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- Oct 14, 2013
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This place is in my home town of Norwich and I never even knew it existed till I saw it in a local newspaper.so the next night I was up there doing a Reece.and a few days later I was in there really ain't a lot to see to be honest.just a few rooms,and it's mainly stripped due to conversion work happening which stopped several years ago.half has been completed and now lived in,the council want to do something with the building...the bethel hospital was the first purpose asylum built in the country.built on the idea of Mary chapman it was completed in 1713 at the price of £324 2s 6d.consisting of two wings.it was the solo asylum for Norfolk from 1713 to 1814.mary chapman had family had family with mental problems.so wanted somewhere more suitable than what people called the madhouses in them days like the public one,Bethlehem hospital in London.in 1743 the hospital housed 25 patients,the hospital was extended further and in 1960 the hospital housed 120 paitents.it later became an annexe for hellesdon hospital.then in 1974 it became an out patient unit for disturbed children.the bethel finally shut its doors in 1995,although not a lot there it was nice to wander around some our local heritage.