After considering several possibilities( including sites at Malton, Bempton and Molescroft) the organising committee chose Broadgate Farm near Walkington. Work on the new asylum began in the Spring of 1869 and it received its first intake of patients in October 1871. The hospital complex covered 13,500 square yards of land and included two airing courts for the recreational use of male and female patients (fresh air was considered an important part of the therapy). In the days before electricity the buildings were lit by gas provided by the asylum's own gas works.

By the beginning of 1872 there were 195 patients at the East Riding Lunatic Asylum and, according to a report of the Medical Superintendant, Dr Mercer, attempts at escape had been "few and abortive". As a part of the asylum's regime attention was given to recreational activities and to this end he recorded that a picnic excursion to Westella had been organised for 20 women patients as well as weekly balls and occasional concerts at the asylum itself. To ensure that the patients benefited from the "wondrous moral hygiene of industry" those who were capable of working found employment in the asylum's gardens, and its joinery, shoemaking, tailoring, bricklaying and blacksmith workshops.

      The Walkington asylum was subject to the usual checks on its operations by inspectors and other visitors. A visit in January 1874, for example, reported that 160 inmates had sat down to a dinner of boiled bacon, greens, bread and beer and that this "seemed to give satisfaction to all and that the conduct of the patients was most orderly." Yet, from other evidence, it is apparent that the asylum staff faced danger from some of the inmates as Dr Mercer pointed out in a report of January 1876. He referred to an assault on the asylum's matron, Mary Harrison, by a "dangerous and athletic female lunatic" who had all her life been of "ungovernable temper." Mercer commented that this was a striking example of the risks taken by those "who earn their daily bread in a daily intercourse with the insane."

        A report of December 1878 records, in graphic detail, the trauma (for the staff) of keeping watch on potential suicide cases. A female patient having failed in two previous suicide attempts tried again, during dinner, by pushing a meat bone into her larynx. Medical staff then had to make an opening in her trachea in order to remove it. Even after this the staff had to make use of restraints to stop the unfortunate woman from tearing open her throat wound. In the words of the Medical Superintendent this kind of episode added enormously to the "anxious and arduous responsibilities of asylum officers" and perhaps helps to explain the high turnover of staff.