A Middlesex University resource by Andrew Roberts
The asylums index began as just England and Wales - but it is stretching out

Recommended web address http://studymore.org.uk/4_13_TA.htm

Index of English and Welsh Lunatic Asylums and Mental Hospitals
Based on a comprehensive survey in 1844, and extended to other asylums.

  • The Lunacy Commission Contents Page
  • Mental Health History Timeline 1842-1844
  • 1844 Lunacy Report
  • may I introduce you? home page to all of Andrew
Roberts' web site
    mental health and learning
disability
    The asylums index (on the right) lists asylums on this page (paupers in 1844) in yellow, and asylums on other pages in white. Some asylums outside England and Wales are indexed in blue.
    A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y

    4.13.TA Institutions with Pauper Lunatics in 1844

    All County Asylums open in 1844 are listed and all Hospitals receiving paupers. Workhouses mentioned in the 1844 report are listed. The table lists all licensed houses receiving paupers in 1844 and shows which were commended and which severely censured in the 1844 Report.

    In the 1844 Report, all asylums apart from workhouses are listed, but only some the workhouses with lunatic wards. This was because the Inquiry Commission did not systematically visit workhouses in the way that it did the other asylums.

    After the 1844 Report, legislation ensured that public asylums were provided for all areas of the country. These new public asylums are shown in white on green.
    National Health Service Psychiatric Hospitals were classified as "Mental Illness" or "Mental Handicap". I am adding listings of the Mental Handicap ones (1970s) on yellow.
    Some hospitals will appear on the green and the yellow, usually because they started as chronic asylums in the late nineteenth century.
    There are some asylums in grey that do not fit in to any of the above categories, but are conveniently included on this page. These include hospitals not receiving paupers in 1844.

    The table is arranged geographically:

    Some prices for weekly costs of maintaining paupers

    4d: a useful pauper farmed in Wales,
    1/6 tp 2/6: average for pauper lunatics or idiots farmed in Wales,
    2/9: Ellen Davies, a harmless idiot, farmed with Edward Grey,
    4/1d, not including clothes: Cheshire paupers at Cheshire County Asylum
    5/- a "dangerous" and "dirty" lunatic farmed in Wales, after Haydock's competition
    5/6d: Cornwall paupers at Cornwall County Asylum
    6/- Lancashire paupers at Lancaster County Asylum
    6/- to 7/- excluding clothes: West Auckland
    7/-: Haydcock Lodge in 1845
    7/- a "dangerous" and "dirty" lunatic farmed in Wales, before Haydock's competition
    7/6: Haydcock Lodge in 1844
    7/- to 8/- including clothes. Wreckenton
    7/6 to 8/- including clothes. Laverstock House
    8/- (including clothes): Belle Vue, Devizes, Fiddington House, Fisherton House, Dunston Lodge, Gateshead Fell, Bensham,
    8/- excluding clothes: Hull Refuge
    8/6: Bottom price for private patients at Haydock Lodge
    8/- to 9/- Kingsdown House
    9/- including clothes: Lainston House, Gloucestershire County Asylum, Droitwich Lunatic Asylum, Hoxton House (London),
    9/- excluding clothes: Green Hill House
    9/- to 9/6: Hilsea Asylum
    9/8d farthing: Bethnal Green (London),
    10/- : paupers from outside Cheshire at Cheshire County Asylum
    10/- including clothes: Duddeston Hall, Peckham House (London),
    10/6: paupers from outside Cornwall at Cornwall County Asylum
    Welsh patients at Lancaster County Asylum
    10/6d excluding clothes - but an "admission charge" of £1..1/-. Plympton House
    10/- to 12/- excluding clothes: Hereford Lunatic Asylum
    12/- including clothes: Liverpool Lunatic Asylum

    London

    The main parts of London are the City (see local London timeline), Westminster, large parts of Middlesex (the County north of the Thames) and Surrey (the County south of the Thames)

    London postcodes

    External links to Peter Higginbotham's London Poor Law Unions and regions map (needed for areas bordering his London map)

    Hanwell (1st Middlesex) County Asylum
    [A Sarah Rutherford case study]
    Built 1829 to 1830. Opened 16.5.1831
    Architect: William Alderson. Peter Cracknell classifies it as Corridor form. Jacobi classifies it as a distinct form.
    Landscape: Designer D. Ramsay
    Built in what was then country. Closest market town was Brentford. Technically in Norwood Parish, but known as the Hanwell Asylum from the beginning as it was much closer to the centre of Hanwell than to Southall or Norwood. See GENUKI (1868 National Gazeteer)
    For the early history of Hanwell see the biography of James Clitherow
    Tessa Speight's history
    Superintendent January 1831 to early 1838: William Ellis. Matron, Mrs Ellis
    Visiting physician from 1832: Alexander Morison
    1834: The Hanwell Lunatic Asylum by Harriet Martineau
    From about 1835 to about 1840, George Peacock Button was house surgeon. He witnessed William Ellis's will in April 1839. He became superintendent of the Dorset County Asylum.
    Extra wings added 1837/1838
    Architect: William Moseley.
    Superintendent April 1838 to 1839 Gideon John Millingen
    Superintendent 1839 to 1844: John Conolly, who abolished mechanical restraint.
    "old mode of treatment" - "new methods"
    October 1839 51st Report Visiting Justices
    January 1840 52nd Report Visiting Justices
    April 1840 53rd Report Visiting Justices
    July 1840 54th Report Visiting Justices
    January 1841 56th Report Visiting Justices
    April 1841 57th Report Visiting Justices
    July 1841 58th Report Visiting Justices: they had "been imperatively called upon to annul the appointment of the Reverend Francis Tebutt as chaplain to the asylum. His duties will cease on the 11th of the month, and he will be succeeded by the Reverend Thomas Burt"
    October 1841 The Fifty-ninth Report of the Visiting Justices of the Lunatic Asylum of Hunwell. The Resident Physician's Report, and the Report of the Chaplain, . This formed the basis of
    an extensive review in the a New York newspaper on 2.4.1842
    1844 to 1852 John Conolly visiting physician Hanwell). Conolly became the proprietor of Lawn House and Hayes Park
    1.1.1844: 975 patients. All pauper. 1844? 14.6% of patients epileptic
    Superintendent: April to August 1844: John Godwin (not medical)
    Visiting Physician: J. Conolly M.D.; House Surgeons: J. Beyley, M.D.; Davies M.D.
    1845 John Hitchman succeded Dr Nesbit in charge of the female side. William Chapman Begley was (at about the same time) in charge of the male side. They each had salaries of £200 a year.
    15.1.1848 Full page illustration and short article "Twelfth Night at the Hanwell Asylum" in the The Illustrated London News
    1850 John Hitchman became superintendent Derby County Asylum
    From about 1850 to about 1872, W.C. Begley was resident medical officer (Annual Reports). William Chapman Begley had witnessed William Ellis's will in April 1839.
    A third floor added in 1859.
    13.11.1861 Theodore Edward Edwards, a patient, killed himself. An autopsy [inquest?] was carried out by Thomas Wakley. Hospital records show that Theodore was buried within the hospital grounds. A descendent would like to know where were this is. We have located the burial ground on an 1868 map. In the late twentieth century, a Regional Secure Unit was built on these grounds.
    July 1873 R R Alexander, MB, CM. appointed Assistant Medical Officer in the place of J. Hawkes who went to Westbrooke House Asylum in Hampshire.
    Biography of a patient (Alfred Woodhurst) admitted 1877
    1880 Large chapel (surviving) built to replace a smaller one. The asylum now had nearly 2,000 patients.
    1881 Census: Middlesex Lunatic Asylum, Norwood, Middlesex. There are two medical superintendents: Joseph Pake Richards (married, aged 40, surgeon) and Henry Rayner (unmarried, aged 39, physician). Isabella Elizabeth Hicks is Matron.
    Became a London County Asylum in 1889.
    About 1894?: Robert Reid Alexander M.D. resident medical superintendent; Rev. Robert Andrews MA. chaplain; James William Palmer, clerk & Alfred Henry Larcome, steward.
    Hanwell Mental Hospital from 1929 to 1937.
    St Bernard's Hospital from 1938 to 1980. Uxbridge Road, Southall, UB1 3EU.
    1953
    Mary Barnes a patient
    By 1960 known as St Bernard's, Southall. It had 2500 staffed beds
    Sometime before 1962, Andrew O'Brien visited his uncle in St Bernard's Hospital. It was "like a small town in itself". There was a church, a laundry, and a point on the Grand Union Canal where barges brought the coal for the Hospital. He can remember the tall Victorian wards and that there seemed to be many patients in each ward, and white coated male orderlies who seemed to spend some of their time lighting patients cigarettes. He felt very sad and could not face going again after his second visit.
    In 1971 it had 2,039 beds, 189 in locked wards.
    Mary Nettle a patient, for three months, "in St Bernard's, a horrible Victorian asylum".
    Two general hospitals: King Edward Memorial Hospital and Claypond's (started as an isolation hospital) form Ealing Hospital between 1978 and 1980.
    Ealing Hospital built adjacent to St Bernard's. A District General Hospital "in the form of a multistorey concrete slab with lower blocks around it" (Scher, P. 1999)
    [ Ealing Hospital weblink]
    By 1985, staffed beds reduced to 950
    "Since then St Bernard's, a Grade II listed building, has become a 'wing'" [of Ealing Hospital], "albeit a large one, comprising the central and eastern parts of the original, the western part having been sold for redevelopment." (Scher, P. 1999)
    West London Mental Health Trust weblink

    The address of West London Healthcare NHS Trust is St. Bernard's Wing, Uxbridge Road Southall, Middlesex UBI 3EU. 020 8574 2444. (Community services, Mental health services)

    Stephen James, Head of Partnerships and Diversity, Ealing Primary Care Trust writes (26.8.2005) "There is a large range of [psychiatric] services (including inpatient and forensic) provided by West London Mental Health Trust (WLMHT) at the site. There is also a museum, which I understand the Trust cannot open regularly because of lack of funds".

    Three Bridges Regional Secure Unit St Bernard's Hospital, Uxbridge Road, Southall, Middlesex, UB1 3EU established 1980s?

    " The burial grounds were used for building the Regional Secure Unit (RSU). Any human remains that were uncovered were removed and later re- interned in the "Garden of Remembrance". This is the small upright rectangle one can see in the Google aerial photo - If you compare it to your old map you can make the match easily. The garden of remembrance is the above the left hand canal lock and directly above the lock's left-hand gate. To the immediate right is a parking lot with white hospital vans and the RSU is the complex further the right with the semicircular crescent." (Paul Champion, email 12.8.2006)

    mid 1990s? Corsellis Brain Collection moved to St Bernards?
    "Inner Space" by Peter Scher in Hospital Development 1.3.1999 has history and present development
    2003 use: "Part luxury housing and part psychiatric hospital"
    (external link history of Hanwell district) (external link Boston House)

    Museum and Chapel of St Bernard's Hospital, Uxbridge Road, Southall. Georgian. Formerly the Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum. "Not suitable for under-16s". I can sadly confirm that the Hanwell hospital museum has permanently closed and the collection dispersed. Some of it went to the Gunnersbury Park Museum http://www.hounslow.info/gunnersburyparkmuseum (prior permission is required to view as it is not on display) and some to the Welcome Trust (I think this would have been the apparatus and other clinical hardware) and the London Metropolitan Archives took the records and papers. (Paul Champion, email 12.8.2006)

    private asylums in Surrey outside the Metropolitan area

    Surrey County Asylum
    Springfield, near Wandsworth
    Nick Hervey says that the asylum was "in response to the growing expense of farming out the county's chronic insane to private licensed houses in the metropolis" and that " Sir Alexander Morison who was appointed as Visiting Physician before building commenced, carried out a survey of these patients".
    "The site at Springfield Park, Wandsworth was bought from Henry Perkins, a wealthy brewer and partner in the firm of Barclay and Perkins, who had himself obtained the freehold from the 2nd Earl of Spencer"
    1838 Building started
    Architect: usually stated to be E Lapidge, but Nick says he was only one of the designers and that it "was done to the design of William Moseley, who was the County Surveyor for Middlesex and had previously been working on extensions at Hanwell". - Corridor form
    The present "Main Building", built around a lawn and fountain area (See external link), appears to be the centre of the original corridor. Some of the corridors and main rooms (not all) have a pronounced slope, some running down towards the south-west of the building. One (at least) main corridor slopes towards the southeast. Does anyone know why this is?
    opened 14.6. 1841 Cost: Total £85,366..19..1d. Comprised of Land: (97 acres) £8,985..9..5 - Buildings: £67,467..1..10 - Furnishings etc and preliminary expenses: £7,514..19.3 (1844 Report p.222)
    Nick Hervey says that 299 patients were brought in on the day of opening, increasing to 385 in the first year. They included 172 from Peckham House, 51 from Hoxton and 54 from Bethnal Green. However, patients may have moved in from these asylums earlier as their movement was noted in a report for the year 1.6.1840 to 31.5.1841.
    1.1.1844: 382 patients. All pauper.
    Superintendent: S. Hill, Surgeon
    1844 At the time of the 1844 Report, Surrey was the most modern county asylum. Its construction was generally approved of. "the house and galleries generally are warmed by the circulation of steam, and the introduction of hot air through apertures in the floor. The temperature is regulated by stop-cocks, and kept between 56 degrees and 58 degrees. There are open fires, with proper guards, in the several day rooms on the female side; and it is proposed to adopt them also in the male division". (1844 Report p.20)
    1848-1858 Hugh Welch Diamond (1809-1886), photographic pioneer (External links: RSM, Getty, Leggat, Pearl Science and Society Picture Library), was Resident Superintendent of the Female Department. See Lutwidge 1853 and Millar 1853. He appears to have left to set up his own, high class, lunatic asylum in Twickenham
    Until about 1857, Alexander Morison, Charles Snape and Hugh W. Diamond were the medical officers connected with Surrey Asylum
    About 1860 John Meyer appointed Resident Physician. William Orange was Assistant Medical Officer
    1863 John Meyer and William Orange move to Broadmoor. James Strange Biggs became Resident Physician
    1881 Census: James Strange Biggs, physician, aged 53, was asylum head
    1889 to 1912 Hugh Gardiner Hill medical superintendent. His son, Harold, a family historian, was very proud of the way his father carried on Robert Gardiner Hill's non-restraint work at Springfield. The graves of Hugh and his wife Rosie are in the Magdalen Road Cemetery not far from Springfield
    Transferred to Middlesex County Council after the 1888 Local Government Act, when it was known first as Wandsworth Asylum.
    From about 1918 known as Springfield Asylum.
    A detached annexe for 260 "low-grade mental defectives, 180 children and 80 adults" was built under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act.
    April 1916 A detached block of the main asylum used as Springfield War Hospital for severe or protracted cases
    for the care and treatment of soldiers and pensioners suffering from neurasthenia or loss of mental balance
    (Hansard 12.4.1920)
    1919 Post Office Directory: Middlesex County. Beechcroft Road, Upper Tooting, SW17 and Garrat Green, Burntwood Lane, Tooting SW17. Reginald Worth MB medical superintendent; Gayton Warwick Smith, MD assistant medical officer; Rev William Parkinson Iddeson, MA, chaplain; Thomas W. Beale, clerk to the asylum.
    1926 Nurses were instructed to show kindness and forbearance with "example being better than precept" (Regulations and Orders of Springfield Mental Hospital, London). (external link)
    In 1939 "Springfield (Mental) Hospital" had 2,000 patients, 83 acres of farm land and 14 acres of garden. There was close cooperation between Springfield and Westminster Hospital.

    1956: 2,069 patients, 21% aged 65 or over. The Hospital's death rate was 10.94% (Lost Hospitals)

    By the end of the 1950s the Hospital had been almost surrounded by urban development. During the 1960s the number of in-patients began to fall, (Lost Hospitals)

    Springfield shown in a 1979 Directory as having 1,124 beds 31.12.1977.
    Springfield Hospital, Glenburne Road, London, SW17 7DJ

    Frank Bangay's 1985 poem "Food and Shelter" (Naked Songs and Rhythms of Hope pages 104-106) relates to experiences in 1976 to 1978 and "the revolving door system that we can get caught up in once we enter the psychiatric system". The first three verses are:

    So strange it is in this world today
    The old people walk up and down with the shakes
    It's part of their illness it is said
    But there is a different explanation
    They have been caught in an oppressive situation.

    Dumped in Victorian institutions so long ago
    Through situations in living hat we know and ignore,
    But psychiatric drugs are no solution to human needs
    They just leave people to pace corridors
    Broken and defeated.

    All we needed was food
    All we needed was shelter
    A roof above our head in hostile weather
    A sanctuary to go to when times got tough
    No, not these dark institutions
    Tell me,
    Do you know the true meaning
    Of the word 'asylum?'

    1977 and 1978 Hospital discos dancing to The Ramones on ECT and lobotomy.

    Spring 1978 Springfield Words. A magazine produced in Springfield Hospital, Tooting, South London by Kieran Brown, an Occupational Therapist. Published Frank Bangay's poem "Spring is Rising" (written 1976). Frank was a patient at the time and helped Kieran with the magazine. In 1979 Frank helped to organise a half-hour of poetry and songs based round life in Springfield Hospital, featuring Kieran, Frank and Dave Dorling. Dave was a patient who died in 1981. The event was staged at the Troubadour and was well received. (Naked Songs and Rhythms of Hope p.145)

    1990 Sarah Wheeler admitted

    1994 Springfield Hospital became part of the Pathfinder Mental Health Services NHS Trust.

    7.5.1998 "Trust guilty of abuse of power"

    1999 Pathfinder Mental Health Services NHS Trust changed its name to the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. (Lost Hospitals of London)

    Springfield Hospital (external link), 61 Glenburnie Road, London, SW17 7DJ.

    Autumn 2002: Reported still open, or closed and empty (street map - multimap.

    Simon Cornwall: Was to close but parts have remained opened.

    2005 Mental health research at St George's University of London. Note that South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust provides "education, training and research" in partnership with St George's University, Kingston University, South Bank University, King's College, University of Surrey, Tavistock Institute and Brunel University. (source)

    30.1.2006: from David Gardiner-Hill "It is definitely open and a Mental Health Trust associated with Georges Hospital Trust. The Gardiner Hill Unit has unfortunately changed its name though signs to it still litter Tooting/Wandsworth!! I have visited on open day, and seen the old history exhibition in the mortuary. The superintendent's house Hugh Gardiner Hill lived in is now offices overlooking the golf course in the grounds, but I have recognisable photos of the drive and gardens of this house when Hugh's children were babies and a lovely one of his wife in a 1906 car, also a record of speeding ticket from a newspaper. Speeding was newsworthy".

    "South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust was formed in 1994. The Trust has, for over 160 years, provided mental health services. The Trust headquarters are at Springfield University Hospital in Tooting" (source)

    Springfield University Hospital

    The following image is from the internet 12.1.2006.

    The following material is dated 13.10.2007

    From the mid-1980s, Springfield Hospital (main building, above), now the Trust's headquarters, served only people from Wandsworth and Merton. Today, the Trust operates from 89 locations and is responsible for providing complete mental health and social care services to the communities of Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth, and more specialist services to people throughout the United Kingdom.

    "The hospital became part of the NHS in 1948 and the site continued to be developed up to 2005 when the Phoenix Unit (providing rehabilitation services) opened." A masterplan for the site was approved by the Trust Board in 2006, leading to the opening of the Wandsworth Recovery Centre in 2009, the first of a new generation of acute in-patient buildings. When Wandsworth Planning Committee gave consent for this building, it was made clear that no further consents would be granted on the Springfield Hospital site until there was outline consent for the redevelopment of the entire site." A planning application was submitted, but refused in March 2009. Following a period of public engagement, the Trust developed an alternative plan which sought to address the reasons given for refusal of its first application. Wandsworth Council Officers recommended approving the plan, but it was refused in December 2010.

    Regeneration news 2009

    June 2010 New Proposals offline pdf

    18.7.2011 Archive Springfield Regeneration Programme

    13.4.2012 First internet archive of The history of Springfield University Hospital - The argument that "mental health services have been provided at Springfield Hospital since 1841" was being used as a starting point for the necessity of allowing a re-development plan.

    Springfield regeneration news [To "Trust appeal upheld: June 2012"]

    London Licensed Houses receiving paupers:

    Warburton's, Bethnal Green
    1.1.1844 562 patients. 336 pauper and 226 private.
    COMMENDED IN 1844

    Hoxton House
    1.1.1844 396 patients. 315 pauper and 81 private.
    SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT

    Peckham House
    1.1.1844 251 patients. 203 pauper and 48 private.
    SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT


    London Workhouse Lunatic Wards - Fulham Hospital - Fulham Road Observation Ward - St Clement's - St Marylebone - Westminster -

    St Marylebone See Peter Higginbotham's site

    First workhouse established in 1730, after the Workhouse Test Act. A local Act of Parliament, passed in 1775, enabled the Vestry to build a new workhouse. Under this, the administration of poor relief in the parish was conducted by Directors and Guardians of the Poor who included thirty parishioners appointed by the Vestry. The old building was used as an infirmary.

    1792 new infirmary block for 300.

    War led an widespread increase in pauperism and St Marylebone was over-full with 1,168 inmates in 1797. The Guardians resorted to out-relief without demanding entry into the workhouse.

    1815: Lord Robert Seymour, a Director of Poor for the Parish of Saint Marylebone was "in the practice of visiting the insane poor of that parish at Mr Warburton's, Bethnal Green"

    1844 Report page 87: "In the Lunatic wards of the Marylebone Workhouse there were admitted in the years 1842 and 1843, 190 paupers considered as insane. Some few of these, however, were stated to be only under temporary excitement. The overseers of this parish could obtain admission into the Hanwell Asylum for only twenty-seven of these 190 cases..."

    Workhouse Masters:
    1842-1850 James Jones
    1850-1851 W Barlow
    1851-1856 George Whelan
    1856 Richard Ryan (the "woman flogger" of a London ballad)
    1857 James Barnet

    1847 approval for Marylebone workhouse to become a temporary asylum for lunatics. (Hervey, N.B. 1987)
    On lists of licensed houses as "St-Mary-le-Bone. Workhouse":
    30.6.1846: Licensed to Dr Boyd with 35 patients
    30.6.1847: Licensed to Dr Boyd and T. Jones, surgeon, with 68 patients
    1.1.1849: 79 patients, 30 male, 49 female. All pauper.

    A Dr Robert Boyd, born Ireland about 1810, was proprietor of Southall Park by 1874. Robert Boyd (1808-1883) is listed in Munk's Roll of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

    London Workhouse Union


    Westminster Union See Peter Higginbotham's site

    Archives Metropolitan Archives contain Registers of patients maintained by the Union in imbecile asylums 1885-1895 (reference WEBG/WM/52/1) and 1896 - 1902 (reference WEBG/WM/52/2).

    1885-1895 relates to Hanwell*; Banstead*; Colney Hatch*; Cane Hill*; Hoxton House*; Bethnal House*; Grove Hall, Bow*; Peckham House*; Salisbury, Fisherton House*; Kent County, Barming Heath*; Camberwell House*; Kent County, Chartham*; Moulsford nr. Wallingford; Bristol Borough; and Claybury*

    1896-1902 relates to the ones marked with an asterisk (*) above, plus Exeter Borough, Heavitree; Surrey County, Brookwood ; Nottingham Borough, Mapperley Hill ; Dorset County; Glamorgan County; Dorchester; Northampton County, Berry Wood ; Wadsley nr. Sheffield; Warwick County, Hatton; Isle of Wight, Newport; Bristol City, Fishponds; Lancashire, Haydock Lodge; Bexley; Stone nr. Dartford; Manor at Horton; Lancashire County, Prestwich; Winson Green; Hertfordshire County, Hill End; Leicester Borough; Middlesex County, Wandsworth and West Sussex, Chichester



    St George's Hanover Square
    See Peter Higginbotham's site
    Fulham Road Workhouse and Infirmary
    See Peter Higginbotham's site
    Observation Ward
    "At least half of the cases admitted to the male mental ward, or observation ward, ... between 1917 and 1923 were ex-servicemen". Less than half of the ex-servicemen were sent on to an asylum. Most were sent home after a few days. There was a statutory maximum of 14 days. "The inmate was usually put on a regimen of eggs, milk pudding and beef tea". Bromide and paraldehyde were used and there was a padded cell. (Barham, P. 2004, p.202)


    Fulham Hospital


    Wandsworth


    Whitechapel


    John Stow in A Survey of London.

    An hospital for frensie people in Tower street ward.

    "Hospital of saint Mary in the parish of Barking church, that was prouided for poore priests, and others, men and women in the Citty of London, that were falled into frensie or losse of their memory, vntill such time as they should recouer, was since suppressed and giuen to the Hospitall of saint Katherine by the Tower."


    Stone House

    John Stow, 'The Citie of Westminster', in A Survey of London. Reprinted From the Text of 1603, ed. C L Kingsford (Oxford, 1908), pp. 97-124

    Bedford house.; Parish church of S. Martin in the field.; An house belonging to Bethlem.

    From thence is now a continuall new building of diuers fayre houses, euen vp to the Earle of Bedfords house lately builded nigh to Iuy Bridge, and so on the north side to a lane that turneth to the parish Church of S. Martins in the field, in the liberty of Westminster. Then had ye an house wherein somtime were distraught and lunatike people, of what antiquity founded, or by whom I haue not read, neither of the suppression, but it was said that sometime a king of England, not liking such a kind of people to remaine so neare his pallace, caused them to be remoued farther of, to Bethlem without Bishops gate of London, and to that Hospitall the said house by Charing crosse doth yet remaine.

    O'Donoghue says (p.68)

    The report of the commissioners in 1632 confirms the story told by Stow :

    "There be also four other houses situated near Charing Cross in the parish of St. Martin's in the Fields, which have likewise time out of mind paid a small rent of £3 per annum to the hospital, but when, or by whom, given we find no record. Only we find by an ancient lease made in the reign of Henry VII that in the place where these houses now stand was anciently an old house with gardens and grounds thereunto belonging called the Stone House, which Stone House we do likewise find, in a bill preferred to the Exchequer in December of 9 James I [1612] by the mayor, commonalty and citizens of London against one Agnes Garland, that it was sometimes employed for the harbouring of mad and distracted persons, before such time as they were removed to the present hospital of Bethlehem, without Bishopsgate."

    He refers to a definite assertion made by those who searched the muniment room at Bridewell in 1632 that:

    "When the hospital was first employed to the use of distracted persons appeareth not. The first mention we find of it to be employed so was in the beginning of the reign of Richard II"


    In the early nineteenth century, the City of London and its parishes had a diversity of institutional resources to call on to accommodate pauper lunatics. It controlled Bethlem Hospital. St Lukes was just outside its "square mile", as were the large private pauper asylums at Hoxton and Bethnal Green. Many of the parishes had their own workhouses and, in Hoxton and elsewhere, there were also several private workhouses (pauper farm houses).

    Bethlem Hospital

    before - 1377 - City of London Bedlam - maps - 1676 - 1728 - 1730 - 1751 - 1764 - 1772 - 1792 - 1796 - 1804 - 1806 - 1815 - 1816 - 1819 - 1835 - 1843 - 1844 - 1845 - 1846 - 1850s - 1852 - 1930 - 1948 - 1997 (750 years) - Museum of the Mind - later 2015

    1375 The hospital seized as an alien priory by Edward 3rd. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1375-1378 (?). The patients of the "Stonehouse", Charing Cross, removed to Bethlehem Hospital. (O'Donoghue Chronology)

    1377: the Bishopsgate Bedlam (St Mary of Bethlem)
    1377 "Earliest known date of the use of Bethlem as an asylum." (O'Donoghue Chronology) ["Known" is overstating]
    1380-1395 (about). A brotherhood of Skinners meet in the church of St. Mary, Bethlehem, on Corpus Christi Day. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    2.3.1403 Henry 4th issued a commission to two of the royal chaplains to investigate charges made against the management of the hospital. Their report mentions six insane patients, the instruments of their restraint, and the hospital property at Charing Cross. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1403: visited: "during the 1403 visitation, the Porter stated that the Hospital then contained 'six insane men and three others who were sick". Andrews etc 1997 The History of Bethlem (Kindle Locations 2605-2606)].
    Compare Spain 1409
    1408 John Gower, the poet, left a legacy to Bethlem.
    1437 Commission to the mayor and aldermen to inquire into abuses at the hospital.
    1454 Hospital and its property farmed out by its master.
    1457 John Arundell, doctor of medicine and royal physician, appointed master.
    "If Bethlem was generally thought to be a madhouse as early as the 1460s, it was nearly a hundred years later before there is evidence that London's magistrates thought that only the mad should be admitted." [Andrews etc 1997 Kindle Locations 2857-2859].

    1519 Date of a certificate of admission into the confraternity of St Mary of Bethlem. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1529 George Boleyn, brother of Queen Anne Boleyn, appointed master. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1533
    Thomas Moore and the beating of the frenzied heretic
    1534 England breaks from Rome
    1536 on: monasteries dissolved - City gets Bethlem
    1543 The convocation of Canterbury denounces the "ungodly celebration of marriages" in Bethlem Hospital. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1545 Peter Mewtys, the master of Bethlem, grants a lease of the "Stone House, Charing Cross, recently converted into three tenements" [now Trafalgar Square]. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    27.12.1546 Deed of covenant between
    Henry 8th and the city, by which the king agrees to grant St Bartholomew's Hospital to the city: "and the king further granted that the said mayor, commonalty, and citizens, and their successors should be masters, rulers, and governors of the hospital, or house, called Bethlem." (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    13.1.1547 Letters patent, ratifying the deed of covenant, granted by Henry 8th, who dies seventeen days later.
    7.9.1549 The court of aldermen order the chamberlain to repay Sir Martin Bowes £113 6s. 8d., which he had expended for the purchase of Bethlehem Hospital. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1550 The liberty of Bethlem merged into the parish of St Botolph, Bishopsgate. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    26.6.1553 Bridewell Hospital incorporated by letters patent. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    19.7.1553 to 17.11.1558 Mary, Catholic Queen
    1556 Two aldermen and the chamberlain are to "examine the accounts of the hospital as kept by the keeper." (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    27.9.1557 Bethlem placed under the same management as Bridewell. (O'Donoghue Chronology)

    1559: Bethlem on oldest [Wyngrede] map of London [This image adapted from one used by the 1997 London exhibition]

    Sketch map position, red square

    Daniel Hack Tuke (1882) described (p.512) the Wyngrede map as worthless for tracing the outline of Bethlem. His outline (p.61) was based on the "Agas" map.

    Civitas Londinum is a bird's-eye view of London first printed from woodblocks in about 1561. Widely known as the "Agas map,"

     

    1562 Dickon of Bedlam one of the earliest of English comedies.
    1569 Sir T. Roe, mayor, causes an acre of ground in Bethlem (now part of Broad Street station) to be enclosed as a churchyard for strangers. (Stow 1603)
    1575 Old church of monastery, after serving as a foundry, pulled down, and a dozen houses erected in its place.
    1603 John Stow's A Survey of London.
    1604 The Honest Whore
    1606 The treasurer granted the revenues of eleven tenements in Bethlem "in consideration of his devotion." (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1609 The keeper to be paid sevenpence instead of sixpence each patient per week "on account of the dearness of the times." (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1612 Act of 9 James 2nd
    1615 Oldest surviving written lyrics of the ballad Mad Tom of Bedlam
    1618 Helkiah Crooke (1576-1648), physician to James 1st, non- resident "keeper"
    1619 Hilkiah Crooke, M.D., elected "keeper." (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1620 Mr Slater's complaint about his daughter's mistreatment
    1620 Yelverton, the attorney-general, sent to the Tower for corruptly inserting in a city charter certain clauses granting the corporation the custody of Bethlehem Hospital.
    1630 Accounts of Bethlem first separated from those of Bridewell. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1632 and 1633 Royal commissioners investigate scandals in the hospital. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1633 An enquiry into the affairs of Bethlem Hospital led to Helkiah Crooke's dismissal
    From 1634 a resident steward was responsible for the practical management. Also from the 1630s there was a (non-resident) physician.
    1638
    Charles 1st confirmed the charter of the hospital. (O'Donoghue Chronology) 1648.-Arbitration between hospital and its tenants in reference to property at Charing Cross.
    1656.-Daniel, Cromwell's porter, admitted as a patient.
    1666.-The fire of London, which destroys Bridewell, spares Bethlem.
    1674.-Suggested that hospital be removed to another site. Petition to be presented to Charles II for his "approbation and allowance." Lease of lands in Moorfields granted by the city corporation to the governors for the erection of a new hospital.
    1676: Moorfields Bedlam and pay to view insanity (sketch map)
    [A Sarah Rutherford case study]
    Architect: Robert Hooke
    The Bedlam page on Molly Brown's tour of Restoration London
    1684 Edward Tyson (1650-1708) physician
    1698-1770 Ned Ward's The London Spy - (archive)
    1700 David Irish in Guildford advertised "good fires, meat, and drink, with good attendance, and all necessaries far beyond what is allowed at Bedlam"
    1701 Henry Mackenzie The Man of Feeling - (archive)
    1704 Swift's Tale of a Tub (archive)
    1708 Death of Dr Edward Tyson
    1725-1734 Wards for male and female incurable patients constructed. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    2.10.1728 James Monro appointed physician
    1730s: wings for incurables added. These necessitated alteration to the airing courts.
    1733 Edward Barkham, of The Close, Lincoln, left part of his Lincolnshire estates for the maintenance of incurable patients. (O'Donoghue Chronology)

    1732-1733 Hogarth paints "Bedlam" - the eighth scene of the "Rake's Progress" (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1735 The 1997 London exhibition included "this famous image of Bedlam painted by William Hogarth in 1735... sometimes ... thought to be a faithful reflection of conditions ... This is the last in a series of eight paintings illustrating 'A Rake's Progress', a morality tale of the 1730s. In the first scene the rake (a weak-willed hedonist) comes into some money. He spends it all on drink, debauchery and dissolute pursuits. Finally his wretched life drives him mad and the moral of the tale is that he ends up as a lunatic."
    The 1997 exhibition argued that " Hogarth almost certainly exaggerated the scene to make a dramatic image and contrasted the painting with what it called "a more realistic illustration of the inside of the hospital 130 years later."

