The Powick Asylum Music consists of a number of sets of dance music – quadrilles and polkas – written by Edward Elgar during his time as bandmaster at the Worcester City and County Lunatic Asylum between 1879 and 1884. The music was not published, but the original manuscripts of instrumental parts are preserved in the collection of the Elgar Birthplace Museum.
Flute part for The Valentine (Lancers), 1880, signed by Edward Elgar.
Powick Hospital, which opened in 1847 was a psychiatric facility located on 552 acres (223 ha) outside the village of Powick, near Malvern, Worcestershire. At its peak, the hospital housed around 1,000 patients in buildings designed for 400. During the 1950s the hospital gained an internationally acclaimed reputation for its use of the drug LSD in psychotherapy pioneered and conducted by Ronald A. Sandison. In 1968 the institution was surrounded by controversy concerning serious neglect of patients. In 1989 it was closed down leaving Barnsley Hall Hospital in Bromsgrove as the remaining psychiatric hospital in the county. Most of the complex has been demolished to make way for a housing estate.
Hospital Lane - the former hospital