A Visit to the Warneford

On Tuesday afternoon, Year 8 Museum Council students popped over the road from Cheney to visit the Warneford grounds and well-being garden. The students are taking part in a project connected to the Warneford 200 celebrations to design a new exhibition at Cheney as well as contributing to a travelling exhibition about the history of the hospital.

We were met by Jane Freebody who gave us a fascinating tour of the buildings, starting with a statue of Reverend Warneford who donated over seventy thousand pounds (about ten million in today's money) of his own money to found the hospital in 1826. Jane explained how trees were planted at the time which now towered above us, and how the vision was for beautiful, peaceful grounds, as well as buildings with big bay windows to create an environment which would support people's recoveries.

We walked round the corner to a building which was once the place where staff lived (now a ward), and the current outpatients' building, which was once the laundry. Jane explained how people in the 1800s and early 1900s who were being admitted were given a detailed list of clothes to bring. We saw a music block, painted beautifully, a legacy from a past patient, where people can have music therapy, or simply go and play instruments. Jane spoke about how in the earliest days choral singing and dancing were part of what was offered weekly to patients. Nearby was the chapel, in active use by many faiths, and the old mortuary, which is now a storage unit.

Jane showed us the original entrance to the hospital and a drawing of how the gardens once looked - designed to echo the Palace of Versailles' grand gardens. We saw a building called the "Apple House" where the many apples from the orchards were stored, and were told of how there was an active farm on site until the 1960s, which produced spectacular amounts of milk and eggs, amongst other things! We also saw the orchards and Warneford Meadow, land purchased to ensure the patients were surrounded by nature and protected.

After our fascinating tour of the buildings, we entered the well-being garden, where Laura McCarthy explained about its careful design in coordination with people from different wards who helped choose the plants and themes for different planters (some of which were surrounded with metal rims to echo the pig pens from the farm), and some of which used recycled stone from building projects. Laura explained how lots of the plants had been chosen to connect with historical records, like lilacs and hornbeams.

It was a fascinating trip and we are very grateful to Laura and Jane for all their time and telling us so much about the site. Year 8s will use this to help develop their exhibition, which will appear soon in Cheney.