During the Second World War the military took over a large part of Shenley Hospital to provide treatment for thousands of wounded servicemen.

Half of the hospital, which was built to accommodate mentally ill patients, was used by the authorities to treat around 3,000 military personnel.

High ranking German prisoners of war were also housed at the hospital, where a water tower was used for military radio communications.

The hospital, which first opened in 1934, finally closed its doors three years ago to make way for the building of the Porters Park housing estate.

Shenley villager Robert Dearden, who was a nurse at the hospital for more than 20 years, wrote a short book about its history to mark the closure.

"The war was an interesting time for the hospital Field Marshal Von Rundstedt was kept prisoner there alongside the British servicemen," he said.

Shenley Mental Hospital, as it was then called, was used by the military because its hospital at Millbank could not cope with the numbers of casualties.

The requisitioned part of the hospital became the 2nd London General Hospital, and volunteer nurses were brought in to look after 600 wounded soldiers.

In 1940 staff at the hospital got their own taste of warfare, when, at 9.07pm on September 25, two land mines were dropped within its grounds.

The first mine brought down ceilings in three villas, although the second did not explode, probably because its parachute had caught in a tree.

A naval bomb expert arrived at 2pm the following day to diffuse the mine, in the male recreation ground, and completed his task by 3.15pm.

Two days later, at 12.20am, four oil bombs fell, one of which caused a fire in the laundry room, which was extinguished by the hospital fire brigade.

In 1948 the hospital became part of the National Health Service, and, at its peak in the 1950s, provided care for more than 2,350 patients.

At that time it was one of the leading centres for training and practice of psychiatry and its staff were at the forefront of mental health research.

During the 1980s a change in the national approach to the treatment of mental illnesses resulted in patients leaving to receive care in the community.

Mr Dearden, who is the secretary of Shenley Village Society, also managed to trace the history of the Porters Park estate back to around 1042.

The estate was then owned by Asgar the Staller, and it is believed to have got its name from the Porter family who took over the land in the 14th Century.