My secondary school, Barr Beacon Comprehensive, was a short walk away from home and at the back of the school you could find St. Margarets Hospital. The land was originally Great Barr Park Estate and was home to Great Barr Hall. The Hall and land were purchased for £24,260 and during the years of 1911 to 1930 extensive building work took place. The hall itself was adapted and made into a children’s home for the under fives. Further Children’s Homes were added to the site. During the 1900s adults with learning difficulties were termed as ‘Idiots’ of ‘feeble minded’ and it was in the year 1912 a Committee was set up with the task of providing homes for such people. In 1918 two homes for male mental defectives were built on this site and two for female mental defectives were added to the site in 1921. Further buildings were erected and it was now known as Great Barr Idiot Colony, and then later developed into St Margaret’s Hospital. The hospital became a place of care for those with severe, genetic learning disabilities. The Children’s Homes were now gone and I always remembered the Hospital has been home to many patients who were mentally ill, it was better known to us kids, who knew no better, as the Loony Bin, St Maggies.
In more recent years the Hospital site closed down and was sold to buyers who then became bankrupt thus leaving the site with ‘receivers.’ Plans have been made for new homes to be built in and around the area but after meeting with fierce opposition from locals it now remains in disrepair and still of interest to many today. I am amazed that that St. Margarets still holds the same fear as it did all those years ago. Stories were regularly told of dangerous patients escaping and people been attacked late at night making it an ideal spot for dares to climb over the perimeter fence which could be found at the back of the woods next to the school playing fields. Needless to say no one ever accepted the dare and the area remained as foreboding as ever. My son visits St. Maggies with friends regularly, gaining access from the main road, and just like when we were young, believes all the stories of strange happenings over the years at this dark and sinister looking place. The buildings still stand, empty and crumbling, holding many memories and waiting to be demolished.