In 1860 the Surrey County Justices bought from the London Necropolis Company 150 acres of land between Knaphill and the canal for £10,500, to relieve the over-crowded mental hospital facilities already existing at Wandsworth. Work on building an asylum began in 1863 and the first patients were admitted in 1867.

The Lightbox collection is the core of the former museum of Brookwood Hospital and includes a variety of medical equipment. The items on display here were given recently by a former member of staff who worked at the hospital in its later days, and were in its main laboratory when the hospital closed in 1981.

Equipment currently on display:

1. Copper water bath for testing blood sugar. The water was boiled up and passed through the rubber tube.  Manufactured by Flatters and Garnett, Microscopists, of Manchester, who traded from 1901 to 1967. 1960s.
2. A gas jar with lid. This was used for collecting gas as a demoisteriser.
3. Metal rack for holding test tubes or sample tubes.
4. Industrial methylated spirit bottle, with Brookwood Hospital label.

See this equipment in the Object in Focus display outside Woking's Story.