Museums

This portrait silhouette shows Dr Prichard, who established a private asylum at Abington in 1845. He was at the forefront of the non-restraint movement within asylum practice.

Members of the movement believed physical restraint was not necessary with proper treatment. He was the first asylum superintendent to fully adopt this system. During its time as an asylum the manor house gained the name Abington Abbey which was considered romantic and appealing. Dr Prichard had been the first superintendent of the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum from its opening in 1838 until earlier in 1845, when he had resigned over pressure from trustees and the press on the matter of the treatment of a patient. A member of the Royal College of Physicians, he had early in his career taken a keen interest in the management of the mentally ill and was a proponent of moral management. The advertising material for the new Abington Asylum Retreat stated that 'This establishment is exclusively devoted to the care and cure of male and female patients in the upper and middle ranks of society who may suffer from mental afflictions'.

A place to work

In this section of the exhibition discover how the house has been a place of work. There have been many different types of jobs for people in Abington. Once mainly agricultural, more recently the area has been home to shoe factories and breweries. Dr Prichard established a private asylum at Abington Manor in 1845. He was at the forefront of the non-restraint movement and believed physical restraint of patients was not necessary with proper treatment.