Knowle, Hampshire

History

Knowle is built on land which, until 1849 was Knowle Farm. The farm was located between the town of Fareham and the villages of Funtley and Wickham. The original timber framed farmhouse, dating from the 17th century was converted into two cottages in the 20th century and is now a Grade II listed building. It stands as part of the cluster of houses known as Farm Cottages, on Mayles Lane, just North of the former hospital site.

Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum

In 1845, the County Asylums Act and Lunacy required that every United Kingdom county should build an asylum if they had not already done so, or should join with another neighbouring county to achieve the same goal.

For the Hampshire asylum, a committee of nine JPs were appointed at the Easter Quarter Sessions in 1846 to superintend the erecting or providing of a lunatic asylum. They selected Knowle Farm as the most suitable available site, comprising 108 acres (0.43706 km2).

Construction of a 400 bed asylum, began in 1850 and what became known as the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum opened in December 1852.

By 1856, the asylum had expanded to take 400 patients, and growth continued throughout the century - with over 1,000 patients at the asylum by 1900. In the 1950s, Knowle housed almost 2000 patients. Both male and female patients were admitted, and were expected to work on the farm, in the kitchens and in other trades to help support their community.

The asylum was renamed Knowle Mental Hospital in 1923 and then became Knowle Hospital in 1948, before finally closing in 1996.

Knowle After Hospital Closure

From 2000 onward, the hospital site was redeveloped by a group of developers (Berkeley Homes (lead developer), Bovis Homes, Westbury Homes, Try Homes, Barry Jupe and A2Dominion) as the 'Knowle Village' development. This was a development of apartments (using the former hospital buildings) and new houses over 53 acres (210,000 m²) of the grounds. The principal northern (east-west) building, northern administration building, south block, superintendent's house, chapel and staff cottages were retained and converted to other uses, whilst the central north-south connecting structure and other periphery buildings were demolished. 130 new dwellings were created within existing hospital buildings. As part of this redevelopment there are affordable homes available at Knowle Village, through the government-led shared ownership initiative part-buy, part-rent, with Thames Valley Housing Association.

The redevelopment of the hospital site, when coupled with the hamlet which had grown up around it, created the first village to be built in Hampshire in over a century.

Construction of a business park was started in 2003, which is now known as Knowle Village Business Park.

Chapel

Part of the Hospital site housed a Chapel, this was built in 1875 to free up space in the main building.

As part of the redevelopment of the site, the Chapel was refurbished by Berkeley Homes, at a cost exceeding £400,000. They later transferred ownership of the building to Winchester City Council for £1, with an additional gift of £28,000 to provide some funding for future maintenance costs. The building, which is listed, was leased by the Knowle Communuity Buildings Association (KCBA) for community use.

The KCBA eventually vacated the building for a new build Community Hall adjacent to the cricket pitch, and the Chapel was sold in July 2012 for £220,000 by Clive Emson Auctioneers. The Chapel was purchased by entrepreneur Steve Kemp and is now offices to his business, Point 13 Media. The Chapel, which never previously had an official name or address, is now named The 13th Chapel.

Cemetery

Over 5,500 former patients of the asylum are buried in Knowle Cemetery. Before 1886 the burial locations were not recorded. Up to four patients could be buried in the same plot, although never on the same day. The last burial at the site took place in 1971. A few remaining iron crosses, used to mark the graves, were removed from the site in 2001 for secure storage, pending a decision to relocate them.

War Memorial

In 1920 a war memorial was erected at Knowle Hospital to honor the 16 staff and estate residents who died during World War I. After World War II, two further names were added to the memorial. Following the closure of the hospital, the memorial was moved from the site due to the redevelopment. With a contribution from the War Memorials Trust, it was relocated to the churchyard of St. Nicholas in Wickham. By 2010, the memorial had been moved back to Knowle and now stands outside the former hospital chapel.

Station

Knowle was formerly served by Knowle Halt Railway Station on the Eastleigh to Fareham and Meon Valley lines.

The station closed on the 6 April 1964.