PHOTOGRAPHS dating back to the 1870s will be used to illustrate a new book about the first half-century of Wales’ first ever specialist mental hospital.

The book, written by Clwyd Wynne, a former nursing manager at the North Wales Hospital, hits the bookshelves just as planners have thrown a lifeline to the iconic Grade Two Star-listed building in Denbigh.

Victorian Asylum, the story of the North Wales Hospital from its opening in 1848 to the end of the 19th century, is the first of three volumes covering the history of “The North Wales Asylum for the Insane”.

After the hospital closed in 1995, the buildings were neglected and fell into a state of dangerous decay, hastened by vandalism and arson attacks, before Vale of Clwyd-based contractors Jones Bros drew up ambitious plans to redevelop the site and save the magnificent original central building.

Those plans have now been approved by Denbighshire County Council, subject to detailed agreement, paving the way for a project which will boost the local economy by £75million and create 1,200 jobs.

Mr Wynne, now 74, who began his career at the hospital as a 19-year-old nursing assistant in 1965 and worked there for 30 years, said: “It’s got to be good for Denbigh and I’m glad that the original 1848 building is being retained and restored.

“I’m pleased that it is a local firm that is carrying out the redevelopment because it will provide jobs for the area and apprenticeship opportunities for young people."

Mr Wynne is chairman and a founding member of the North Wales Hospital Historical Society and as chairman of Vale of Clwyd MIND, he is still involved in supporting people with mental health issues.

In the book, he documents how the five counties of North Wales - Denbighshire, Flintshire, Merionethshire, Caernarvonshire and Anglesey - came together to plan and build the very first psychiatric hospitals in Wales.

It also tells of the dreadful conditions in which unfortunate people were often kept if they were judged to be insane by their families.

The hospital opened in 1848 with 200 patients but by 1890 that number had trebled.

Mr Wynne, who wrote a brief history of the hospital in 1995, is already halfway through volume two of the hospital story which will cover the years from 1900 to the foundation of the NHS with the third and final book taking the story up to its closure in 1995.

It has involved trawling through masses of information documented in the minutes of the monthly meetings of the management committee in bound volumes from 1848 to 1958, copies of many newspapers but mainly of the Denbighshire Free Press and finding photographs, many of them donated.

One cache was discovered in the loft of the tower at the front of the main building and included photos dating back to the 1870s: “We were gobsmacked,” he said: “No-one knew they were there.”

Jones Bros has already built a brand-new training centre at the hospital site, which employs seven people and can train 60 apprentices a year while it will also be used to update the skills of the company’s 340 staff.

Under the plans, the hospital’s U-shaped central section with its impressive façade is to be restored and turned into residential apartments and the hospital chapel is also to be preserved complemented by services which could include shops, restaurants and perhaps a gym for local residents.

The development of the site is expected to take 10 years and include the phased construction of 300 homes after the safe removal of asbestos and the restoration of the 50-acre site’s attractive woods and parkland.

Victorian Asylum is published by Fineline of Clwyd Street, Ruthin, and is available for £13.95 from Denbigh Museum, or by pre-order for £11.95 from Clwyd Wynne at denbigharchive@gmail.com