Shelton Hospital

SHREWSBURY

SJ41SE WELSHPOOL ROAD, Shelton 653-1/4/777 (South side (off)) 06/04/93 Shelton Hospital

II

Mental hospital. The original building of 1843 by George Gilbert Scott and WB Moffat. Extensions made in 1848 possibly by Thomas Haycock, and 1884. Brick with stone dressings and Welsh slate roof. Tudor style. PLAN: the original hospital buildings comprise a 2-storeyed H-plan complex, with additional central wings comprising entrance block and hall-wing to rear. It was designed to be strictly symmetrical, for male and female wards each side of central entrance and hall. EXTERIOR: central entrance wing brought forward 1884, a 3-window range with central round-arched doorway and flanking 3-light mullioned and transomed windows with continuous hood mould over. Segmental oriel over the door, dated 1843, and with strapwork cornice, also flanked by 3-light mullioned and transomed windows. Windows throughout are cast-iron with small panes, and small opening lights. 2-light mullions in gabled dormers, and central cupola. 4-window gabled return with truncated stacks at gable apexes, then flanking corridors linking to cross wings housing wards at each side. Each corridor range has central projecting squared bay with octagonal finial over, flanked by 2-light mullioned and transomed windows each side of a projecting chimney with truncated flue. Ward wings have 2-light mullioned and transomed windows in coped gable ends, and 3-window return. INTERIOR: much of the original planning has survived successive alterations, and some original constructional detail is also still visible: the ward blocks have paired chamfered timber transverse beams, bolted together, and with cast-iron members bolted to the undersides as tension bracing. The rear hall and kitchen block are of 1884 and the wing behind of 1848. The hall has pilasters to the wall and a coved ceiling, the kitchens have open trusses to the roofs, and the wing has original skirtings, doorways and staircases. HISTORY: the hospital is one of the oldest of the county asylums, originally built for Shropshire, but serving Montgomery also after 1846. The original building was intended to house 60 inmates but was successfully enlarged and its capacity increased. The wings extending to the sides (1884) and to the rear (1854) are not of special architectural or historic interest (The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Shropshire: Oxford: 1979-: 160-162).

Listing NGR: SJ4606013054