FOR the best part of a century, Prudhoe Hospital cared for hundreds of mentally-ill North Easterners.

Around 1,000 or more patients aged between five and 75 were housed there.

What happened behind the doors of the former Prudhoe Hall stately home has never been documented.

But now, Tyneside development workers Kelly Woodley and Tim Keilty have written the story of Prudhoe Hospital with the help of a near-£40,000 Heritage Lottery grant.

The authors, who have come into contact with former inmates in their daily work since phased closure got under way in 2005, have based the book on interviews with both ex-patients and staff.

No Going Back – Forgotten Voices From Prudhoe Hospital, was launched at Newcastle City Library yesterday.

Kelly, 32, from Hebburn, and Tim, 40, from Monkseaton, working with the Jesmond-based Skills for People charity, have spent 18 months bringing the story together.

Kelly said: “Tim and I have worked all our careers with people with learning disabilities and although we never actually worked at Prudhoe Hospital, we have come into contact with a number of reallocated patients from there. We decided we wanted to write the story, and advertised for people to come forward. Twelve patients and four staff did so.

“All are local people, some did not want to be named, some were happy to have their pictures in, but they all wanted to tell their stories. The ex-patients are now reintegrated into the community, some married with children.

“I found it really interesting – it was a world within a world. Some of them were in there for a long time, some from young childhood into their 20s.

“People did want to talk about it – to talk about the life there. This is a really important piece of history that we should not forget, and getting something published gives it that credibility.”

Prudhoe Hospital began life as the seat of the Liddell coal-mining family, built as Prudhoe Hall for £19,199 in 1870.

In 1913, the Northern Counties Joint Poor Law Committee acquired it and opened it as Prudhoe Hall Colony in 1914 for ‘feeble-minded’ people.

The site was steadily expanded until, in 1948, it became part of the new National Health Service as Prudhoe Hospital.

By the 70s, it was the fifth-largest mental hospital in the country, with nearly 1,000 staff and 1,500 patient beds. Four hundred children were based in the Children’s Village. Today, the site is being redeveloped for housing. The authors have explored the dark side of the hospital, including the use of ‘chemical restraint’ and ‘punishments’.

Kelly said: “The book explores how difficult it was for good staff to do good things while bad staff were able to do bad things.”