    1737 A General Committee of about 46 Governors appointed to administer Bridewell and Bethlem on behalf of the (large) Court of Governors
    1740: Susannah Wesley on "that wretched fellow Monroe"
    24.7.1751 John Monro appointed physician with his father
    4.11.1752: death of James Monro. John sole physician.
    From the 1750s a resident apothecary was appointed.
    21.4.1764 Following holiday riots at Christmas, Easter and Whitsun, it was ordered that constables and assistants be placed in the galleries during the forthcoming holiday.
    (Hunter and Macalpine 1963 p.427)
    1766 The doors of the hospital to be locked on public holidays against all visitors. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    John Monro's 1766 Case Book
    1770 Admission of visitors henceforth to be only by ticket, and accredited visitors to be accompanied by an attendant. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1770 Visiting restricted to people with tickets of admission from a Governor. By 1779, visiting was restricted to Mondays and Wednesdays (by 1794, "between the hours of ten and twelve o,clock in the forenoon". On 22.5.1779 it was ordered that the number of visitors on one ticket be limited to the person who it was made out to and three others, to curb the "great number of persons admitted". (Hunter and Macalpine 1963 p.428 + 429)
    1772 John Gozna Apothecary to Bedlam.
    1782 An act of parliament ratifies the union of Bridewell and Bethlem, and settles the dispute between the common council and other governors.
    (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1783 Thomas Bowen, An Historical Account of the Origin, Progress , and Present State of Bethlem Hospital, founded by Henry the Eighth, for the Cure of Lunatics, and Enlarged by Subsequent Benefactors, for the Reception and Maintenance of Incurables. London: For the Governors 1783,
    1787:
    Thomas Monro appointed assistant to his father
    1791 Hannah Snell, the female marine, a patient. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    27.12.1791: death of John, Thomas Monro succeeds
    1795: John Haslam (born London 1764, died July 1844) succeeded John Gozna as Apothecary to Bedlam.
    October 1796: Mary Lamb fearful of being confined in Bethlem
    "There are many persons now living who can remember passing the gates of old Bethlehem and hearing, as they passed, the cut of the lash and the screams of its victims". (1849 memo on new style asylum)
    31.12.1798 241 patients
    1799 201 patients admitted
    Bethlem on 1799 map of London (sketch map)
    1800 Architect reports the hospital to be in an insecure condition. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1800-1809 Negotiations about a new site. (O'Donoghue Chronology)

    31.12.1799 243 patients
    1800 235 patients admitted
    31.12.1800 266 patients
    1801 195 patients admitted
    31.12.1801 237 patients
    1802 185 patients admitted
    31.12.1802 201 patients
    1803 180 patients admitted
    31.12.1803 220 patients
    1804 150 patients admitted
    "N.B: During this Year one of the Wings of the Hospital was taken down" (p.390) [Probably refers to 1804, could be 1805]
    1804 to 1806 Urbane Metcalf a patient for the first time. His case note on his second stay (1817-1818) say "he is frequently engaged in the occupation of a tailor.. but I am informed that he gets his living out of doors as a hawker and pedlar." In 1817 he considered himself heir to the throne of Denmark, and was suffering as much from depression as delusions. He was discharged cured.
    "I spent twenty-two months in that dreary abode, Old Bethlem Hospital; not more I believe than six weeks during that time I was incapable, through indisposition, of judging the occurrences that daily took place. From the supineness of the then physician, the cruelty of the apothecary, the weakness of the steward, and the uncontrolled audacity of the keepers [scenes took place that should have been discovered if only six humane people a year had visited] but what was the fact? it stood in the midst of the most populous city in Europe... was almost daily visited by some of the most exalted characters in the country, as well as by feigners. Part of the time, I occupied the next room to... Norris... the iron bar to which he was fastened stood at the foot of my bed."
    Begining of June 1804 Medical officers requesting further confinement for James Norris, which might be secured by allocating two cells to him, one for day, the other for night, with a door between. "but on account of the way in which the Hospital was kept constantly filled by patients from the Army and Navy, it was not thought advisable to adopt this plan" [which] "would necessarily prevent some one patient from being detained in the hospital" (25.6.1814, p. 378-379). [12.5.1815, John Haslam was asked whether "nine or ten years ago" there were empty cells. He replied "I think, from the war, we had them pouring in from the Transport Board and the War Office" (p.103)
    16.6.1804 Governors sign order that James Norris "be put in the iron apparatus, prepared for him" (p.382)
    31.12.1804 186 patients
    1805 44 patients admitted
    Decline in numbers may have been due to deteriorating conditions of the building making some parts uninhabitable. [At some time] many pauper lunatics were moved to Warburton's in Bethnal Green
    31.12.1805 127 patients
    1806 64 patients admitted
    1806: Transport Board responsible for naval maniacs. See description of relations with Hoxton House etc
    31.12.1806 135 patients
    1807 54 patients admitted
    31.12.1807 126 patients
    1808 85 patients admitted
    31.12.1808 147 patients
    1809 103 patients admitted
    31.12.1809 143 patients
    1810 92 patients admitted
    31.12.1810 147 patients
    1811 99 patients admitted
    31.12.1811 148 patients
    1812 88 patients admitted
    31.12.1812 146 patients
    1813 106 patients admitted
    31.12.1813 143 patients
    1814 93 patients admitted
    31.12.1814: 119 patients.

    1812-1815 Building the third Bethlem in St. George's Fields, Southwark. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    25.4.1814: Edward Wakefield's first visit
    2.5.1814 Edward Wakefield's party visit the women's galleries where they find a side room with ten chained patients clothed only in blanket gowns. In a cell on the lower gallery they found William Norris, 55 years old, who said he had been confined about fourteen years. [Norris is William in Wakefield's account (p.47 following) and James in the account by the Governors of Bethlem (p.376 following).
    7.6.1814: drawing made of William Norris, in restraint
    1815: St George's Field Bedlam and criminal lunatics. Patients transferred 24.8.1815. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    Piddock, S. 2002: Linear design: wards over three full storeys and an attic floor. Men and women accommodated in mirror wings on either side of a central administrative section. Accommodation primarily in single cells with a small spur ward on either side providing three cells for the noisy. Arlidge, J.T. 1859 "argued that most, if not all, lunatic asylums were based on the design of Bethlem Hospital, itself based on the monasteries which had provided the early asylums for the insane".
    1815 and 1816 Parliamentary inquiries into the treatment of patients. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1816 Criminal blocks completed and occupied. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    July 1816: John Haslam and Thomas Monro not re-appointed, but Thomas succeeded by his son, Edward Thomas Monro and another (jointly appointed) physician, Sir George Leman Tuthill (born 1772, died 1835). Reforms in the management introduced about this time included keeping case notes on patients. The British Library Catalogue lists To the Governors of the Royal Hospitals of Bridewell and Bethlem, etc. [Asking for support in his candidature for the post of physician to the Hospitals] by Sir George Leman Tuthill, London, 1816.
    1.6.1817 to 12.11.1818 Urbane Metcalf a patient for the second time. On his release he published a pamphlet The Interior of Bethlem Hospital which he sold around London (3d a copy?).
    "I... became again a patient in the New Bethlem Hospital, and am happy to be able to state that I found many alterations in the provisions, and in other things that greatly added to the comfort of patients, and to the honour of those governors through whom those alterations were effected. I found there were four galleries, and that the patients in one gallery had seldom access to those in another, except when in the green yard, and the establishment to be considerably larger, but not so many patients. I became Dr Tothill's patient, and was put in the upper gallery, Thomas Rodbird keeper. I wish to observe that I have read the printed rules of the establishment, and their principle is good, the comforts of the patients are secured in every respect, but these regulations are departed from and the keepers do just as they please."

    Urbane then lists the staff [this is of the male side] as Physicians: Drs Tothill and E.T. Munro; Apothecary: Mr Wallett; Steward: Mr Humbly; Porter: Simmons; Keepers: Allen and Goose (first gallery or basement); Dowie (second gallery); Blackburn (third gallery); Rodbird (fourth gallery); Cutter: Vickery.

    "It is to be observed that the basement is appropriated for those patients who are not cleanly in their persons, and who, on that account have no beds, but lay on straw with blankets and a rug; but I am sorry to say, it is too often made a place of punishments, to gratify the unbounded cruelties of the keepers.

    The present physicians, I think too supine: providence has placed them in situations wherein they have it in their power greatly to add to, or diminish from the comfort of the unfortunate; I have known patients make just complains to them, which have been received with the utmost indifference, and not at all attended to."

    Urbane arranges his complaint under sub-headings of the keepers and officers names, attempting to show how the institution is being run for their benefit, at the expense of the patients

    March 1819: E. Wright appointed Apothecary Superintendent
    October 1830:
    Dr E. Wright, Apothecary Superintendent, dismissed, having forfeited the confidence of the Governors. [Note that he calls it "the Royal Hospital of Bethlem"]
    1830 Exchange of the "Trafalgar Square" estate with the Crown for property in Piccadilly. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    Consultant physician (with E.T. Monro) from 1835 to 1853: Alexander Morison
    1837 Visitation by Mr F. O. Martin, a charity commissioner. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1837 extensions to the building
    1838 Front garden leased by city to hospital and road diverted. Foundation stone of new buildings laid. Frontage extended east and west, and southern wings lengthened. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1840 Site of Barkham Terrace purchased.
    1841 Census: (ages of adults are given to nearest five years) Nathanial Nicholls, Steward, 50. Hannah Nicholls, 45. John Thomas, Apothecary, 45. Mary Thomas, 35. Henrietta Hearn, Matron, 40. John Hearn, 20. William Brown, Porter, 50. Thomas Medley?, Gate Keeper, 40. Elizabeth Medley, 30. Mary David, Kitchen Maid, 30. Charles French, Cutter of Provisions, 30. Three Laundry Maids. Twelve male Keepers. Twelve female Keepers. William Howard, Gardener, 35. Mary Pandigrath, Housemaid, aged 15. Harriet Eliza Hunter, aged 15 (an officer's relative). Five female servants to officers and two male. 167 male patients. 166 female patients, 333 total patients.
    Friday 7.4.1843 Mr Hume (MP) objected to £4,122 being "granted for defraying the expense of maintaining criminal lunatics in Bethlem Hospital". He visited them "many times at intervals, and there were several...who appeared to him to be perfectly sane. Mr Hatfield, among others. Hume wanted a way that "offenders... who had their intellects restored...should no longer enjoy comparative impunity".
    1844 Bethlem Hospital, St George's Fields, South London.

    1.1.1844: 355 patients of whom 90 were criminals.

    Bethlem was outside the Metropolitan Commission's investigative authority. For statistical purposes:

    "In the absence of any specific information ... we have entered the Criminal Lunatics ... seventy Males and twenty Females, as Paupers. We have also assumed that the remainder of the Patients ... generally, are of Private class, although we have reason to believe that some of them are maintained, wholly or in part, at the charge of Unions or Parishes" (1844 Report p.186)"

    1844 First padded rooms constructed: workshops for patients completed.
    (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1844-1846 Chapel and dome built by S. Smirke. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    The Lancet 15.2.1845: Editorial comparing Bethlem unfavourably with Bicêtre and Salpétrière in Paris which are "open to all pupils and medical men, who have a right to follow the physicians in their daily visits to the wards". "The directors of Bethlem have, it is true, lately relaxed the extreme severity of their regulations, and distributed amongst the schools a few tickets of admission, for which we give them due credit, but this relaxation of former rules is by no means sufficient. Every facility should be afforded to students to acquire a familiar knowledge of insanity, and our hospitals ought to be freely open..."
    1846: Dome, designed by Sidney Smirke, added
    27.11.1846 Visit by John Thomas Perceval to Arthur Legent Pearce
    1851: "the Commissioners in Lunacy... gained entry for the first time in 1851 on a Secretary of State's warrant to investigate complaints of maltreatment which had been laid before them"
    28.6.1851 Visit of lunacy commissioners to inquire into allegations against the treatment of certain patients by their nurses. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1852:: Critical Report
    William Charles Hood became Resident Medical Superintendent
    1.11.1853 Bethlem registered for periodical inspection by the lunacy commissioners.
    1862 W.C. Hood became a Chancery Visitor. Succeeded as Resident Medical Superintendent by William Rhys Williams
    1863: and 1864 criminal lunatics sent to Broadmoor (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1866 City of London Lunatic Asylum at Stone opened
    "This engraving shows the wards in the 1860s after efforts to make them more comfortable and cheerful. Patients were segregated and this engraving shows one of the women's wards. It was furnished with flowers, ornaments and bird cages. (1997 London exhibition). This picture was contrasted with Hogarth and described as "a more realistic illustration of the inside of the hospital 130 years later".
    1864 On the recommendation of the charity commissioners, governors agree to select a site for a convalescent home and to appoint resident clinicals. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1865-1870 The Liverpool Street estates of the hospital purchased by the Great Eastern and the Metropolitan Railway Companies. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1870 First party of convalescent patients goes to Witley, Surrey. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1878 William Rhys Williams became a Lunacy Commissioner. Succeeded as Resident Medical Superintendent by George Henry Savage.
    1881 Census: "Bethlem Royal Hospital", St Georges Cross, Southwark - St George Martyr, Surrey. Resident Officer (Physician) George Henry Savage, widower, aged 38, born Brighton. His housekeeper and housemaid. A friend, Wilhelm Von Speyr (physician aged 28), from Basle in Switzerland was visiting. William Edward Ramsden Wood: Medical Officer (Physician), aged 31. His wife, children and servants. The Gate Porter and his wife. Under Storekeeper. Cutter of Provisions. Assistant Hall Porter. Edmund Smeeth, married, aged 63: Head Attendant Male Side and 15 male and 21 female "Attendants on Insane". A laundress. A housemaid. Another female domestic servant. About 255 patients, only about 94 of whom were men. There were also two "other" and one "visitor". The Gardener, Richard Whibley, and his large family, lived at St Edwards Schools in St Georges Road. Two of his daughters were training to be teachers.
    1882 Charity commissioners gave permission for paying patients to be admitted.
    1892 Under the Dome (the hospital magazine) first issued.
    1896 extensions to the building
    1896 Recreation hall opened.
    (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1904 Hospital closed from February to October for re-drainage and repairs. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1907 Fire causes some damage to recreation hall. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1912 Pathologist and other specialists added to the medical staff. (O'Donoghue Chronology)
    1914 Edward Geoffrey O'Donoghue The Story of Bethlehem Hospital from its Foundation in 1247 London: T. Fisher Unwin,
    1923 Edward Geoffrey O'Donoghue Bridewell Hospital: Palace, prison, school Volume one: "From the earliest times to the end of the reign of Elizabeth"
    1929 Edward Geoffrey O'Donoghue Bridewell Hospital: Palace, prison, school Volume two: "From the death of Elizabeth to modern times".

    Under the Dome became Orchard Leaves when the hospital moved to Kent in 1930.
    In the 1920s the Hospital's Governors concluded that "for a hospital for the educated middle classes Southwark was not an ideal location", and began looking for an alternative.

    They found a 334 acre country house estate that straddled the boundary between Croydon and Beckenham, Kent that had remained unsold at auction in 1920.

    19th century Bedlam and 20th century war: The patients' wings and most of the hospital at St George's Field were demolished in 1931 and 1932. The administrative block and dome, and parts of the 1837 and 1896 extensions remained as the Imperial War Museum, opened in this building on 7.7.1936.

    1930: Kent Bethlem Hospital
    Location 4
    See Jennifer Walke
    Bethlem Royal Hospital, Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, Kent. [Now BR3 3BX]

    The new hospital was built on the 'villa system', with separate blocks for "administration, occupational therapy, refractory patients, convalescent patients, treatment and research, along with a nurses' home, chapel, reception hospital, mortuary, workshops and a laundry"

    Bethlem Royal Hospital: Prospectus, 1932 pages 6-7

    ...admission to this Monks Orchard Hospital carries with it the "Hall Mark" of curability, and as such, whenever the word "Bethlem" is used, it means "curable"'. Accommodation is provided for 250 patients - 141 ladies and 109 gentlemen - each of whom must be of a suitable educational status. Patients who are eligible may be admitted either on a Voluntary, Temporary or Certified footing, but in all cases treatment in the early stage of illness is advisable and, in fact, desirable. Patients are thus graded according to their varying type of symptoms, and the separate units, or houses, provide appropriate care and treatment for their individual needs, which is further enhanced by the provision of separate bedrooms, whenever deemed necessary.

    about the 1930s "Bethlem kept a folder of marketing materials from other institutions across the country" (Jennifer Walke)

    Bethlem graphs - before and after nationalisation
    From
    Jennifer Walke 27.5.2015

    In-patient age distribution 1931 to 1947

    "a rising tide of voluntary admissions from the 1930s coincided with the emergence of 'psycho-neuroses', a category in which women were over- represented. Women also outlived and outnumbered men"

    In-patient age distribution 1952 to 1983

    Post war patients were much more evenly distributed between men and women. The main reason for this was probably that the hospital was no longer selecting fee-paying patients.

    Distribution of key diagnoses 1952-1983
    In the National Health Service, Bethlem increasing provided for patients of both sexes with a psychotic diagnosis.

    1948: The Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals, London
    [Same locations] Administratively, the two hospitals amalgamated as a single postgraduate teaching hospital in the new National Health Service.

  • 1948-1982 Bethlem Royal Hospital and Maudsley Hospital (the Joint Hospital)

  • 1982-1994 The Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital Special Health Authority

  • 1994 -1999 The Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital NHS Trust

  • 1999-2006 South London and Maudsley NHS Trust

  • 2006 South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

    1947 After army service, Felix Post (25.7.1913-23.3.2001) joined the Bethlem Maudsley Hospital, where he remained until he retired in 1978. The Felix Post unit for older people is his memorial. There were many papers and three famous books: The Significance of Affective Symptoms in Old Age (1962), The Clinical Psychiatry of Late Life (1965) and Persistent Persecutory States of the Elderly (1966)." (source).

    Felix Post wrote a short autobiographical account of the earliest days of old age psychiatry in Britain called 'In the beginning'.

    Claire Hilton in the Dictionary of National Biography says "Lewis earmarked him to lead the proposed geriatric unit at the Bethlem Royal Hospital 'I obeyed . to say without enthusiasm would be an understatement', he later said (Post, 'In the beginning', 15). But within a few years any reluctance to work with older people had been transformed into a therapeutic optimism and a zeal for the specialism. His in-patient ward, out-patient clinics, research, teaching, and the Gresham Club (a pioneering after-care club for former in-patients) all flourished. But the medical committee kept a tight rein on further developments, in particular not permitting longer-term treatment of dementia within the hospital, much to Post's chagrin"

    After the war, Denis Leigh moved to the Maudsley Hospital from the neurological department of London Hospital. He trained with Erich Guttman and C P Blacker and spent a year at the Harvard Medical School. Returning to London in 1949, he was appointed consultant at the Maudsley and Bethlem Hospitals. [Munk's Roll] - "based primarily at the Maudsley; last Physician to the Bethlem" (King's College archive)

    1949 Wards for boys (17 beds) and girls (18 beds) established in Tyson (Bethlem). "These were the first adolescent inpatient wards to be established in England".

    1951 Gresham (Bethlem) converted to a unit for patients over 60. Fully operational by 1952.

    1954 Robert Hobson appointed physician to Bethlem. He worked there until 1974. The Tyson West Two inpatient unit was a general psychiatric ward incrementally requisitioned for psychotherapy purposes. It closed in 1972 when the Charles Hood unit opened.

    "At the Bethlem, he directed for some 20 years an in-patient unit, run on therapeutic community lines, for the treatment of patients with long-standing personality disorders, whilst also supervising and teaching widely as well as carrying his own caseload" David A. Shapiro The Independent 29.11.1999


    Robert Frederick Hobson, psychiatrist and psychotherapist: born Rawtenstall, Lancashire 18 May 1920; Physician, Bethlem Royal Hospital 1954-74; Consultant Psychotherapist, Manchester Royal Infirmary 1974-85; Reader in Psychotherapy, Manchester University 1974-85, Honorary Emeritus Reader 1985-99; married 1946 Marjorie Brett (two sons, one daughter); died Stockport, Cheshire 13 November 1999.

    1957 A summary listed 238 inpatient beds across 11 Bethlem wards, plus '30-40' day hospital places. (Email from Jennifer Walke 12.7.2015)

    1961 Denis Leigh's The Historical Development of British Psychiatry included photographs of items "from the author's collection". King's College archive has "black and white photographs of rare pamphlets and typescript drafts and preparatory notes, [1960]" for the production of Denis Leigh's book. It seems likely that Denis Leigh's collection contributed to the museum.

    1962 (Hospital Plan) "The postgraduate psychiatric teaching hospital (the Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital) is situated in" [the South-East Metropolitan Region]. It is estimated that 20 per cent of its beds are used by patients resident in the Region and the rest by patients from other regions" (p.139)
    "It will be possible to reduce very considerably the size of non- teaching hospitals for mental illness".
    445 beds in 1960. Expected to have 445 beds in 1975.
    No beds for mental subnormality in 1960. Expected to have 25 beds by 1975 (p.140)

    1967 The Maudsley took over the management of the district catchment area service for the mentally ill.

    1966 Aubrey Lewis retired

    1968 Studies in psychiatry : a survey of work carried out in the Department of Psychiatry of the Institute of Psychiatry, under the chairmanship of Sir Aubrey Lewis, 1945-66 edited by Michael Shepherd and D. L. Davies. London ; New York : Oxford University Press 1968 xi and 345 pages. Photographic portrait of Sir Aubrey Lewis forms frontispiece.

    1970 The Bethlem Museum established in small exhibition space in the new building which housed the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital archives - external link - archive: "Originally intended to display historical documents and the few pictures and artefacts which had already been passed to the archives department for safekeeping, it was first opened to the public as the Bethlem Historical Museum". See 2001 - 2015 Museum of the Mind

    1971 Bethlem and Maudsley Teaching Hospital. 405 beds. 338 resident patients on 31.12.1971. 83% bed occupancy (low). No dormitories with over 30 beds. (Exceptionally) most beds were in "special in-patient units or wards", listed as children 26 beds - mentally handicapped children 24 beds - adolescent 35 beds - drug addiction 22 beds - alcoholic 12 beds - security (locked ward) 17 beds - metabolic 8 beds - psychotherapy 19 beds - behaviour therapy 12 beds - professorial unit 90 beds approximately

    1974-1975? Charlotte Johnson Wahl's nine months as Maudsley patient?
    "I suffered from depression and in 1974 ended up spending nine months at the Maudsley Hospital," "It was awful and I don't want to go into it, but it would be fair to say we did not make each other happy." Charlotte Johnson Wahl in the Daily Mail

    One Good Year: Being an in-patient in the Charles Hood Unit, Bethlem Royal Hospital, 1974 -1975 by Jackie Hopson,

    1977 James Alexander Culpin MacKeith (29.10.1938 - 5.8.2007) appointed consultant. Previously at Brixton Prison and Broadmoor. He was given responsibility for developing a new secure unit for offenders with mental disorders and after its inauguration, in 1985, MacKeith continued to look after patients there until he retired.

    1978 Retirement of Felix Post

    18.9.1980 "The opening of the Interim Medium Secure Unit at Bethlem in 1980 was preceded by discussions with local residents to allay fears. Jimmy Savile OBE, television presenter, was invited to open the unit, an event that, despite the bad weather, was regarded as 'a most successful exercise in public relations'." ( Andrews etc 1997 (Kindle Locations 2013-2006). - Opening of the Interim Medium Secure Unit on Tyson West one ward, which was the predecessor to the Denis Hill Unit.

    A fifteen-bed interim secure unit at the Bethlem Royal Hospital has been functioning since October 1980. During the first 14 months 23 patients were admitted; 16 were males and 7 were females. All had committed dangerous acts but very few had a long history of criminal behaviour. The most common diagnosis was schizophrenia. Personality disorder was not a predominant feature in the majority of cases. Generally the aim is not to provide a full rehabilitation programme but rather to emphasize assessment and treatment of 'problem behaviour' until such time as an individual could properly be managed in an ordinary psychiatric unit in one of the local specialized 'area clinics' (Gisli H. Gudjonsson and James A. C. MacKeith on the first fourteen months)

    1982 The Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital Special Health Authority

    Special health authorities were to provide a national service to the NHS or the public, under section 11 of the National Health Service Act 1977.

    1983 Jennifer Walke's research finishes at 1983. She chose to study the period between two mental health acts. 1930 corresponds to the new location for Bethlem. 1983 corresponds with the start of the period in which asylums were closed, but Maudsley and Bethlem were in a special position as they are a teaching hospital and maintain in-patient facilities for teaching purposes. 1983 does not have the special significance for the hospital that 1930 does.

    1985 The Denis Hill Unit at the Bethlem Hospital opened.

    1994 The Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust

    1995 the management of Croydon mental health services, including Warlingham Park Hospital, was taken over by the Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust. Warlingham Park was closed in March 1999, and the archives passed into the care of the Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum.

    "The reputation locally was interesting. Because it didn't serve the local community, nobody was really interested in it...My take on it was the local community didn't seem to get that interested in it until the Croydon services started coming on site in the 1990s." (Current nurse quoted Chaney, S. and Walke, J. 2015)

    1994 Conference held in the Maudsley Hospital for service users and mental health professionals with the aim of trying to bring about a dialogue between the two groups. (A service user initiative). From that conference and a similar second conference, a group emerged which decided to work on issues of concern to service users. Communicate

    1997 Bethlem Royal Hospital 750 years old
    The Bethlem Gallery is a permanent exhibition space in the grounds of the Bethlem Royal Hospital. The gallery was set up in 1997 to provide opportunities for artists who have experienced mental health problems.
    March 1997 Psychiatric Bulletin "The Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust will be celebrating its 750 Anniversary of the Bethlem Royal Hospital, with many events during 1997 including a joint Royal College of Psychiatrists and Maudsley Winter Meeting to be held in London in 1998. Further details for events: The Anniversary Office, The Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SES 8AZ (Tel: 0171 919 2014; Fax: 0171 9192171)".
    3.6.1997 All in the Mind BBC Radio 4: "Bedlam" Presented by Professor Anthony Clare. Programme to mark the 750th anniversary. Wellcome Film and Audio Collections shelf mark MFAC/HM/97.06.
    source

    21.6.1997 Staff Summer Ball at Bethlem
    22.6.1997 Family Spectacular "An open afternoon at Bethlem on a spectacular scale. We welcome the general public as well as staff, users and carers. Shows will include jousting and medieval pageantry, a celebrity raffle draw and the launch of 750 balloons, a wide range of activities for all the family, a marquee with music and afternoon tea, and an array of stalls with food, arts and crafts."
    15.7.1997 BBC Radio 3 Broadcast: "A medical history". "Claudia Hammond visits the Maudsley Hospital which this year celebrates 750 years of treating the mentally ill". National Sound Archive reference H9034/2
    source
    4.9.1997 to 30.9.1997 The Arts and Our Users. An exhibition of current art work on display at the Community Centre, Bethlem Royal Hospital as part of the 750th - "A celebration of the creativity of service users. We are having an artist-in-residence to facilitate a range of exhibitions and activities. We are also publishing and illustrated book of poetry written by users and staff"
    9.9.1997 to 8.12.1997 Art and Psychiatry Exhibition at the Kunstforum in Vienna "Art from the Bethlem Archives will be part of this major international exhibition archive".
    Kunst and Wahn (Art and Madness): Ausstellung, Kunstforum Wien, 5.9.1997 - 8.12.1997, edited by Ingried Brugger and others. 1997. Subjects: Max Ernst (1891-1976) - Richard Dadd (1817-1886) and Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985).
    7.10.1997 to 15.3.1998 Exhibition on the History of Bethlem at the Museum of London
    The Museum of London website opened in 1997 - first
    archive 28.1.1998 - The first digital exhibition was "Bedlam: Custody, Care and Cure". Museums were still charging for admission.
    Friday 10.10.1997 to Sunday 10.10.1997 International Nursing Congress Kensington Town Hall. Organised by Nursing Times in association with the Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust. Included Eilleen Skeller lecture.
    See Reclaim Bedlam
    10.10.1997 "Publication of a national collection of user's poetry. The launch marks World Mental Health Day and National poetry Day" [Original programme]. Collection was called Beyond Bedlam: Poems written out of Mental Distress
    18.10.1997 British Medical Journal review of "Bedlam: Custody, Care and Cure".
    Thursday 23.10.1997 Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral 11am "Cardinal Hume will give the address".
    Friday 24.10.1997 Launch of book,
    The History of Bethlem Hospital. Symposium at the Wellcome Trust. - Google Books link
    27.10.1997 to 29.7.1997 "Mental Health in the City" An international conference hosted by the King's Fund and the Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust (source)
    Wednesday 29.10.1997 The Maudsley Alumni Dinner
    Thursday 30.10.1997 Institute of Psychiatry Symposium A review of current and future research
    15.11.1997 Survivors Poetry launch of Beyond Bedlam: Poems written out of Mental Distress
    December 1997 through April 1998 Exhibition of art from the Bethlem Archives at the Science Museum, London.
    20.1.1998 to 23.1.1998 Royal College of Psychiatrists' Winter Meeting, London. Royal Lancaster Hotel, London. Joint meeting with Maudsley to mark the 750th anniversary.

    17.12.1998 First official meeting of SIMBA (Share In Maudsley Black Action), the Black Patient/User/Survivor group in the Maudsley Hospital, held in the Visitor and User Centre at the Maudsley.     SIMBA: let the tiger
roar

    1999 South London and Maudsley NHS Trust formed by the merger of Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust, Lewisham and Guys NHS Trust and the mental healthcare services of Lambeth Healthcare Trust - See map

    2000

    Zoe Reed January 2000 Zoe Reed became Executive Director Strategy and Business Development, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, having previously worke for Camden and then Watford Councils. She approached SIMBA about participation.
    SIMBA was "one of a number of self-organised service user groups operating in the trust"... "In the summer of 2000 we decided to focus on the black service user's experience at the trust's annual general meeting in September"... "Part of the trust's new way of operating is to organise events or meetings so they feel more inclusive and open. The AGM was held in a large open room, informally laid out with information stalls around the edge. The only chairs were the half circle set out for SIMBA's use. The formal business of the AGM took about ten minutes and we then turned our attention to SIMBA's performance." (Mental Health Today August 2002)

    2001

    South London and Maudsley NHS Trust - web archive 2.6.2001 to 2.7.2007
    "South London and Maudsley NHS Trust provides mental health and substance misuse services to people from Croydon, Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, and substance misuse services in Bexley, Greenwich and Bromley. We also provide specialist services to people from across the UK.
    Trust Locations: Many of our services are based at large sites, including The Maudsley, St Thomas, Guy's, Lewisham and the Bethlem Royal hospitals.

    Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum
2001 Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum
    Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 3BX
    2001: "The small museum displays a remarkable collection of pictures by artists who have suffered from mental disorder, including Richard Dadd, Vaslav Nijinsky and Louis Wain: also the statues of 'Raving and Melancholy Madness' from the gates of 17th century Bedlam, and other material relating to the history of psychiatry. The archives contain records of the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitals from the sixteenth century on."
    Royal Bethlem Hospital Museum - archive   other museums

    2001 Service Users Research Enterprise (SURE) started.

    2006 South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

    16.11.2014 "Next month will be probably the last chance to visit an old museum in the grounds of the Bethlem hospital before it closes for good. For once, this is a good thing, for the rather small and tired old museum is to be replaced with a much larger building, and also still within the grounds of the hospital."... "within a small room stand a few works of art with small detailed cards explaining why they were chosen and the suffering of the person who created them. A few bits of historic artifacts and a few boards explaining the history of the hospital, and well, that's about it." (Ian Mansfield's visit to the old museum). This museum closed Saturday 13.12.2014.

    2015

    Clues for getting to the Museum of the Mind and Bethlem (Art) Gallery One way is to go to Eden Park railway station, which is 30 minutes from London Bridge station, and then walk (15 to 20 minutes) or take a 356 bus (towards Shirley).

    Walk: Turn left as you come out of the station and go past the petrol station on your left (the road splits into two with the petrol station in the middle). Go to the roundabout and go right onto Monks Orchard Road and the hospital is on that road on your right.

    Bethlem Museum of the Mind Wednesday 18.2.2015 Bethlem Museum became Bethlem Museum of the Mind (website) when it reopened in a new location "a short distance away".

    The Bethlem (art) Gallery (website) also opened in the same building.

    The museum is arranged thematically, beginning with a chronology of the hospital sites and continuing through an introduction to "worth a visit?"

    "Worth a visit?" is a reminder that the Museum of the Mind is not the first Bethlem exhibition as, for over a hundred years, the Moorfields Bethlem put lunatics on public display (for a fee). The following sections are labelling and diagnosis - temperament - freedom and constraint - heal or harm - and recovery? Bethlem Museum of the Mind Plan
    Notice the question marks. This is a critical museum and there is a space for you to sit and contemplate the questions it raises. Here are some questions:

    Labelling and diagnosis What are the differences in how a diagnosis is made? What difference is there between medical and common English meanings of illness terms? Is diagnosis stigmatising?

    Temperament   Feelings (emotions) link diagnosis with constraint and contemplation. Would you like to be in a padded cell or in a garden?

    Freedom and constraint How does physical restrain compare with chemical restraint?

    Heal or harm? "Bleeding, purging, vomiting and bathing were general modes of treatment at Bethlem until well into the nineteenth century. Originally conceived as strategies for restoring the body's four humours to their proper, healthful balance, they continued in use well past the Renaissance alongside measures of physical restraint as means of patient management rather than of medicine. In the nineteenth century, these gave way to the therapeutic optimism of 'moral management' and non-restraint; which in turn gave way to twentieth-century talking and occupational therapies and a range of biological and chemical interventions. Were these intended as exercises in care or control; and, whatever the intentions, what were the outcomes?"

    Recovery? "To what extent does recovery exist in the eye of the beholder - either individual or society as whole? Is it the ability to live a meaningful life even though symptoms may recur and need treatment? Is recovery merely the ability to conform to what society regards as acceptable behaviour? Or is it the ability to manage without drugs, reliance on services etc.? Is recovery measurable anyway, by what standards, using what evidence? How is recovery represented and by whom?"


    April 2015 Project started growing dyeing plants in the green house of the Main Occupational Therapy Department at Bethlem Royal Hospital by Magic Dye House. Art Workshops started on October 2015. These led to an exhibition called "Woad, Weld and Madder: from plot to palette" from 24.2.2016 to 18.3.2016.

    "With the evolution of modern paints artists and textile makers no longer have to manufacture their own pigments and the link between colours and their origin is disappearing. The communal and healing experience of harvesting and producing dyes from plant materials has also largely been lost from western society."

    Plants grown in the hospital's Walled Garden. Patients harvest and prepare pigments and then use them in the Occupational Therapy art and textile studios to experiment with, colouring fabrics, painting with watercolours and mark making.


    external link to map with arrow pointing to present site of Royal Bethlem. Notice the sites of several other asylums in south London.

    For Bethlem's history:

    see the Timeline for 1377, 1676, 1815, 1852, 1863, 1930, on this site

    Follow external links for
    The word "Bedlam": lovatts.com - xref entry
    Brief History of Bethlem, by Patricia Allderidge - archive
    Catholic Encyclopedia
    West Beckenham Association history - archive
    Museum of London web exhibit at
    http://www.museum-london.org.uk/MOLsite/exhibits/bedlam/bedlam.htm
    archive
    Mad Tom of Bedlam lyrics and midi from the Living History web. Using a Civil War tune.
    Tom O'Bedlam's Song. Fuller version
    Bedlam on stage from the Shakespeare's times website
    Robert Hooke's architecture (Moorfield's Bedlam)
    The Bedlam page on Molly Brown's tour of Restoration London
    History on the John Snow site
    Texts of visits to Bedlam on Jack Lynch's site
    Web exhibition of Hogarths' prints - inluding the Rake's Progress
    Hogarth prints on the ArtArchive site
    Donald Cousin's visits remains and plaques

    For today's Royal Bethlem:
    BBC Mental Health "Inside a hospital"
    South London and Maudsley NHS Trust

    Catalogue of Records

     
    In the 1860s Bethlem became a hospital for the "superior class". Criminals were sent to Broadmoor and paupers to:

    City of London Lunatic Asylum

    (map link) (See also the London County Council asylum at Bexley)

    Built by the Corporation of London at Stone near Dartford, Kent during 1862 to 1866. Designed by James Bunstone Bunning, the City's Clerk of the Works (later City Architect and Surveyor).
    Opened 16.4.1866. (Later additions made)
    1881 census: Medical Superintendent: Octavious Jepson (Widower); Assistant Medical Officer: Frank William Marlow
    From 1892, private patients were admitted.
    From 1924 known as the City of London Mental Hospital.
    From 1924 able to receive voluntary boarders
    The Committee of Visitors had originally been composed of the Aldermen and Recorder as Justices, but under the Local Government Act 1888 the Justices powers and duties passed to the City's Court of Common Council which appointed 12 of its members to be the Visiting Committee. 2 Women were added to the committee from January 1931 (Under the Mental Treatment Act 1930).
    In 1948 the hospital was transferred to the Minister of Health under the National Health Service Act 1946.
    Became Stone House Hospital, Cotton Lane, Stone, Dartford, Kent, DA2 6AU.
    The hospital is due to close and will be converted into luxury apartments.
    The City of London Record Office has most of the archives (to 1948/1949), but some appear to be in the London Metropolitan Archive

    St Clement's

    The City of London Union Workhouse opened in 1849. "Built as a workhouse in 1848-1849, the palatial design by Richard Tress cost over £55,000 to construct and boasted central heating, a dining- hall measuring 100 feet by 50 feet, Siberian marble pillars, and a chapel with stained glass windows and a new organ."

