TELEVISION viewers can see inside the derelict former Mid Wales Hospital in a new programme on BBC Wales.

Hidden Wales with Will Millard sees the writer and explorer uncovering places most people never get to see including the collection of Victorian buildings built in 1900 which formed the Mid Wales Hospital at Talgarth.

The former psychiatric hospital closed in 1999 and there had been plans to revive the site as a business park but for most of the last 10 years it has lain derelict with the buildings falling into a worsening state of disrepair.

In the programme Will dons protective clothing to walk through the former hospital buildings where ceilings have collapsed and debris is strewn across the floors.

Thieves have also stolen slates from roofs at the buildings, and other materials, and in recent years there has been concern at people entering the site without permission.

Over the past year Dyfed-Powys Police has stepped up patrols at the site, following concerns from neighbours about anti-social behaviour, and placed signs at entrances warning people not to enter and that dangers at the site include possible asbestos.

A controversial proposal last year by a Welsh council leader suggested the site could be used as a new prison.

Among those attracted to the site have been ghost hunters, no doubt, attracted by the history of the facility which was named the Brecon and Radnor Lunatic Asylum when it opened at the beginning of the 20th century and was designed to be a self-sufficient village, with its own water supply, generators and farm.

The site’s owner, Phil Collins, this summer submitted a planning application to develop the site for housing and it’s planned to only retain and refurbish some of the original buildings. “It may be a last chance to look around” says Will, who in the programme describes the building as “being in the middle of nowhere” and admits to finding the experience of walking around the derelict hospital as “pretty creepy”.

In the programme Will also meets brothers Bill and Brian Devereux, who are both in their 80s, who were born at the hospital – and then spent most of their lives there as their parents worked at the hospital and they then joined the staff as nurses. They share their memories of working at the hospital and the community that developed there.

The first episode in the series, which explores how Wales evolved from a wild pre-industrial landscape to a modern country, will be shown on BBC One Wales at 8pm tonight (Thursday).

The second episode of the three-part series, featuring the Mid Wales Hospital, will be broadcast at 8pm on Thursday, December 6.