Bangour Village Hospital still stands proud over 100 years since it's construction. Located outside of Dechmont, West Lothian it's 960 acre site was home to thousands of patients over the years. In 1902 the Edinburgh Lunancy Board purchased the 960 acre Bangour site, and by 1906 Bangour Village was offically opened by the Right Honourable Earl of Roseberry. Many additions and modifications were made to Bangour Hospital over the years but most interesting was the Wee Bangour Express constructed in 1905. Although only serving till after the first world war, Bangour's own railway did a fine job carrying construction goods and laterly transporting wounded soldiers from the war. Not to be confused with the Village hospital, Bangour General was constructed in 1939 just to the North West of the village in order to cope with wounded soldiers from the second world war. Originally built as prefabricated huts Bangour General was only meant to last 10 years, but it excelled and outlived it's expectancy and eventually closed (and now demolished) in 1990 with the construction of St John's Hospital in neighbouring Livingston. Meanwhile, back in the village things were going from strength to strength. Bangour was at the forefront of psychiatric medicine and became a teaching ground for doctors and nurses. So much so that a nurses accomodation was constructed so that the nurses could live and and breathe their work. Sadly in the 1980s, with the advent of new technology and scientific findings, the need for an entire village dedicated to psychiatric medicine became less and less. By the 1990s only a few villas (or wards) were still active. Bangour Village Hospital finally closed it's doors 100 years after it was originally concieved, with Villa 32 the last villa to close in 2000.
Since the hospital closed in 2000 it has been used for test de-contamination procedures in the event of a terrorist attack, Riot police drills and for filming some of "the jacket".
Persimmon Homes have bought the site to devdelop this and turn it back into a village, but are not planning on doing anything at the moment due to the economic downturn.
A view of the entire site -
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
Some useful links -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangour_Village_Hospital
Now time to see some pics -
In we go
Some of the main buildings
The Village shop with a very intresting name...