    1874 Converted into an infirmary for the City Union

    With the reconstruction of Homerton Workhouse in 1909, Bow was superfluous to the Union's needs and was closed, but in 1912 it was re-opened as Bow Institution to treat the chronic sick. Bow Infirmary.

    Peter Higginbotham's site says:

    "In 1909, it was vacated by the City of London Union who had decided to concentrate their work at Homerton in the former East London Union workhouse which had just been substantially enlarged.

    After a period of standing empty, the building was re-opened on 1st March 1912 as Bow Institution. It was later renamed the City of London Institution, then in May 1936 it was renamed St. Clement's Hospital which it is still known as today."

    1930 London County Council took over the hospital when the Board of Guardians was abolished; the number of beds was increased to 786.

    1933 a mental observation unit was opened. [Or from about 1929) had a Mental Observation Unit].

    1935 Fire destroyed the west wing and the main building.

    1936 Renamed St Clement's Hospital

    There were psychiatric outpatients clinics in 1940 at: London Hospital, Whitechapel, E1. - Mile End Hospital, Bancroft Road, E.1. - St Bartholomew's Hospital, EC1

    August 1944 The western pavilion and chapel suffered considerable bomb damage during the Blitz.

    On the introduction of the National Health Service, the Hospital was taken over by the Bow (No. 8) Hospital Management Committee (itself replaced in 1963 by the Tames Group Hospital Management Committee)

    January 1956 - December 1957 120 patients admitted to Long Grove Hospital from Bethnal Green. 89 were traced for Enid Mills' survey. Enid Mills gives the following background information: If the "Duly Authorised Officer" is summoned to the East London Area, the patient may be taken by ambulance to Long Grove or one of six psychiatric observation units: Dulwich, Bow, Batteresa, Fulham, St Pancras or Tooting".

    John Denham

    1958 John Denham appointed Consultant Psychiatrist to Long Grove Hospital. Epsom. "In that capacity he was responsible for clinics at Hackney Hospital and at St Clement's Hospital. Bow". In 1959, John Denham was a founding member of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association

    1959 St Clements Hospital became exclusively psychiatric.

    1959 Wentworth Stanley Hall, with stage at one end, opened. Patients held a Christmas pageant here each year.

    1962 (Hospital Plan) St Clement's, Bow had 60 beds in 1960. By 1975 expected have 140. There were no other inpatient facilities named in the City/East End area, but in the whole North East Metropolitan area there were 121 psychiatric beds in unnamed general hospitals and it was planned to increase these to 1,460 by 1975.

    Hackney Psychiatric Unit opened (uncertain date)

    1963 John Denham became the Medical Director of St Clements Hospital.

    1963 D. R. Benady and John Denham. "Development of an Early Treatment Unit from An Observation Ward." British Medical Journal 2.5372 (1963): 1569-1572.

    1965 St Clement's responsible for psychiatric services in E3 and E4 (PRA 1970, p.18)

    1967 St Clement's responsible for psychiatric services in the whole of Tower Hamlets (E1 - E3 - E4) (PRA 1970, p.18)

    1968 Control of the hospital passed to the Governors of the London Hospital, and its official title changed from St Clement's Hospital to The London Hospital (St Clement's), 2A Bow Road, London, E3 4LL.

    1973 Myra Garrett moved to Tower Hamletts. She had been working for Islington Social Services since 1972

    1974 St Clements became part of the Tower Hamlets Health District.

    17.2.1985 John Denham, aged 69, died from injuries received in a road accident. At this time he was retired, but still President of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.

    Friends of St Clements

    11.5.1987 Constitution of The Friends of the London Hospital (St Clement's) adopted. Amended 5.9.1990 Object: "To relieve patients and former patients of the London Hospital (St. Clement's) and other invalids in the community who suffer from mental illness or the effects of mental illness and generally to support the charitable work of the said hospital."

    Since 1987, the Friends of St Clements "brought along patients, friends, family members and staff to discuss what was beneficial and what was harmful in the hospital's practices. Chaired by the awesome Myra Garrett". (Nat)

    1992 Friends of St Clements established a social club for inpatients, in the Wandsworth Stanley Hall; a creative writing group started publishing its journal in 1995.

    "The Social Club happened when we got some money to employ a coordinator." - "Hycinth Taylor was employed to run the newly-founded St Clement's Social Club. The only non-medical professional working with patients on site at the time, Hycinth's job was to organise activities to engage patients. These included art classes, social events, picnic trips, and other things toallow inpatients to feel normal. She now works as a meditation counsellor..."... "There was a creative writing group and a poetry journal produced for a number of years. The Social Club meet twice a week for years ... we did lots of different things."

    The poetry booklets published by the creative writing group were first called Goalpost and then Angel. The first edition of Angel says "Dear Readers, Notice the name change to ANGEL. GOALPOST was being mistaken for a football fanzine, so we thought we'd change it to something that had a certain resonance with the NHS. We hope you agree." When the site was re-developed, boxes of the booklets were found in the attic space and handed over to Myra Garrett.

    African and Caribbean patients

    1996/1997 African and Caribbean patients group discussed concerns in nine areas within the hospital: spiritual provision, violence on wards from staff and patients, more opportunities for staff to talk to patients, need to extend befriending services, need for Caribbean meals, culturally appropriate personal care, staff turnover and inexperience, information on illnesses, medication and side effects, identification of who staff were. Also discussed five issues about community care: need for more African and Caribbean advocates, more help for reintegration, training for African and Caribbean communities on mental health issues, "better commuinity networking as part of care plans, following up the Woodley Report.

    April 2003 Commissioners for Healthcare Improvement Report highlighted the need to move patients from St Clements to more appropriate accommodation as a matter of urgency.

    23.6.2004 St Clements Hospital, Bow Road, London E3: DRAFT Planning Brief. Tower Hamlets. (original source - archived on this site)

    May 2005 St Clements Hospital Site, Bow Road, London E3: Planning Brief. Tower Hamlets. (Internet archive)

    October 2005 St Clements hospital closed and patients and services transferred "a new, purpose built, Adult Mental Health Facility at Mile End Hospital". BUT

    January 2006 Tower Hamlets African and Caribbean Mental Health Organisation held its management meeting in St Clement's ITU [Intensive Therapy Unit] ward where the Chair had been admitted.

    "Pinhey Ward is a 13-bedded rehabilitation in-patient ward, co-existing with 4 acute in-patient and 1 Psychiatric Intensive Care wards on the St Clements' hospital site" Document proposing closing asking for feedback by 16.11.2006

    Mile End Mental Health Unit: The Tower Hamlets Centre For Mental Health, Bancroft Road, Mile End, London, E1 4DG. 2008 F.E.E.L. Notice "With custodial care at the new Mile End Unit, most patients sit zonked out in front of the television or asleep on their beds. With all its poverty, the old St Clements at least allowed access to the garden, the OT Department, the canteen, the Social Club and the out of doors, none of which is possible now?"

    The Friends of St Clements continued, eventually renaming itself "The Friends of St Clements at Mile End Mental Health Unit"

    "It is during the time lapse between the resettling of the hospital from St Clements to Mile End, that David Kessel originated the idea of a new independent anarchist group to be called Friends of East End Loonies" [First meeting 15.11.2007] (Nat)

    The St. Clement's site was sold by the NHS the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), via English Partnerships. The HCA, later taken over by the Greater London Authority, invited applications for the site's redevelopment in 2011 - a process which concluded in June 2012.

    Monday 5.9.2011 Friends of St Clements monthly meeting at Mile End Hospital, mental health unit from 4.30pm. Agenda included "the proposal for the sensory room in the hospital premises".

    Thursday 25.7.2013 "Ravaged Wonderful Earth - A Collection for David Kessel", published by Outsider Poets in collaboration with F.E.E.L. had a spectacular launch at the "Outsider Poetry Open Mic" on in the historic Wentworth Stanley Hall of old St Clement's Hospital in Bow.

    8.8.2013 to 18.8.2013 the "first ever" Shuffle festival, curated by Danny Boyle, held on the St Clement's site . "Celebrated what this space means to local people, and what this groundbreaking development could be". Winter Shuffle, "the second exciting festival of events", took place at St Clement's in December 2013. Shuffle were awarded Heritage Lottery funding to curate and produce an exhibition covering the history of St Clements from it's beginnings as a workhouse to the present day, which took place in February 2014. In 2014 and 2015 the Shuffle festival was held in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park

    Thursday 8.8.2013 to Sunday 18.8.2013 St. Clements Youth Theatre in the St Clement's Social Club - 8.9.2014 First archive of St Clement's Social Club website.

    2014 "The Friends of St Clements at Mile End Mental Health Unit" closed. "Lack of any interest or cooperation from staff, caused the group to end". (Nat)

     

    Kingsley Hall

    Powis Rd, London, E3 3HJ

    Some background on Kingsley Hall and why it was empty in 1965 - Founders Doris Lester (died 1963) Muriel Lester (1968)

    Kingsley Hall [Asylum]

    8.4.1965 Philadelphia Association Limited incorporated as a private company limited by guarantee without share capital. Company number 00845037. Registered as a charity (242475) 15.12.1965.

    April 1965 (or earlier) The Philadelphia Association founded by Ronald Laing, Aaron Esterson and David Cooper(psychiatrists), Sidney Briskin (social worker and ex-patient of Laing's), Raymond Blake (psychotherapist), Joan Cunnold (artist and ex-psychiatric nurse) and Clancy Sigal (writer and political activist) (See Coppock and Hopton 2000

    Sidney Briskin established the first Philadelphia Association community by taking in young people who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic into his home in Willifield Way, NW11. He steamed ahead with the idea of a larger community when others (including Laing) waivered. He found Kingsley Hall and participated in the negotiations which resulted in the Lester sisters leasing it to the Philadelphia Association at a peppercorn rent for five years. Throughout the Kingsley Hall years (1965-1970) he was "a rock of stability in turbulent times"

    6.6.1965 Whitsunday. Over Whitsun, Mary Barnes moved into a room in Kingsley Hall, on agreement of Sidney Briskin "who had found the building" (Barnes and Berke 1971/1973 p.104)

    Mary Barnes: in "Finale" November 2000

    "Kingsley Hall was an intense heaven and the black depth of hell. All that we had packed inside ourselves was there thrown into the open. But we survived. Ronnie, Dr R D Laing, who died in 1989, was the initial founder of it all and was the ultimate victim of his own genius. "

    About July 1965 to 1970 Kingsley Hall used by the Philadelphia Association as a therapeutic community.

    September 1965 Joseph Berke moved into Kingsley Hall. He found Mary Barnes was "like one of those half-alive cadavers that the Army liberated from Auschwitz after the war" (p.243) - "... we did not want her to die ... " (p.235).

    1966

    mid-January 1966 Roberta Berke joined Joseph Berke and his life no longer centred so much on Kingsley Hall. (p.272)

    Spring 1966 "gathering social crisis". (p.259)

    Aaron Esterson "moved out before the end of the summer" (Joseph Berks p.279)

    4.10.1966 Article on Kingsley Hall by Ruth Abel called "Schizophrenia as a way of life" published in Tha Guardian. "Catherine" in the article was Mary Barnes. (source)

    1967

    At some time (before Autumn 1967), Ronald Laing evicted Robin Farquharson for non-payment of telephone bills.

    1968

    Morton Schatzman (psychiatrist) and Vivien Schatzman were resident in 1968. "Once he joined the community, the internal politics of the place were cleared up" (Joseph Berks p.367). "With the help of Vivien he got the community back on its feet after it had gone through a period of collective depression and chaos" (Joseph Berks p.279)

    11.2.1968 Death of Muriel Lester. Kingsley Hall was painted for her memorial service and Mary Barnes diverted some of the paint to create on her door "a tree with bare branches, and roots, stretching up to God and rooted in God" (p.296)

    Several efforts to evict Mary Barnes for non-payment of rent.

    1969

    1970

    Laing's last night is imaginary - It did not happen.

    May 1970 Kingsley Hall closed as an asylum. Everyone left except Mary Barnes, whose paintings "were got into store" but "I was still alone in Kingsley Hall, I had not got anywhere to go". She found a two room attic flat near Hampstead Heath. (Two Accounts, page 377 and Barnes and Scott 1989 p.13)

    "8. THE REHABILITATION OF KINGSLEY HALL

    Unfortunately, given habits of residents in the 'no-holds barred ' experiment, to howl at night or walk into local pubs and finish all drinks on the table, the local community was largely hostile to the Philadelphia project.

    Windows were regularly smashed, faeces pushed through the letter box and residents harassed at local shops.

    By 1970, after five years of the Philadelphia Association, named after the ancient city of brotherly love, Kingsley Hall was largely trashed and uninhabitable.

    In the 1980s Kingsley Hall was the set for the film "Gandhi". During the filming Richard Attenborough united with the Kingsley Hall Action Group to raise enough funds to carry out an extensive refurbishing. Many of the local community contributed their skills and commitment to bring Kingsley Hall back into a usable community centre.

    Kingsley Hall was reopened in February, 1985, and has since gone on to be used for activities ranging from youth groups, holiday outings or arts and photography workshops, to advice work, wedding functions and educational projects."

    "Leon Radler had got a little house that was condemned to carry on Kingsley Hall work, and when that was eventually going to be bashed down the local authority gave them these two houses in the Archway area of London" (Barnes and Scott 1989 p.21)

    Joseph Berke was starting another group, Arbours, with Morty Schatzman. (Barnes and Scott 1989 p.22)

    2.3.1985 A refurbished Kingsley Hall reopened as a community centre.

    November 2007 F.E.E.L. - Friends of East End Loonies established. This held it large meetings at Kingsley Hall.

    19.3.2010 "A Pageant of Survivor History - Mental patients in poetry, story and song from the 18th to 21st century" -

    September 2012 The Residents tell their stories. The "residents" includes psychiatrists and others who were not patients (inmates). Local people were also interviewed. I am drafting an annotated list below

    Joe Berke (psychiatrist): Resident 1965-1966 - Visitor/Resident 1966-1970

    Noel Cobb Resident 1966-1968 - Visitor 1968-1969

    Francis Gillet (inmate) Resident 1966-1970

    James Greene (asylum administrator) Visitor 1966-1968 Resident 1968-1969

    Dorothee von Grieff (helper) Resident 1965-1966

    Adrian Laing (son of psychiatrist R.D. Laing) Visitor 1965

    Jutta Laing (second wife of psychiatrist R.D. Laing) Resident 1965-1966

    Pamela Lee (inmate) Resident 1966-1968

    Joy Patience (lived near the asylum and still living in area)

    Leon Redler (psychiatrist) Resident 1965-1966 Visitor 1966-1970

    Morton Schatzman (psychiatrist) Visitor 1965-1967 Resident 1968 and Vivien Schatzman Resident 1968

    Alex Stratton and Vera Stratton (lived near the asylum, but moved away in 1970)

    Criton Tomazos Visitor 1965-1966

    Paul Zeal Resident 1966-1967 Visitor 1967-1970

    November 2014 Bruce Scott analyses ex-residents stories

    2015 Fifty years since Mary Barnes opened the Kingsley Hall Asylum by moving in. Mary Barnes in Bow exhibition


    Kingsley Hall has been proposed as a Survivor Heritage Site for two main reasons. One that it was the home of the artist poet Mary Barnes and two that it is where the large meetings of F.E.E.L. - Friends of East End Loonies have been held.

    Mary Barnes is a major creative figure of the survivor movement, but very little effort seems to be made to preserve her work and legacy. Why is there nothing on display at Kingsley Hall? Mary was the first person to live in the Kingsley Hall Asylum (June 1965) and the last person to leave (May 1970). Without what she did there, would people now remember the asylum and the existentialist psychiatrists who popped in and out and made reputations writing about her?" [Andrew Roberts May 2017}

    In response, Gordon Joly introduced himself to the Survivor History Group as member of Kingsley Hall, as a volunteer guide and organiser for London Open House for Kingsley Hall for more than a decade. It was at the 2006 London Open House that the late Sid Briskin donated a Mary Barnes painting.

    Gordon pointed out that many people wanted a Blue Plaque for Muriel and Doris Lester.

    Kingsley Hall is not an open space, such a a library. Even if the Kingsley Hall had material on display, it would only been seen at events such as London Open House. There are many items held by David Baker at Kingsley Hall relating to the Mary Barnes period (1965-1970).

    Joe Berke has a large amount of Mary Barnes work, and he has worked with Bow Arts in the past. There has also been events elsewhere. Joe Berke maintains this website.

    http://www.mary- barnes.co.uk/

    Other links provided by Gordon:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljpDsk8o7O0

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Barnes

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Barnes_painting_( detail).jpg

     
    St Luke's Hospital
    probably not receiving paupers in 1844
    17.6.1750 Meeting in the King's Arms in Exchange Alley that decided to found a hospital: Founders Thomas Crowe, physician; Richard Speed, druggist of Old Fish Street; William Prowing, apothecary of Tower Street; James Sperling and Thomas Light, merchants of Mincing Lane; and Francis Magnus (250 year history booklet)
    Opened 1751 Upper Moorfields, opposite Bethlem. (see sketch map). Took its name from the new parish of St Luke's
    "The first patients were admitted in July 1751. In February 1753 the number was increased to 57. From 1754 some incurable patients were readmitted and for some time the numbers remained steady: 50 curable and 20 incurable patients. The staff consisted of the keeper and his wife plus two male and two female attendants." (250 year history booklet)

    William Battie (1703-1776) was physician to 1764

    1781 Samuel Foart Simmons (born 17.3.1750, died 23.4.1813) became physician.

    "From this time... he devoted himself almost exclusively to the treatment of insanity... he attained a high reputation and from it accumulated an ample fortune."
    1782 Thomas Dunston moved from being "senior basketman" at Bethlem
    1786 moved to Old Street. (New building designed by George Dance and erected 1782 to 1784?) Mr and Mrs Thomas Dunston became Master and Matron from 1786, previously (from 1782) they had been head man keeper and head woman keeper. Their son, John Dunston, apothecary, married the daughter of Thomas Warburton
    1810 Benjamin Rush refered to "Dr Dunston" "physician of St Luke's Hospital... eminent for his knowledge of diseases of the mind"
    February 1811 Samuel Foart Simmons resigned as physician. Appointed consultant physician. His son did not wish to succeed him, but did wish his university friend, Alexander Robert Sutherland, to succeed. One of the unsuccessful candidates was George Leman Tuthill

    Alexander Robert Sutherland elected physician:

    "The House also for private patients at Islington was consigned to Dr S. on certain valuable considerations"

    1812 Samuel Tuke visited St Lukes and compared ideas with Thomas Dunston. In a manuscript memorandum, he wrote:

    "There are three hundred patients, sexes about equal; number of women formerly much greater than men; incurables about half the number. The superintendent has never seen much advantage from the use of medicine, and relies chiefly on management. Thinks chains a preferable mode of restraint to straps or the waistcoat in some violent cases. Says they have some patients who do not generally wear clothes. Thinks confinement or restraint may be imposed as a punishment with some advantage, and, on the whole, thinks fear the most effectual principle by which to reduce the insane to orderly conduct. Instance: I observed a young woman chained by the arm to the wall in a small room with a large fire and several other patients, for having run downstairs to the committee-room door. The building has entirely the appearance of a place of confinement, enclosed by high walls, and there are strong iron grates to the windows. Many of the windows are not glazed, but have iron shutters which are closed at night. On the whole, I think St Luke's stands in need of a radical reform." (Quoted Tuke, D.H. 1882 pages 89-90)

    1813 Mrs Foulkes prosecuted for keeping lunatics without a licence in a house owned by Thomas Dunston.
    1816 Evidence of John William Rogers (a surgeon dismissed by Warburton) that Thomas Dunston received £500 a year from Warburton for recommending patients. Mr and Mrs Dunston had a joint salary from St Luke's of £150 and St Luke's, at one time, had 700 people on its waiting list. Dunston was also said to board lunatics in single houses. (Morris, A.D. 1958, apparently from 1816 Select Committee Reports)
    1816 Death of Mrs Dunston, the Matron. Thomas Dunston's title became "Steward"

    31.3.1829 After setting fire to York Minster, Jonathan Martin was found not guilty on the ground of insanity. He was confined in St Luke's, where he died 3.6.1838

    1829: John Warburton MD elected physician
    1830 Death of Thomas Dunston, the Steward who had been in day to day charge of St Luke's since 1782
    From 1830 some attempt was made to separate patients according to categories.
    From 1833 recognised as important to provide some form of occupational therapy for patients

    "From 1833 it was recognised that it was important to provide some form of occupational therapy for patients. This was another idea supported by Dr Sutherland and also by John Warburton. Whilst this was a step forward they nevertheless maintained some older forms of treatment such as the use of occasional forcible restraint. This was said to be necessary because the number of staff employed to care for the patients was relatively small, in fact a ratio of 7 to 1." (250 year history booklet)
    31.8.1833 Clementina and William John Stinton had a baby girl who they christened Clementina Stinton at Saint Luke Old Street on 25.9.1833
    1841 Census: Henry Lambert, aged 24, Resident Apothecary. William Jno Swinton, aged 37, Steward. Clementina Stinton, aged 39, Matron. Eight year old daughter (same name as Mrs Stinton] and a second Matron (Harriet Camerow?) aged about 60. Apart from Henry Lambert, the above were all born in Middlesex. Clementina Stinton, born Middlesex about 1834, was living in Lewes in 1881. The 1841 Census return was certified on 7.6.1841 by "Wm Jm Stinton, Steward of St Lukes Hospital for Lunatics".
    1841 Alexander Robert Sutherland retired as physician and was succeeded by his son AlexanderJohn Sutherland
    1842: A chaplain was hired and a chapel was being built
    1844: Steward: Mr Stinton
    1.1.1844: 93 curable patients, 84 incurable
    Henry Monro was a physician from 1855 to 1882.
    1860 AlexanderJohn Sutherland retired as a physician to St Luke's
    From 1871 the Governors began to examine the possibility of acquiring a site for a second building in the country which could be used for convalescent patients.
    1881 Census: George Mickley (Physician, unmarried, aged 37) [May previously have worked at Wyke House], Resident Medical Superintendent; Francis William Edward Hinners (unmarried, aged 23) and Edgar Vivian Ayre Phipps (unmarried, aged 24) Resident Clinical Assistant Surgeons. Steward: Thomas Collier Walker, aged 72, born Scotland. Matron: Charlotte Eliza Walker, aged 65, born Douglas, Isle of Man (presumably husband and wife), living with unmarried and unoccupied son and daughter of Steward, both born in Scotland: George Lyell Walker, aged 47 and Margaret Jane Walker, aged 40.
    1882 The practice of having a husband a wife as Steward and Matron of the hospital ended. (250 year history booklet)
    In 1893 Nether Hall, near Ramsgate, was taken over for the benefit of [convalescing] female patients. Initially the property was rented but in 1901 it was purchased by the Hospital.
    12.6.1904 to 5.11.1905 painted postcards from Edward O. Cole (patient). The research for most of the information from 1871 to the present was carried out by Jean Cullen, present owner of these postcards.
    1910 the Hospital bought the Welders Estate near Jordans in Buckinghamshire, with the intention of building a substantial convalescent home. The project was never brought to completion, but an Encyclopedia reference in 1922 refers to new buildings being constructed at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.
    "When St Luke's Hospital closed at the end of 1916, all the remaining patients were either discharged to their homes or transferred to other institutions. In 1922 it was suggested that a psychiatric unit should be instituted by St Luke's in cooperation with a General hospital. This led to the funding by the St Luke's charity of both an out-patient clinic and a psychiatric in-patient ward at the Middlesex Hospital. This continued until the new St Luke's-Woodisde Hospital opened in 1930." (Richard Morris to Jean Cullen)
    1917? Site of Old Street St Luke's sold to the Bank of England. Until later than 1958, the building was used as a printing works for Bank of England notes.
    1930 "Third St Luke's" opened in Woodside Avenue, Muswell Hill after an "association with Middlesex Hospital" that began in 1923"
    1930: Woodside Nerve Hospital
    1940: St Luke's Woodside Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders
    1948 St Luke's Woodside, Woodside Avenue, Muswell Hill, London, N10 3HU
    2001 250 year history booklet


    Guy's Hospital Lunatic Ward
    not receiving paupers in 1844
    1.1.1844: 25 private patients

    George Savage physician for psychological medicine to Guy's Hospital to 1906.

    1906 Maurice Craig (1886-6.1.1935) physician for psychological medicine to Guy's Hospital to 1926 external link - (offline)

    1926 Robert Dick Gillespie physician for psychological medicine to Guy's Hospital

    April 1944 York Clinic at Guy's Hospital set up by Robert Gillespie.

    21.8.1992 - 24.9.1992 Christopher Clunis a patient in Guy's Hospital. Guy's discharged him with an aftercare plan described as "virtually non- existent" and provided "wholly inadequate' information to Haringey social services. When Christopher Clunis was arrested for murder, Dr Kamal Gupta from Guy's declined to attend the police station as Guy's considered the case was closed. ("The Clunis Case: Passing the buck carried on until an innocent man died: The Independent's own investigation of events that led to a random killing". Rosie Waterhouse and Rhys Williams. Sunday 18.7.1993)

    2.10.1995 Peter Shaughnessy admitted to Robert Gillespie Ward, in Guys Hospital, after punching a policeman.


    Batavia Hospital Ship
    Moored in the Thames, off Woolwich, this ship received naval patients from Hoxton House when they were considered fit for convalesecence. It also sent patients to Hoxton House and Bethlem.
    A second Middlesex County Asylum, known as Colney Hatch Asylum, was opened on 17.7.1851. It had 1,293 patients in 1858.
    Corridor form
    1851 William Charles Hood (1824-1870), first medical superintendent.
    January 1862 Reference to
    alleged murder of a patient by keepers
    1862 W.C. Hood appointed to Bethlem
    1879 After-care Association for Poor and Friendless Female Convalescents on Leaving Asylums for the Insane
    1881 Census.
    Household of Henry Hawkins

    Friern Cemetery: In 1883 a memorial to an unknown pauper lunatic was erected in the grounds of Colney Hatch Asylum. "2,696 inmates of the asylum were buried here from 1851-1873. The inscription recording the fact was removed after the advent of the Mental Health Act 1959 to unburden the hospital of its past. From 1873 patients were buried in the neighbouring Great Northern Cenetry 'where by a considerate arrangment of the visitors, funerals are privately conducted, and not in forma pauperis (Chaplain's report, CHA 1877) Hunter, R.A. and Macalpine, I. 1974 p.69)

    1889 Became a London County Council asylum
    1893: A small room was set aside "for microscopic observations" to supplement gross anatomical findings by histological examination. See Claybury. In 1915 the Board of Control reported "under consideration the provision of a laboratory for clinical and pathological research". In 1924 it reported "a useful laboratory" staffed by a specially trained male nurse and supervised by an assistant medical officer. Hunter, R.A. and Macalpine, I. 1974 pp.165-166
    Became Colney Hatch Mental Hospital from 1918 to 1937. "The Cockfosters extension on the Piccadilly line.. started at a ... slow pace. In February 1934 Arnos Grove station had served only 500,000 passengers.The proximity of a mental hospital, sewage farm and cemetery were blamed for hindering development." Colney Hatch was renamed Friern Mental Hospital in 1937. But even in 1955, when my grandfather became a patient, it still had to be explained that the new phrase was "mental hospital", and that this meant a different attitude to the one perpetuated by we schoolchildren calling one another "Colney Hatch cases". From 1959 it was Friern Hospital, Friern Barnet Road, New Southgate, London, (N11 3BP) (map).
    1958 Halliwick House opened in the grounds of Friern
    1965 Lionel Kreeger appointed consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist at Halliwick Hospital. Worked with Pat de Mare to establish a
    therapeutic community culture employing small and large groups. He moved to the Paddington Centre for Psychotherapy in 1973
    1967 Sans Everything
    1968 Camden Association for Mental Health
    November 1970 Janet Creswell in Friern on a section 60 following an assault on her GP.
    In 1971 Friern Hospital, had 1,862 beds. Hunter, R.A. and Macalpine, I. 1974, Psychiatry for the Poor is a substantial history of the asylum from 1851 to 1973, and one of the best insights into asylum life.
    1980 Friern 2000 "celebrating the hospital's achievements and looking forward to the next millennium. LMA, H/12/CH/A/30/6." (Barbara Taylor)
    16.7.1981 Care in the Community Green Paper
    North East Thames closure plans
    July 1983 "the hospital learned its fate from a televised news announcement" (Barbara Taylor)
    1984 Camden Mental Health Consortium established in response to the planned closure of Friern
    1985? John Hart's first period in Friern. Testimonies Project
    1987 Islington Mental Health Forum "now well established". They "have started a Friern Interest Group which meets at the hospital".
    1988 and 1989 Barbara Taylor's periods as an in-patient.
    1989 "I entered Friern for the third time and remained there for over six months. My stints in Friern came midway through the closure process... Most of the ward nurses had left and been replaced by agency staff. The ward across the stairwell from mine was empty, having been burned out in a major fire shortly before I arrived. Corridors were sealed off, therapy rooms locked up, the old apple orchard was choked with weeds. The kiln in the pottery workroom broke down and was not repaired; a little pot that I left in the firing queue was thrown away. Yet for me Friern was truly an asylum. I entered it on my knees: I could no longer do ordinary life, and giving up the struggle was an incalculable relief. My home in the hospital was a locked acute ward with a deservedly violent reputation: a Dickensian barrack of crumbled brickwork and peeling walls, reeking with fag smoke and teeming with ghosts; but for me it was a sanctuary. I settled in quickly, got to know people, acquired a lot of new survival skills... I was very wretched most of the time, and often frightened, but I felt safe from what I feared the most: myself. This was a huge plus, and I wanted to stay forever... By the end of the 1980s, I was deeply embedded in the world of the chronically mentally ill. I had lost my home, and was living in a psychiatric hostel. When I was not in Friern, I was at the Whittington day hospital (later made notorious by Clare Allen in her bestselling novel Poppy Shakespeare) or at the Pine Street Day Centre in Finsbury. I still had friends and connections from earlier days, but I spent most of my time with other mental health users with whom I often felt more comfortable than with old chums" (Barbara Taylor)
    6.7.1990 Adjournment Debate House of Commons
    23.1.1991 "After Friern": A meeting to discuss the health authority proposals for re-accomodating Friern patients after 1993" organised by Haringey Community Health Council Mental Health Forum.
    Friern closed in April 1993. It is a listed building which has been converted into luxury apartments. At one time it was considered as a site for Middlesex University.

    Friern was developed into Princess Park Manor by Comer Homes

    March 1999 You don't have to be mad to live here

    November 2002 Barbara Taylor's third ex-patient visit: "more than two-thirds of the flats had been sold, and business was brisk". "I'm sure I'm not the only former inmate who has turned up at Princess Park Manor's sales office, kitted out for normalcy, heart tip-tapping; although at least I had an alibi, a book-in-prospect about the rise and demise of the British asylum system."

    2003 use: "Gated housing development"

    8.5.2003 Eve Blake [Barbara Taylor]ú Diary: Friern Hospital London Review of Books 8.5.2003 - "Last November I put on a new suit and went to view some luxury flats in the North London suburbs. Princess Park Manor on Friern Barnet Road" .

    1.11.2006 Visit by Andrew Roberts to Princess Park Manor: A billboard advertises "Individually designed quality apartments set in thirty acres of stunning parkland". The parkland is the ground in front of the asylum, which is planted with trees. Barnet Borough have created Friern Village Park out of the land in front of the west wing. This is open to the public daily from dawn to dusk. The Middlesex coat of arms above the asylum says "East Saxons"

    Cheryl's manor Evening Standard 27.8.2014 - An item noticed by Joe Kelly. "Cheryl" is a pop-star who married an English footballer, Ashley Cole, in July 2006. They presumably had flats in the old asylum before that.

    Two Metropolitan Asylum Board asylums were opened for chronic London patients in October 1870: Leavesden at Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire and Caterham Asylum in Surrey. Later asylums built by the Board were Darenth, Belmont and Tooting Bec.
    The Lunacy Commissioners visiting in 1904 were: Sidney Coupland, H.F. Gifford, F. Needham, Harold Urmson, E. Marriott Cooke, F. A. Inderwick, A. Hill Trevor.
    The Metropolitan Asylums Board was abolished in 1930, when its functions were transferred to London County Council
    This extract from a 1911 encyclopedia shows how the provision of "asylums" was only a small part of the Board's functions:

    "The Metropolitan Asylums Board, though established m 1867 purely as a poor-law authority for the relief of the sick, insane and infirm paupers, has become a central hospital authority for infectious diseases, with power to receive into its hospitals persons, who are not paupers, suffering from fever, smallpox or diphtheria. Both the Board and the County Council have certain powers and duties of sanitary authority for the purpose of epidemic regulations. The local sanitary authorities carry out the provisions of the Infectious Diseases (Notification and Prevention) Acts, which for London are embodied in the Public Health (London) Act 1891. The Board has asylums for the insane at Tooting Bec (Wandsworth), Ealing (for children); King's Langley, Hertfordshire; Caterham, Surrey; and Darenth, Kent. There are twelve fever hospitals, including northern and southern convalescent hospitals. For smallpox the Board maintains hospital ships moored in the Thames at Dartford, and a land establishment at the same place. There are land and river ambulance services."

