Welcome to my blogs on local history in my area, which is Shropshire in England. It wasn’t until my forties that I stopped and considered writing instead of just thinking, reading and imagining story lines. After devoting most of my adult life to mental health nursing and my young family, I suddenly found I had a little more time for myself. I enjoy the research more than anything. It takes you take down so many alleyways!
I will aim to introduce my research, books and the PowerPoint presentations I design as a public speaker for groups.
My major interests are early mental health and institutional care, which led me to explore life in the following buildings:
Shrewsbury’s Historical Institutions
Shrewsbury Foundling Hospital
The House of Industry – Shrewsbury Workhouse
Shropshire and Wenlock Borough Lunatic Asylum – Shelton Hospital
The Workhouse Almanac – A story of Shrewsbury https://amzn.eu/d/er8kG4P
The Workhouse loomed impressively over the town, a majestic but formidable building that would become the prestigious Shrewsbury School.
by Kate McLanachan (me)
An institution and Asylum for destitute paupers, lunatics and vagrants, its past secrets and atrocities locked away behind closed doors.
‘Voices’ whispered to her the gory details of her brother’s death, inserting pictures into her head, naming her as the one to blame.
The Court condemned the hit and run driver, but the trial had never ended for her. There was a jury of malevolent, faceless persecutors who lived in her head, attacking her mind with accusations, ridicule and abuse.
Trying to put a face to them, she only saw birds with sharp talons and curved beaks, their large eyes penetrating her, which was why she now stood motionless.
The owls were pinning her to the spot. But they were also powerfully pulling her through a portal in time that opened to another era through an antique mirror.
Email: katemclanachan.author@gmail.com
Introducing my debut novel set in Shrewsbury, the place I consider my hometown, in an era I am fascinated with. As a mental health nurse who trained 33 years ago at Shelton Hospital, I’ve always been intrigued by the history of asylums and early “treatments,” but my research led me back further to the pre-asylum days of the workhouse.
Living on the rural Welsh border now with my husband and our two adult sons, I am also surrounded by my cats, dogs and chickens and love walking the hills and nearby woods.
I’m now semi-retired, but still loving my job as a nurse therapist working with patients with eating disorders, but my dream is to retire and move to the coast. I hope to buy a fisherman’s cottage overlooking the sea and write in a cosy window seat, inspired by the views and my imagination. My main character, Jasmine, has much more to encounter, so I plan to write a trilogy for this series. Working full time and being a mum meant this book has taken 5 years to complete, but there is always a story running through my head, itching to get out onto the page. My love of the genre of historical fiction with mystery, horror and fantasy thrown in will hopefully be my main occupation soon. So, watch this space.
History Writer of Fact & Fiction 