Building began in 1846 on a 42-acre (17 ha) site purchased from the Earl of Warwick and was completed in 1852, the first patients moving in on 30 June.

A classic Victorian asylum built on a grand scale in the gothic style, it at one point housed 1,600 patients.

[3] Eventually gaining over 377 acres (153 ha) of land, the hospital patients provided most of their own food from three farms in the grounds and a spring supplied it with water.

[6] In 1933 the first voluntary admissions were allowed and outpatient clinics were opened in the neighbouring urban areas of Warwick, Leamington and Coventry.

These were rehabilitation units which were in essence a halfway house between the wards of the main hospital and a typical suburban home and were supervised but not totally controlled by staff.