Establishes the provision of public asylums in England and Wales. Counties are encouraged but not required to build asylums.

Extends the 1845 Act by allowing provision for private patients and patients of means.

Swansea and Merthyr Tydfil Joint Asylum Visiting Committee is formed. Mr G.T. Hine, Consultant Architect to the Commissioners in Lunacy, is appointed architect for the new Joint Mental Hospital. Hine was responsible for designing more than 20 public asylums in England and Wales.

Messrs Evan Thomas & Sons of Neath, are contracted to begin work on building. Foundations are laid.

Psychiatry is developing as a mainstream branch of medicine. Julius Wagner-Juaregg wins the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1927 for his research on ‘fever cure’. Many hoped it would be an effective treatment for a wide range of psychiatric symptoms, but it only ever worked as a cure for syphilis infection.

Minister of Health advises Swansea to assume full cost of building. Swansea is empowered to borrow the full cost of building Cefn Coed Hospital.

Terms like ‘lunatic’ are removed from legislation and ‘mental hospital’ replaces ‘asylum’. Patients can now be admitted voluntarily, without the need for a Magistrate’s order.

The first patients are admitted to Cefn Coed Hospital, transferred from Talgarth Asylum where a number of Swansea residents had been ‘boarded out’.

Admission reports note that in December 1933 the hospital admitted 546 patients (61 voluntary, 6 temporary, 479 long-term certified).

Sports and recreation are a central part of life at Cefn Coed Hospital. A staff cricket club is formed in 1935

Cardiazol – a chemical shock treatment which was a precursor to ECT – is first used at Cefn Coed. Insulin coma therapy is also used during this time.

Electroconvulsive equipment is first purchased, replacing Cardiazol and insulin coma therapy as treatments for mental illness. It has been significantly refined over the years and is still used for treating severe depression.

The National Health Service is created and the Cefn Coed Hospital Committee and Visiting Committee are replaced by the Swansea Mental Hospital Management Committee.

Chlorpromozine (Largactil) is first synthesised. It is the first effective anti-psychotic drug. This launches a new era of psychopharmacology that reduces the need for long-term institutional care. Largactil is used in Cefn Coed from mid 1950s onwards.

Cefn Coed Hospital Farm permanently closes, marking a shift away from asylum era psychiatric care.

The 1959 Mental Health Act Repeals the 1890 and 1930 Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts. This is the first legislative act to deinstitutionalise mental health patients by transferring care into the community. It provides a more robust legal framework for detaining patients and removes the last vestiges of moral categories of mental disease, e.g. ‘moral imbecile’.

Irving Goffman publishes Asylums, a crushing exposé of asylum life that launches the ‘anti-psychiatry movement’.

Lithium is first licensed in the UK to treat psychosis.

A Tramps’ Ball is held on ward E as part of a regular programme of entertainment.

The Brotherhood of Man play in the William Owen Hall as part of a regular entertainment programme which includes artists like Max Boyce, film screenings and dances.

The Community Care Act gives provision for mental patients to remain at home and undergo treatment. Patients are individually assessed and provided with a care worker rather than being admitted to psychiatric hospitals

Sale of Cefn Coed land to Barratts Development PLC.

Baywash Laundry opens specifically for patient laundry

Healthcare Inspectorate Wales inspect Cefn Coed and report that the hospital is no longer fit for purpose.

All but 2 acute wards close at Cefn Coed. The majority of care now takes place in the wider community