The buildings, estate and therapeutic regime designed by Edward Long Fox were based on the principles of moral treatment that was fashionable at the time.

[8] Fox insisted that patients should be separated from their families as they needed to move away from the conventional authority of the head of the household following the madness of King George III.

At the end of each courtyard were stone rooms used to house incontinent patients, who slept on straw beds.

Hot and cold plunge baths were also included, as Fox saw their use as an important part of treatment, which may have been related to his Quaker beliefs and John Wesley's advocacy of the practice.

In Brislington House Perceval experienced, in spite of the expense, a regime of deprivation, brutality and degradation.

For eight months, during which time he was completely under the control of his voices, spirits and presences, he was kept under restraint, either in a straitjacket or tied down in bed.

[1] The current layout was developed in the mid-19th century from the original separate blocks, which had been linked by a corridor at basement level.

There were also facilities for various recreational activities, including a bowling green and fives court, and later football and cricket pitches.

[8] The inclusion of a grotto and other eye-catching features, along with attractive views, may have been seen as therapeutic and based on the ideas of Archibald Alison as expressed in his work Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste (1790).

[26] The lodge house was originally called the wheelhouse as it contained the mechanism used to open and close the iron gates to the asylum.

[3] In the late 1950s The Beeches and a large part of the grounds were sold for the establishment of St. Brendan's Sixth Form College.