History
The Oakwood Hospital was originally founded as the "Kent County Lunatic Asylum". It was erected between 1829 and 1833 on a site in Barming Heath, just to the west of Maidstone. It comprised one building; commonly referred to as St Andrew's House,. The asylum was intended to take in patients from across the entire county of Kent, which then stretched as far west as Greenwich. The first 168 patients were admitted in 1833. As the asylum expanded, additions and extensions were made to this building until it had reached maximum potential capacity. In 1850 an additional building, known as The Queen's House, was built on newly acquired land at the site. Both of these buildings were designed by the architect John Whichcord Snr (who also designed Maidstone County Gaol). Further expansion took place between 1867 and 1872 with the building of the third asylum block (also known as the New Building or Hermitage Block).
By 1948, Oakwood held 2,000 patients. On 29 November 1957, a fire broke out in the tailor's workshop on the first floor of one of the buildings. The fire brigade was called at 06:40 and arrived four minutes later. Six pumps attended and the 350 patients in that wing were evacuated. By 08:00 the fire was out, and the clearing-up process began. The block had been gutted but a 120-foot (37 m) tall ventilation tower seemed to have survived unscathed. At 10:00, the tower collapsed, killing four firemen, two nursing staff and a patient and injuring a number of people.
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