Seamen’s Orphanage Institution / Newsham Park Hospital

If ever a place had captivated me as much as Newsham had I can’t remember. From the first time I saw it’s crumbling, Adams Family-style, sinister structure I wanted to walk it’s corridors! Buildings aren’t just buildings you see, they have contained multiple families or patients and encased a myriad of emotions and suffering, and you can just tell from the outside of this one that it’s walls are crammed with history!

Before 1869, there was no institution in Liverpool for the support and education of the orphans of British seamen. The first move to establish such an institution was made by a group of leading Liverpool ship-owners in 1868. One of the ship-owner sponsors wrote on 17 December 1868 to nine of his colleagues offering to donate £500 to start a building fund if they would donate the same amount. There was an immediate response to this letter, and further donations were received following a more widespread public appeal. Within a few months there was enough money for the General Committee to look round for a temporary home. On 7 April 1870, Liverpool Town Council gave 7000 square yards of land on the north-east side of Newsham Park to construct a Seaman's Orphan Institution.

In May 1886, Queen Victoria herself visited the institution, and added her name to the list of patrons.

The First World War brought problems, and by 1918 one thousand orphans were being assisted. Royal appreciation of the work was shown from time to time by visits to Newsham Park, and following a visit by Queen Mary and the Princess Royal in 1921 George V bestowed upon the institution the title "Royal" and granted it a Royal Charter of Incorporation.

After the Second World War, due to a changing social services programme and a law prohibiting the education of boys under 11 with those of an older age, the orphanage was closed in 1949.

1895 LIVERPOOL SEAMENS' ORPHAN INSTITUTION

Come 1951 and the premises at Newsham Park had been sold to the Ministry of Health for £125,00.

Newsham Park Hospital opened its doors in 1954. The hospital developed its own psychiatric department and received an influx of patients with severe mental problems.

The hospital officially stopped taking new patients in 1988, and by 1992 all remaining patients and staff were relocated.

In 1992 with the closure of Rainhill Lunatic Asylum the inmates were moved to Newsham Park Hospital taking up 90% of its space. £1.6 million was spent on the hospital so it could house its new patients. There are still notices posted on boards in the School block and paperwork in the property that are dated 1996. All records of patients and staff have been closed for 100 years from 1997 when the building was finally vacated of patients and staff.

Reported sightings of ghosts include that of a small child on the top floor corridor and shadowy figures on Ward G. Visitors to the basements have reported an uneasy feeling and dragging noises have been heard from the Dining Room while nobody is there.

Image courtesy of Simon Paul Sugden (Suggys Photography)

Our visit consisted of a 3am start to make it to Newsham for 5am. On a cold December morning, it certainly was a site pulling up to the grand old place and it had a real sinister feel. The first place we headed for was the top floor and the ‘Naughty Boys Corridor’ - the place of many an alleged haunting and sighting of a young child up there…..

I have to admit it’s a real creepy place and I did wander off on my own for a bit, lost the others and felt really uncomfortable in one of the wards. Plus, a lot of shots I took came out black, my torch kept dying even though it had fresh batteries and I could’nt record any footage on my GoPro as i kept getting an error message on the screen. I was also contacted afterwards by a medium who said she is reluctant to go back after holding a seance there and was attacked by a black entity before she had gotten to protect herself. And she also said her medium friend would never go back again……

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