The hospital was based on a site purchased by the County Council in 1899. It was designed by George Thomas Hine and opened in 1907, to relieve pressure on the county's only existing asylum, Powick Hospital near Malvern and to serve the northern part of the county. It was used as a military hospital during the First World War. By 1929 it had become known as Worcestershire Mental Hospital and had reached its capacity of around 720 patients. It was used as a military hospital again during the Second World War. It joined the National Health Service as Barnsley Hall Mental Hospital in 1948 and became Barnsley Hall Hospital for Nervous and Mental Diseases in 1949. Additional buildings increased its capacity to about 1,200. It provided a continuation of psychiatric care after the Powick Hospital closed in 1989 and closed itself in 1996.