    Peter Higginbotham has just (autumn 2004) added a comprehensive history of the Metropolitan Asylums Board to his website

    October 1870: Caterham Asylum opened
    Architects: Giles and Biven - Dual Pavilion
    May 1871 nearly 1,400 patients
    1872: Long report of a visit (on the Rossbret site)   Rossbret picture
    1878 An outbreak of enteric fever in Caterham and Redhill did not affect the asylum or the troops in Caterham barracks who were supplied with water from the asylum well. (R.H. Firth 1908 p.60)
    1881 Census: Medical Superintendent: George Stanley Elliot, aged 36.Metropolitan District Asylum for Imbeciles, Caterham, Surrey. May also have been known as Caterham Lunatic Asylum for Safe Lunatics and Imbeciles. The names of patients are given in full, not just initials.
    24.5.1920 "Ottington Street, Wolling Road, Camberwell. This is where my life began. After I was born, my mother was in bed, my Grandma Brewer heard a knock on the door... it was my dad coming home from the army" (Joseph Deacon p.13)
    1920 Caterham Mental Hospital
    1926 "my mother's life ended when I as six years old. My Auntie Em took me over, and Grandma Deacon looked after me for a little while. And my auntie had a lot of work to do... At seven years old, I went to Carshalton Hospital for more treatment. They could not understand me when I went to the toilet... Carshalton sent me away to Roehampton, Queen Mary's Hospital for more treatment, and the nurses were very good to me... On 12th February, 1928 my dad told me that I was coming to Caterham. On the following Thursday, 16th February, I came to Caterham. I was first nursed on the female ward"
    (Joseph Deacon pages 14-15).
    1941 St Lawrence's Hospital, Caterham, CR3 5YA
    "The girls came to see me... They tried to speak to me but I could not answer. My friends told the girls I could not speak. They said they knew, my brother had told them... I was still working in the mat shop and in 1941 Mr Treece got two new boys from the female side. The boys were Ernie and Victor. Mr Treece asked Ernie to help me sort out he wool. When I wanted something or to tell him something I made some noises to make him understand. It was not easy at first but Ernie did not give in. He tried very hard until he began to understand me... [One] Sunday... my cousin Ann and her friend came to see me... I wanted to talk.. There was nobody who could understand me. I made signs and pointed to Ernie. Mr Harris understood me and brought Ernie and I introduced him to my cousin. He understood me. That's how it all began. This was the first time I started to talk a little. We asked her how she liked the A.T.S. I was twenty-two at the time. My cousin was very pleased that she could understand me. Ernie was very good. When she went home she told Grandma how she was able to speak to me through Ernie.
    (Joseph Deacon p.21-22)
    1950s Peter, a Hackney boy, was on a ward with 60 patients. There were four rows of beds plus beds on the veranda. When the weather was bad, they cleared the beds and kicked a ball around the ward. His mother was horrified on her first visit at the thick chunks of bread plus chunks of cheese which were served for tea - But the residents had a terrific appetite. The "children" were taken out for walks in crocodiles. In those days, staff had to rely on patients to help with bathing. At 3pm one round of bathing started, at 7pm a second round. The residents wore old clothes - "like Meths drinkers in the East End".
    1971 listed a Mental Handicap Hospital with 1,902 beds
    1974 Tongue Tied by Joseph John Deacon, a resident in St Lawrence's since 1928, published by the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children. "Joey Deacon has cerebral palsey, seriously affecting all four limbs and his speech and Ernie Roberts is the only person who can really understand him. But Ernie cannot read and write. So as Ernie listened to Joey's story and then repeated it intelligibly to Michael, Michael wrote it down. The handwritten version was then typed by Tom at the rate of four to six lines per day".
    10.6.1981: St Lawrence's and Borocourt featured unfavourably in a television documentary Silent Minority

    "St Lawrences in the 1970s became known as you say through Joseph Deacon's book and film Tongue Tied, and from the documentary Silent Minority. Joseph lived in MC1 (Male C1) and spent a lot of his time on the cosy verandah. Across the airing court was another long verandah where the residents seen in Silent Minority spent their aimless days (MD1). MC1 was a well run homely ward. MD1 was a stark place. Just 10 yards of court separated them. And on the top floor above MD1 was MD3, the lock up ward. Joseph would have heard the shouts from up there when one of the residents went 'up the wall.' 'You'll be sent to D3' was a threat to patients from other wards. Most of the time it was relatively calm. It was a lock up ward, but many of the residents were let out unsupervised to go to work at the concrete works - making slabs and gnomes." (Alastair Fear, who met Joseph Deacon when working at St Lawrences in 1975-1976, and who also worked there, for a while, about the time of Silent Minority)

    The third Middlesex County Asylum was opened at Banstead, in Surrey, in 1877. See Miniature city under medical mayor - For "chronically insane pauper lunatics" - Also Banstead Places
    Architect: Frederick Hyde Pownall - Dual Pavilion
    Landscape Designer: Alexander MacKenzie
    National Grid Reference TQ 263 613
    Address Sutton Lane, Sutton, Reigate, Surrey
    Database information that Banstead became a Surrey asylum is incorrect:

    "Banstead Asylum was built and maintained by the Middlesex Justices prior to 1889. It became the responsibility of the London County Council on 1 April 1889" (London Metropolitan Archives Catalogue), which is confirmed by the following:

    1900 89 year old patient's death certificate shows him as dying from "chronic brain wastage" in "the London County Asylum, Banstead". (information from Richard Seymour)


    1897/1898 Cheam Parish Council: Water and sewerage file - Correspondence re contamination of water supply from Banstead asylum burial ground
    1.1.1927: 1,976 patients of whom all but 142 were Rate Aided. 845 were men, 1,131 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 20.0%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 7.1%
    In 1960s and 1970s (about), part of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster Area Health Authority (West London)
    1982: Plans for closure and concentration of services on Horton
    October 1986 Closed
    Demolished 1989
    "High Down and Down View, two state-of-the-art prisons, were built on the site in the early 1990s"
    Archive link

    Middlesex JPs were discussing the need for a fourth asylum in 1881. This was to have been Claybury, but local government reorganisation in 1888 transferred this project to the new London County Council.

    Middlesex asylums after 1888

    In 1889 Middlesex lost much of its population to the new London County Council. There was a massive reorgansiation of London asylums, which I am still trying to work out. Hanwell and Friern and Banstead became London County Council asylums. The Surrey County Asylum at Springfield became the Middlesex County Asylum. It may have been the only one until 1905 See Middlesex 1939

    Claybury Asylum at Woodford Bridge in Essex was opened in 1893. It was the fifth London County Council asylum. Built: 1889-1893 Architect: George Thomas Hine Peter Cracknell describes as the first Compact Arrow design.
    Edward Sackett was transferred from Brookwood in September 1896, and died from heart disease on 14.10.1899. Joseph Stockton died 20.10.1896 at London County Lunatic Asylum, Ilford, which was also the name of the asylum in 1900 (Registration District: Romford, Sub-District: Ilford) on the death certificate of Mr Hopson (55 years old), an upholsterer formerly of 19 Bee Hive Brick Lane, Whitechapel, who died there. His certificate was signed by the Medical Superintendent, Robert Youes (or Young?) [information from Joan Robblee].
    The Central Pathology Laboratory Commissioners in Lunacy 1896 quoted Hunter, R.A. and Macalpine, I. 1974 p.165: "Even when the new Laboratory has been brought into use by the Specialist Pathologist for the County of London [Dr F.W. Mott at Claybury], there will still remain much useful work of this nature to be done in the several Asylums, for which due provision should be made". See Friern
    1899 Start of Archives of Neurology from the Pathological Laboratory of the London County Asylums, Claybury, Essex Published: 1899-1907 and 1909-1934
    Journal of Mental Science, April 1900, 46, 393: At Claybury Asylum provision is made for private patients who can claim a settlement in the county of London at a charge of 30 shillings a week, and for others at a charge of £2 (See 1890 Act)
    1901 or 1902 Dr Macmillan, a medical officer at Claybury, read a paper on The History of Asylum Dysentery at Claybury to a meeting of the Southern Eastern Division of the Medico-Psychological Association. Dr Macmillan, himself, died of asylum dysentery soon after. (source)
    1901 A department of Experimental Psychology established at Claybury with W.G. Smith (1866-1918) as director. Smith, a philosophy graduate (1889) of Edinburgh University, studied for his PhD (1894) under the pioneer of experimental psychology, Wilhelm Wundt. He worked for several years in the United States, including a period with William James. Smith and Mott were founder members of the Psychological Society in the same year that the Experimental Psychology unit was established at Claybury. In 1905, Smith became the first lecturer in psychology at Liverpool University and in 1906, he became the first Combe lecturer in General and Experimental Psychology at Edinburgh University. (external link to biography)
    Report for the year ended 31.3.1902. Dr Robert Jones: medical superintendent. 2431 patients: 1015 men - 1416 women. 426 admissions during the year: 131 men and 295 women. 16% of men admitted had general paralysis. 14% of men and 9% of women were admitted suffering from alcoholic insanity. 148 patients were discharched recovered during the year, whilst 201 patients died. 50 died of general paralysis of the insane - 25 of tuberculosis - 24 of cardiac disease - 21 of colitis (asylum dysentery). "Asylum dysentery attacked 40 males and 81 females, and was responsible for 21 deaths, or over 10 per cent. of the total deaths."
    A 1911 Encyclopedia entry for Ilford says "Claybury Hall is a lunatic asylum (1893) of the London County Council".
    1938 John Stuart Harris (born 13.10.1900, died 2.5.1986) appointed physician superintendent of Claybury Hospital. Previously at the Maudsley Hospital and then West Park Hospital. His "outstanding contribution to psychiatry being adminstrative rather than clinical". "He chose his staff carefully and supported them fully" (Munk's Roll,
    Volume 8, p.209). He retired in 1961.
    "the difficult war years" (Munk's Roll)
    About 1952: Thomas Bewley's recollections of the dysentery wards
    1955 Denis Vincent Martin appointed. John Sutton Pippard (born 20.5.1919, died 21.12.2012) appointed.
    Martin and Pippard, with the support of Stuart Harris "set about transforming a hospital caring for 2,200 patients into a therapeutic community in which there was a conscious effort to harness the potential of all staff and patients in the overall treatment programme". Pippard's "approach was eclectic but he saw the community, in which maladaptive behaviour could be explored in terms of 'what does it mean' rather than 'how can we stop it most easily'". (Munks Roll)
    16 page booklet printed in the occupational department at some time An Introduction to Community Methods of Treatment and Ward Management in the Psychiatric Hospital Claybury Hospital, Woodford Bridge, Woodford Green, Essex. "an introduction to the ... methods... developed in the hospital. This is a new and experimental approach... This booklet was originally written for the guidance of nurses commencing training at Claybury Hospital... As, however, all members of the staff have their part to play in such a community, a copy is being given to all staff".
    1961 Retirement of Stuart Harris.
    1962 Denis Vincent Martin Adventure in Psychiatry: Social Change in a Mental Hospital With an introduction by J.S. Harris Oxford : Cassirer

    More Patients Willing to go to Claybury
    It's a Fact by Alan Symes
    The [Ilford] Recorder, Thursday, March 11th 1965

    There has been no appreciable decrease in the number of patients being treated each year at Claybury Hospital which I is costing more than £1 million a year to run.

    More people needing psychiatric treatment are becoming willing to accept early hospital admission where it is necessary

    ""The number of beds is being decreased to allow better bed spacing, but the number of patients being treated is not decreasing; the group secretary, Mr Wilfred Mitchinson, informs me"
    The causes of mental illness are complicated and there is still much that is not understood. In some cases environment and the increased pace of the 20th century life plays a part.

    Mental disorders cost the National Health Service in England and Wales more than £130 million a year, about one-eighth of the total cost of the service, reveals a report issued by ~the Office of Health Economics.

    Cost £109 million

    The report states that together the 200,000 mentally ill and mentally subnormal patients in hospital, along with those treated in out - patient departments, cost about £109 million in 1963.

    Between 1949 and 1960 the annual number of admissions to psychiatric hospitals more than doubled from 55,000 to 114,000. Although the total number of patients was rising until 1954 - the year which saw the introduction of tranquillisers the number of in-patients declined since then, from: 148,000 to 135.000 by 1960.

    Claybury's admission rate' tended to follow the national trend. Admissions nearly doubled between 1949 and 1960, from 861 to 1,587. The overall number of in-patients between 1954 and 1960 declined from 2,217 to 2,121.

    'Great - increase'

    The fall in the number of inpatients since 1954 was not entirely due to the development of tranquillisers. New methods of management of patients, new rehabilitation, schemes and changed staff attitudes were equally important.

    Last year there were 1.488 admissions at Claybury and 1.897 in-patients were accommodated.

    There has been a "great increase" in short-stay admissions since 1950. Many more patients are now well enough to stay outside hospital with support, which may include occasional short readmissions.

    Once rehabilitation became available Claybury experienced a dramatic drop in long-stay patients.

    Claybury has a universal reputation for its therapeutic community methods of treatment and practice and receives visits from people from all over the world interested in how the work has been developed.

    Rising' prices

    The hospital has a staff of 2,027, including 19 doctors and 564 nurses, 451 of whom are full time. In addition to their duties at Claybury the doctors do out-patient work in general hospitals.

    Cost of running Claybury is increasing year by year due mainly to rising prices and increases in salary scales. Other factors are the higher standards being provided for patients and the increased number of short- term admissions.

    Problems are being experienced at the hospital due to staff shortages. Most student nurses require residential accommodation and there is insufficient available for them within the hospital. Also. those wishing to live outside are faced with a shortage of suitable accommodation at. rents they are able to afford.

    Another problem is public transport. It is considered that the bus services covering the hospital could be improved and made more reliable, making it easier for staff to arrive on time for duty.


    May 1971 Information for Patients and Relatives "patients and staff are members of a community. Each ward forms its own community and its members, patients and staff, attend meetings, sometimes daily, sometimes less frequently... In addition to the community approach, which is a major part of treatment in many of the wards, there are specialised methods of treatment appropriate to particular illnesses". Mentions psychological methods, different medicines (usually tablets) and electrical (ECT). "The Hospital Community... consists not only of patients, relatives and staff, but of all those people in the community who contribute so much to its work".
    About 1972 Antony I. Garelick started work at Claybury
    John Pippard worked briefly with patients with intellectual disability at Leytonstone House after he left Claybury and then retired in 1979. (Leonard Fagin and Peter Shoenberg)
    1981 Unemployment and Health in Families by Leonard Fagin
    31.3.1994: 361 patients
    1994 Antony I. Garelick "Psychotherapy assessment: Theory and practice" published in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Volume 8, Issue 2, 1994. Author affiliation: Psychotherapy Clinic, Forest House, Claybury Hospital Woodford Bridge , Essex, IG8 8DY. [Antony Garelick worked at Claybury, for 25 years (1972-1997?). He was the first Clinical Director at Claybury,
    Claybury Hospital closed in 1997. Its address was Claybury Hospital, Woodford Green, Essex, 1GB 8BY. (map). Records: London Metropolitan Archives
    Simon Cornwall: Demolished and converted. Now Repton Park. (Claybury Wood)
    2003 use: "Gated housing development"
    There is a book: A Hospital looks at itself - Essays from Claybury

    Goodmayes Hospital, Barley Lane, Goodmayes, Ilford. Essex. lG3 8XJ (map)
    External map shows boundaries proposed in 1885 for the new borough of West Ham
    the red
flag
flies over West Ham   In 1898, the first Labour controlled local council was elected - West Ham.
    The building of a new lunatic asylum and the declaration of May 1st as a public holiday are listed amongst its many achievements (external link). 680 patients were transferred from the Essex County Asylum in 1901. On 18.3.1920 a stampless viewcard of Calais was addressed to West Ham Mental Hospital. George Jacomb of Plaistow died 8.1.1931 at West Ham Corporation Mental Hospital Goodmayes Essex. He left £1,056 9s. 1d to be administered by Ellen Mary Jacomb spinster. There was a stationary steam engine (derelict in 1980) here that was manufactured by Belliss & Morcom Ltd. of Birmingham in 1938.
    November 1969 Joan Martin's account begins
    New adult acute mental health facilities were being built at Goodmayes Hospital, to open March 2002, and "re-provide" 107 beds for people living in Redbridge - 62 for adults with acute mental illness, thirty beds for the elderly mentally ill and fifteen psychiatric intensive care beds. "Goodmayes is getting its first new facilities for seventy years". "The unit will have all single bedrooms, some with en-suite facilities, and has fully taken into account Government guidelines on sex segregation". "Patients will really feel the benefit of receiving their services in a purpose built, modern and light unit." Mental Health Matters North East London Mental Health Trust. Issue 9, July 2001.

    Brookside Young People's Unit, Barley Lane, Goodmayes, Ilford. Essex. lG3 8XJ (Same address as Goodmayes)
    "Mental Illness". Shown in a 1979 Directory as having 20 beds 31.12.1977.

    Bexley Asylum at Bexley in Kent was opened by the London County Council in 1898. (map link). Nigel Roberts has a set of plans for "the Heath Asylum Baldwyn's Park Bexley", with the name of "Geo T Hine 1896" on. The chapel was designed to seat 850 people. David Cochrane speaks of a "striking similarity to the design" Hine had used at Claybury
    Compact Arrow
    Website (October 2006) on the history of Bexley Hospital
    In 1907 a death certificate was signed "London County Asylum, The Heath, Dartford, U.D." (information from Michael Ball). The City of London Asylum at Stone was on the opposite side of Dartford. The Bexley Asylum became Bexley Hospital, Old Bexley Lane, Bexley, DA5 2AW. It has now closed. Between 2001 and 2007, Dartford Council plan to build houses on it, plus a new primary school and the "retention of community facilities" (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister). Kingswood Ward (archive) was a rehabilitation ward for adults with severe and enduring mental health problems. External link to Edenwood, Old Bexley Lane, Bexley - (partial archive) 27.11.2002: Bexley Water Tower comes down (partial archive) - See timeline. 5.5.2006 "I live in Bexley and the local asylum was known as Bexly Mental Hospital, it has now been demolished and is a vast estate of new houses which is still growing. They have kept the main building, i think because it was listed, and turned it into a fitness centre for the local residents" Susan Hammond - Rootsweb archive

    The Epsom Group

    1890? London County Council bought all the land belonging to the Manor of Horton in Epsom, Surrey, to develop a complex of asylums which was to become the largest in Europe. The five hospitals built were

    Simon Cornwall's tour of all 18.4.2003
    This scan is from Barnett's Street Plan of Epsom and Ewell, purchased about 1973. The online Horton Country Park map (with history) shows the area on the east of this map.
    The usual approach to the institutions, when they were built, may have been from Epsom station via Chase Road to Hook Road, then up Hook Road to Long Grove, and so on. This is suggested by the houses along Hook Road going north from the railway bridge. Dates and architectural features suggest that many of these were built as homes for the staff. Near the bridge there are several with the date 1896, when the Manor was being built. Then there are ones dated 1902, when Horton was opened. These are followed by ones dated 1903, when Ewell Epileptic Colony was opened.
    Common facilities David Cochrane (1988 p.258) says that water, gas and electricity supplies were centralised for all of the estate. Sewage disposal was centralised. Similarly, the cemetery and the rail link to Ewell were for all the asylums. Sports centre built round boiler-house. David Lloyd Sports Centre, Epsom, website

    1925: The Branch Secretary of the Epsom branch of the National Asylum Workers Union was Mr R.C. Baker, who lived at 20 Court Farm Gardens, [Manor Green Road], Epsom [post code now KT19 8SL]. This is in the back streets in the crook of Hook Road and Long Grove Road - south of the cricket ground. The Manor (which was a certified institution, not an asylum) had its own branch..


    The open land north of West Park, and circling Long Grove on the south, east and north, is now Horton Country Park (External Link). (map) - See also ride and drive web. This land (or part of it) was farms for West Park and Long Grove. These became "surplus to requirements" and were bought (1973) by Epsom and Ewell Council to create the park.
    11.6.2002: Hansard: Commons debate on future of sites - Mental Health Services (Mid-Surrey) - 1.29 pm - Westminster Hall
    MP's latest news

    The Manor Asylum (Epsom) or Manor House at Horton was originally meant as a temporary asylum, whilst Horton Asylum was built. Building may have begun in 1896. The asylum was opened in 1899. It consisted of the existing Manor House (restored) for staff, and corrugated iron buildings for patients. The scheme was disapproved by the Lunacy Commission, but approved by the Home Secretary. The architect was William C Clifford Smith, the Asylum Committee's chief engineer. It was opened for 700 female patients of the "comparatively quiet and harmless class". (Cochrane, D. 1988 p.257)
    Journal of Mental Science, April 1900, 46, 393: Provision made for about 60 female private patients at a weekly charge of about 15/- (not including clothes) (See 1890 Act)
    By 1901 approval was given for extra accommodation for 110 male patients required for manual labour power. (Cochrane, D. 1988 p.257)
    Became The Manor Certified Institution from 1921 to an unknown date.
    1925: The Branch Secretary of the Nation Asylum Workers Union at Manor (Epsom) was Mr George G. Galey who lived at 4 Percy Cottages, Elm Road, Claygate (about three mile away in a straight line - perhaps he cycled). The other four hospitals seemed to have been one branch (Epsom).
    1930: Manor Certified Institution. Medical superintendent: Edward Salterono Litteljohn. Assistant medical officer: Bridget Coffey. Chaplain: Rev Edward John Hockly. Clerk: C.W. Poulton. House Steward: W.A. Francombe. (Kelly's directory)
    Became The Manor, Horton Lane, Epsom, KT19 8NL.
    1962 (Hospital Plan) 1,200 beds in 1960. Plans to rebuild by 1971. By 1975 expected have 500 mental subnormality patients, and there to be another 700 in St Ebbas (converted) and 500 in "Horton new hospital".
    1971 The Manor, Epsom 1,067 beds, 1,034 patients on 31.12.1971. 16% in dormitories with over fifty patients. (60% of adults sleeping in groups of less than 30. 93% of children sleeping in groups of less than 20, but the other 7% of children in dormitories of 30 or more). 25 security beds in locked wards.
    1979 Manor Hospital Mid-Surrey Health District's mental handicap hospital with 800 beds
    July 1998 efforts to stop development
    March 2002 Progress report on redevelopment, and plans for other sites.
    Some ex-patients have been rehoused on Ethel Bailey Close. The rest of the site has been entirely redeveloped into around 340 new houses & flats. Re-development completed about 2000. Peter Cracknell's photographic tour
    2003 use: "Housing"

    In addition to the buildings on the main site, The Manor had a large annexe called Hollywood Lodge on the triangle of land between West Park Hospital, Horton Lane and Christ Church Road." Christine Lawes

    The Manor Farm In reponse to the question "was there a farm on the land to the south?", Christine Lawes wrote "There ... was a self-sufficient market garden, worked by the patients in times past. It bordered Horton Lane. Up to about 1994 it was still a thriving organic market garden and sold fruit and vegetables to the public. After that date it gradually became more difficult to maintain as the residents were being moved out. At least up to a couple of years ago it had become more of a garden centre, selling plants to the public from some specially converted barns. I believe the garden centre is probably still there.

    Horton Asylum, at Epsom was opened in 1902.
    Simon Cornwall: Horton Asylum, Epsom, Surrey (Epsom Cluster number 2) Originally: Seventh London County Council Asylum. Built: 1902 Architect: George Thomas Hine (replica of Bexley Heath Asylum)
    2,000 beds - 900 for men and 1,100 for women, although at first men exceeded women.
    1906 Dr Bryan, first Medical Superintendent, dismissed
    1913 Horton Light Railway opened
    Horton War Hospital (1915-1918);
    Horton Mental Hospital (1918-1939);
    1920 John Robert Lord's story and reflections on the war hospital
    After the war, Horton was adapted to cater almost exclusively for women.
    1922 1,605 patients - 187 men and 1,418 women
    1924 Malarial therapy unit opened.
    May 1928 Alexander Walk, a medical officer at Horton, appointed by Lord as his assistant editor on the Journal of Mental Science. He was co-editor from 1930 to 1973 and thereafter served as associate editor until Easter 1982
    1.1.1927: 1,941 patients of whom all but 190 (all female) were Rate Aided. Only 270 were men. 1,671 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 23.2%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 5.3%
    1930 John Robert Lord, medical superintendent - The assistant medical officers were: William Drew Nicol, Frederick Oliver Walker, Gordon Frank Peters, John Joseph Laws, and Miss Dorothy Preston Hytch. Miss Mary Mitchell Thorburn was matron. Rev Edward John Hockley was chaplain, Sydney Carter Boswell, clerk, and Alfred Henry Gwinnell, house steward. (Kelly's directory)
    9.8.1931 Lieut.-Colonel John Robert Lord, C.B.E., M.D., F.R.C.P.E., Medical Superintendent, Horton Mental Hospital (L.C.C.) died at the hospital (Nursing Times) - Obituray in British Medical Journal
    1931 William Drew Nicol Medical Superintendent, Horton Mental Hospital to 1951 (Munk's Roll)
    22.1.1935 George Pelham (Trimmer), patient (archive) to 28.8.1939, when he was transferred to Longrove, probably because Horton became a general hospital serving the forces.
    Death Certificate of George Trimmer
    1939 to 1949: Horton War Hospital
    1949: returned to Mental Hospital. It became Horton Hospital, Long Grove Road, Epsom.
    1950 Henry Rollin medical superintendent [May be incorrect. His obituaries says "from 1948 until 1975, he was the Deputy Superintendent of Horton Hospital". See Epsom and Ewell History Explorer
    1962 (Hospital Plan) 1,524 patients in 1960. Possible to be closed by 1975. (But 500 beds in "Horton new hospital" for mental subnormality)
    In 1960s and 1970s (about), part of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster Area Health Authority (North East Health District). At this time, someone with a mental crisis in an office in West London, could find themselves taken to Horton, to the south of London.
    Paddington Day Hospital established for rehabilitation.
    February 1965 to 11.5.1965 Janet Cresswell detained under section 25 of the 1959 Mental Health Act. Her psychiatrist, Desmond Lorne Marcus McNeill (born India 1920. Died 22.12.2013) diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia.
    Summer 1965 "Unfortunately, the doctor decided to send me to Horton Hospital for a rest" - (Joan Hughes)
    1966 "I begged my GP to get me into hospital so as I could get some care and help" Daniel Morgan
    1971 1,587 beds, 1,438 patients on 31.12.1971. 23% in dormitories with over fifty patients. 17 beds in a specialist psychogeriatric unit.
    29.3.1976 Janet Cresswell stabbed Dr Desmond McNeill (initially) in his buttock with a kitchen knife. The surgeon who operated on him said there were about seven "stab wounds to the legs, back, groin and buttock". The most serous was to "to the abdoman whci punctured the abdominal wall some four inches and also penetrated the wall of the bowel". There was severe internal bleeding and the surgeon said that without prompt treatment Dr McNeill would have died. (Trial transcript)
    1979 1,203 beds
    Autumn 2002: reported closed and empty (map), but in good condition. Redevelopment has now started. (See Peter Cracknell's photographic tour (2003)). The developers have renamed it Livingstone Park. This name is not recognised by the council or the post office. A small modern enclave called Horton Haven is used by about 50 ex-patients. 460 houses and flats and a small retail store are planned for the rest of the site.
    July/August 2003 fire
    December 2003 Convenience store wanted for site
    There is a book: Asylum, hospital, haven: A history of Horton Hospital
    "Horton Cemetery. In memory of those buried in these grounds between 1899 and 1955". Words in black on a simple white plaque fixed to the railings of a field surrounded by trees on Hook Road, near the junction with Horton Road. It was a cemetery for patients from all five institutions. "... a strip of land in the elevated and well-drained north-east corner of the estate was fenced off to serve as an unconsecrated burial ground for pauper patients". (Cochrane, D. 1988 p. 258). (See George Pelham). The "burial ground ... was sold many years ago by the NHS to a developer. All the headstones were removed ... It has always been referred to as Horton Cemetery" (email 2004). Jane Lewis, Surrey History Centre (email 27.10.2005) advises that some burial records survive at the History Centre under reference 6336/1-2. They cover the dates 4.4.1902 to 29.3.1955. A burial plan of the area does not seem to have survived and the removal of the headstones has now made it impossible to try and find exactly where the original plots were sited,
    re-burying bones - a more detailed report - This says the last funeral took place in 1958. - but this may be a mistake - Each grave "usually housed three or four bodies", Headstones were removed before it was sold in 1983 by the North West Thames Regional Health Authority to "Marque Securities, a development company in Kingswood". Its bids to develop have been refused by the Epsom and Ewell Council.

    Horton Farm The triangle of land south of the cemetery, bordered by Hook Road, Long Grove Road and Horton Lane, has a building called Horton Farm. It is possible that the whole triangle was the farm estate. St Ebbas farm is on the other (west) side of Hook Road. Long Grove and West Park had their own farms (below). One website says each hospital had its own farm.

    Ewell Epileptic Colony (Epsom) opened in 1903
    Simon Cornwall: Built: 1903. Architect: William C Clifford Smith (Epsom Cluster number three)
    Dispersed form.
    Charles Hubert Bond was medical superintendent from 1903 to 1907.
    Ewell (County of London) War Hospital or
    Ewell Neurological Hospital
    for the care and treatment of soldiers and pensioners suffering from neurasthenia or loss of mental balance (Hansard 12.4.1920)
    1927 Not listed as a mental hospital, so presumably still Ewell Epileptic Colony. This epileptic colony is not mention in Jones and Tillotson's pamphlet on epileptic colonies. They do mention that the Metropolitan Asylums Board established units for epileptics at Edmonton and Brentwood, and that these were taken over by London County Council in 1935. The conversion of Ewell Colony to a Mental Hospital may have taken place as part of this process.
    Became Ewell Mental Hospital and then St Ebba's Hospital Hook Road, Epsom, KT19 8QJ
    1962 (Hospital Plan) 865 mental illness patients in 1960. 700 mental subnormality patients expected by 1975. Later in 1962? it ceased being a mental illness hospital and became a mental subnormality hospital.
    1971 611 beds, but 616 patients on 31.12.1971. 38% of adults in dormitories with over thirty patients. No dormitories with over fifty patients.
    1979 St Ebbas Hospital was Sutton and West Merton Health District's largest mental handicap hospital with 629 beds - (outside District).
    A Parents and Relatives Group was formed about 1987 to campaign for retention of a village community. external weblink - August 2002 There is now (2004) a "village campus" with about 60 residents in a mixture of old and new houses. The council has approved construction of 280 houses and flats on the rest of the site.

    St Ebbas Farm is now used by Epsom Riding for the Disabled Association

    Long Grove Asylum, at Epsom built 1903 to 1907 and opened in June 1907. Tenth London County Asylum and fourth in the Epsom Cluster. It became Long Grove Hospital, Horton Lane, Epsom, KT19 8PU (map)
    Architect George Thomas Hine. A replica of Horton with differences to make it (a little) more like a Maryland, USA plan that was favoured. In the design, 500 beds were moved from the main (zig-zag) crescent to autonomous villas, each with its own unfenced garden.
    Charles Hubert Bond was medical superintendent from 1907 to 1912
    March/April 1919? Felix arrested in St Martin's in the Fields. He lived in Shaftesbury Avenue. He was brought to Long Grove from the City of Westminster Union Workhouse, which was responsible for his expenses. See procedures for emergency admission. Maria Jose Gonzalez is researching Felix's history.
    1.1.1927: 2,120 patients of whom all but 204 were Rate Aided. 1,091 were men, 1,029 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 24.0%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 5.3%
    1930 Medical superintendent: David Ogilvy. Deputy medical superintendent: James Ernest Martin. Medical officers: Ernest George Thornton Poynder, John Reginald Madgwick, Alexander Walk, Marjorie Elizabeth Frances Sanders, and Charles Grant MacMahon Nicol. Clerk: Alfred J. Gibbs. House Steward: R.E. Dorrell. Matron: Miss Elspeth MacRae. Inspector: Arthur Heath. (Kelly's directory)
    1941 Felix died
    1958 John Denham appointed Consultant Psychiatrist to Long Grove Hospital.
    1959: Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association formed. This provided links to Tower Hamlets and Hackney (on the other side of London), where many patients came from. See 2001 archive about the PRA

    1959 Richmond Fellowship founded.

    1962 (Hospital Plan) 2,151 patients in 1960. 1,000 expected in 1975
    1962 Enid Mills' study of patients published
    1966 All figure (01 -) telephone numbers introduced for London. Booklet (below) has old style (Epsom 26200) telephone for Long Grove and new style (01-985-5555) for Hackney Hospital.
    about 1967 Long Grove Hospital Epsom. Information for Patients, their Relatives and Friends, a small booklet, produced by the Kingston and Long Grove Group Hospital Management Committee. At the back, it lists Out-Patient Clinics at
    Hackney Hospital (Monday and Wednesday 2pm); Kingston Hospital, Kingston upon Thames; Royal Hospital, Richmond; and Surbiton Hospital.
    1971 1,625 beds, 1,373 patients on 31.12.1971. 10% in dormitories with over fifty patients. 36 beds in regional adolescent unit.
    1979 1,183 beds. Kingston and Richmond [Surrey] Area Health Authority's mental illness hospital (outside district).
    (map)
    April 1992 closed. Clarendon Park (developers' name - not recognised by council or post office) housing development started in 1998. There is no housing for ex-patients. A portion of the "zig zag" ward blocks and most of the outlying original villas have been converted for flats and houses. (See Peter Cracknell's photographic tour). There are about 300 houses and flats.
    June 2002 re-development completed - facade preserved - interiors gone
    2003 use: "Luxury housing"
    March 2004 why no affordable homes on site

    Long Grove Farm (see Horton Country Park map) was south of the asylum. The Horton Park Children's Farm is there now. However, the piggery of Long Grove was to the north-east, so the Long Grove Farm may have stretched round the asylum.
    David Cochrane says that London County Council replaced the name "asylum" by "hospital" in 1918. If this is so, the first name for West Park (given below, from the Hospital Database) was never used.
    West Park Asylum at Epsom was opened in 1921. Referred to by David Cochrane as "the eleventh and the last great asylum built for London's insane".
    Simon Cornwall: Architect: William C Clifford Smith. Built: 1912-1924. Eleventh London County Asylum. (Epsom Cluster number five)
    Dispersed form on an echelon plan
    By 1929 it was known as West Park Mental Hospital
    1930 West Park Mental Hospital (LCC). Medical superintendent: Norcliffe Roberts. Deputy medical superintendent: Edwin Lancelot Hopkins. Clerk: L. Clerke. House Steward: J.J. Agar. (Kelly's directory)
    From about 1950, West Park Hospital, Horton Lane, Epsom, KT19 8PB.
    1962 (Hospital Plan) 2,045 patients in 1960. 1,000 expected in 1975
    1971 1,724 beds, 1,580 patients on 31.12.1971. 39% in dormitories with over fifty patients. (Only 8% of patients sleeping in groups of less than 30). 20 beds in a regional alcoholic unit. 17 beds in a specialist metabolic unit.
    1979 Mid-Surrey Health District had its headquarters in the hospital. West Park had 1,217 beds (mental illness and geriatric). Manor Hospital was the local mental handicap hospital. Horton, Long Grove and St Ebbas were not local hospitals.
    Autumn 2002: reported closed and empty, but in good condition. (map). The local council has produced its own development brief for the site, which the NHS has yet (2004) to approve. The site will retain facilities for patients with challenging behaviour and the cottage hospital, which is only about twenty years old. Peter Cracknell's photographic tour
    Peter Cracknell's new site
    June 2003 sale of land, including West Park, Horton and part of St Ebbas
    4.7.2003 plans to vary transport
    30.9.2003 fire
    October/November 2003 consultation on plans
    March 2004: proposal for new hospital
    West Park Farm (see external link).

    Epsom Hospital
    intensive care unit

    Maudsley Hospital In 1907, Dr Henry Maudsley offered London County Council £30,000 (subsequently increased to £40,000) to help found a new mental hospital that would 1) be exclusively for early and acute cases, 2) have an out-patients' clinic, 3) provide for teaching and research
    Buildings were completed in 1915 and an
    Act of Parliament was secured to make voluntary treatment possible.
    However, the empty buildings were taken over as a military hospital.
    Fourth London General Hospital
    by early 1915 Neurological section established acting as a clearing hospital for these cases. (source)
    By June 1918 known as Maudsley Neurological Clearing Hospital
    After the war, the Ministry of Pensions continued to use it for the treament of shell shock
    Hansard 12.4.1920 "The present status of the Maudsley Hospital is that of a Ministry of Pensions Hospital, but it is to be handed back to the London County Council in July next"
    "The Maudsley Hospital: Design and Strategic Direction, 1923-1939" by Edgar Jones, Shahina Rahman, and Robin Woolven. Medical History 1.7.2007

    The London County Council Mental Hospital was opened in 1923.

