Description
The file contains the miniature format film print 149/W/29 and four other 35mm prints without a reference. The file also contains two prints of plans of the hospital from the South-East Thames Regional Health Authority collection, each with their negative number 91/845.
'Darenth School for Imbecile Children' was opened in 1878, and 'Darenth Asylum for Imbeciles' was built in 1880. By 1911 the site was known as the 'Darenth Industrial Trading Colony' (later the 'Darenth Industrial Colony') and from 1921 as the 'Darenth Training Colony'. ‘Colonies’ were a type of institution where people with disabilities or illnesses lived together in self-contained ‘villages’. They were established for people with epilepsy, tuberculosis and – following the 1913 ‘Mental Deficiency Act’ – for people classed as ‘mental defectives’. Sometimes people whose behaviour simply did not conform to the moral values of mainstream society were also admitted. Often, between 900 to 1,500 people would live in these ‘villages’, in ‘villas’ which housed up to 60 people. Sites may have included schools, workshops, kitchens, laundries, and farms, which provided education and (unpaid) employment. There may also have been recreational halls and playing fields. ‘Colonies’ were first built in the 19th century. Some became psychiatric hospitals in the mid to late 20th century, however some continued until the 1990s. In 1937 the 'Darenth Training Colony' was renamed Darenth Park Hospital. The school closed in 1978 and the hospital in 1988. The Darent Valley Hospital was later built on part of the site.
Sources: Historic England, ‘Disability History Glossary’, Historic England website, accessed 18/02/2026.
Historic England, ‘'Mental Deficiency' Between the Wars: Life in the Colony’, Historic England website, accessed 18/02/2026.
Historic England, ‘The Shifting Borderlands of Disability’, Historic England website, accessed 18/02/2026.
