Stotfold: Former Three Counties Lunatic Asylum (1)

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 13 Jun 2010

The asylum was built to serve mental patients from the three counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Huntingdonshire. It was built in several stages commencing in 1856 to the designs of the architect George Fowler Jones. The semi-circular building was, I think, one of two recreation halls added in 1870 to the original central block. By 1881 two main symmetrical wings had been added to this central block, and in so doing I think that the longest corridor of any building in Europe at that time was created. The whole building was Grade II Listed in 1985. In 1927 the name of the asylum was changed to the Three Counties Hospital and in 1960 to the Fairfield Hospital. With the move towards care in the community the hospital became surplus to requirements and was closed in 1999. The building has since been refurbished to create high class apartments, with new housing estates being built in the former hospital grounds, the whole estate becoming known as Fairfield Park. The site is currently in the civil parish of Stotfold but has always been associated with the adjacent parish of Arlesey which had a railway station on the main east coast railway named after the asylum.

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