DMC#14: Middleton Hospital
This is the 14th cache of a 20-cache circuit, consisting of 16 new + 4 existing caches adopted from Santos L Helper, which takes you anticlockwise through lovely mixed countryside from near Denton across to near Middleton and back.
See DMC #1: Intro & Start for background info on the series, a map (also found in this cache's Gallery) and parking waypoints.
The cache, a small camo-taped plastic pot, is hidden at the side of the road opposite the secluded 57-acre site of a long-gone hospital . . . 'the vast quantity of rubble, twisted girders and collapsing drainage tunnels covering most of the area is a sad monument to the size and magnitude of the location's former vocation' . . .
Middleton Hospital opened at the time of WW1 when it was used as a Military Hospital. It later became a TB Sanitorium, then a Geriatrics hospital before closing in the early 1990s, with most of the buildings demolished in 1991.
The site was purchased from the NHS in August 2005 for £275,000 by a local businessman and a £7M application submitted to convert existing buildings and build a a nouveaux-style hippie commune 'eco-village' - a sustainable community of 16 homes along with leisure facilities, a nature reserve and micro-brewery.
These plans were rejected by Harrogate council in late 2006 due to concerns over the viability of the proposal.
2014 plans by new owners to turn it into a Georgian-style country mansion (with designed inspired by nearby Denton Hall, and Harewood House) hit a sticking point over fears of contamination due to the Hospital waste once stored on the site, with rumours about TB still been present in the soil too.
The derelict Social Club, the Lodge, a sub-station and a building reported in planning applications to be either an admin block or a mortuary still remain (albeit completely ruined by vandals and fire) on the site which has just been left awaiting the resolution of the various planning issues.
See here for a 2014 'snoop' video of the site.