Victorian
On the edge of the local landscape stood an institution whose story stretches across an entire century. The Princess Christian Farm Colony opened its doors in 1895 and only closed them in 1995, and in that hundred-year span it touched the lives of hundreds of people who lived and worked within its grounds.
The name on the gate belonged to a remarkable woman. Princess Christian was the third daughter of Queen Victoria, and she was known as a reformer with a genuine interest in how vulnerable people were cared for. It was under her name that the Farm Colony was founded, and in many ways the venture ran ahead of its time, serving as a forerunner to the great national changes in care that came long afterwards.
The colony took in men and women whose conditions were not considered dangerously ill, and life there was built around useful work. Residents laboured on the land and in domestic service, and in doing so they found purpose and a place to belong. The language of the place reflected this sense of family: even in their old age, those who lived there were affectionately known as the 'boys' and the 'girls'.
The word 'barmy' has an unexpected local connection, deriving from the Barming Lunatic Asylum. It is a fitting title, then, for the book that now tells this story. 'Just a Bit Barmy', a full-colour history of the colony published in 2019, runs to more than 200 pages, packed with photographs and maps. Nearly a hundred other people contributed their memories and stories to its pages, covering the treatment of residents from 1900 right through to 1990.
When the National Health Service took over, Princess Christian became a hospital. Life there had a distinctive character: residents lived in their own 'villas' and hostels rather than in vast wards, an arrangement that preserved dignity and independence.
The memories gathered in the book capture both the challenges and the humour of daily life. One resident with Down's syndrome could only focus at a distance of nine inches, and so he sat that close to the communal television set to watch it. The solution came from an optician, whose glasses restored peace for everyone. On another occasion a resident chose a most public spot to stand on his head — directly behind the owner of a local hair salon, at the very moment she was cutting a lady's hair. Discipline had its own logic too: those who misbehaved could find themselves banned from working with the animals, a punishment that clearly bit deep.
Among those who passed through was Kelly Holmes, who spent nine months working at Princess Christian after finishing school, before joining the Army. She later described the work as one of the most rewarding things she had done.
The end came in the late 1980s, when 'Care in the Community' policy brought the institution to a close. Some residents had lived there for twenty to forty years, and one staff member reflected that working there had taught her not to fret about life.
'Just a Bit Barmy' is available from MR BOOK, 142 High Street, Tonbridge, and from Sevenoaks Bookshop, priced £20, or £25 with postage and packing, ISBN 978-0-9539340-4-1.