ | title = Gallery - Knowle Training School | accessdate = 2016-07-30 }}</ref> Knowle Hospital closed in 1996<ref>{{cite web|url=https://historic-hospitals.com/mental-hospitals-in-britain-and-ireland/mental-hospitals-in-england/|title=Mental hospitals in England|date=30 May 2015|accessdate=4 October 2018}}</ref> and the site was subsequently redeveloped for residential use as Knowle Village.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.hants.gov.uk/scrmxn/c14175.html | title = Report of the County Planning Officer and the County Surveyor, Hampshire County Council Roads and Development Sub-Committee | accessdate = 2007-07-27 |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930200735/http://www.hants.gov.uk/scrmxn/c14175.html |archivedate = 2007-09-30}}</ref>
==Transport== Knowle Halt, a small railway station on the Eastleigh–Fareham line, served the asylum from 1907. The station (which also served the village of Funtley) was closed in 1964. Trains from the Meon Valley Railway, a cross-country railway in Hampshire, also served Knowle Halt.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/k/knowle_halt/index.shtml | title = Subterranea Britannica Disused Stations Site Record | accessdate = 2007-07-27 }}</ref>
==See also== * List of hospitals in England
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *Burt, Susan (2004), ''Fit Objects for an Asylum: the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum and its patients, 1852-1899'' (Ph.D. thesis). Southampton: University of Southampton. {{OCLC|59193333 }}
==External links== * [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=369&page=31 National Archives: Knowle Hospital Records] * [http://www.fareham.gov.uk/discover_local_area/whats_here/knowlefarm.aspx Fareham Borough Council - Knowle Village information] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070816004808/http://wickham.parish.hants.gov.uk/new_page_65.htm Wickham Parish Council page on Knowle Village] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930212121/http://wickham.parish.hants.gov.uk/Knowle%20cemetery/knowle_cemetery.overview.htm Wickham Parish Council page on Knowle Cemetery] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071001005406/http://wickham.parish.hants.gov.uk/knowle_cemetery_handover_photos.htm Photographs from Knowle Cemetery] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927233724/http://www.institutions.org.uk/asylums/england/HAM/hants_county_asylum.htm Hampshire Records Office, Winchester] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20150402172154/http://eprints.port.ac.uk/1677/1/Diane_Carpenter_PhD_Thesis_2010.pdf Above All a Patient Should Never be Terrified; An Examination of Mental Health Care and Treatment in Hampshire 1845-1914. PhD Thesis by Diane Teresa Carpenter; University of Portsmouth 2010]
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Category:Former psychiatric hospitals in England Category:Hospitals in Hampshire Category:Defunct hospitals in England Category:History of Hampshire Category:Hospital buildings completed in 1852 Category:Hospitals established in 1852 Category:1852 establishments in England Category:Buildings and structures in Hampshire Category:Hospitals disestablished in 1996 Category:1996 disestablishments in England