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Hidden in the East Sussex countryside, the remains of Hellingly Hospital have become the stuff of local legend.

Opened in 1903 as the East Sussex County Asylum, the hospital was built to care for people with mental illnesses at a time when psychiatric treatment looked very different from today. Over the decades, thousands of patients passed through its doors, while the site grew into a sprawling community of wards, treatment buildings and other facilities.

The hospital eventually closed in 1994.

What happened afterwards is another story.

Left abandoned and allowed to deteriorate, Hellingly became increasingly associated with stories of dark corridors, empty wards, strange noises and unexplained encounters. Urban explorers who entered the derelict buildings described an atmosphere that was difficult to shake — and stories about what happened inside soon became almost as famous as the ruins themselves.

But behind the ghost stories is something more complicated.

There are the patients who lived there, the staff who worked there, the changing attitudes towards mental health, and the very real history contained within those crumbling buildings.

In this episode of The Eclectic, we step inside the history of Hellingly Hospital, explore what happened there, look at its years of abandonment, and examine the stories that helped turn an old psychiatric hospital into one of East Sussex's most unsettling locations.

Because sometimes, the history of a place is disturbing enough before you even get to the ghosts.

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