A committee of nine JPs were appointed at the Easter Quarter Sessions in 1846 to superintend the erecting or providing of a lunatic asylum for Hampshire. They selected Knowle Farm as the most suitable available site, comprising 108 acres (0.43706 km2).[1] The asylum was designed by James Harris and the new building, known as the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum, opened in December 1852.[2]
For about a year, in 1857/58, one of the gardeners at Knowle, Henry Coe, corresponded with Charles Darwin on horticultural matters, especially the cultivation of kidney beans. As a result of this correspondence, Darwin became involved in a minor dispute about the legality of a patient's detention at Knowle. Following his recovery and discharge, the patient wrote to Darwin, thanking him for taking a personal interest.[3] A chapel was built on the site in 1875.[4][5]
The asylum was renamed Knowle Mental Hospital in 1923 and then became Knowle Hospital in 1948.[6]
During the 1970s, plans were drawn up to close the large county mental asylums and in 1979 mental health services for Southampton and south-west Hampshire were moved to a newly established Department of Psychiatry at Royal South Hants Hospital in Southampton.[8]
New and old buildings forming Knowle Village
Part of the hospital site was home to the Hampshire Ambulance Service Knowle Training School in the 1980s.[9] Knowle Hospital closed in 1996[10] and the site was subsequently redeveloped for residential use as Knowle Village.[11]
Burt, Susan (2004), Fit Objects for an Asylum: the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum and its patients, 1852-1899 (Ph.D. thesis). Southampton: University of Southampton. OCLC59193333