    Maudsley Hospital Medical School was opened in 1923

    1.1.1925 Accomodation for 146 uncertified patients.

    1933 Maudsley Hospital Medical School officially recognised by the University of London.

    1936-1948 Clinical Director Dr Aubrey Lewis (writings)

    1939? Belmont and Mill Hill

    April 1945 The British Postgraduate Medical Federation established by the Senate of the University of London

    1946 Aubrey Lewis became professor of psychiatry at the University of London. (DNB)

    March 1947 British Postgraduate Medical Federation incorporated by Royal Charter. Became a school of the University in December 1947.

    Designation of the Maudsley as the university teaching centre in the British Postgraduate Medical Federation, with responsibility for research and postgraduate training being vested in the Institute of Psychiatry. (DNB)

    The Maudsley Medical School renamed Institute of Psychiatry. [external link] - Its Department of Psychiatry was under the chairmanship of Aubrey Lewis from 1945 to 1966 - See 1968

    1948: Maudsley Hospital amalgamated with The Bethlem Hospital.

    Central London clinics and nursing homes

    National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic

    British Hospital for Mental Disorders

    Beaumont Street, St Marylebone (close to Harley Street) in 1901 (census) and 1915 (trade directory) consisted almost entirely of nursing homes, some of whose patients were psychiatric (but not certified lunatics). Charlotte Mew died at 37 Beaumont Street in 1928.

    The Medico Psychological Clinic operated from 14 Endsleigh Street from the autumn of 1913 and then from Brunswick Square from July 1914 to 1923 - Medico Psychological was a contemporary term for what we would now call psychiatric.


    The Tavistock Clinic started in Tavistock Square in 1920. "In 1920, under its founder Dr Crichton-Miller's leadership, the Clinic made a significant contribution to the understanding of the traumatic effects of 'shell shock'".

    [See 1929, when, as Tavistock Square Clinic, it joint sponsored a conference on Mental Health]

    "The Tavistock Clinic in London pioneered child guidance and in 1931 set up the Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency". (Stewart, J. 9.2009, p. 414 referencing H.V. Dicks 1970, p.3

    July 1932 Association for the Scientific Treatment of Criminals renamed the Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency

    1933 The Psychopathic Clinic established as the clinical arm of the Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency, its aims were assessment, diagnosis and research in this area". (source) - See 75th anniversary history

    1934 John Rawlings Rees (25.6.1890 - 11.4.1969) Medical Director.

    1937 ISTD and the Clinic moved into premises in Portman Street, central London. Psychopathic Clinic became the Portman Clinic.

    According to his British Medical Journal obituary, Alfred Torrie was "associated with the Tavistock Clinic, the child guidance movement, and the NationalMarriageGuidanceCouncil from their earliest days"

    "Both clinical and consultancy work was carried out in the Tavistock Clinic until it became part of the new NHS in 1948, and the Institute was founded as a charitable company".

    "After the war Rees was instrumental in creating the new Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. However, he resigned in 1947 in order to devote his energies to the forthcoming 1948 International Congress on Mental Hygiene" (Brody, E.B. 1998, p.23)

    February 1946 John Bowlby joined the Tavistock Clinic to set up the Children's Department to develop clinical services, training and research. In 1948 he obtained a small grant from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust to empirically study the effects of early separation and deprivation. For this research, he "wanted to engage a psychiatric social worker" and hired James Robertson.

    The Tavistock moved to Malet Place. Then moved to Beaumont Street (where it was in the 1960s).

    1950 Telephone Directory
    2 Beaumont Street, W1
    Tavistock Clinic, Welbeck 5415
    Institute of Medical Psychology, Welbeck 2915
    Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, Welbeck 5415

    Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency
    8 Bourdon Street, Davies Street, W1. Mayfair 0632 or Mayfair 1087
    Portman Clinic not listed under P.

    Child Guidance Training Centre, 34 Osnaburgh Street, NW1. Euston 3611

    1951 Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency renamed the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency

    1952 The Child Guidance Training Centre was at 34 Osnaburgh Street, near Goodge Street tube station.

    In 1967 the Tavistock moved to Swiss Cottage.

    "The Child Guidance Training Centre, founded as the London Child Guidance Clinic in Islington in 1929, was housed in the Tavistock Centre from 1967 until merging with the Tavistock Clinic's Department for Children and Parents, to become the Child and Family Department, in 1985. The Tavistock Mulberry Bush Day Unit was originally a part of Child Guidance Training Centre."

    1.1.1986 MBE in New Year Honours: Miss Eve Saville, General Secretary, Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency. (Supplement to the London Gazette)

    1970 H.V. Dicks Fifty Years of the Tavistock Clinic - (Google books)

    1977 Kelly's Post Office London Directory. "Tavistock Centre, 120 Belsize Lane, NW3" the address for the Tavistock Clinic, the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, and the Child Guidance Training Centre.

    March? 1986 Eve Saville (1907-1986) died, aged 86

    About 2003 MedNet, a confidential consultation service for doctors, covering London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex founded with bases at the Tavistock Centre (Camden) and the Maudsley Hospital (Camberwell). It is a self referral service.

    10.1.2004 Internet Archive of web history, originally at (external link)


    St Thomas's Hospital, SE1
    Out-Patients Clinic in 1946
    1948
    William Sargant appointed consultant psychiatrist
    Sleep room (Ward 5) established at Royal Waterloo Hospital?
    See 6.4.2009

    The Cassel Hospital
    Originally at Swaylands in Kent.

    1919 "As the First World War drew to a close, Maurice Craig helped to persuade Sir Ernest Cassel to fund a hospital for 'Functional and Nervous Disorders' at Penshurst, Kent, to treat neuroses in the civilian population" (external sources)

    "founded, at the end of the First World War, by Sir Ernest Cassel, who had been horrified by the effects of trauma and war on soldiers. The Cassel Hospital was set up to treat the civilian equivalent of shellshock, and admitted its first patient in 1921".

    Opened 23.5.1921: "Sir Ernest Cassel has devoted £225,000 for founding and endowing a hospital for the treatment of functional nervous disorders which will be opened at Swaylands, Penshurst, Kent, on May 23rd" The British Journal of Nursing 7.5.1921

    The Cassel originally worked as an eclectic psychotherapeutic hospital.

    Thomas Arthur Ross (1875-1941) was the first Medical Deirector

    1926 Robert Dick Gillespie (1897-1945) working at the Cassel Hospital. Also became Lecturer in, and Physician for, Psychological Medicine, Guy's (post Sir Maurice Craig) (external source)

    1927 First edition of Henderson and Gillespie's A Textbook of Psychiatry - R.D. Gillespie described as "Physician for Psychological Medicine, Guy's Hospital, London - Lecturer in Psychological Medicine, Guy's Hospital Medical School - Assistant Physician, The Cassel Hospital, Penshurst, Kent - Pinsent-Darwin Research Student in Mental Pathology, University of Cambridge - Formerly Assistant resident Psychiatrist, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore.

    1936 An Inquiry Into Prognosis in the Neuroses: By T. A. Ross. Cambridge: University Press, 1936. 192 pages. Mainly "a study of the long range results of psychotherapeutic treatment of the neuroses at the Cassel Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders. This institution, called Swaylands, was founded in 1919, to furnish systematic treatment for the psychoneuroses on the basis that these disabilities had received too little organized attention and management from the medical profession. The interest of the founder, Sir Ernest Cassel, was aroused by the striking manifestations of neuroses among the soldiers in the world war. Dr. Ross was, until a few years ago, the medical director and moving spirit of the institution. Swaylands furnishes rather sumptuous physical accommodations and care for some sixty patients, whose residence varies from two to six months." (external source)

    1933 to 1949 Cuthbert H. Rogerson - of Guy's Hospital, London, The Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic, The Cassel Hospital, Penshurst, England and other addresses - in correspondence with Adolf Meyer. (external source)

    Cuthbert H. Rogerson was the Medical Director by 1940, when the full name was Cassel Hospital For Functional Nervous Disorders [Swaylands, Penshurst, Kent.]

    1940 Richard Crocket a locum psychotherapist

    External link to "The Cassel Hospital in Wartime" in the British Medical Journal

    1941? Hospital moved to Derby - Richard Crocket joined the RAF

    1946 Tom Main appointed Medical Director. He was undertaking psychoanalytic training and encouraged other psychoanalysts to work at the Cassel. It soon developed a psychoanalytic tradition and a psychoanalytic underpinning of the clinical work. Psychosocial nursing practice came to the fore as a way of dealing with regression, associated with intensive individual psychotherapy. The therapeutic community practice evolved from this way of working, and from the experiences of Tom Main at the Northfields Military Hospital during the Second World War.

    1949 First mother and baby were admitted. From that experience the work of the Families Service evolved treating children and their parents. The Families Service specialises in the assessment and treatment of children and families affected by the impact of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

    From about 1993 Cassel Adult Service has developed an integrated package of care, combining six months inpatient treatment, with a further two years of group therapy and psychosocial nursing for patients in Greater London

    1994 a separate Adolescent Service established

    Mill Hill Emergency Hospital

    24.8.1939 to about 1945

    Run by the Mental Hospitals Department of the London County Council for the Ministry of Health, mainly for soldiers who had returned from the front suffering neuroses. Using a converted public school at Mill Hill.

    Psychiatrists from the Maudsley Hospital were recruited. Led by W. S. Maclay as medical superintendent and including Aubrey Lewis, Eric Guttman and Maxwell Jones. Their goal was occupational and social psychiatry. A 150 bed "Effort Syndrome Unit" was set up under the joint directorship of Paul Wood, a cardiologist, and Maxwell Jones. (Edgar Jones 10.2004)

    John Raven (1902-1970).workeded part-time at the Mill Hill Emergency Hospital and part-time with the War Office Officer Selection Board's Research Unit at Hampstead from 1941. Published the Mill Hill Vocabulary scale and subsequently the Advanced Progressive Matrices in 1943

    Maxwell Jones (1907-1990) See 1947.

    Belmont Asylum, Brighton Road, Sutton, Surrey was established by the Metropolitan Asylums Board in the premises of the South Metropolitan District School (Poor Law), probably in the first decade of the 20th century. It appears to have occupied the older part (boys school), whilst the girls school became Sutton and Cheam General Hospital. In 1930, it presumably passed to the London County Council. See Peter Higginbotham on the schools

    1939? During World War Two, Belmont ("Sutton") was one of the "two evacuation centres" of Maudsley Hospital. William Sargant (24.4.1907 - 27.8.1988) and Eliot Slater worked there. One of them (Sargant?) had conceived the idea of a book on physical methods of treatment in psychiatry whilst working under Edward Mapother at the Maudsley in 1937. Sutton "tested the principles we have absorbed, in the hard school of work under pressure on the largest scale" (Preface to the first edition of An Introduction to Physical Methods of Treatment in Psychiatry by William Sargant and Eliot Slater 1944.

    On Sargant see Wellcome Library - Wikipedia (and talk page!)
    1948 William Sargant at St Thomas's, after a period in the USA.

    31.3.1964 Valerie Argent admitted to Belmont Hospital
    27.5.1964 Valerie Argent escaped from Belmont Hospital

    A building next to Belmont Hospital was the Industrial Neurosis Unit (renamed the Social Rehabilitation Unit) in 1947, under Dr Maxwell Jones as medical director from 1947. It was opened with backing from the Ministry of Labour as a unit for rehabilitating unemployed peopls.

    It developed subsequently into a specialist facility for treating 'psychoaths' with group and community methods. It became Henderson Hospital in 1960, when it was made autonomous.

    In 1960, Maxwell Jones went to America and then, in 1962, to Dingleton Hospital in Scotland.

    Whilst the Henderson was one of the birth places of the therapeutic community, Belmont was associated with the physical forms of treatment favoured by Dr William Sargant. Belmont is closed, but Henderson continues in new premises: 2 Homeland Drive, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5LT. See the Henderson Hospital web site - archive 2000-2006

    About 1971 Peter Scott Blackman became a Henderson patient. He described the experience as "like going to university" as he learned to engage with society in a more meaningful way.

    1989 to 2006 Kingsley Norton Director of Henderson Hospital.

    About 1995 Kati Turner a patient in Henderson.

    1996 Advances in Psychiatric Treatment volume 2, pages 202-210 "Management of difficult personality disorder patients" by Kingsley Norton (FRCPsych) who "is Medical Director and Consultant Psychotherapist, at Henderson Hospital, 2 Homeland Drive, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5LT, and Honorary Senior Lecturer, Section of Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Mental Health Sciences, St. George's Hospital Medical School, Tooting, London, SW17 ORE."

    2006 Setting up New Services in the NHS: 'Just Add Water!' by Kingsley Norton.

    Lost Hospitals of London explains the death of Henderson.


    Surrey County Asylum at Brookwood, Knaphill, near Woking
    Knaphill Asylum
    National Grid Reference SU 961 581
    Erected 1862-1867
    Architect: Charles Henry Howell - Peter Cracknell classifies it as Corridor and Pavilion.
    Too large for Conolly's ideal
    Landscape: Designer possibly Robert Lloyd; plants from Jackmans' Nursery, Woking. (The asylum landscape designer Robert Lloyd was head gardener here for thirty years and may have laid out the landscape when he arrived). Archive at Surrey Record Office.

    Opened as a second Surrey County Asylum in June 1867. 328 patients were received in 1867. On an 1873 map it is on Knaphill Common, south west of "Woking Convict Prison".

    "The site was selected for cheap land and the Surrey Justices purchased 150 acres in 1860 for £70 per acre... The asylum was designed to be self sufficient with its own gas works, sewage plant, a water tower with reservoirs holding one million gallons of water, the four acre Home Farm, and recreational areas. Occupational therapy was born and able patients put to work on making items the asylum needed such as furniture, baskets, rugs, tools, etc. and growing their own food. It was all commendably enlightened for its time and with building extensions the number of inmates grew steadily from 670 in 1875 to 1500 in the 1930s. Besides providing a great deal of local employment for nursing and maintenance staff the hospital became a major social centre for the district, organising fetes, shows, weekly dances, sports events and fund raisers." (John Quarendon's Surrey Walks: "Roots of Woking" downloaded from WokingAlive.com, or later from dirty boots is in the international archive)

    Edward Sackett (born 1840) was admitted to the [Workhouse] Infirmary, Russell Street, Bermondsey on 14.11.1874, but moved to Brookwood Lunatic Asylum a week later.
    1881 Census: Edward listed as Henry Sackett. Assistant Medical Officers: James M. Moody (27 unmarried) and James E. Barton (36 unmarried) who was being visited by George H. Barton (aged 28), a stockbroker, and Thomas "Waklay" (medical student aged 29) who is probably Thomas Wakley (1851-1886), grandson of Thomas Wakley founder of the Lancet, who became joint editor with his father in 1886. Edward Sackett was one of thirty patients moved to the Berkshire asylum on 12.9.1882 to relieve overcrowding at Brookwood. His condition was described as "unimproved". Brookwood's contract with Berkshire expired 31.3.1884, when Edward was moved to the new asylum at Cane Hill.
    Between 1889 and 1909 it was the only Surrey County Asylum. Edward Sackett returned to Brookwood on 1.5.1895, but was sent to the London County Asylum at Claybury, Ilford in September 1896.
    1909: From this point, Brookwood served the western half of Surrey.
    1929 Rules for the guidance of the nurses, attendants and servants in the service of the Surrey County mental hospitals at Brookwood and Netherne produced by Surrey County Council (42 pages). Copy preserved at King's College London.
    It became Brookwood Hospital, Knaphill, Woking, GU21 2YP.
    Closure planned from 1986, but did not take place until 1994. "The surviving buildings have now been converted into luxury apartments". (Part of the site was developed as housing Percheron Drive, GU212QY). See Woking's Villages
    2003 use: "Luxury housing"
    Cataloguing its records - archive

    Surrey County Asylum at Cane Hill was opened in 1883. It was originally the third Surrey County Asylum. (map link) - Brighton Road, Coulsdon, near Croydon, Surrey. "The hospital is located in Coulsdon, near Croydon, in South London. It is just to the west of the A23 which runs from Croydon to Brighton. Although it is so close to London, this is one of the points where the land becomes less urban, Coulsdon being a small town, with downs and farmland to the south. This is where the hospital is, on top of a hill opposite the Farthing Downs" Andrew Tierney
    Click on the plan for a
picture of Cane Hill Click on the plan for a picture of Cane Hill
    Architect: Charles Henry Howell - The ward blocks are arranged around a D shaped network of corridors. Ian Richards describes it as an example of the Pavilion Plan in which the wards where housed in long thin ward blocks arranged around a central corridor. The pavilion design was a development of the straight corridor plan (e.g. Friern) that led on to echelon plan asylums like Severalls). The design was popular in the second half of the 19th century and it was about this time that the Recreation Hall and Water Tower became a standard feature of asylums. The picture here is from a 1960s AtoZ reproduced on the urban explorations site.
    Edward Sackett was admitted from Moulsford on 31.3.1884, and moved back to Brookwood on 1.5.1895.
    London County Council Asylum, with provision for Croydon:
    15.3.1889: Sub-Committees of the Provisional Councils of London and Surrey met at Spring Gardens, London, to make suggestions about dividing the relevant assets of Surrey (previously managed by the County Justices). It was suggested that Cane Hill be taken by London, with one-eighth of its accommodation reserved for the Borough of Croydon. (Information, with references, from Margaret Griffiths for Surrey County Archivist). [Croydon became a county borough in 1889, under the same legislation that created County Councils for London and Surrey] By an agreement dated 25.3.1890, backdated to 1.4.1889, London County Council agreed to "accommodate and maintain" in Cane Hill "all such pauper lunatics of the county borough of Croydon" for five years. Croydon would meet all the costs of caring for its patients. "There are periodic references in the minutes to lunatics being housed elsewhere although the majority were at Cane Hill. Croydon appointed officials to regularly inspect conditions." (Chris Bennett, archivist Croydon Local Studies - Croydon Library, who provided above information, with references). Cane Hill was probably used as Croydon's main asylum until 1903, when its own asylum was opened. - [Surrey was left with only one asylum: Brookwood - Netherne was built to ease the overcrowding.]

    Hannah Harriett Pedlingham Hill born 11 Camden Street, Walworth on 6.8.1865. She married Charles Chaplin senior on 22.6.1885. Charlie Chaplin was born 16.4.1889. See also Wikipedia (German)

    Hannah Chaplin was a vaudeville artist until her voice failed. After that she lived in rooms in Kennington, in Lambeth workhouse, or Cane Hill Asylum. Charlie Chaplin and his brother Sydney visited her in Cane Hill in 1912:

    "It was a depressing day, for she was not well. She had just got over an obstreperous phase of singing hymns, and had been confined to a padded room. The nurse had warned us of this beforehand. Sydney saw her, but I had not the courage, so I waited. He came back upset, and said that she had been given shock treatment of icy cold showers and that her face was quite blue. That made us decide to put her into a private institution - we could afford it now."

    They moved her to Peckham House for a few years (until the money ran out).
    1915 George Lilly superintendent to 1949 in succssion to the first superintendent, James Moody, who died in office 20.9.1915 after a sudden illness.
    1918 Cane Hill Mental Hospital
    1937? Cane Hill Hospital
    1948 Under the South West Metropolitan Hospital Board
    1949
    Alexander Walk medical superintendent in succession to George Lilly who became a commissioner of the Board of Control.
    1950s and/or 1960s See Eric Irwin
    1962 Alexander Walk retired
    31.12.1971: 1,451 patients. In 1971 there were usually 1,750 beds with 83% occupied. 66 of these were in locked wards. 18% were in wards with 30 or more beds, 3% in wards of 50 or more beds.
    1974 moved from the South West Metropolitan Hospital Board to the South East Thames Regional Health Authority (and Bromley Health Authority)
    1992 The main part of Cane Hill Hospital closed. The surviving part is now Ravensbourne Trust Medical Secure Unit, Cane Hill Hospital, Cane Hill, Coulsdon, Surrey, CR3 3YL.
    Summer 1998 Andrew Tierney's first explorations of the Cane Hill site. Preserved by Simon Cornwall. "Living in East Surrey means there is a huge amount of these hospitals about... there are two very close to me: Cane Hill and Netherne... Well, the summer holidays were getting boring, so we had to make a choice. Now, they're both about as big as each other. They're both a fair distance from anywhere. They're both closed. I chose Cane Hill"
    29.4.2002 Simon Cornwalls' walk around the perimeter of the Cane Hill site.
    13.7.2002 Simon Cornwalls' first exploration of the interior of the Cane Hill site.
      See Simon Cornwall's The Cane Hill Project on his Urbex (urban explorations) website - Internet Archive
    Simon Cornwall's site includes an archive of the original Urbex explorations (Andrew Tierney) - Internet archive
    Another web site was just called Cane Hill Mental Hospital - Internet archive - It is also preserved by Simon Cornwall
    Cane Hill Hospital: the tower on the hill 2010 Cane Hill Hospital : the tower on the hill by Pam Buttrey. South Croydon : Aubrey Warsash Pub. iii and 270 pages. ISBN 9780954958237 (paperback) - Reviewed by T. Smedley

    Surrey County Mental Hospital at Netherne,
    Netherne Lane, Hooley, near
    Coulsdon, Surrey. Postcode was CR3 1YE.
    On the London to Brighton route. Between Croydon to the north and Reigate and Redhill to the south.
    See 15.3.1889
    1898 Surrey Council selected Netherne as the site for a new asylum. - The Netherne farming estate was purchased for £10,000
    Founded: 18.10.1905
    Simon Cornwall: Architect: George Thomas Hine
    Built 1907-1909, at a cost of £300,000.
    Another source founded 1907 - "the asylum's opening date was even immortalised in stained glass at the back of the hall: 1907." Simon Cornwall
    1.4.1909 A 960 patient hospital opened. "Four years later the foundation stone was laid by builder John Bowen".
    Netherne served the eastern half of Surrey and Brookwood the western
    Administered by a Standing Sub-committee of the Surrey County Council Lunatic Asylums Visiting Committee.
    December 1909 to March 1919 Private patients' registers exist for this period.
    1914 Surrey County Council. Annual report of the County Asylums at Brockwood and Netherne. [Wellcome Library may have a series of these]
    First World War: took in large numbers of patients from "neighbouring hospitals, which had been taken over by the military". Food from the market garden contributed to national supplies and convalescent soldiers and German [Prisoners of War] were bought in to assist."
    1920 Surrey County Council. Annual report of the county mental hospitals at Brookwood and Netherne for the year ended 31st December, 1919. With audited accounts for the year ended 31st March, 1919. 116 pages. Published Kingston-upon-Thames, 1920. Preserved in the British Library
    1922 Surrey County Council. Annual report of the Lunatic Asylums Visiting Committee : in relation to the County Mental Hospitals at Brockwood and Netherne. [Wellcome Library may have a series of these]
    1929 Surrey County Council. Annual report of the Mental Hospitals Committee : in relation to the County Mental Hospitals at Brockwood and Netherne. [Wellcome Library may have a series of these]
    1929 Rules for the guidance of the nurses, attendants and servants in the service of the Surrey County mental hospitals at Brookwood and Netherne produced by Surrey County Council (42 pages). Copy preserved at King's College London.
    Second World War Six wards and two villas were used for air raid casualties. The hospital "helped assemble electrical parts for a nearby munitions factory and by the end of the war most patients were employed in sustaining the war effort. Being close to targets such RAF Kenley and a main road/rail link to London, several bombs fell in the grounds including one in the nurse's home which failed to explode."
    1946 Edward Adamson (died 1996) employed as Art Master to work with the patients.
    1948 Management transferred to the National Health Service. Netherne continued to serve the eastern half of Surrey and Brookwood the western. Hospital management came under the overall control of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. the hospital came under the direct control of the Netherne Hospital Management Committee from 1948 to 1964.
    Rudolph Karl Freudenberg was Medical Superintendent from the 1950s to the 1970s
    1958 Funding from the Nuffield Provincial Hospital Trust for a study of the value of active work in the rehabilitation of mental patients
    1960 Moyna Peters, aged sixteen, had had difficulty keep her jobs. She saw Dr Freudenberg as an out-patient at Redhill General and was admitted to Netherne on 1.5.1960
    1960-1968 Used, with Severalls and Mapperley in a study of institutionalism and schizophrenia - Published 1970
    1971 Film by Lionel Mishkin on The work of sculptor, Rolanda Polonsky (born 1925 - died 1996?) interviewed at Netherne Hospital while she was being treated there for schizophrenia. "We wish to thank Doctor R. K. Freudenberg, Edward Adamson, and the Netherne and Fairdene Hospitals for their help in making this film possible." (source)
    Hospital under the direct control of Redhill and Netherne Group Hospital Management Committee - formed in 1964 on the amalgamation of the Netherne Hospital and the Redhill Group Hospital Management Committees. The latter body administered a number of institutions.
    1970 Cherchefelle, a housing association, formed to provide supported housing for people suffering with mental health problems in the Redhill/Reigate area.
    November 1972 "The Labour Exchange said I had to get some psychiatric treatment or they could not continue paying me my benefits".
    (Moyna Peters) Moyna became a day patient. In her life story, she lists some of the changes between 1961 and 1972. "The hospital had become more open and free, more normal, in fact".
    August 1974 "Into the Community"
    Became Netherne and Fairdene Hospital about 1982. Later Netherne Hospital, Coulsden, CR3 1YE
    1984 Edward Adamson in association with John Timlin, Art as healing published London by Conventure. 68 pages, illustrated, chiefly in colour. Based on the Adamson Collection of paintings by patients. ISBN: 0904575241
    August 1986 Moyna Peters moved from her family home to a house in Woodlands Road, Redhill
    February 1991 Moyna Peters left Hedgefield Villa to live in a house run by Cherchefelle
    1993 A pictorial history of Netherne Hospital, by John C. Welch and George Frogley, published Redhill by East Surrey Health Authority. 60 pages. ISBN: 0951648721 (paperback)
    Simon Cornwall: Closed in 1994. Redeveloped as housing.
    Netherne hospital closed in Spring 1994. (Access to Archives note)
    March 1995 "Netherne Hospital finally closed. It had been slowly closing down for years past. The whole system went over to Care in the Community where we would all be looked after in smaller units in Reigate and Redhill, Merstham and Horley. Instead of the enormous hospital we would all be in community homes and group homes. The acutely ill would go into Capel Ward at the East Surrey Hospital. - I feel that Care in Community really works for me. (Moyna Peters)
    7.9.1995 Death of Michael James Raymond (born 1922), Consultant psychiatrist, Netherne Hospital KW- Raymond, Michael, 1922-1995.
    1995 Moyna Peters her Life Story
    1996 Gleeson Regeneration submitted an outline planning application to develop a new village with 520 homes, a retirement complex, business centre, shop, public house and other facilities. (another link)
    About 1998 Andrew Tierney decided to explore Cane Hill rather than Netherne.
    17.5.1999 Andrew Tierney's first exploration of the Netherne site (Internet archive) The site has had a guard for many years, has new style connected phone boxes within the grounds, as well as electrical power." "...large sections of the front of the hospital have been entirely demolished (unfortunately this means the boiler house etc...). The tower will remain for a while...it has cellphone transmitters on it.... Many of the outbuildings have already been knocked down, but the main building still stands....The architechture of the more decorative buildings is gothic (take a look at the tower), but most of the wards are of very simple design."
    2000 Construction work on the village began and "shortly afterwards" the first new residents moved in.
    Netherne on the Hill 2003 use: "Luxury housing"

    Now Netherne on the Hill - See Simon Cornwall's tour on 14.1.2006

    Wikipedia

    "43 of the 185 acres are being developed to provide housing and community, commercial and sports facilities. The new village will have a mix of homes ranging from large detached properties and luxury apartments to retirement homes and social housing (25%)". source
    St Lukes Church (see Moyna Peters' story) has been "redesigned internally" as a leisure club with a swimming pool and gym exclusive to Netherne Village residents.
    2007 Netherne Community website history page
    January 2009 Moyna Peters told some of her story on Radio Four's State of Mind

    Tooting Bec Asylum, opened in 1903 by the Metropolitan Asylums Board, mainly for people with senile dementia.
    See Peter Higginbotham's site
    1903: Tooting Bec Asylum / descriptive notes by A. and C. Harston. London : Avenue Press. 23 pages : illustrations. Held at Wellcome Library
    1919 Post Office Directory: Tooting Bec Asylum (Metropolitan Asylums Board), Tooting Bec Road, Upper Tooting, SW17. Edwyn H Beresford LRCP medical superintendent
    It became Tooting Bec Mental Hospital in 1924 and, in 1930, passed to the London County Council. In 1937 it became Tooting Bec Hospital. Address: Tooting Bec Road, London, SW17 8BL
    1974 An inquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of Mr. Daniel Carey, at Tooting Bec Hospital on 2nd August, 1974 : report of the Committee of Inquiry. South West Thames Regional Health Authority. A copy at Birmingham University
    1976 What the house physician prescribes for some common emergency psychiatric admissions : based on the practice at Tooting Bec Hospital, London by Regina Pustan, Published [London] ([2A St Paul's Rd, N.1]) : [The author] 1976. 8 pages. illustrated. Subject: Psychopharmacology. Crisis intervention (Psychiatry). Copy: British Library
    1995 The History of Tooting Bec Hospital by Sue Simmons. 2 volumes. Includes photographs. Unpublished. Copy in the London Metropolitan Archives: City of London. Reference: H45/TBH/Y/01/002
    Closed May 1995 demolished 1996/1997
    Wednesday 2.12.2015 A Short History of Tooting Bec Asylum by Liz Sayce, who says (email) "I explore this more in From Psychiatric Patient to Citizen Revisited - but this web link gives you a lot of the material".


    1919 Post Office Directory: also lists a private asylum: Newlands House Mental Hospital. Tooting Bec Road SW17. J. Noel Sergent, MB, BS London, proprietor and resident physician.

    Fountain Asylum Established as a fever hospital in 1893
    Architect: Thomas W Aldwinckle
    1911: "the hospital was redesignated as a mental hospital and became used for the accommodation of the lowest grade of severely subnormal children.
    (Peter Higginbotham)
    1919 Post Office Directory: Metropolitan Asylums Board Fountain Asylum, Tooting Grove, Tooting SW17 Thomas Brushfield MA, MB, MRCS medical superintendent; Cedric Davis, steward; Miss Flora Harris, matron.
    In 1930, administration of the hospital passed to the London County Council who retained it as a hospital for mentally defective children.
    The Royal College of Surgeons (England) has archived Case notes on c. 4000 children - photos, treatment, school work, clinical histories, post- mortems, etc; photo album of staff, hospital, entertainments etc from 1914-1927 (Hospital Database)).
    In 1959 as a consequence of the Mental Health Act the children from the Fountain Hospital were transferred to Queen Mary's Children's Hospital, Carshalton. (external link)
    Closed 1963
    The Fountain was demolished in the 1960s and the site is now occupied by the St George's Hospital" (Peter Higginbotham)

    Pauper lunatics from Croydon went to the Surrey asylum at Cane Hill, and this continued when Croydon became an independent County Borough in 1889. However, the "Lunacy Visiting Committee" of the new "County Borough of Croydon" also made arrangements for patients to be kept in the Isle of Wight County Asylum (1897-1902), others may have gone elsewhere.
    1894/1895 Purchase of site for Croydon Borough Asylum approved by the Home Office. (MH 83 County of Surrey)
    1897/1903 "Croydon Borough Asylum, Warlingham: architects appointed for planning construction; plans approved by the Home Secretary." (MH 83 County of Surrey)
    16.3.1899 Thomas Percy Rees born in Carmarthenshire. When he became a psychiatrist, he was generally known as T.P. Rees
    Built at a cost of about £200,000 (Kelly's 1913)
    26.6.1903 - Croydon Mental Hospital opened in Chelsham and Farleigh, about a mile north east of the centre of Warlingham. The name "Mental Hospital" was used from the begining, at the suggestion of Dr Edwin S. Pasmore, who was appointed as the first medical superintendent before it opened.
    Croydon Mental Hospital: House Committee minutes 1904-1937 held by Croydon Archive Service.
    1910 "Three new blocks, consisting of five wards, were added at a cost of £33,000". (Kelly's)
    Wednesday 5.4.1911 "Dr Pasmore, Medical Superintendent of the Croydon Mental Hospital... said that it was now recognised that a mental nurse should have medical and surgical training, and at Croydon one ward was fitted up as a hospital ward." (British Journal of Nursing 15.4.2007)
    1913 Kelly's Directory: Crodon Borough Mental Hospital - Chelsham, Whyteleaf. Medical Superintendent, Edwin S. Pasmore MD London - Assistant Medical Officers: William M. Ogilvie MB CM - Herbert M. Barncastle MRCS LRCP - William Bertram Hill, MD BC - Clerk and Steward Walter Brookfield Swain [All the other public ones in Surrey were listed as Lunatic Asylum (or some variation) - This was the only "Mental Hospital"] A structure of red brick ... available for about 650 patients".
    The East Surrey Bus Routes called it Chelsham Mental Hospital from 1923 to 16.4.1930 when it became Croydon Mental Hospital. On 1.1.1937 they changed it to Warlingham Park Hospital. ("You'll end up in Warlingham" - Croydon children's abuse in 1950s/1960s).
    May 1925: The Branch Secretary of the Nation Asylum Workers Union at Warlingham was "Mr E.F.Carter, County Mental Hospital, Warlingham, Surrey"
    1.1.1927: Croydon County Borough Mental Hospital 656 patients of whom all but 114 were Rate Aided. 206 were men, 450 women. There was a very high proportion of women to men in comparison with most asylums. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 67.6% (The highest in England and Wales). The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 6.7%
    January 1927 The Croydon Advertiser and Surrey County Reporter published an obituary of Edwin S. Pasmore.
    March quarter 1927 Death of Edwin S Pasmore, aged 62, recorded Godstone (which includes the hospital)
    1927 T.P. Rees moved from Napsbury to be deputy physician superintendent.
    1935 T.P. Rees became superintendent. His "first act" was to open the iron gates at the hospital entrance, after which they were not shut again. Over the next few years, all ward doors were unlocked during the day, while nearly all restraint and isolation of patients were abolished. (DNB)
    Warlingham Park Hospital Committee minutes 1937-1948 are held by Croydon Archive Service.
    9.6.1949 Thomas Percy Rees, MD, MRCP, Medical Superintendent, Warlingham Park Mental Hospital, awarded an OBE in the King's birthday honours.
    World Health Organisation report on The Community Mental Hospital - T.P. Rees was one of the authors.
    1954: Introduced out-patient nurses.
    4.2.1954 Thomas Percy Rees, MD, MRCP, OBE, a member of the Royal Commission to inquire into the certification and detention of mental patients
    1956 Christopher Mayhew, MP spent a few days in one of the wards in preparation for the television series The Hurt Mind. "As I went in I felt a certain apprehension, but after a few hours... I felt completely at home". There was a "porter's lodge" where he booked in. His legal status is not stated, but he presumably signed in as a voluntary patient. His bed was in a ward "for light cases - alcoholics and neurotics". This part appears civilised. In the morning he sits in the living room of his ward and reads morning papers with other patients. Later he has dinner with others in the dining room. He also visited the sitting room of the "best women's ward", where one woman arranged flowers, another played the piano and three others watched television. Elsewhere in the hospital he visited a "dormitary crammed with beds". This is the worst ward he has seen - dealing with the "hard core of chronic patients".
    Deputy Chief Male Nurse, Mr Relph (John Ralph, died 1972?), was interviewed. He said that the old hospital was like a prison and described how staff often had to "retaliate" when patients became violent and often "hit back in self defence". Drugs, ECT, insulin and "open doors" had put an end to all of that. The Chief Superintendant (T.P. Rees) was interviewed. He described the hospital's main successes as the removal of the rails around the hospital and handing over of responsibility to patients.
    During 1956. T.P. Rees left Croydon and started a private practice in Harley Street. He was made a freeman of the borough.
    Stephen MacKeith may have succeeded Rees at Croydon.
    January 1957 Warlingham Park featured in "Put Away", the first programme of The Hurt Mind, the first BBC television documentary about mental health.
    22.12.1962 The Lancet "The Future of district psychiatry" by A.R. May, A.P. Sheldon and S.A., Mackeith
    2.6.1963 Death of T.P. Rees
    December 1965 Community Mental Health Journal "Change in a British Psychiatric Service" by Alan Sheldon, formerly Registrar, Warlingham Park Hospital. "Changes in the Croydon Psychiatric Service consequent upon the adoption of a community mental health orientation are described, and the effects of the initial phase of implementation are noted in terms of data collected for a year preceding and following this phase. The major effects are seen in reduction of readmission rates to the mental hospital, and in a redistribution of patients among the wider range of facilities"
    March 1983 Letter in Psychiatric Bulletin from Stephen Pasmore, Ham Gate Avenue, Richmond, Surrey, about his father, Edwin S. Pasmore.

