Our airing shelter originates from Barnsley Hall hospital in Bromsgrove. The hospital was a lunatic asylum that treated epileptics and acute patients. The hospital’s grounds were divided into six enclosures known as airing courts, built with open-sided shelters, to enable patients to take exercise and relax. The hospital was demolished in 2000, but the shelter survived before later suffering vandalism. The shelter, at risk of being demolished by the early 2000s, was dismantled and reconstructed here at Avoncroft in 2012.
