Quote:
Originally Posted by Tealeaf
I suspect that Bedlam (Green Haworth) was the generic name applied for Accy's early loony bin, although I would not like to put a date on it's founding or it's dissolution. The original Bedlam is now the site of Liverpool St railway station in London, one entrance of which has a statue where you can regularly see old men and women weep. However, Bedlam has moved over the centuries and it's location up to the 1920's is now the Imperial War Museum.
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As stated the first Bedlam/Bethlehem was founded in London, but the generic name seems to have spread country wide, where the mentally insane were housed.
There are some (once) isolated cottages in Burnley, which also have the name Bedlam.
'In the early 18th Century, the idea that the insane ought to be segregated from ‘sane society’ gathered momentum. The number of private ‘madhouses’ increased. The care offered frequently took the form of cruel punishment. There was little incentive to cure or release and most of these institutions were run primarily for profit, with relatives paying the madhouse to keep patients.'
People and Stories
Makes sense that there might have been some place at Green Haworth, where they 'cared' for those in need.
No one would hear the screams up there.