    Croydon Mental Hospital

    DEAR SIRS

    In his review of the history of some mental hospitals (Bulletin, November 1982, 6, 195-7) the late Dr Walk omitted to mention the vital change that took place in 1903, when the new Lunatic Asylum for Croydon was called the Croydon Mental Hospital.

    In January 1927 The Croydon Advertiser and Surrey County Reporter published an obituary of my father, Dr Edwin S. Pasmore, who was appointed the first Medical Superintendent of that hospital before it was opened, and attributed to him the origin of the term 'mental hospital'. Furthermore the hospital was the first of its kind in the country to have an operating theatre and X-ray department to bring it into line with the general hospitals of the day. It has since been renamed the Warlingham Park Hospital.


    1995 the management of Croydon mental health services, including Warlingham Park Hospital, was taken over by the
    Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust.
    the clock tower The Clock Tower, described as hideous in 1908, is now a Grade two listed building. The hospital was closed in February 1999, and demolished in summer 2000, but the clock tower and many trees have been preserved. The site is being redeveloped for housing. Postcode CR3 9YR
    2003 use: "Water tower preserved as symbol of development"

    Holloway Sanatorium
    Virginia Water, Surrey
    Opened as a private asylum in 1884
    Closed
    December 1980
    2003 use: "Gated housing development"


    Lingfield Training Colony
    1894: Opened
    Became St Pier's School, St Piers Lane, Lingfield, Surrey RH7 6PW
    19/23.3.2001: pdf: Ofsted report


    Latchmere Special Hospital for (Army) Officers
    Latchmere, Ham Common, Richmond, Surrey.
    A private house before the first world war. Taken over in
    November 1915 with beds for 51 officers. (external link and another ). In March 1920, Mrs. M. J. Shepperd, Sister, Special Hospital for Officers, Latchmere, Ham Common, Surrey, was awarded the Royal Red Cross (Second Class), by the King, in recognition of her valuable services in connection with the War (British Journal of Nursing 27.3.1920, p.124 - pdf-) ---- "MI5's Secret Interrogation Centre - Latchmere House - 'Camp 020' - at Ham Common, Richmond", After the Battle --- Latchmere House: "The Prison Service took over the site from the military in 1948. As a Prison Service establishment it has had several roles as a young offender institution, remand centre, and a deportees prison. It became a resettlement prison in 1992". HMP Latchmere House, Church Road, Ham Common, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 5HH Operational Capacity: 198

    Hackney (East London) All in-patient beds were at Long Grove Hospital, Epsom, about 25 miles away on the other side of London, until the psychiatric unit opened at Hackney Hospital.

    Date that outpatients clinics started at Hackney Hospital is not known. But none listed in 1940. If the Duly Authorised Officer was summoned to a crisis in Hackney in 1956-1957, the person might be taken by ambulance to St Clements (or another London observation unit) or directly to Long Grove.

    1959 Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (PRA) started at Longrove and in Hackney.

    1962 Enid Mills' Living with Mental Illness. A study in East London published. Reports of the Institute of Community Studies number 7. Published: London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962.

    1962 Start of PRA research project to study mental hospital admission and discharge rates for Hackney and Tower Hamlets and the available community services, in relation to the national statistics.

    [John Reed gave 1967 as the date some psychiatric beds opened at Hackney Hospital. Before this there were out-patient clinics, but the in-patient beds were at Long Grove Hospital. However, the in-patient beds at Hackney Hospital appear to pre-date 1967 - See below].

    1966 All in-patients passing through Long Grove - St Clements - and Hackney ("the main psychiatric hospitals serving East and North London") were included in the PRA survey. "The total number of patients discharged who were previously admitted from East London was 2061. 37% were discharged from Long Grove, 52.8% from St Clement's Hospital, and 10.2% from Hackney Psychiatric Unit" (PRA1968, p.6)

    Long Grove Outpatients clinics at Hackney Hospital Monday and Wednesday at 2pm

    1967 John Reed appointed Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry to St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College. Born 16.9.1931, BA Cantab 1953 - MB BChir 1956 - MRCP 1958 - DPM 1964 - FRCPsych 1974 - FRCP 1974 - Prior to working in the City and Hackney "went into psychiatry and after a spell at Bexley Hospital worked at the Maudsley Hospital under, among others, Professor Sir Aubrey Lewis and Professor Michael Shepherd". Died 9.10.2009

    1967

    "A psychiatric Unit with 40 beds was opened in F Block in 1967, a small part of a bustling whole" (Rear Window)

    February 1968 Publication of The Mental Health of East London by the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.

    1970 Publication of Mental illness in City and Suburb - A study of the geographic distribution of psychiatric pateients discharged to Aackney, Tower Hamlets, Haringey, Enfields and Waltham Forest by the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.

    April 1974 After this date, all hospital admissions for mental illness were to units within the borough. (But existing patients remained at Long Grove). St Lawrences, Caterham, previously the catchment area hospital for mental handicap, ceased taking Hackney patients in 1974

    Friday 6.5.1974 First meeting of the Hackney Hospital Mental Patients Union

    1980 and 1981 John Bligh's survey of patients in hospitals outside Hackney revealed at least 80 mentally ill patients at Long Grove and about 200 patients dispersed in mental handicap hospitals in a ring around London, including: St Lawrences: 161; Farmfield: 2; The Manor, Epsom: 13; St Ebbas, Epsom: 2; Darenth Park, Kent: 11; South Ockendon, Essex (the closest): 7; Harperbury, Hertfordshire: 1; Leavesden, Hertfordshire: 10. In 1980 Hackney's Director of Social Services told councillors that mentally handicapped people were no longer sent outside the borough "except in exceptional circumstances".

    1981 There were 80 mental illness in-patient beds at Hackney Hospital, 73 at the German Hospital and six at St Bartholomews.

    1981 BBC2 Soap/Drama "Maybury" produced with assistance from Hackney psychiatrists. Rumour suggested that the psychiatrist hero, Eddie Roebuck, played by Patrick Stewart, was modelled on John Reed. There are clear similarities between F Block in Hackney Hospital and the psychiatric block at Maybury General Hospital. On page 98 of the book, for example, we learn that at Maybury (and possibly only at Maybury" "we do it all without any chronic units"... "we're trying to show that it can all be done in the community".

    March 1981 Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, Hackney Hospital: Interim report

    Andrew Roberts and Tony Ward "Psychiatric Secure Units" The Abolitionist No.10, Winter 1982 pp 18-19.

    25.11.1982 and 26.11.1982 "Cinderella No More. A Conference about the development of Comprehensive Psychiatric Services" organised by the Community Psychiatric Research Unit, Hackney Hospital, at Robin Brook Centre, St Bartholomew's Medical College. A paper by John Reed "The elements of an 'ideal' service - The clinical view" "describes and comments on experiences in City and Hackney as a background to discussion of what might constitute an 'ideal' package"

    Winter 1984/1985 Hackney Day Hospital Patients Committee established

    Wednesday 25.6.1986 Dr John Reed's farewell party in the Academic Centre, Hackney Hospital.

    1986 Homerton Hospital opened, but geriatric and psychiatric wards remained at Hackney Hospital

    John Langdale Reed, Esq., M.B., B.Chir., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.P sych., Senior Principal Medical Officer, Department of Health, appointed an Honorary Physicians to Her Majesty for a period of three years from 1st February 1990.

    March 1994 Hackney Patients Council founded

    1995 "Hackney Hospital Closure Under Way"

    Robin Farquarson House
    37 Mayola Road, Hackney
    Established by mental patients for mental patients
    Opened July 1973, closed August 1976
    One of the residential houses set up by members of the
    Mental Patients' Union

    Mental Handicap Unit in Hackney

    Eastern Hospital The Eastern Hospital, Homerton Grove, London, E9 6BY was demolished in 1982 to make way for the new Homerton Hospital. Amongst its last residents were a group of severely disabled children who moved to a hostel in Malpas Road, Hackney. The Eastern Hospital had a long history as a fever hospital and as a hospital for diseases of the skin. Its use as a home for children with learning difficulties is not mentioned in the extensive historical notes on the Hospital Database.

    Mental Handicap Hospitals North East of London

    Royal Eastern Counties
    North Station Road, Colchester
    29.3.1843 Colchester railway station opened. This was the then eastern terminus of the Eastern Counties Railway from London. The large building is Essex Hall, intended to be the railway hotel. Instead it became an asylum.
    Established 1849 for young inmates of
    Royal Earlswood
    By 1858 all patients transferred to Earlswood.
    1859: Eastern Counties Asylum
    1.2.1868: Feature in The Builder about an infirmary refers to Essex Hall Asylum for Idiots (See Rossbret archive)
    1894 Crossley House seaside home, at Clacton, acquired with financial help from Sir Savile Crossley, of Somerleyton (Suffolk)
    Royal Eastern Counties Institution for Mental Defectives
    1918 Lexden House leased as a (residential) school for high grade females. Lexden is about one mile west of central Colchester. This addition brought the Institution's total beds to 630. [See 1979]
    1922 Greenwood school, Halstead, opened for 86 girls. Lexden House become a hostel.
    1923 Bridge Home, Witham, bought. Providing another 233 beds.
    1935 Turner village, Turner Road, Mile End (village), outside Colchester, opened with eight villas for male patients. Essex Hall and the Peckover schools became female patients only. In its different centres, the Institution now had 1,850 beds, including a boys' school at Littleton House (Cambridgeshire.) and a young women's home at Great West Hatch, Chigwell, Essex. "By the time Essex Hall's "annex", Turner Village, was opened by the then Duke of Kent in 1935, the institution had nearly 2,000 beds in centres across north Essex". - See Colchester Heritage Explorer (archive)
    1947 Handford House, Ipswich, acquired for 22 female patients, and Kingsmead at Lexden for a girls' hostel. Kingsmead is on Straight Road, whick links Lexden and Shrub End.
    c.1948 - 1972 Royal Eastern Counties Hospital
    1948 Cherry Allfree, Valerie Argent and Hilda Turner born in Uxbridge (Middlesex), Bexleyheath (Kent), and Ipswich (Suffolk) respectively.
    Between about 1950 and the early 1980s Barker House, Clacton-on-Sea, was used as a holiday home
    1962 (Hospital Plan) Royal Eastern Counties Group, with 1,681 beds served North East Essex. Increase to 1,781 beds expected by 1971 due to "two additional villas for 100 patients at Turner Village"
    1962 In her journal, Valerie Argent (aged 14) calls this Essex Hall (the term she always used), whereas her psychiatrist writes "Royal Eastern Counties Hospital, Essex Hall, Colchester"
    17.4.1966 Hilda Turner admitted to Essex Hall. (aged 17). Her IQ has been estimated at between 60-70
    About 1966 Cherry Allfree (aged 17/18) admitted to Kingsmead. Speaking of her foster carer, Cherry said "She got in touch with a social worker - who got in touch with a psychiatrist - a lady psychiatrist - who, in fact was jointly in control of the Royal Eastern Hospital Counties Group - and the psychiatrist gave me an intelligence test. Although the test was good they still sent me to Kingsmead... A 'hostel' ... it was part of the 'bin' ... it was just like a 'mini-bin' ... People were drugged up... I was there for two years ... the social worker took me to Lexden House (Cherry Allfree)
    1967/1968 Cherry Allfree admitted to Lexden House.
    "I was already 19.. it was more like a bin than Kingsmead... I was there for twelve months... and from there went to Essex Hall". She was moved there after running away from Lexden House more than once. (Cherry Allfree)
    2.3.1969 Cherry Allfree twenty one. About this time admitted to Essex Hall from Lexden House. Speaks of people being forcibly injected because they were 'high' and needed to be kept under control. "injected with paraldehyde and Largactil to keep them quiet. Saw people undressed and left with no clothes on (sometimes all day) and hit with shoes. Patients sometimes tied to beds. ... punished by having to scrub the floors. - [From Essex Hall] "We used to go to Turner Village to see some films. They'd walk you there in twos - There would be a long file of us walking up the street - 'There goes the people from Essex Hall' - the boy weren't allowed to sit with the girls - because they thought you'd want to kiss and cuddle". (Cherry Allfree)
    1972: Essex Hall - [Scandal mentioned]

    2.3.1975
    Cherry Allfree twenty seven. About this time moved from Lexden House to Kingsmead. "They were shifting people about. I don't know why. I got myself a job in an hotel doing room-maid service )generally cleaning rooms) and also got a job in the kitchen as well. I was able to get a room in the hotel that they offered me. And I left Kingsmead. [After two years and aged 28]
    20.1.1977 Hilda Turner discharged. Responsibility for her welfare passed from the National Health Service to the relevant local authority
    1979: 338 beds (Mental Handicap)
    1986 (or 1985): Essex Hall closed and demolished. Its 12 acre site sold in 1988. "Many patients had by then been moved out into the community, some to group homes, and only 640 patients remained at Turner village".
    1990 Lexden House closed
    1.12.2007 Sixty Years of Services for People with Learning Difficulties: A Life in the Care of the State by Hilda Turner.
    offline - archive link

    Also in Colchester Health District, for mental handicap, in 1979:
    Turner Village Hospital, Turner Road, Colchester, 476 beds
    Lexden House, Lexden, Colchester, 78 beds
    Brunswick House, Mistley, Manningtree, 43 beds
    Severalls Hospital had 38 beds for mental handicap
    "If the doctors thought you needed treatment... you'd be carted off to Severalls to have electric shock treatment... Or if it was something worse -- you'd be sent to Rampton". (Cherry Allfree)
    Ramsey Lodge, Oakley Road, Dovercourt, Harwich, 37 beds
    Hillsea, 10 East Hill, Colchester, 30 beds
    Handford House, Queens Road, Colchester, 20 beds
    Kingsmead, Straight Road, Colchester, 10 beds


    Crossley House Crossley House, Marine Parade, Clacton-on-Sea, 33 beds
    "holiday?... the people who weren't allowed out... or weren't able to visit their parents went to this house in Clacton... It was run by the staff". "where everybody gets cross". (Cherry Allfree)
    Barker House, Coppings Road, Clacton on Sea, 43 beds

    South Ockendon Colony
    Established 1932
    Became South Ockendon Hospital, South Road, South Ockendon, RM15 6SB
    1979: 724 beds (Mental Handicap)
    Closed 1994
    Hospital Database says: See (i) Randal Bingley, 'South Ockendon: Echoes from an Essex Hospital' (typeset, 1993); a copy is available at the Essex Record Office, Chelmsford. (ii) Richard Harris, ' Preserving and using archives', in Dorothy Atkinson, Mark Jackson and Jan Walmsley (eds) Forgotten Lives: Exploring the history of learning disability (BILD Publications 1997

    Leytonstone House or Leyton House
    2003 use: "Shops, supermarket"

    Brentwood

    St Faith's Hospital, Brentwood
    London Road Brentwood CM14 4QP (Telephone was 01277 219262)
    Previously:
    An Industrial School for Shoreditch and Hackney (possibly opened by Shoreditch in 1854) - Hackney Branch Institution
    Brentwood Epileptic Colony (1916-1936?). For women.
    Established by the Metropolitan Asylums Board
    Taken over by London County Council in 1935. Probably renamed St Faith's Hospital at this point. See Ewell Epileptic Colony
    1962 (Hospital Plan): 332 beds in 1960, 303 of them for epilepsy, plus 15 acute and 14 geriatric. "At present takes only female patients" but "will be developed into the regional epileptic centre, thus allowing St David's Hospital, Edmonton to be closed". Development to be completed by 1971.
    1979: 293 beds. "Chronic Sick (Geriatric and Epileptics)"
    Demolished towards the end of the 20th century and replaced by "BT Workstyle 2000" building.

    Edmonton

    St David's Hospital
    Silver Street London N18
    Previously:
    "From 1849 to 1915, this site was the Strand Union's workhouse school. It was then bought and converted by the Metropolitan Asylums Board and operated as St David's Hospital for "sane epileptics" until 1971. (email from Peter Higginbotham - external link to his site)
    Edmonton Epileptic Colony (1916-1936). For men. Metropolitan Asylums Board
    Taken over by London County Council in 1935. Probably renamed St David's Hospital at this point. See Ewell Epileptic Colony
    Hospital Database says it closed in 1947 - But it was part of a survey in 1962
    St David's, along with the Edmonton Union Institution and North Middlesex Hospital, shown on a map printed about 1950
    1962 (Hospital Plan): 271 beds in 1960, all for epilepsy. St David's was a regional centre for epilepsy. It was planned to close by 1971 (see St Faith's above) and the site was to be used for a new, 400 bed, hospital for mentally handicapped patients. Building the new hospital was expected to start sometime between 1966-1967 and 1970-1971. [But, by then, public policy had changed]

    Mental Handicap Hospitals North West of London 1971

    Leavesden

    Harperbury

    Cell Barnes

    Broomham and Fairfield Unit

    Normansfield Idiot Asylum
    Kingston Road Teddington [TW11 9JH]
    Founded 1868
    1881 Census: John L.H. Down physician head of Normansfield Idiot Asylum, Kingston Road, Middlesex.
    Owned by the Langdown Down family until purchased by the National Health Service in 1951. Its archives are the only ones for a private asylum held in the London Metropolitan Archives. (email from Bridget Howlett, Senior Archivist)
    A voluntary institution until 1948, then part of the National Health Service.
    1948? Normansfield Hospital
    1997 Closed
    History website
    Miriam Bruinsma's photographic gallery of Normansfield
    2003 use: "Luxury housing"

    Church Hill House

    Click for Mental Handicap Hospitals North East of London 1971

    Mental Handicap Hospitals South of London 1971

    Darenth Park Opened by the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1878 as Darenth Asylum and Schools, 1913: Darenth Industrial Colony, 1920: Darenth Training Colony. In 1930, passed to the London County Council.
    1937: Darenth Park Hospital, Dartford, DA2 6LZ.
    1949 Complaints about patients being conveyed to and from outside work in open lorries during the severe winter.
    8.3.1951 Norman Dodds questions in parliament about use of open lorries in December 1950
    8.3.1951 Minister of Health "The number of patients now resident at Darenth Park Mental Deficiency Institution is 1,791 (1,084 male and 707 female patients). The nursing staff establishment provides for 148 male and 154 female nurses. At present, the male staff is 110 and the female staff 56 full-time and 66 part-time"
    1980 Hackney patients
    November 1982 The only large mental handicap hospital planned to close
    "The closure of Darenth was driven by the determination of learning disability managers locally to run an entirely different service and the South East Thames Regional Manager responsible plus the Chief Nurse called Audrey Emerton (now Baroness Emerton). It was very visionary at the time. Clinicians were marginal in that case." (Elaine Murphy email 17.5.2012)
    Closed 1988

    Leybourne Grange

    Eastry

    Princess Christian's

    St Lawrence's, Caterham

    Botley's Park Hospital
    Guildford Rd Chertsey Surrey KT16 0QA
    1765 Mansion
    external link archive of a history
    Records include at Surrey History Centre include:
    minutes of visitors 1914 - 1960
    1929 Mansion bought by Surrey County Council
    Management Committee Reports 1949 - 1950
    Botleys Plc and Murray House 1932 - 1933
    Deeds re Porook House Hostel 1913 - 1949
    Plans and contracts re construction 1930 - 1962
    Chertsey Workhouse Records
    Closed late 1997?
    2003 use: "Business"

    Murray House was the Chertsey Workhouse. See Peter Higginbotham's site
    In 1930, the workhouse was taken over by Surrey County Council and later became Murray House Certified Institution for the Mentally Defective

    Royal Earlswood
    1847: Park House, Highgate
    1849 See
    Royal Eastern Counties
    1855?: Earlswood Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles
    Brighton Road, Redhill, RH1 6JL
    1858: John Langdown Down (external link - archive) medical superintendent.
    1868 See Normansfield
    By 1929: Royal Earlswood Institution (to 1959)
    1995: Closed
    2001: Mental Disability in Victorian England: The Earlswood Asylum 1847- 1901 by David Wright. External link to review
    2003 use: "Luxury housing"

    Farmfield Originally an inebriates reformatory
    "At an early date after the passing of the
    Inebriates Act of 1898, the London County Council established a reformatory at Farmfield, near Horley, for the reception of 100 female inebriates. It soon became evident that more accommodation would be necessary, and the Council accordingly contracted with the National Institution for Inebriates for the reception of all female cases they were unable to receive at Farmfield" (Hansard 17.2.1908)
    November 1915: "London County Council closed its reformatory at Farmfield and transferred the 45 female inmates to Brentry before it converted Farmfield to being a mental deficiency colony". (source)
    1926 London County Council institution for high grade defectives with delinquent tendencies
    1948 Part of the National Health Service. Organised by the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board to form part of the Royal Earlswood Group.
    November 1953 just over 250 patients when Peter Whitehead transferred from Rampton.
    2.4.1954 Peter Whitehead working in a hotel in a Surrey country town.
    The terms of his licence included not being on the streets after 10pm, not talking to a member of the opposite sex, not walking with a member of the opposite sex and not frequenting dance-halls, public houses or similar places. "These rules... are the inheritance of the eugenics theories of fifty years ago" (Roxan 1958 p.173)
    7.8.1954 Peter Whitehead ran away to Dublin, where he would be beyond reach of the mental deficiency laws. Unable to find work, he went to Liverpool and then the Potteries. A priest found him work in Wolverhampton and then he secured a better job on a farm near Newland Bridge.
    14.9.1954 Jean Mary Townsend (aged 21) murdered in Ruislip, West Middlesex. A nationwide search for possible suspects included questioning Peter on the farm and, as a result, he was returned to Farmfield.
    30.10.1954 Peter Whitehead protested about "working of the road" (digging holes and filling them in) and then escaped. He went to his uncle in Hammersmith and then to the National Council for Civil Liberties.
    Recaptured 26.12.1954
    Returned to Rampton 11.1.1955
    Early 1955 "Working of the road" discontinued at Farmfield.
    1958 120 patients
    Closed end of October 1989.
    See lost hospitals of London
    Farmfield [Priory Group] is a purpose built, 52-bed, low and medium secure hospital for men with with "enduring mental illness, personality disorder and with mild learning disabilities". "Treatment is targeted toward safe patient re-settlement in the community where possible".

    The Manor, Epsom

    St Ebbas, Epsom

    Queen Mary's

    Mental Handicap Hospital South of London after 1971

    Grove Park Hospital Greenwich
    external link
    2003 use: "Housing"

    South East England

    Hook Norton, Oxfordshire
    Licensed House
    The asylum at Hook Norton and the one at Witney are the subjects of a special study by William Parry-Jones (1972 chapter six). Page numbers below are to this.
    About 1725: opened. The village of Hook Norton is near the edge of Oxfordshire, near to Warwickshire
    1815 list: Hook Norton: Harris
    1.1.1844 ??
    Closed 1854

    Warneford Asylum, Oxford (Headington)
    Warneford Hospital history in health authority archives
    not receiving paupers in 1844
    Architect: Richard Ingleman
    Opened 1826
    Before it opened (from 1821 to 1826) its was referred to as Oxford Lunatic Asylum
    1826: Radcliffe Asylum (1826 - 1843
    1843 Warneford Asylum
    1844: Superintendent: F.T. Wintle, MD
    1.1.1844: 42 private patients,
    1881 Census:. Warneford Asylum, Headington, Oxford. Medical Superintendent: John Ward, married, born Leeds about 1844.
    Warneford Hospital Warneford Lane, Oxford, OX3 7JX
    1909 Leaflet in book
    multi-map

    Associated with:
    Park Hospital for Nervous Diseases 1939 to 1958
    Park Hospital for Children 1958 to Present

    Oxfordshire and Berkshire County Asylum opened on 1.8.1846 at Littlemore, Oxford. This became the Oxford County Pauper Lunatic Asylum.
    May 1918 Ashurst War Hospital, Littlemore. - 580 beds (source)
    "for the care and treatment of soldiers and pensioners suffering from neurasthenia or loss of mental balance" (Hansard 12.4.1920)
    August 1920 Reverted to county asylum
    By 1922 it was the Oxford County and City Mental Hospital. It became Littlemore Hospital, Sandford Road, Littlemore, Oxford, OX4 4XN
    1990 Oxford Survivors and Libellus Dementum
    2003 use: "Gated housing development, business"

    A separate asylum for Berkshire County, and boroughs of Reading and Newbury was planned in 1867/1868: Moulsford Asylum opened in 1870. (external link to asylum history). (archive copy).
    Architect: Charles Henry Howell - Corridor form
    1881 Census: "Berks County Moulsford Asylum, Cholsey, Berkshire". Medical Superintendent (Physician) Robert Bryce Gilland, unmarried, aged 42, born Scotland. Under a contract with Surrey, 30 patients, including Edward Sackett were admitted from Brookwood on 12.9.1882, and sent back to Surrey on 31.3.1884. 1885-1902 imbecile patients from Westminster Fair Mile Hospital, Reading Road, Cholsey, Wallingford, OX10 9HH, had 613 beds on 31.12.1977. Autumn 2002: Reported open, or closed but empty (map)
    English Heritage: Fairmile, Oxfordshire, built 1868-1870 as the pauper asylum for Berkshire

    Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum was opened at Crowthorne, Berkshire, in 1863.
    BBC Profile - Wikipedia
    "designed by Major General Joshua Jebb, a military engineer who is said to have based the building off two other hospitals - Wakefield in Britain and Turkey's Scutari Hospital" (BBC Profile) - Joshua Jebb (8.5.1793 - 26.6.1863) was Surveyor-General of Prisons. He made the design for Pentonville Prison, which acted as the model for many others. (Neil Sturrock - email 7.12.2006)
    1863 to 1948 Run directly by the Home Office
    Dr John Meyer (died 1870) was the first Medical Superintendent. His deputy was William Orange (born 1833, died 1916). Both came from the Surrey Asylum
    1865: Report (HMSO) Superintendent: John Meyer, Chaplain: J.T. Burt
    1866 While kneeling at Communion Service, one Sunday, Dr Orange was hit on the head by a patient with a stone hidden in a handkerchief.
    July 1868 W.G. Maddox MRCS appointed Assistant Medical Officer in place of A J Newman, who had resigned
    January 1970 D M'K Cassidy, MD, late Assistant Medical Officer to the Northern District Asylum at Inverness appointed Assistant Medical Officer
    October 1870 W. Orange, MD Heidelberg, MRCP apponted Resident Medical Superintendent in place of J. Meyer MD. deceased. Meyer's obituary on page 311 of the Journal of Mental Science. William Orange had been Deputy Superintendent and W.Douglas MD, LRCS Edinburgh was appointed to that post in April 1871
    1870: Report (HMSO 1871) Superintendent: W. Orange, Chaplain: J.T. Burt. October 1871 A.R. Gray, MD, MRCS Edinburgh appointed Assistant Medical Officer
    1873-1874 Series of articles by David Nicolson on "The Morbid Psychology of Criminals" in the Journal of Mental Science
    1873 David Nicolson expressed opinion that habitual criminals "possess an unmistakable physique with rough and irregular outline and a massiveness in the seats of animal expression" while the accidental criminal "differs little or nothing from the ordinary run of mortals" 1878 After dealing with the inmates of the asylum, David Nicolson no longer believed most criminals differed physically from non-criminals. (Flemming, R. 2000 citing Weiner, M.J. 1990 )
    1881 Census Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Sandhurst, Berkshire. Some senior officers (see below) live outside the asylum. Inside is John Baldwin Isaac, unmarried, aged 33, born in Ireland a "Doctor Of Medicine (Civil Service)". The names of patients are given in full.
    1881 Census: Superintendent's House (William Orange)
    Thomas Ash (Chaplain) - David Nicolson - Robert Hazel
    1887 Report of the Superintendent (W. Orange), plans of the asylum, 1886 (men's division, men's division - blocks 1 and 6, women's division and block plan of the complete asylum), report of the Chaplain (Thomas Ashe), statistical tables, report of the Commissioners in Lunacy and post-mortem records
    1888 Report of the Superintendent - David Nicolson
    1892 Superintendent still David Nicolson. Chaplain still Thomas Ashe
    12.12.1894 Letter from Robert Hazel (non-medical superintendent at Broadmoor) to one of his daughters. He tells her about a theatrical entertainment at the Asylum that was to happen the next day (Friday 13.12.1894) Dr Lawless was the stage manager. He goes on to say "The elections come off next week in the School Room at Crowthorne, so it rather interferes with Mr Sharp's concert. Other concerts are also under way." [Information from Fiona Douglas. a descendent]
    1896 "When there was a change of Directors at Broadmoor around 1896 things became very tough in the Institution, and I believe that is when Robert Hazle retired to Hanwell in Middlesex"
    1901: Report (HMSO) Superintendent: R. Brayn, Chaplain: Hugh Wood. Visiting Lunacy Commissioners: F. Needham and C.S. Bagot
    1903: article by George Griffith
    1917 David Nicolson "William Orange, CB, MD, FRCP, formerly Medical Superintendent, Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum" Obituary, British Medical Journal 1917, volume 1 pp 67-69
    4.11.1919: Beth Wood admitted. Dr Sullivan was Superintendent at this time. Beth was conditionally discharged to the care of her husband on 4.12.1921
    1920 Rampton
    10.9.1924 The Nation "W. C. Sullivan, Medical Superintendent of the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum in England, in his recent book, Crime and Insanity"
    26.2.1926 Death of William Charles Sullivan (1869-1926) sometime superintendent at Broadmoor.
    1939 Charles Kaye born
    September 1944 First issue of The Broadmoor Chronicle
    1948 Criminal Justice Act section 62(3) moved Broadmoor from the Home Office to the Board of Control. The name was changed to Broadmoor Special Institution. All "criminal lunatic asylums" (1860 Act) became "Broadmoor Institutions". The Board of Control could make "rules for the care and treatment of patients detained in Broadmoor institutions", which were laid before Parliament.
    29.4.1952 John Straffen escaped from Broadmoor for four hours. Police found the body of five-year-old Linda Bowyer the following morning.
    17.6.1952 Scott Henderson (chair) Report of the Broadmoor Inquiry Committee into security, appointed 12.5.1952, stated the rules of staff conduct were last printed in 1908 and are out of print. It recommended they should be brought up to date and that "every member of the staff should have a copy of the Security Rules"
    Broadmoor Institutions - Instructions for Guidance of Nursing and Other Staff
    [2014 government website classifies 1949 to 1989 as a period when Broadmoor reported directly to the Department of Health]
    1957: See Percy Report
    1959 Mental Health Act sections 97-98: Broadmoor, Rampton and Moss Side became Special Hospitals under the Ministry of Health.
    Jimmy Savile called himself the "voluntary assistant entertainments officer" for Broadmoor. His involvement as a volunteer probably began in the late 1960s or early 1970s. At some time he was given an office in the grounds of the hospital, a bedroom, which he called his "cell", above it, and his own personal set of keys to the hospital wards. Esther Addley, Guardian 12.10.2012
    1970 First Special Hospitals Research Report: "Personality Types among Abnomal Homicides" by R. Blackburn. Principle Psychologist, Rampton.
    1971 Special Hospitals Research Reports 2,3, and 4
    1972 Special Hospitals Research Report 5
    1973 Special Hospitals Research Reports 6 to 9
    2.3.1973 National Association of Mental Health Conference at which Nathan Morris, secretary of "The Public Action Committee for Broadmoor" was unable to put a question to Keith Joseph.
    1974 Special Hospitals Research Reports 10 to 12
    7.5.1974 Fire started in the day room of Ward 2 of Kent House. Reported The Chronicle May 1974. At this time the editor was Barry Stone and illustrations by Pete F.
    June/July Chronicle. "Woman's View - 1" by Tweedy.
    July 1974 Voice of Broadmoor number 3 from "The Defence and Aid Committee for Prisoners in Broadmoor" Number 4 date August 1974
    1.8.1974 "Women's Lib is on the March at Broadmoor" Wokingham Times
    August 1974 Chronicle. "Woman's View - 2" by Tweedy. With male responses to earlier article. "Womens Lib" cover by Pete F. of Dorset House
    September 1974 Chronicle. "Woman's View - 3" by Tweedy. About male responses to earlier article
    October 1974 Chronicle. "Woman's View - 4" by Tweedy (last). Letters defending responses of Pete F. of Dorset House.
    20.7.1976 Janet Cresswell admitted to York 2 at Broadmoor following conviction at the central Criminal Court on 24.6.1976 of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm [To Dr Desmond McNeill].
    1987
    Orville Blackwood sent to Broadmoor
    In August 1988 shortly before the publication of a highly critical report into its operating procedures, the entire management board of Broadmoor secure psychiatric hospital was suspended by the Department of Health, which at the time had joint responsibility for its direct management.
    (Guardian)
    1988 to 1997 Alan Franey chief executive of Broadmoor.
    1989 Special Hospitals Service Authority took over management. Charles Kaye appointed the Chief Executive.
    [2014 government website classifies 1989 to 1996 as a period when Broadmoor reported to the Special Hospitals Service Authority]
    1992 The London Programme on LWT (London Weekend Television) broadcast a 60 minute documentary "Inside Broadmoor", which is still available as a video-recording from Figaro Films. "Patients, nurses and medical visitors give their opinions about life inside Broadmoor maximum security hospital. Modernised parts of the hospital are compared with those parts that are still so inadequate that it is astonishing that any sort of orderly regime can be preserved in surroundings so productive of stress. The General Manager, Alan Franey, states his commitment to recovery, rehabilitation and release rather than mere custodial care. There are some very interesting interviews with patients, showing their different states of awareness and responsibility, and a glimpse of a lively Broadmoor variety show".
    1993 to 1999 Kate Diesfeld Consultant to the Broadmoor Patients' Council. England. Invited to conduct legal research and advocacy for restricted special patients detained in psychiatric institution. Attended annual general meeting of the Council 1993, 1994, and 1995. Diesfeld, K. "Obtaining discharge from special hospital". Broadmoor Patients' Council, Broadmoor Hospital, Crowthorne, England. October 1994
    1994 Broadmoor Patients' Council: The first six months by by Peter Lindley and Jennie Williams. University of Kent at Canterbury. Tizard Centre.
    The Chronicle - Broadmoor Community Magazine February/March 1994 "Talking about Race". Includes interview with Chandra Ghosh. consultant psychiatrist for Dorchester and Windsor wards and Chris Hjarne (Personnel) about their research.
    1996 Purchaser-provider split was introduced into the Special Hospitals. The SHSA was disbanded; in its place appeared three Special Hospital Authorities and their purchaser, the High Security Psychiatric Services Commissioning Board (HSPSCB)
    [2014 government website classifies 1996 to 2001 as a period when Broadmoor reported to the Broadmoor Hospital Authority]
    23.2.1997 The Sunday Mail "Who's Running the Asylum". Editorial concerns at Broadmoor about "the increasing power being given to the ludicrously conceived Patients Council in the hospital". (The Advocate. Summer 1997)
    1998 Managing High Security Psychiatric Care Edited by Charles Kaye and Alan Franey. Number 9 in the Forensic Focus series published by Jessica Kingsley.
    1999 See
    The Special Hospitals: a Short History in Ashworth Special Hospital Report
    [2014 government website classifies 2001 onwards as a period when Broadmoor has been part of the West London Mental Health Trust]
    September 2007 Men only. Women moved to Southall, Rampton and elsewhere
    11.7.2012
    Press release: The Department of Health is to invest in the Victorian site at Broadmoor Hospital, which dates back to 1860, replacing the old buildings with fit-for-purpose and secure facilities.
    English Heritage: Broadmoor, Berkshire, built 1860-63 as the state criminal lunatic asylum
    HSH Broadmoor Hospital
    The Terrace, Upper Broadmoor Road, Crowthorne, Berkshire RG45 7EG
    freedom campaign prison list

    Buckinghamshire County Asylum opened 17.1.1853
    Stone, Near Aylesbury (HP17 8PP)
    Simon Cornwall: Built: 1850-1853. Architect: TH Wyatt and David Brandon
    Corridor form - Close to Conolly's ideal
    "Dr John Millar, Superintendant of the County Asylum close to Stone Vicarage" was a photographic pioneer and friend of Joseph Bancroft Reade (1801-1870) (external link). Appears to have been superintendent in 1855. A John Milar was proprietor at Bethnal Green by 1859. A John Millar wrote a book about insanity in 1861
    1853 to (about) 1930 registers of admissions and discharges in Buckinghamshire Records, County Hall.
    1919 Buckinghamshire Mental Hospital
    1948 St John's Hospital
    Associated Hospitals: Manor House Hospital - Joint Management Committee from 1954
    550 beds in 1979
    Buckinghamshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum - St. John's by John Lewis Crammer. Publisher: London: Gaskell, 1990 195 pages: illustrated and indexed ISBN/ISSN: 0902241346
    closed
    Simon Cornwall: Demolished. Site developed for housing. Only Chapel and some staff houses remain.

