Talgarth asylum, Mid Wales

History :

The Mid Wales Hospital, Talgarth, Brecknockshire, was originally called the Brecon and Radnor Joint Asylum on its opening in 1903; the name was changed in 1921.

The first patients at the hospital were admissions mainly from the Brecon area but numbers also arrived from towns further afield such as Swansea and Shrewsbury.

Although initially intended to cater for 352 patients, at one point at the end of 1925 there were 455. In December 1955 the number of patients had reached 496. In 1994 the total number of patients averaged 140, but 179 could be catered for.

In 1974 the Powys Health Authority came into being and assumed control, with matters changing again in 1993 with the formation of the Powys (NHS) Trust. The hospital was closed in 2000 with some facilities being combined with nearby Bronllys."

Talgarth Hospital was built on part the Chancefield Estate just to the south-east of the town of Talgarth in the early years of the 20th century, as a lunatic asylum, together with a detached chapel, workers' houses and cottages and other ancillary works. Bronllys Hospital, together with a recreation hall and chapel, was built as a tuberculosis sanatorium during the 1920s in the former parkland of Pont-y-wal Mansion to the north-west of Bronllys.