Purdysburn Villa Colony - Archaeological Perspectives on the Treatment of Mentally Ill Patients
Channel: The Ulster Archaeological Society
Date: 2023-10-24

Dr Gillian Allmond currently works as a historian on the Second Survey of Buildings of Historical and Architectural interest in Northern Ireland.  She completed her PhD in 2018, a study of Edwardian asylums, under the supervision of Dr Mark Gardiner of Arcpal at QUB.  A slightly revised version was published by BAR in 2021 as 'Village and Colony Asylums in Britain, Ireland and Germany, 1880-1914: Environmental approaches to patient treatment in Edwardian institutions for the insane'.  Her research is an analysis of buildings, interiors and landscapes, exploring the ways in which asylum environments were seen as therapeutic.  This talk will examine the material culture of Purdysburn Villa Colony in some detail, looking at the buildings and their interiors and linking these to contemporary discourses of health and poverty.