    Mental Handicap Hospitals

    Borocourt Certified Institution for Mental Defectives
    A converted Victorian Mansion at Rotherfield Peppard, near Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire. (multi-map)
    5.5.1933: first residents
    Became Borocourt Hospital, Wyfold, Reading, RG4 9GD
    Renamed Wyfold Court, it is being converted into flats.
    Maureen's story
    2003 use: "Luxury housing"

    Bradwell Grove Hospital
    Built as Transit camp for US troops in
    World War two. Later used for casualty reception. Briefly used as a Royal Marine School of Music.
    Converted to a mental deficiency hospital about 1948
    External link includes history
    Closed 1986
    2003 use: "Zoo"

    Manor House Hospital
    Blerton Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
    216 beds in
    1979

    Chalfont Colony opened 1894
    The National Society for the Employment of Epileptics, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire
    Doctors from the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic , in London, were amongst the people who established the colony. It was run from London and visited regularly by doctors from the hospital.
    (an external link)

    See David Mapley on Fort Clarence, Rochester (external link - archive) " Fort Clarence is sited across St Margarets Street in Rochester. Work commenced in 1808 and completed in 1812 and was sited to prevent access from Maidstone Road to the River Medway. After 1815 the fort served a variety of different purposes. One use was as a military prison and lunatic asylum. After nearby Fort Pitt became a military hospital the patients were moved from Fort Clarence to a new purpose built asylum, although the prison remained."

    June 1804 military and naval lunatics "pouring" into Bedlam

    June 1815 Sir James M'Grigor appointed director-general of the army medical department (based at Chatham). Lockhart Robertson (1856) says "the old regulations drawn up by him for the government of Fort Clarence breathe a spirit of scientific humanity, which it required twenty years of progress to infuse generally into the civil establishments for the insane. Throughout his long tenure of office he was ever anxious to adopt into the Military Asylum every modern improvement in the treatment of the insane... at his frequent personal inspections at Fort Clarence he evinced a warm personal sympathy with its afflicted inmates, which in after years I have often heard spoken of with grateful remembrance."

    Fort Clarence: Asylum opened 1819. "Fort Clarence, Chatham, was opened in 1819, as a military asylum. There were plans to build a new and larger asylum, but these were not fulfilled at the time" ( Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.68) - The 1844 Report refers to "lunatic wards" at Fort Clarence (and Haslar) as well as to a "military hospital". Opened "for the reception of insane officers, soldiers, and women belonging to the army; and in that year four officers, sixty-two non-commissioned officers and privates, and two women were admitted into this hospital". (Lockhart Robertson 1856)

    Andrew Smith returned to England from South Africa in 1836 and was stationed at Fort Pitt. He became staff surgeon and principal medical officer in 1841.

    In 1844 its principal medical officer was Andrew Smith M.D., and it had 70 patients, 21 of whom were commissioned officers.

    "The Military Hospital at Fort Clarence, near Chatham, is well situated. The part of the fort which is appropriated to the residences of the officers is very gloomy, and ill suited for a receptacle for insane persons. Some of the sleeping-rooms for the private soldiers are sufficiently good, but others are dull and cheerless. The exercising grounds for the officers, and the yards for the soldiers, are cheerful, but are not sufficient in number or size. The buildings and grounds admit of great improvement; but we understand that the inmates of this hospital are about to be removed to a new asylum." (1844 Report p.31)

    "Most general military hospitals included wards for the mentally ill. In 1847, about 20 mentally ill soldiers were transferred from Fort Clarence in Rochester to a new house of detention or of observation at Fort Pitt. Morrison, K. 7.1996

    The "new asylum" mentioned in the 1844 Report, "was to have been erected between Maidstone and Chatham, with a sum £60,000. A site was purchased but ultimately abandoned, and the Naval Hospital at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, selected to replace permanently for the benefit of the insane patients of the army, that establishment which the Commons had decreed should be built". (Lockhart Robertson 1856)

    Shorncliffe Barracks, Folkestone used as a temporary asylum. All patients moved in one day of October 1846 to Yarmouth

    Inmates were transferred to the new Army lunatic asylum at Netley in 1870, an attractive brick building now used as a police training centre" Morrison, K. 7.1996

    Fort Pitt Built between 1805 and 1819 on the high ground of the boundary between Chatham and Rochester. Became a hospital for invalided soldiers in 1828, with an asylum added in 1849.

    9.3.1855 Hansard £2,000 allocated to buildings for military lunatics at Fort Pitt. "It seemed contrary to common sense that a lunatic asylum for the whole army should be placed in the middle of Fort Pitt, where unfortunate invalids were now experiencing comfort after their return from the Crimea".

    20.7.1855 House of Commons: Question about £60,000 allocated "a few years since" for a military lunatic asylum. None had been spent (?). "when military lunatics arrived at Chatham they were detained there, pending an inquiry as to whether they were fit to be sent to their respective homes, or to the military asylum". The accomodation being "very imperfect... it had been determined to erect a separate house for the temporary reception of the soldiers".

    3.3.1856 Hansard: Masters Smith complained that "the lunatics, the moment they were relieved from the discipline attached to the wards, were permitted to have free communication in the area of the fort with the invalided soldiers who had returned from foreign service... those lunatics were subjected to no active surveillance". He was told that "a hospital had been procured near Southampton" were it was hoped "a building would be erected there which would include a hospital, invalid barracks, and a lunatic asylum".

    Florence Nightingale started the first Army Medical School there in 1860, but by the 1920s the hospital was closed, and the site converted into a school. (John Bray November 2003 Fortress UK) = (archive source) - (1867 List shows the Military Lunatic Hospital at Fort Pitt).

    See Yarmouth - Bow - and Netley

    1905 Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham, opened

    "Admissions for psychological disorders at the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham, rose steadily throughout the First World War". (Jones and Greenberg 5.2006)

    Kent County Asylum
    Barming Heath, near Maidstone
    The term "barmy" (crazy) dates back to the 16th century, and was not derived from this asylum.
    Need for a county asylum first raised by the County Justices in 1825 (Administrative History)
    7.7.1825 "a return made by order of the county magistrates showed that there were 160 pauper lunatics and 50 dangerous idiots in Kent"
    (Nick Hervey)
    18.11.1828 Order made for its establishment. Committee of Visitors established to oversee: "after difficulty had arisen over the placement of a criminal lunatic from St. Augustine's prison". 37 acres site bought from the parish of Maidstone, "situated at 200-300 feet above the Medway on Barming Heath. The site overlooked a valley covered in hop plantations and was faced by timbered and park-like hills". (Nick Hervey)
    Simon Cornwall: Built: 1830-1833. Architect: John Whichcord Senior.
    Corridor form "The first building consisted of a central house of four stories, with two wings, or tiers of wards of three floors, on each side. This front faced south, and at each end there was a wing extending backwards at a right angle. There was an artificial warming and ventilation system heated by a steam engine. The latter also raised the asylum's water from a well". (Nick Hervey)
    Opened 1.1.1833 according to the 1844 Report and other sources. Built for 168 patients
    First superintendant George Poynder MRCS LSA, previously at Gloucestershire County Asylum
    1836 Part added to asylum
    1836 Richard Adams criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Kent". (HO 20/13)
    August? 1836 Publication by Charles Dickens of the fictional A Madman's Manuscript
    1837 Part added to asylum
    1838 William Deane, criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Barming Heath, Kent". (HO 20/13)
    [Many other criminal lunatics listed for West Malling and the Lunatic Asylum, Maidstone]
    1842 Part added to asylum
    1.1.1844: 249 patients. All pauper. 1844? 11.6% of patients epileptic
    1845 Part added to asylum: Now room for 443 patients.
    1846 George Poynder retired and was succeeded by James Edmund Huxley MD MRCS LSA. (aged 25), also previously at Gloucestershire County Asylum. (Nick Hervey)
    1847 Part added to asylum
    1850 Additional buildings added the Chronic/Additional Building)
    Annual medical report of the Kent County Lunatic Asylum, for the year ending July 4th, 1853. Presented to the Committee of Visitors, 10.9.1853 and to the Court of General Sessions, 18.10.1853. 24 pages and folded leaf of plates. Consists of statistical tables, remarks on the tables and report of the superintendent, James E. Huxley (Wellcome Library catalogue)
    1857: Wet beds and the threat to the British Constitution
    Sixteenth annual medical report : for the year 1861-1862 ("Thirtieth year") Consists of statistical tables, the 15th and 16th annual reports of the superintendent (James E. Huxley), including the report of the Commissioners in Lunacy (W.G. Campbell, S. Gaskell). Last with James Huxley as superintendent.
    About 1862-1869 William P. Kirkman Superintendent
    1867-1872 (Third Asylum/New Building).
    Accomodation problems eased by the opening of Chartham Asylum
    1881 Census: Kent County Lunatic Asylum Barming Heath, Maidstone. Francis Pritchard Davies (married, aged 38) Superintendent.
    1885-1902 imbecile patients from Westminster
    Asylum no longer there. Part of site occupied by new Maidstone Hospital.
    Oakwood Hospital, Maidstone (formerly Kent County Lunatic Asylum, Barming Heath), East Barming, Kent and Maidstone, Kent. 1829-1986 records in Centre for Kentish Studies, County Hall, Maidstone.
    Simon Cornwall: Closed. To be converted to housing.

    West Malling Place, Kent
    Licensed House
    Established about 1770 by William Perfect (1737-1809)
    Lent 1830 Sarah Blunt criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, West Malling, Kent". "felony" (HO 20/13)
    1.1.1844: 47 patients. 13 pauper and 34 private.
    SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT
    "Lunatic Asylum" shown near the remains of St Leonard's Chapel at St Leonard's Street, on 1870 map.
    From 1875 to 1948 there was a Malling Place Private Mental Nursing Home, St Leonards Street, West Malling. Archives in Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone.
    1881 Census: St Leonard St Lunatic Asylum, West Malling, Kent. Thomas H. Lowry, aged 63, born Maidstone, Kent, Physician. Elizabeth I. Lowry, his wife, aged 50, born Chatham, Kent, and Mimie Lowry, there unmarried daughter, aged 19, born West Malling
    10.11.1912 William Smart Harnett, a farmer, admitted under certificate to Malling Place, West Malling, Kent, a licensed house owned and managed by Dr George Henry Adam.
    Hunter and McAlpine (1963) say that was "still in use"
    Postcode ME19 6PD (map to postcode)
    The site of the asylum on old maps is close to the present Manor Homes Elderly Residential Care at 96 St Leonards Street

    Kent County Asylum at Chartham
    East Kent Lunatic Asylum
    Opened 1875.
    Architect: Giles And Gough - Corridor-pavilion
    1885-1902 imbecile patients from Westminster
    Kent County Mental Hospital, Chartham from 1920 to 1948. Combined with St Martin's Hospital Canterbury and Canterbury City Mental Hospital in 1948. Then St Augustine's Hospital, Chartham Downs, Canterbury.

    April 1974 St Augustine's Hospital, Chartham Down, near Canterbury, Kent - A Critique Regarding Policy by Brian Ankers and Olleste Etsello

    "Drugs were given almost automatically to new admissions...ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy) was sometimes used as a punitive measure - although it was not openly admitted. I have heard the term 'punitive ECT' used in the hospital in reference to "that is what a patient needs". Some psychiatrists had a certain faith in ECT and at times patients were threatened with it" (page 14)
    31.3.1976 Report of the Committee of Inquiry at St Augustine's Hospital, Chartham, Canterbury - "Inquiry upholds complaints of grossly bad care for mental hospital's patients" The Times, 31.3.1976.
    "The consultants at St Augustine's readily admitted that they gave priority to the patients who were acutely ill. These tend to be younger than the chronic patients... the patients in the back wards often have intractable illness.." (Dr Tony Smith The Times 1.4.1976)

    25.5.1976 Christopher Price asked David Ennals questions in the House of Commons.

    Sometime in 1976 the Royal College of Psychiatrists received a request from The regional medical officer of the South East Thames regional health authority saught advice from the Royal College of Psychiatrists on giving ECT to non-consenting patients. Ths led to the 1977 guidelines (Wikipedia)

    This aerial view was sent me by Brian Bradley. It is included on Chartham Paper Mill's intranet as part of its heritage. Brian says that Canterbury City Council have refused Wilcon Homes permission to knock down the old hospital water tower (centre right in photo) as they consider it a significant landmark that could be turned into some sort of viewing tower. The photograph looks as if it may have been a postcard.

    Closed 1993. Econ construction, specialist in asbestos removal and demolition, charged a quarter of a million pounds to destroy the complete hospital complex of sixty acres, reclaiming of bricks, timber and slates and recycling and crushing 6,000 cubic metres of concrete, employing thirty demolition workers at the peak and completing on time in 1997 - on behalf of Wilcon Homes.
    Simon Cornwall: Closed in 1992, demolished in 1997.
    Peter Cracknell: Admin block, villa, lodge, chapel and tower survive. Rest of complex cleared by 1997.

    From 1902, Canterbury Borough had its own Mental Hospital (later St. Martin's Hospital). Prior to this, Canterbury Borough patients were reported as being in various location including Fisherton House, Wiltshire and in 1896 at Derby County Asylum.
    St Martin's Hospital Canterbury
    1994: 120 patients
    website

    Sevenoaks Workhouse
    Built in 1843 "The workhouse later became Sundridge Institution catering for mental patients. Under the National Health Service, it became Sundridge Hospital but this closed in the late 1990s. The site is awaiting redevelopment".
    Peter Higginbotham
    July 1998 Closed

    The 1844 Report estimated the pauper lunatics of Sussex to be 251 in 1842, and reported the number chargeable to Unions in Sussex by August 1843 to be 278 (105 idiots and 173 lunatics. But there was no public or private asylum in the county that received paupers. Several were in asylums outside the county. Eight were in county asylum/s. [There is no column for "hospitals" so this may have included St Luke's Hospital]. Eighty Five were in licensed houses. Only 69 of those who remained in the county were in a workhouse, the other 116 were "with their friends or elsewhere".

    History of Haywards Heath - Haywards Heath and its Hospitals - - Brief history of Haywards Heath (archive). Joe Hughes of the Friends of St Francis has helped considerably with the history below and on the Charlotte Mew page (where the pictures are). He provided me with a full copy of A History of St Francis Hospital 1859 - 1995 by Jim Mable

    Sussex Asylum, Haywards Heath was being erected in 1858
    Known as Sussex County Lunatic Asylum from 1854 (when first planned) to 1892
    Architect: H. E. Kendall Junior. See Charlotte Mew Chronology
    Corridor form - Too large for Conolly's ideal?
    1870: 800 patients, dining halls, a nurses home, farm and sports ground
    Sarah Rutherford: Built 1856-1859
    National Grid Reference TQ 336 228
    "The polychrome building is sited at the top of steep terraces incorporated into the airing courts, with long views to the South Downs"
    Archive at East Sussex Record Office
    (Hospital database says "founded 1854")
    Opened 25.7.1859 (St James Day).
    Superintendent: Dr Charles Lockhart Robertson (selected from 83 applicants). Annual salary £450
    "It included accommodation for 420 inmates plus offices, superintendent's apartments, chapel, lodge, stable, gas house, engine and boiler room, boundary walls, gas works, baths, showers, brewhouse and washrooms." An artesian well 217 feet deep supplied water - and continued to do so until the hospital closed... The first patients came from other (private?) asylums and included 82 from Bethnal Green Asylum. (On Call p.2)
    1881 Census: Sussex County Lunatic Asylum, Haywards Heath, Wivelsfield, Sussex. Medical Superintendent: Samuel Blutes D. Williams (unmarried, age 41) Physician. Assistant Officer: Thomas Blair Worthington (unmarried, age 32)
    1891: Kelly's Directory: "The Sussex County Lunatic Asylum, about one mile south-east from Haywards Heath railway station, but locally situated in the in the parish of Wivelsfield, stands on an eminence in grounds covering nearly 300 acres: it was opened 25 July, 1859, and is a structure of brick, in the Lombardo-Venetian style, erected under the superintendence of Mr H. Kendall, jun. architect; additions were made in 1873 and continued till 1885, bringing the entire cost ups to about £120,000; there is a chapel for the officials and inmates: the number of patients at the present time (1890) is 848, and there is a staff of about 100 employees: the asylum is managed by a committee appointed by the County Councils of East and West Sussex and the County Borough of Brighton, who meet on the last Saturday of each month: William Henry Campion esq. is chairman."
    County Lunatic Asylum, Charles Edward Saunders MD, CM, resident medical superintendent; Edward Brooking Cornish Walker MB, CM, junior assistant medical officer; Richard John Fox MB, CM, junior assistant medical officer; Rev Francis Frederick John Greenfield BA chaplain; Reginald Blaker Lewes, clerk to the committee of visitors; Samuel Allen Mortlock, clerk to the asylum; Mrs E. Woodhouse, housekeeper; William Thomas Buckle, head male attendant; T. Lenton, storekeeper.
    East Sussex County Lunatic Asylum 1894 to 1903

    Brighton County Borough Asylum 1903 - when the new asylum at
    Hellingly became East Sussex County Asylum
    Brighton County Borough Mental Hospital 1919 to 1948
    1925 picture
    1.1.1927: 834 patients of whom all but 78 were Rate Aided. 310 were men, 524 women (an unusually high proportion). In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 48.9%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 7.6%
    St Francis Hospital 1948
    1979: St Francis Hospital had 612 beds
    Princess Royal Hospital (from?), Lewes Road, Haywards Heath, RH16 4EZ
    November 1995 "The life and work of St Francis Hospital 1895-1995": Special edition of On Call, the hospital magazine.
    "This magnificent yellow brick building has recently been transformed into a luxury home development known as Southdown Park. The views from the building are outstanding"
    First floor, single bedroom flat £157,500
    Records from 1854 to 1983 of Princess Royal Hospital (formerly Sussex County Lunatic Asylum and St Francis Hospital), Haywards Heath, East Sussex in East Sussex Record Office.
    There is a book: Sweet Bells Jangled Out of Tune: A History of the Sussex Lunatic Asylum

    [West Sussex County Asylum?]
    4.1.1896 Contract for reception of 5 males and 5 females in the
    Isle of Wight County Asylum made by Visiting Committee of County of West Sussex
    An asylum opened at Chichester in 1897
    It became Graylingwell Hospital, College Lane, Chichester, PO19 4PQ
    Graylingwell Hospital had 841 beds in 1979
    Autumn 2002: Reported closed but empty (map)
    English Heritage: Graylingwell, Chichester, West Sussex, built 1895-1897 as the pauper asylum for West Sussex

    [The new] East Sussex County Asylum opened in 1903 (see above)
    Simon Cornwall: Built: 1901-1903 Architect: George Thomas Hine
    Compact Arrow
    Became East Sussex County Mental Hospital and then Hellingly Hospital, Hellingly, Hailsham, BN27 2ER.
    6.6.1977 Andrew Voyce's view inside
    Autumn 2002: reported closed and in a dangerous state of disrepair.
    Simon Cornwall: Closed in 1994. Standing derelict. Targetted by arsonists? June 2002 -

    External links mechanised org tours derelict building and says "Further Reading: Hellingly is one of the most documented of asylums- and the sites below offer the most interesting interpretations. Sub-Urban has a fascinating "Then and Now" section comparing the hospital as it stands with images from the 1900s - Exploration Station has reminiscences of former staff, patients and local residents; also contains countless photos - Urbex is the most accessible tour of the hospital; an extended journey through all of the main points of interest - Abandoned Britain is a black and white tour that perhaps comes closest to capturing Hellingly's calm and stillness" (Mechanised Spring 2006)

    Roffey Park Rehabilitation Centre (?) opened 1943
    It became Roffey Park Hospital, Horsham, Sussex and had 109 beds in
    1979
    Closed 1981

    Maldon Lane, Witham, Essex
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844 ? patients. pauper and 17 private.

    Essex County Asylum: Plans date back to 1819:, but original proposal was for Springfield, Chelmsford. (Essex County Archives): Q/ACp 1: Papers and reports re Proposed County Lunatic Asylum Committee 1819-1827. "Committee reports, correspondence and opinion of counsel relating to purchase of the Ordnance Depot at Springfield, 1819, for conversion into a Lunatic Asylum. Includes a petition against the proposed scheme signed by 20 inhabitants of Springfield. Copies of printed Reports and Rules and Regulations of other County Lunatic Asylums collected by the Clerk of the Peace. Copy of printed Act 48 George 3, c.96 [1808]. Correspondence relating to request from Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1827, for information concerning care of lunatics in Essex and several copies of the Select Committee's Report printed, together with an account of the abortive scheme in Essex, by order of the court. For Minutes of this Committee see Q/ACm 3"
    1834 Received circular about cheap method of constructing an asylum
    Michaelemas Session 1837: Q/SBb 529/47 Draft court order for [Thomas] Hopper [County Surveyor] to investigate practicality and cost of providing lunatic asylum at Springfield.
    1846 Great Dunmow, St. Mary the Virgin, Parish Overseer's records: Circulars opposing erection of County lunatic asylum.
    1849 County Lunatic Asylum: Treasurer's Account (Q/ALc 9). One volume 1849-1861
    Diaries of Charles Gray Round of Birch Hall (D/DR F68) 27.6.1849 - 3.7.1854, include consecration of St. Peter, Birch, gift of C.G.Round, 25.10.1850; visit to Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London, 16.5.1851; laying of foundation stone of County Lunatic Asylum at Brentwood, 2.10.1851, and appointment as chairman of Visitors, 16.1.1854.
    Essex County Lunatic Asylum opened 23.9.1853 at Brentwood. Probably built for 300 patients, it had 450 patients in 1858. - Too large for Conolly's ideal?
    Architect: H. E. Kendall [Essex County Archives Catalogue has "Kendall and Pope" as "architects". H.E. Kendall and R.R. Pope: See initials in brickwork [try again] Simon Cornwall's website: "It consisted of two main blocks orientated north to south and facing east, with miscellaneous buildings dotted behind these to the west. The use of red and black bricks, the stone mullion windows, and the use of octagonal towers gave the hospital a medieval appearance."
    Corridor form
    31.12.1853 307 patients
    31.12.1860 666 patients
    1863 Three "distinct houses with as much as possible the plain arrangment of a country home" were opened. They were Blocks A, B and C.
    1864 Extension added
    1870:model for a South Australian asylum

    1870
    Chloral hydrate tried as a sedative and ammonium bromide for epilepsy 1870 Extension added
    31.12.1870 932 patients
    31.12.1880 932 patients
    1882 Gradual withdrawal of beer from patients' diet was completed by 1892. The brewery was converted into a laboratory and mortuary.
    1884 Typhoid epidemic (leak of sewer gas from old rains blamed)
    1889 Typhoid epidemic (leak of sewer gas from old rains blamed)
    1889 Extension added
    31.12.1890 1376 patients
    1894 37 patients and 5 staff suffered smallpox. Thirteen of the patients died.
    1895 Large outbreak of diphtheria. Thirty three "true" cases identified by bacteriological methods.
    Typhoid epidemic in 1900 led to two deaths
    31.12.1900 2081 patients
    1901 680 patients transferred to Goodmayes. All Essex patients "boarded out" in the asylums of other counties returned to Brentwood, occupying most of the beds vacated by the patients who went to Goodmayes. By 1913 there were several hundred more patients boarded out.
    1901 Screens used to separate parts of the galleries (day space) of some wards as temporary dormitories. Some were still there in 1953.
    31.12.1910 1875 patients
    "Pathological work, in the investigation of possible organic structural abnormalities as a cause of insanity, increased enormously from 1910 and a great deal of research was carried out" (1953 Centenary booklet)
    May 1913 The second Essex County Asylum at Severalls Hospital, Colchester opened. The boarded out patients went there.
    1913-1914 Verandas added to some wards for "open-air treatment". [Not stated that this was for tuberculosis]

    First World War: Patients received from Norfolk and Napsbury
    "Rationing for patients was more severe than that for the general public and, with the overcrowding and other factors, resulted in an enormous death rate in the latter years of the war.
    1917 525 patients died, only 10 less than the number of admissions.
    Typhoid epidemic in 1917: 82 patients and 55 staff affected. 21 patients and 9 staff died.
    By 1919, deaths fell to 346.
    1920 180 patients returned to Napsbury and the Norfolk County Asylum
    31.12.1920 1446 patients

    Brentwood Mental Hospital from about 1920 to 1953.
    "Although not legally abandoned until the Mental Treatment Act of 1930, the name 'Asylum' was dropped from 1920 onwards and the term 'Mental Hospital' used with its indication of a more hopeful outlook in the care and treatment of the insane." (1953 Centenary booklet)
    1926 Malarial treatment of General Paralysis of the Insane introduced
    1926 "Hydrotherapy became a vogue in 1926 that lasted until the war" (1953 Centenary booklet)
    1930 Sulphosin used in the treatment of General Paralysis of the Insane
    31.12.1930 1814 patients
    1931 A weekly outpatients clinic established at Oldchurch Hospital, Romford. Later, a fortnightly clinic in a house at Woodford and at Orsett Lodge Hospital.
    1932 A part time social worker supplied by the Mental After-Care Association.
    1932 Tryparsamide used in the teatment of General Paralysis of the Insane - See Time magazine, 11.6.1923
    1933 Garden Villa, a 40 bed convalescent unit for men opened.
    1933 Rose Villa, a 40 "slightly larger" convalescent unit for women opened.
    1934-1937 Runwell Mental Hospital for patients from Southend and East Ham opened. [Patients from Brentwood Mental Hospital may have moved in 1936]
    1937 Woodside Villa opened. This was a convalescent unit for male patients. A unit for women was not built because of the war.

    31.12.1940 1968 patients
    1941
    Electro-convulsive therapy introduced.
    1946 [Sir] Geoffrey [Slingsby] Nightingale (born 1904) Nightingale became Physician Superintendent (to 1969). He was 15th Bt. - "I remember Sir Geoffrey Nightingale - he was nice he was. We had old Powell before that and he was horrible." (mechanised website)
    1946 Insulin Coma therapy started on the wards
    1946 A neuro surgeon appointed. Two hundred pre-frontal leucotomies had been performed by 1953.
    31.12.1946 2035 patients
    1950 special insulin unit opened
    31.12.1950 2002 patients
    July 1951 Neurosis Unit at St George's.
    31.12.1952 1978 patients
    1953 "It can now be said that all modern forms of psychotherapy and physical treatment are available, with the exception of Electro- narcosis" (Centenary booklet p.37)

    undated picture of Warley Hospital from boredtown website undated picture of Warley Hospital from boredtown website - although I think it originally comes from Simon Cornwall's site and was taken 18.10.2002.

    1953 Centenary. Renamed Warley Hospital
    1953 G.S Nightingale, Warley Hospital, Brentwood. The first hundred years 1853 - 1953. Typed. Photocopy said to be available at the Essex Record Office, Chelmsford. This may be related to "the 1953 centenary commemorative booklet, printed by patients in the occupational therapy department" quoted from in the boredtown history. - online copy on Warley Hospital website   -
    April 1969 Date on Geoffrey Nightingale's update on the Warley history
    Geoffrey Nightingale retired as (the last?) Physician Superintendent of Warley in 1969
    "From 1974 the hospital lay geographically within the Chelmsford District of the Essex Area Health Authority, but in common with other hospitals in Brentwood was administered by the Barking and Havering Area Health Authority."
    1979: 1,025 beds
    Served people living in Brentwood, Havering and Barking and Dagenham.
    1997 Year Joanna Moncrieff says the "long stay wards were finally closed" and "most patients who could not be discharged were transferred to a newly opened and staffed rehabilitation ward known as Woodside Villa". "At its inception, Woodside Villa was included in a research project about the fate of patients discharged from the asylums, the TAPS project. Involvement in this project meant the unit was staffed by a multidisciplinary team, including nurses, doctors, occupational therapists, and psychologists. Social workers were involved on a case by case basis". - As the first wave of patients were gradually moved on, other, mainly younger patients were admitted, usually after prolonged stays on the acute inpatient wards.
    June 2001. Warley Hospital closed. Patients, staff and support services moved into purpose built Mascalls Park accommodation.
    2001 Joanna Moncrieff became consultant at Woodside Villa. This was about the time that the TAPS programme came to an end.
    April 2009? Woodside Villa due to close.
    Addresses
    Warley Hospital, Warley Hill, Brentwood, Essex, CM14 5HQ.
    Mascalls Park; Mascalls Lane Great Warley, Brentwood, Essex, CM14 5HQ
    Urbex (Simon Cornwall) map and photograph index - elements of Mascalls Park
    Brentwood history at boredtown
    Cofton Projects (all archives, that is 14.11.2002 to 24.2.2005)
    Now Clements Park, Warley, Warley, Essex, CM14 5UZ, and similar postcodes. Brentwood Borough Council Photo Album

    Also in Brentwood: St Faith's Hospital (epilepsy)

    Severalls Hospital, Colchester
    The second Essex County Asylum
    (See first)
    1903 Site bought
    Opened May 1913 - planned to increase it, by stages, to 2,000 patients. The first patients were several hundred Essex people who had been "boarded out" in the asylums of other counties.
    Essex archives online:
    1915-1916 Case Papers relating to James Keeble of Heybridge Basin in Heybridge, removed from the London Lunatic Asylum at Stone near Dartford (co. Kent), to Severalls Asylum at Colchester on 15 July 1915
    1920-1921 Case papers relating to Susan Mott a lunatic pauper spinster confined in Severalls Asylum at Colchester
    1929 Case papers relating to Constance Julia Hardy aged 43 years a pauper lunatic and singlwoman formerly of 30 Stainforth Road, Seven Kings [Ilford] and later of Wayside House, Stow Maries, and now in Severalls Lunatic Asylum at Colchester
    1929 Case papers relating to Henry Arthur Willett, born at Burnham-on- Crouch 15 October 1895, and his wife Marion Blair Willett a pauper lunatic now in Severalls Mental Hospital at Colchester
    1960-1968 Used, with Netherne and Mapperley in a study of institutionalism and schizophrenia - Published 1970
    Last patient moved out 20.3.1997

    The Save Severalls Group website seems to have closed. Visit the archive. This says:

    "The main hospital complex is a good and externally largely unchanged and intact example of an echelon plan hospital, The main hospital complex is surrounded by a variety of villas, accommodation blocks which were built between 1910 and 1935. This makes the site particularly interesting as it represents the changing attitudes of asylum design in the early 20th Century, away from the large hospital complexes so popular in the 19th century to the more 'homely' Colony Style where the wards where housed in smaller individual villas rather than large ward blocks."

    "dominating the site in the Northwest of the building there is a tall water tower and chimney." (picture) [See Enoch Powell's Water Tower speech]

    David Wright, engineer at Severalls for 16 years, explains the tower:

    "The tower at Severalls houses the lift pumps that abstract water from a bore hole. The water is lifted to the cistern at the top of the tower and supplies the Domestic Hot Water Supply and the Cold Water Downservice. All drinking water is taken directly from the public main as are the fire hydrants."

    original picture The chimney can be seen at the back of the tower. Originally the stack was a third taller, but was reduced in the second world war because it posed a threat to crippled US bombers landing at Boxted airfield near by. The chimney takes the fumes from the oil and gas fired boilers that heat the water. There were four large steam boilers and one which was half size. In the event of electrical power loss to the hospital site, a large generating set made the site self sufficient if necessary.

    The Save Severalls Group website is maintained by Ian Richards. It also has information about other asylums Ian has visited. Ian has provided me with information about asylum design in the between 1850 and 1950 that I am using on this website.

