As a county asylum, it was replaced by Tone Vale Hospital in 1897, but it continued to house long-stay elderly and mentally infirm patients.

During the 1850s, within a few years of opening, the hospital was nearing its capacity of 350 and new dining and recreation halls were built.

[5] In the 1870s land adjacent to the hospital was bought to establish a cemetery which was used for the patients who died until 1963 during which time 2,900 burials were carried out.

[5] The main two-storey building, with attics, has a frontage in an "E" shape which is 280 metres (920 ft) long.

[1] The stone chapel, which is joined to the main building by a covered walkway, is supported by two-stage buttresses and has a spire on the crossing tower.