History of Shelton Hospital to be told in new exhibition at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery
The history of Shelton Hospital on the outskirts of Shrewsbury is to be told in a new exhibition at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery.
‘The Big House – the history of Shelton Hospital’ opens on Friday 29 April 2016 and runs until Sunday 24 July 2016.
The exhibition displays photographs, documents and artefacts gathered during the Shelton Hospital Heritage Project, which was funded by South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Trust and led by its Arts for Health Department.
The exhibition is supported by Shropshire Homes, which is redeveloping the Shelton Hospital into houses and apartments.
Custom-built and opened in 1845, Shelton Hospital treated over 1,000 patients at its height. Behind the asylum walls the hospital was a self-sufficient community, with its own cricket and football sides, a band, a farm and even a brewery.
In September 2012 the hospital closed and its role has been taken over by a new mental health village built nearby. The Grade II listed building is now being adapted into housing.
This exhibition brings together some of the archival material, artefacts and memories collected as part of a heritage project during the hospital’s final days which aimed to record the long history of the site.
Dave Reeves, Shelton Hospital heritage project officer and local historian, says:
“There are a lot of local people whose lives this place has touched. The idea of this project is to humanise the statistics you always get and to get the human stories that go behind those statistics.”
Emma-Kate Lanyon, Curator of Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, said:
“Locally, Shelton Hospital was known as ‘The Big House’ and was one of the major Victorian institutions in the town. Like Shrewsbury Prison, which closed just six months after Shelton, these buildings were a home and workplace to many people. Part of our role as a museum is to commemorate the major part they have played in the history of our county town.”
Howard Thorne, Managing Director of Shropshire Homes, said:
“I am delighted that Shropshire Homes is involved with supporting this exhibition at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery. The redevelopment of the site is an exciting venture for us and means that the former hospital will have valuable new use.”
Stuart West, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for leisure and culture, said:
“The Community Gallery at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery was designed for just this type of exhibition; about a place that impacted on many people in its life but was largely unknown by most of the local population. Dan Reeves and his team are to be congratulated on gathering together so many interesting artefacts and memories.”
The exhibition will be open in The Community Gallery, part of The Shropshire Gallery at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery. It will be open from Friday 29 April 2016 to Sunday 24 July 2016.
Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm and on Sundays from 11am to 4pm (last admissions 3pm).
For more information visit www.shrewsburymuseum.org.uk, call 01743 258885,or email shrewsburymuseum@shropshire.gov.uk.
The exhibition is supported by Shropshire Homes.
The Shelton Hospital Heritage Project was funded by:
