Severalls Hospital: Edwardian mental asylum in Colchester where patients held over 50 years still not demolished Empty corridors, rotten walls, wind hissing between the jagged glass of broken window panes - Severalls Hospital seems to whisper with its own chilling history. The 300-acre site, built in May 1913 to house some 2,000 patients at any one time, was more than a psychiatric ward - it was a complete community, designed so that no one would ever need to leave. Inside the now deserted, decaying shell, psychiatrists were once free to test their new treatments without any restrictions on patients at the mental hospital in Colchester, Essex. Derelict: Wind whistles down the corridors of Severalls Hospital in Colchester, Essex Empty: The 300-acre site was designed in 1910 by architect Frank Whitmore, with most buildings in characteristic Edwardian Queen Anne Style and opened in May 1913 Treatment: Psychiatrists in Edwardian times had free rein to test cures on patients, including methods such as electro-convulsive therapy and frontal lobotomy, that would be considered inhuman today Chilling: The hospital was fully equipped with its own mortuary and - at the time - state-of-the-art body fridges Designed in 1910 by architect Frank Whitmore, the hospital was so fully equipped with the buildings and facilities that staff and patients would never have to leave the site - or even venture outside if it rained. As well as wards, offices, bedrooms and bathrooms, there was a laundry, a bakery, two on-site farms to provide food, and even equipment to produce electricity to power the entire complex. Inside the buildings, interlocking corridors connected the maze of rooms, making them easily accessible for doctors at any time. Between 1910 and 1935, more villas were built around the hospital as accommodation blocks, in which patients were separated according to gender. A change in healthcare laws in 1845 surrounding the County Asylum/Lunacy Act - which legally required counties to provide mental institutions - led to 60 asylums being built in Britain up to 1890 and a further 40 after this date. This tied in with a 19th- and early 20th-century fascination with psychology that saw experimentation with theories that were variably scientific - such as phrenology, the idea that the shape of someone's head could give an insight into their personality. Asylums were partly intended to free up workhouse space, but records show that people - particularly women - could be consigned to them on grounds ranging from medical conditions such as epilepsy or depression, to crimes including infanticide and prostitution, and even because they had been victims of rape. Maze: The wards, offices and other services were easily accessible via a system of interconnecting corridors that meant staff could get quickly from patient to patient Abandoned: The hospital was closed in 1997, although a small section stayed open for the treatment of patients suffering the side effects of serious strokes Broken: The hospital site was sold in 2008 and has since been allowed to crumble into disrepair Scorched: A fire alarm button, warped by heat after it was burned inside the abandoned hospital Room on the ward: Some 2,000 patients could be cared for at Severalls Hospital at one time while it was fully operational In the 1960s, a change in the management of the hospital meant that more humane cures - such as art and music therapy - began to be used in the hospital, along with better controlled medication and rehabilitation programmes. But by the early 1990s, Severalls Hospital - along with many other mental institutions in the UK - had largely closed down, with just one section remaining operational until March 1997 to treat elderly patients suffering the side effects of conditions such as strokes. Plans to sell the hospital collapsed in 2008, and in the meantime the site suffered from vandalism, including an arson attack in 2005. Despite this, apart from the demolition of the charred main hall in 2007, the building remained largely in tact, left to crumble on the Essex plains. In 2010, plans got underway to erect new homes near the hospital grounds, and some parts of the hospital were cleared. But it remains of interest to so-called 'urban explorers' - photographers who enter dilapidated buildings without permission. Still living: Pigeons now nest in the deserted hospital, which has become of increasing interest to 'urban explorers' who come into the hospital to take photographs Equipped: Although many objects that were used in the hospital have been looted, some, such as a bathtub and rusted water pipes, still remain Community: The hospital site included its own farms supplying food, a purpose-built bakery, laundry and even produced its own electricity