News & History
MPMCL is grateful to the late David Phelan for the attached brief history of Melton Park. There is further information on the internet; at the Ipswich Public Record Office, and both Felixstowe and Stowmarket Museums have exhibits on St Audry’s Hospital. MPMCL issues occasional newsletters to all households with updates about the work of the Company, and information on matters affecting the estate.
History of Melton Park
A local Act of 1764 established the Loes and Wilford Hundred Incorporation, one of ten rural Suffolk incorporations set up in the mid-eighteenth century. The incorporation, which comprised 33 parishes, built a “House of Industry” at Melton at a cost of about £9,200. The main building as seen to day is unchanged since 1764.
By the 1820s, there was considerable dissatisfaction with the operation of the workhouse (operating costs exceeding income) and it was closed in 1826. It was bought by Suffolk County for £10,000 and in 1829 it became the Suffolk County Asylum for Pauper Lunatics. Although enlarged, it struggled with overcrowding: in 1844 it housed over one thousand patients with 490 staff.
Staff were dedicated to improving the lives of patients, none more so than Dr Kirkman the first Medical Superintendent. He was one of the leading reformers in changing the way patients were treated. He was opposed to the idea of using personal restraint, but preferred instead “watchfulness, activity and gentleness”. He was fond of saying “no restraint can be employed which is so powerful as tenderness’. “He also championed the idea of practical employment, an early version of occupational therapy. He firmly approved of the idea that St Audry’s should emulate a home setting, helped by the beautiful parkland surrounding it. He is probably the author of the Hospital mission statement “To heal sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always”.
Kirkman was Superintendent for forty-four years and much revered. The initials JK can be found writ large in the brickwork of some of the original buildings.
In 1917 the Asylum was renamed St Audry’s Hospital. It was regarded as a well-run progressive asylum. It had a large farm and was virtually self-sufficient. St Audry’s was the major employer in the area – to work there it helped if you were related to an existing employee. It was rather like one big family.
The number of patients in asylums in general declined rapidly from the late 1950s with the rapid advancement of effective psychiatric drugs. Patient numbers at St Audry’s declined to approximately 450 with 375 staff. Oak Farm was sold by the Ministry of Health in 1957, and the Hospital finally closed in 1993.
The Hospital site, which included the ancient woodlands known as Hospital Grove, was purchased and developed between 1998 and 2009 by Hopkins Homes Ltd. The modification of some of the original listed Georgian buildings was undertaken by East Anglian Contractors Ltd. The development, now known as Melton Park, is home to around 200 households; the HQ of Hopkins Homes Ltd; St Audry’s Golf Club, and a handful of small businesses.
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