Shelton Hospital

The hospital, which was designed by George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt using a corridor layout, opened as the Shropshire and Wenlock Borough Lunatic Asylum in March 1845.[2] A major extension, involving five extra wards, was completed in 1884.[2] It became Salop Mental Hospital in 1921 and saw service as the Copthorne and Shelton Emergency Hospital during the Second World War.[3]

Shortly after reaching its peak population of 1,027 patients in 1947,[4] the facility joined the National Health Service as Shelton Hospital in 1948.[2] On 26 February 1968, tragedy struck the hospital when a fire ripped through a female ward, killing 21 patients.[5]

After the introduction of Care in the Community in the early 1980s, the hospital went into a period of decline and closed in September 2012.[2][6] The main buildings were subsequently converted into apartments as Leighton Park.[7] Meanwhile, a modern mental health facility known as the Redwoods Centre has been established a little south of the old hospital.[8]