ABSTRACT
In 1994, the Devon Mental Hospital based at the Exminster site closed permanently. Its residents and staff were dispersed to other, smaller institutions though the majority of former patients were now distributed to homes in ‘the community’ within a programme of reforms that had first been introduced in the 1960s, gathering a momentum that led to the closure of most large mental hospitals by the end of the century. The Exminster asylum had already changed radically by the time the legislation directing the transition to community care was introduced. The Lunacy Commission became a Board of Control in 1913, and although the Exminster site was not used for military personnel during the First World War, it did receive a substantial number of Bristol patients who were transferred to Devon as the Bristol asylum buildings became the Beaufort Military Hospital and the former inmates were moved to Exminster. David Pearce has shown that the Mental Treatment Act of 1930 had substantial consequences for the institution, introducing significant numbers of both voluntary and temporary patients to what became Devon Mental Hospital for the first time. 1
