IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Hawley Drive, WEST MALLING, ME19 5FE

Demolition of the hospital villas (built 1936) has just begun. 700 new homes will be built here. First, miles of underground heating pipes lagged with asbestos have to be removed - hence the plastic "greenhouses" seen here.

The mental hospital opened in 1936 and closed in 1996. The many villas (like this one) were home to 1200 patients. Demolition of the entire site has just begun, with 700 new homes due to be built here.

The school has closed and relocated. It was a specialist school for children with learning difficulties.

This is a Kent County Council Community Special School for children of secondary age with a diagnosis of Autism. The building was built in the 1970s and stands within the grounds of the Leybourne Grange mental hospital (which opened 1936, closed 1996). At the time, it was called Grange Park College, and was a provision for young people aged 16 to 21 who were profoundly and multiply handicapped. With the closure of the mental hospital and reorganisation of provision for young people with special educational needs, the college was re designated as a school in about 1998, and began taking autistic pupils aged from 11. The old hospital site is currently being re-developed and will become a large housing estate. The Grange Park School building and site, which was never well suited for use as a school for autistic teenagers, will also be sold for development, and the school is being relocated to a new purpose-built building in the grounds of Wrotham School in grid square Image

Birling Grange is a housing development on the site of the former Leybourne Grange Mental hospital, which closed in 1996.

Birling Grange is a housing development on the site of the former Leybourne Grange Mental hospital, which closed in 1996.

Leybourne Grange opened in 1936 and it once covered an extensive 270 acres and was once home to 1200 patients with various degrees of mental disability. Patients lived in a total of 27 villas which split them into male, female and children. Leybourne Grange 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. In 1992 Leybourne Grange began to implement closure with patients gradually leaving until total closure in 1996. Demolition has already started to accommodate a total of 722 homes, comprising 702 new properties and the conversion of the listed manor house into 21 apartments. All of the homes will meet the EcoHomes Excellent standard and 176 will be available for affordable rent or shared ownership, giving more people the opportunity to become homeowners.

Leybourne Grange is the site of a large Manor house (Leybourne Grange), in whose grounds was built a mental hospital (opened 1936 closed 1996) and a special needs school (also closed). The site is presently being redeveloped as a large housing estate (Birling Grange).