    See also Urbex (Simon Cornwall) map and photograph index

    Diana Gittins, 1998 Madness in its Place: narratives of Severalls Hospital, 1913-1997 London: Routledge, Memory and narrative series. 12 pages introductory, 242 pages. Oral history from patients and staff

    Also in Colchester Health District 1979: many mental handicap units

    Runwell Mental Hospital
    Runwell Chase, Runwell, near Wickford, Essex
    opened
    1934-1937 was one of the two last mental illness asylums to open, the other being Shenley. It was a joint venture of Southend and East Ham boroughs, situated on the railway line mid-way between them.
    20.6.1934: Founded
    Following the ending of contracts accomodating patients at the Essex county's Brentwood mental hospital, joint facilities were developed between East Ham and Southend-on-sea boroughs. A site was chosen at Runwell Hall, to the east of the town of Wickford and an extensive complex of buildings was developed utilising the colony plan. Considered advanced amongst its kind". (Peter Cracknell)
    Architect: Charles Ernest Elcock and Frederick Sutcliffe, of London
    Colony plan
    First superintendent: Rolf Ström-Olsen
    21.5.1936 First patients admitted
    14.6.1937 Opened
    1938 Dr Joseph Bierer, a refugee from Austria, was appointed the first psychotherapist in a public mental hospital (Runwell). He later (1946?) founded a Social Psychotherapy Centre (Marlborough Day Hospital), in London.
    From 1944: Visits by Kathleen Jones
    1950 Dr J.A.N. Corsellis (1915-1994) "known as Nick" began his collection of brains at the hospital.
    About 1955 became Runwell Hospital, Wickford, Essex, (SS11 7QE)
    The first psychiatric hospital to "treat" me: As a boy (not long after 1955) I had the waves of my brain measured. I thought the lady might be reading my mind, so had to be very careful.
    1968 Dr Clive Joseph Bruton (18.9.1941-1.2.1996) became a Senior Registrar at Runwell, working with Dr J.A.N. Corsellis. He left for general practice in 1971, but retained his connection.
    1979: 848 beds. Administered by Southend Health District. Outside the District
    1986-1994 Dr Bruton honorary consultant, Department of Neuropathology, Runwell Hospital
    the mid-1980s until 1995, the department of neuropathology at Runwell had been largely funded by the Medical Research Council.
    1993 Brain specimens number abot 8,000
    When, in 1994, plans were announced to break up and re-distribute the archive, Bruton was instrumental in ensuring that the custodianship of the department and the material was transferred to Southend Community Care Services NHS Trust, leading to his appointment as curator of the Corsellis Collection brain bank".
    1994-1996 Dr Bruton curator of the Corsellis Collection
    The Corsellis Collection is now housed at St Bernard's. "It is reputed to be the world's largest collection. I believe it is kept down in one of the basements" (Paul Champion, email 12.8.2006)
    31.3.1994: 320 patients

    5.3.1999 "Runwell lands big cash handout"
    13.12.1999 (Hansard) "Southend Community Care Services National Health Service trust is preparing plans for the reprovision of all services currently on the Runwell Hospital site, including the Medium Secure Unit"
    June 2004 trip to Runwell by "Mechanised"
    August 2004 Runwell appendix by "Mechanised"
    September 2004 Runwell Research Labs on the Abandoned Britain website
    Due to close end of 2006?
    Peter Cracknell: "Currently in use, closure proposed for 2008"
    See also Obituary Clive Bruton - Isaac Report on Corsellis Collection

    Ingrebourne Centre in the grounds of St George's Hospital, Suttons Lane, Hornchurch, Essex, RM12 6RS

    1939 - 1956 - 1957 - 1958 - 1959 - 1960 - 1961 - 1962 - 1963 - 1964 - 1965 - 1966 - 1967 - 1968 - 1969 - 1971 - 1974 - 1977 - 1986 - 1988 - 1991 - 1997 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2006 - 2009 - 2010 -

    1939 St George's Hospital built. (source)
    "Before the war" a building in the grounds was used as an Observation Ward for mental patients.

    "St. George's hospital, Sutton's Lane, Hornchurch, was built by Essex county council and opened in 1939 as an old people's home called Suttons Institution. (footnote 152:Information from St George's Hospital) During the Second World War it was used to house airmen from R.A.F. Hornchurch. In 1948 it was taken over by the Ministry of Health as a hospital and was given its present name. It has over 400 beds, used mainly for geriatric cases. The Ingrebourne Centre, which is an independent part of the hospital, provides psychiatric treatment for 20 resident and many day patients." From: 'Hornchurch: Economic history and local government', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 7 (1978), pp. 39-45. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42811

    July 1951 Twenty bed Neurosis Unit, (for Brentwood Mental Hospital), set up in building previously used as an Observation Ward

    1954 Richard Crocket (born 1914) appointed Consultant in Psychological Medicine jointly to Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, Essex and St George's Hospital, Hornchurch. (Millard). He was Consultant in charge of the Ingrebourne Centre to 1979

    "He saw an acute general hospital psychiatric unit evolve into a dynamic psychotherapeutic community". (external source)

    The therapeutic community was established by the Senior Hospital Medical Officer, Hamish Anderson, who was Crocket's full- time assistant, from 1957. He and the Registrar (Ray) lived in the hospital grounds. (Millard)

    The unit was, physically, very unlike a hospital ward. It was a completely detached prefabricated quadrangular building in the grounds of the hospital. The ground floor had bedrooms that each accommodated two or three patients. [See plan] However, it was called "Ward G3" until Richard Crocket changed the name to "The Ingrebourne Centre for Psychological Medicine".

    "Until the introduction of psychotherapeutic community methods the unit was organised on the pattern of a traditional short-term mental hospital ward. The medical staff ultimately consisted of one consultant [Richard Crocket] nominally available for three half-days per week, but in practice attending five half-days weekly; and a senior [Hamish Anderson] and junior [Ray...] assistant whole-time each. (Senior Hospital Medical Officer and Registrar respectively,) Other staff included an assistant matron, a nursing sister, three staff nurses and four nursing assistants; a psychologist; a psychiatric social worker; and an occupational therapist (who later changed her role to social therapist)." (Crocket 1965)

    1954 "In 1954 it became an independent psychiatric unit, and came under the administration of the general hospital group in which its buildings were situated. Under the new arrangements a strong interest in psychotherapy and social methods of treatment developed, covering child psychiatry as well as adult psychiatry..." (Crocket 1965)

    "I had this .. Jungian picture ... of a centre with ramifications amongst general practitioners and hospitals, and functioning as an exchange rather like the telephone exchange" (external source).

    1955 Hospital began receiving day patients (Crocket 1965)

    1956

    About 1956 Bertram A. Miller became a patient. He wrote in 1963 "after receiving four year's treatment at the Ingrebourne Centre, I have been blessed with perfect serenity when facing a visit to hospital. My previous psychiatric treatment included E.C.T., and I can assure my readers that an injection of sodium pentothal to put one to sleep is nothing to worry about". In 1960 he was one of the first sheltered workers. "Bert" was a very active member of the social committee. He helped for several years on the bar at the annual party for the elderly patients in the main part of St George's Hospital.

    The Neurosis Unit became independent of Warley and was renamed the Ingrebourne Centre.
    July 1956 "It was only with the appointment of a full-time senior psychiatrist in July 1956 that the move to a full therapeutic community approach developed". (Crocket 1957) "the arrival from Dingleton to a newly- established SHMO post of a fellow Scot, Hamish Anderson, which stimulated the addition of large group methods and the evolution over the following few months of a fully-fledged therapeutic community". (Millard)

    Anderson introduced large groups on his arrival, but, at first, other clinical commitments were allowed to prevent him and members of the nursing staff from attending regularly. Between July 1956 and April 1957 the arrangements were re-thought so that staff attendance was regular. (Millard)

    1957
    "By 1957 twenty day-patient places had been added to the twenty beds". (Crocket 1965)

    February, 1957 Appointment of a full-time senior psychiatrist. The two following years (1.4.1957 to 31.3.1959) are the basis of Richard Crocket's 1965 thesis
    November 1957 address by Dr Crocket to the Runwell Hospital Medical Society, "The Therapeutic Community Approach in a Neurosis Centre",
    December 1957 Romford Club? "A psychotherapeutic social club which could be away from the hospital, and which could substitute for the hospital as a source of support," (Crocket 1965)

    1958

    Rose Chamberlain became a patient. She was still a patient in 1963.

    6.12.1958 Dr Crocket in The Lancet on The cardiorespiratory syndrome of extreme obesity 1959

    Miss Eileen Clarke (social worker?) joined the Centre "lots of mornings she would sit with a large sheet of paper drawing the group circle, with each member in his or her seat" (Rose Chamberlain)

    31.3.1959 end of Ingrebourne study

    1960 or late 1950s Ronald St. Blaize-Molony became an Ingrebourne doctor "initially as the SHMO in succession to Hamish Anderson". (Millard)

    "...I had no acquaintance with groups other than as an adjunct to occupational therapy and no idea of the community as an all embracing therapeutic concept. My personal analysis had barely got itself underway. The community was in a state of huge bereavement (staff and patients) subsequent to the departure of two much loved charismatics who were very experienced and therapeutically deft. The transference was negative to the point of critical hostility expressed in sullen silences and extravagant acting out. Richard was ... alarmed. ... his was a very part-time appointment, much of it taken up in administration. Thus his own attendance at groups was sparse... Richard organised with the director of the Tavistock Clinic for me to attend weekly behind a one-way screen at his psychotherapy demonstrations with a therapeutic group. I profited immensely and I like to think quickly." (Blaize-Molony quoted by Millard)

    "Some time in 1960, I am not sure of the exact date, several of the day- patients who had been receiving treatment at the Centre were directed to a meeting in the office of Dr. Lewellyn-Smith. Miss Thuell, or Jennifer as we called her, attended the meeting, also Arthur, Ken Wingrove, John Potter and myself. Dr. Lewellyn-Smith explained to us that, as an experiment, the hospital authorities were starting a new project to give certain patients the opportunity of working for a few hours each week... We were given to understand that we were to treat this arrangement just as if we were working for an employer in the usual way, and to commence work punctually and conduct ourselves generally as if we were working for an outside firm.

    Our first contract was obtained from a plastic manufacturing firm and was painting plastic globes. From a financial point of view, it was not very successful.. (Bertram A. Miller M.M. One of the Sheltered Workers) continued 19.6.1962

    Series of items in The Lancet on "Doctors, Administrators and Therapeutic Communities"
    13.8.1960 Richard W. Crocket (Article?)
    27.8.1960 D.H. Clark, Fulbourne Hospital (Letter?)
    17.9.1960 J.E. Duffield (Letter?)

    1961
    Dr Crocket and Christine Hassall (research worker) Treatment and Results at the Ingrebourne Centre, St. George's Hospital, Hornchurch, Essex. April 1st 1957 to March 31st 1959, Report to the North-East London Regional Hospital Board

    February 1961 Three day conference in London on "Hallucinogenic Drugs and Their Psychotherapeutic Use". Richard Crocket and Ronald A. Sandison (the consultant at Powick Hospital near Worcester who "treated" 1,000 of his patients with LSD over a period of 12 years) spent the next twelve months editing the Proceedings of this conference.

    21.8.1961 to 26.8.1961 International Congress for Psychotherapy held in Vienna (Austria) with the theme "Psychotherapy and clinical medicine" Drs Crocket and Molony gave a paper on "Social ramifications of the therapeutic community approach in psychotherapy".

    December 1961 Incentive - early stages of the patient led community?

    1962
    May 1962 Richard Crocket was chair of the Psychotherapy and Social Psychiatry Section of the RMPA, and gave the chairman's address on "Community Treatment and the boundaries of group and Individual Hospital treatment",

    19.6.1962 "We are now engaged in packing spare parts for a well- known motoring manufacturing firm" [almost certainly Fords of Dagenham] "and are paid a fair wage for our efforts. Many of our group who were suffering from a neurosis are now back at industry. We hold a meeting once a week under the guidance and supervision of Mrs. Garner, when we discuss our little differences that may arise. We all have our disabilities; some are handicapped and cannot lift heavy articles, and occasionally we are very grateful for a helping hand in the loading and unloading of boxes by resident patients who are physically fit, but generally speaking, working as a team we get along very well.

    We are very cramped for space and I understand there is a long waiting list for this particular job, so I do hope the power that be will make an effort to provide a larger workshop, as in my humble opinion, this kind of treatment is very beneficial" (Bertram A. Miller M.M. One of the Sheltered Workers)

    1963

    Tuesday 22.1.1963 Letter from "Dr D. Barker MB-BS Psychiatric Registrar"

    January 1963 Valerie Argent a patient. She did not attend the "major therapeutic groups".
    February/March 1963 Ingrebourne started a group for adolescents, which Valerie attended

    25.3.1963 Letter from Ronald St Blaize Molony to Dr Bartlett, Education Department, County Hall. He was trying to get a place for her in a boarding school.

    28.5.1963 Ingrebourne Society -
    June 1963 Incentive
    Patient group, Ingrebourne Centre A group of patients outside the Ingrebourne Centre (in 1963?)

    Wednesday 3.7.1963 I stood at the door, looking on the sunlit lawn, and I felt the grass growing. My mind was still set on dying, but my heart was responding to the grass. AR1963 Breakdown

    Sunday 28.7.1963 Three Ingrebourne patients, Andrew Roberts, Robbie Roberts and Jenny Humphrey, went to Brighton, on route for France. Jenny and Robbie stayed in France for a week, Andrew for a fortnight. Andrew may have been discharged before the holiday and returned to work afterwards.

    November 1963 Andrew Roberts' second stay in Ingrebourne. Incentive (Ingrebourne Magazine) produced by Jenny.

    Friday 8.11.1963 Farewell party for Dr Barker organised by patients at Sutton's Club, Station Lane, Hornchurch.

    15.11.1963 Dr Barker leaving for Australia

    Thursday 12.12.1963 Ingrebourne Christmas show in Main Hall. Rehearsals had been in the Group Room every Wednesday at 7.30pm

    1964

    Tuesday 31.3.1964 - Wednesday 27.5.1964 Valerie in Belmont

    Saturday 16.5.1964 Valerie and Andrew's engagement

    Wednesday 27.5.1964 Valerie escaped from Belmont

    8.6.1964 Andrew became an Ingrebourne patient again

    Friday 17.7.1964 to Saturday 8.8.1964 Andrew working in Dorset

    24.8.1964 to 29.8.1964 International Congress for Psychotherapy held in London, with the theme "New development in psychotherapy". Dr Crocket gave a paper on "Authority and Permissiveness in the Psychotherapeutic Community: Theoretical Perspectives"

    Valerie staying with Romford Samaritan members

    Sunday 6.9.1964 Andrew working in Islington.

    End of September 1964? Valerie working in Old People's Home for a fortnight. Then moved to Islington.

    25.9.1964 Letter from Ronald St Blaize Molony, Senior Psychiatrist, to Dr J.J. Fleminger at Guy's Hospital saying unable to take Valerie back as an in-patient.

    "we were closing the unit for in-patients so that we would get the decorations completed as expeditiously as possible... not only are we redecorating in terms of painting, but we are also undertaking structural alterations and will have no beds for quite a lengthy period".

    1965 "The Results of Treatment in a Psychotherapeutic Community". Richard W. Crocket, Glasgow University Thesis. offline extracts

    Friday 29.1.1965 Valerie and Andrew married. (Just 17 other people present, one of whom was Margorie Holbrook from Ingrebourne)

    Tuesday 20.4.1965 Dr Crocket and Dr Brown (G.P.) saw Andrew and Valerie together at Abbs Cross Lane.

    Thursday 22.4.1965 to Tuesday 22.6.1965 (The day before she went into the maternity hospital) Valerie a day patient at Ingrebourne.

    Monday 17.5.1965 Andrew (and Valerie) in Ingrebourne

    Friday 11.6.1965 Andrew Roberts' final discharge from Ingrebourne.

    3.8.1965 Letter from Malcolm Heron, Assistant Psychiatrist to Dr. Browne.

    1966 Malcolm Heron was appointed as psychotherapist to the Outpatient Department of Addenbrooke's

    1967

    May 1967 "The 'therapeutic community' as an approach to psychotherapy" by Harwant S. Gill [Ingrebourne Psychologist "Dr Gill"] Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, Vol 4(2), May 1967, pp 87-91. Also reprinted as a pamphlet. "The nurse's role in a therapeutic community is similar to the mother's role in a house..."

    1969

    13.5.1968 - 15.6.1968 Richard Crocket's diary of his trip to the United States.

    1969

    September 1969 H. J. Tollinton, a psychiatrist at the Ingrebourne Centre, published "The organization of a psychotherapeutic community" in the British Journal of Medical Psychology (Volume 42, Issue 3, pages 271-275)

    Spring? 1971 Andrew and Valerie visited Richard Crocket at Ingrebourne in connection with a possible academic placement for Andrew.

    1974 Malcolm Heron's "untimely death from cancer".

    Early 1977 Richard Crocket left Ingrebourne and became locum medical director of the Paddington Day Hospital.

    1977? Dr Jeff Roberts became Medical Director of the Ingrebourne Centre

    About 1986 Alex Garriock became the Art Therapist at the Centre

    March 1988 AGM of the Association of Therapeutic Communities held at the Ingrebourne Centre,

    1991 Bill Murray 2004: "I went to work at the Ingrebourne in 1991, having just qualified as a RMN (Registered Mental Nurse). During my training I had taken up the opportunity of having a 12-week placement there. The whole set up was incredibly different from that which I had seen on the wards in Warley Hospital"

    About 1997 Michael Smith became Manager of the Centre

    December 1998 Newsletter 8 records that oral history interviews with Richard Crocket had taken place.

    December 1999 Newsletter 4 "On the more purely oral history front: We have recorded a series of interviews with Dr. Richard Crocket, discussing his life and career, focusing particularly on the Ingrebourne Centre of which he was the founding Director, and, with Helen Spandler as the main interviewer, the Paddington Day Hospital."

    2000 Bill Murray 2004: "Perhaps it was inevitable that the TC would reach the end of its life... as it did sometime around October 2003. I left the service in October 2000 and haven't been able to ascertain the exact date of closure."

    December 2000 Newsletter 5

    August-December 2001 ATC Notes: "The ATC currently has 56 group members, six of those being separate wings at Grendon Prison. We welcome back Ingrebourne, one of the pioneering psychiatric therapeutic communities - Ingrebourne's founding Director Richard Crocket was part of the small group which set up the ATC 30 years ago. Among new group members are the Ashburn Clinic, in New Zealand, St. Andrew's Counselling and Psychotherapy Unit, in York, and the Ley Prison Community in Oxford, which is featured elsewhere in this issue." (joint newsletter 3) November 2001

    22.7.2002 Officer Jane Coltman and David Jones and "two lads from C Wing" at Grendon, "Devis" and John John James Claxton, visited. Letters (joint newsletter 6) November 2002

    16.5.2003 ATC Steering Group meeting:the most upsetting item discussed at this particular Steering Group meeting was the apparently imminent demise of the Ingrebourne Centre, one of the founding members of the ATC. Michael Smith, Manager of the Ingrebourne Psychotherapy Centre for the past six years, and Alex Garriock, Art Therapist at the Centre for the past seventeen years, attended the Steering Group meeting and shared their experiences of their organisation being run down, "down-sized", demoralised, and now being closed. In a meeting called without advance warning a fortnight previously, they had been given two weeks notice to close, extended by another two weeks following interventions from trades unions and others. Senior management "seemed to have no idea how we work Group, you can email them at and how we deal with difficult patients". Michael and Alex had come to the Steering Group to warn others about how quickly things can get out of hand in these dangerous situations. Steering Group members were horrified by the experiences shared, and recognised how difficult this must be for patients at the Ingrebourne and the staff who are still attempting valiantly to keep patients' needs in mind." (joint newsletter 8) July 2003

    December 2003 (joint newsletter 9) contains an article by "Dr. Ronald St.Blaize-Molony M.B., Bch, B.A.O., M.R.C. Psyc., D.P.M., L.A.H., M.P.S.(1). Consultant Psychotherapist (R.T.D.) Harp's Oak Children's Home Merstham Surrey RH1 3BP"

    April/Spring 2004 "Inspired by Dr. Richard Crocket's 90th birthday on February 9th this year, Bill Murray reflects on his time at the Ingrebourne Centre, a founding member of the ATC, which left the Association last year" (joint newsletter 10)

    August/Summer 2004 "A la Recherche du Temps Perdu. A Memoir of Richard Crocket after his 90th Birthday Dr. Ronald St. Blaize-Molony". (joint newsletter 10)

    3.12.2006 Death of Richard Crocket

    25.9.2009 Pictures on the Wall by Steve Turner published.

    2010 Tom Harrison began his Ingrebourne Research Project


    Suffolk County Asylum
    Melton, near Woodbridge
    Previous history (1765-1827) House of Industry for Looes and Wilford Incorporated Hundreds.
    Peter Higginbotham says many incorporated Hundreds were set up in rural Suffolk in the 25 years after 1756
    Asylum opened 1.1.1829
    Suffolk County Lunatic Asylum to 1906
    1.1.1844: 213 patients. 206 pauper and 7 private.
    1881 Census
    Suffolk District Asylum from about 1906 to about 1930
    Also known, from about 1917, as St Audry's Hospital for Mental Diseases
    Became St Audry's Hospital, Melton, Woodbridge, IP12 1QT
    1979: 530 beds
    Now closed
    External link to a nearby walk
    Felixstowe Museum has a room devoted to it   [other museums]
    Archives in Suffolk Record Office (Ipswich Branch)

    Belle Vue House, Ipswich, Suffolk
    Licensed House
    Opened 1835
    1.1.1844 32 patients. 20 pauper and 12 private.
    Licensed to James Shaw (surgeon)
    "Belle Vue Asylum, Ipswich Pleasantly situated on the Woodbridge Rd, is a private establishment, for the reception of persons afflicted with insanity. It was commenced in 1835, by its present proprietor, Mr James Shaw, surgeon, & has accommodations for 40 patients". White Directory 1844 - p 84 Submitted by Betty Longbottom to Rossbret
    1870 Belle Vue House, Ipswich, Suffolk licensed to Miss S A F Walter

    Eye workhouse
    Charles Mott, 1837:
    "the man at Eye ate potato peelings...because he was an idiot"
    Also see Peter Higginbotham on Eye workhouse

    Ipswich Borough Asylum
    Built: 1869-1870 Opened 1870.
    Architect: WR Ribbans
    It became Ipswich Mental Hospital about 1908, then St Clement's Hospital, Foxhall Road. Ipswich, IP3 8LS, about 1947.
    Autumn 2002: reported closed and empty, but in good condition.
    Still open, no plans to close. (Simon Cornwall)

    In 1700 Norwich was the second largest city in England. Its population approached 30,000. Its closest rival, Bristol, had a population of more than 20,000

    Bethel Hospital, Norwich
    [Following history based mainly on Winston, M. 1994 "The Bethel at Norwich: an eighteenth-century hospital for lunatics"
    Established 1713.
    The original house, known from its image on the seal of the Bethel and from a written descnption, seems to have been a two-storey building with two wings, set back from the road, then known as Committee Street.
    8.1.1724 Death of Mary Chapman, founder of the Bethel.
    1727: Six new wards
    For the trustees:
    City & County of Norwich January 1730

    We whose names are herein Subscrib'd being appointed Trustees for the Endowment of Bethel do require you on Sight hereof to take and Receive into the aforesaid House take due care of and provide for A B belonging to the parish of C aged about years He being Certify'd under the hand of our Physician to be under Lunacy and there being Security given for his maintenance by D_ _ E.. while he shall continue there to our Satisfaction.

    To F G Robert Waller
    Keeper of Bethel

    The Bethel at Norwich
    For the applicants:
    Norwch Janry 1730

    Having this Day receiv'd an order from the Trustees for the Endowment of Bethel directed to the Keeper to Receive & take into the aforesaid House, take care of & provide for A.. B of the parish of C aged about years. In consideration thereof we do hereby promise to pay to H J Treasurer of the aforesaid Endowment or to his order the Summ of Four Shillings per Week and to pay the Same Monthly for so long time as he shall remain in the aforesaid House and also to allow for all Damages and Wasts that shall be committed by the said A B and to Supply him with necessary Cloathing during his abode there, and if he shall dye there, do promise to remove the Corps or else to be at the charge of Burying him from the aforesaid House in witness whereof we now Set our Hand the Day and Year above written.

    1747: Ordered that "Thomas Benning, Carpenter, do make a partition in each story in order that the Mens apartments may be wholly on one side of the Hospital and the Womens on the other. And also that he make a new Window on the South side of that Cellar where some of the Lunatics are lodged"
    1749 Existing bathroom to converted to a cell, and strawroom to a "Cellar for the worst of the Lunatics to be put in", and a new strawhouse, bathroom and wash-house were to be built.
    The number of residents remained stable between twenty and thirty until 1750. There was then a steady increase which continued throughout the decade. By 1760 numbers had risen to almost fifty.
    1765 Trust incorporated and trustees became governors.
    1762 Bequest of £1,000 by Bartholomew Balderston in order that two persons from the Congregation of Independents in Norwich could be kept "on the foundation" from time to time. (archive) - Relates to Congregational Church, Old Meeting, Norwich (archive)
    Patient numbers dropped from between forty and fifty resident before 1780 to little more than thirty in the early 1790s.
    1792 - 1867 Members of the Gurney and Birkbeck families, Quaker bankers, amongst the Governors.
    27.7.1807: Frederick Reeve Spalding criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum". He had been tried for a felony at Norwich and was held on the order of Warner & Richard Car Spalding. (HO 20/13)
    1814 On the opening of the County Asylum notice was given to parishes that certain pauper patients would be discharged. The parishes arranged their admission to the county asylum. For the next three decades, until the Lunatics Act of 1845, the number of patients at the Bethel remained between seventy and eighty, while those in the new asylum increased
    1818 Letter from Samuel King, Bethel Hospital, Norwich, to Thomas Stimson, Emneth, stating that patient John Marshall of Emneth would be returned as the parish had ceased to pay for him - 'It will fall to my Lot...to take him home in a Post Chaise' (archive)
    September 1828 Joseph John Gurney (a visiting governor) visited with his sister, Elizabeth Fry. Two days later a Middlesex magistrate visited and pronounced himself "much pleased"
    June 1830 William J. Tuke accompanied Gurney to the house and suggested that the galleries might be opened up to provide a variety of exercise for the patients.
    1831: Uriah Baldwin criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Norwich". He had been tried at Norwich.
    July 1832: Thomas Iveson criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Norwich". He had been tried for murder at Kings Lynn. He also spent time in Bethlem (HO 20/13)
    Superintendent 1844: -- King.
    1.1.1844 66 patients. "It is believed that some of these are maintained partly at the charge of parishes" (1844 Report p.210)
    1870 Superintendent C. M. Gibson (surgeon)
    1881 Census: "Hospital For Lunatics Bethel" Bethel Street, Norwich St Peter Mancroft
    1956 Sale of the five Bethel Hospital farms. (archive) [I think these were the source of investment income since the 18th century - But see national policy]
    1962 (Hospital Plan) Grouped with Hellesdon. Bethel had 122 patients in 1960 and was expected to close by 1975

    "the oldest surviving hospital in the country specifically founded for the care of the mentally ill and currently the oldest building in the UK to have been in continuous psychiatric use (though it has been threatened with closure for some time) Since 1974 when the in-patient facilities were closed, it has continued as the Centre for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry." Medical Heritage

    1979 The Bethel Hospital, Norwich, NR2 1NR (no beds) Child and Family Psychiatry
    2005: Bethel Child and Family Centre (Child and Adolescent Services), Mary Chapman House, 120 Hotblack Road, Norwich, Norfolk, NR2 4HN (NHS Direct)
    Archives link

    Norfolk County Asylum
    at Thorpe, near Norwich
    one and a quarter miles east of Thorpe village church
    third oldest county asylum.
    [A Sarah Rutherford case study]
    11.10.1808 Resolved at Norwich Quarter Sessions that the next General Sessions "take into consideration the expediency and propriety of providing a Lunatic Asylum..." under the provisons of the 1808 County Asylums Act
    July 1809 committee appointed "for the purpose of making inquiry into the number of idiots and lunatic paupers...". It reported that there were 153 lunatics in the county.
    October 1810: A committee of nine appointed to look into the best means. It reported that the asylum should be near Norwich and that the County Surveyor had prepared a plan for an asylum capable of receiving 180 lunatics which could be enlarged to hold 300. The estimated cost was £20,000.
    April 1811: Committee reported purchase of five acres of land at Thorpe at for £600
    The earliest part of the building is by Francis Stone and was constructed between 1811 and 1814.
    Opened 18.5.1814
    It was built for 102 patients, but by 1820 had averaged only 80.
    1814 First patient escaped over the walls
    4.8.1815 Cemetery consecrated
    1816 F.H. Stone, Ground floor plan of Norfolk Asylum [whereabouts unknown, copy in RCMHE file 100458, NMR, Swindon].
    Summer 1821: Elizabeth Baldry criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Norfolk". She had been tried for a felony at Norwich. (HO 20/13)
    1825 a lengthy description
    1828 Andrew Halliday's description
    April 1828: John Kenney criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Norfolk". He had been tried for murder at "Norfolk". (HO 20/13)
    April 1829: Richard Scott criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Norfolk". He had been tried for murder at "Norfolk". (HO 20/13)
    March 1832: John Rudd Turner criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Norfolk". He had been tried at "Norfolk" for murder (HO 20/13)
    April 1832: Mary Ann Pycroft criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Norfolk". She (was to be?) tried at Wymondham, and was held for "want of Bail" (HO 20/13)
    1839: William Gathercole criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Norfolk". He had been tried at "Norfolk". (HO 20/13)
    Visiting commissioners stimulate changes
    1.1.1844: 164 patients. All pauper.
    1854 extra land
    1857 Additions by John Brown, the County Surveyor. (Peter Cracknell) - Sarah Rutherford
    1858: 420 patients
    1867/1868 Superintendent of Norfolk Thorpe near Norwich; Dr W.C Hills
    April 1873 James Shaw (MD Queens) appointed Assistant Medical Officer in the place of William Paynton, resigned
    About 1878/1880: an annex was designed by Makilwaine Phipson: Corridor-Pavilion?. (Peter Cracknell)
    1881 Census: "Norfolk County Lunatic Asylum, Thorpe Next Norwich, Norfolk". Superintendent William Charles Hills
    Thorpe Lunatic Asylum 1891 census names
    Served as a war hospital from 1915 to 1919. Some of the patients went to Brentwood, in Essex.
    1920 Patients returned from Brentwood
    Was Norfolk Mental Hospital from 1919 to 1923 and then St Andrews Hospital, Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR7 OSS.
    "In 1939 340 beds were put aside for use by the Emergency Hospital Scheme. On 30.6.1945 111 beds were handed back for normal use but the EHS retained beds in St Andrew's Hospital until 1947" Hospital database:
    1953-1957 Cicely McCall Psychiatric Social Worker
    1957 An Act of Parliament made the Yarmouth Naval Hospital (re-named St Nicholas) a part of St Andrew's.
    1966 Norfolk and Norwich Association for Mental Health founded
    31.12.1971: "St Andrew's and St Nicholas" 958 resident patients, but 1,109 beds.
    31.12.1975 "St Andrew's" 551 resident patients, but 646 beds.
    31.12.1977 St Andrew's 647 beds. St Nicholas 211
    It closed in 1998. The patients from the last ward to closed moved to Hellesdon
    Looks intact. Grounds being redeveloped (Simon Cornwall)
    Tuesday 20.6.2006 Radio 4 programme The Asylum Band by violinist David Juritz. Traced the history of the asylum orchestra and music in the asylum, back from the recovery of sheet music when the hospital closed.
    External link to archives
    External link to online catalogue includes a history

    Norvic Clinic, Yarmouth Road, Norwich
    First purpose built
    Regional Secure Unit
    Built 1984. A two-storey building. "For some years prior to 1998 it took patients primarily from the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Health Authority area".
    "The Norvic Clinic (plus the associated rehabilitation units of Meadowlands and Highlands) are the Trust Forensic service, providing a local and Regional facility. They are situated on the east of Norwich, close to the A47 southern by-pass, on the site of the former St. Andrews Hospital, now the Broadland Business Park". (source)
    1993 David Bennet wrote to the nursing director pointing out: "As you know, there are over half a dozen black boys in this clinic. I don't know if you have realised there are no Africans on your staff."
    30.10.1998 Death of David "Rocky" Bennett

    Norwich Infirmary Bethel
    A Workhouse Asylum
    "Wards exclusively appropriated to lunatics" (1844 Report p.10)
    Norwich Incorporation of the Poor was established in 1712, shortly before the Bethel Hospital
    "A separate infirmary, near St Augustine's Gate in the parish of St Clement, accommodated up to 130 aged and infirm men and women aged 65 or over. Adjoining it was a building erected in 1828, and enlarged in 1838, as an Asylum for Pauper Lunatics, with a ward for sick patients. Peter Higginbotham
    1859 national comparisons

    Email on Rootsweb: "Infirmary Road ran from where the swimming pool was to the junction of Angel Road and Waterloo Road. The Borough Lunatic Asylum was in Infirmary Square in what is now Starling Road and the building you remember as preceding the swimming pool was, in fact, St. Augustine's School. The school was badly bombed on April 27th, 1942, and was never used as such again. Two of my ancestors are shown as living in Infirmary Road in the 1861 C.R. The area became New Catton but prior to that was in St. Clement Without."

    In 1859/1860 a new workhouse was built north of Bowhill Road, which eventually gained an infirmary. The establishment of Norwich Borough Asylum appears to have followed the disappearance of the Infirmary Bethel.

    Norwich Borough Asylum

    Competition for the design of reported in The Builder 1868 Volume 26, 7.11.1868 (Alan Longbottom on the Rossbret site)
    1870 Norwich St Augustine's Gate: Superintendent Dr H,G, Stewart

    Kellys Norwich 1883: "The corporation of Norwich have built a Lunatic asylum for the city, at Hellesdon, distant about two miles, to supersede the one formerly used in Infirmary Road: the new building was erected to hold 350 patients and the administrative portion is large enough to work an asylum for 500 or 600 inmates: the plan is on what is known as the "block system" -- detached buildings connected together by communicating corridors and surrounded by airing courts -- and there is one peculiar feature in the arrangements which has never been carried out in any other lunatic asylum: i.e. the upper floors are entirely empty during the day, and the ground floor during the night, thus giving perfect ventilation to each story every twelve hours: the cost of the works has exceeded £60,000, including the purchase of the site and furniture: the architect is Mr Makilwaine Phipson F.S.A.: there are about 50 acres of land attached to the asylum, the cultivation of which is entrusted to the patients, under direction, with very satisfactory results: the building is lighted by gas supplied from the Norwich gas works: the water is pumped up by steam from a well 100 feet deep on the premises: there are about 100 single room, and the other 250 inmates are associated together in dormitories containing from 4 to 16 patients each: in 1851 a mortuary and stables were built near the entrance lodge, also two semi-detached cottages for the artizans: the asylum was opened and organised by the first and present superintendent, Dr. William Harris FRCS."

    1881 Census: "Norwich City Lunatic Asylum, Sprowston, Norfolk"
    Hellesdon Lunatic Asylum 1891 census names
    During the first world war, Norfolk County Asylum was used as a War Hospital. Patients who should have been admitted to that Asylum were temporarily admitted by the Norwich City Asylum.
    Became Hellesdon Hospital, Hellesdon, Norwich, Norfolk, NR7 OSS
    During the second world war, Bethel Hospital was closed and the Hellesdon Hospital admitted patients on behalf of that hospital.
    Still seems very much alive. See Jeremy Jones web, especially inside Hellesdon Hospital
    2005: Hellesdon Hospital, Drayton High Road, Norwich, Norfolk, NR6 5BE (NHS Direct)

    Yarmouth - Norfolk - (South Denes)
    Royal Naval Hospital Yarmouth - 1811
    Royal Barracks South Denes (before 1818)
    Yarmouth Royal Military Lunatic Asylum - 1844
    Crimea and after - 1854
    Yarmouth Naval Lunatic Hospital - 1863
    Yarmouth Naval Hospital - 1931 (Act)
    St Nicholas Hospital - 1956

    "Many military buildings have been built in Great Yarmouth over the years. One of the most striking is the Naval Hospital, which was originally for sailors wounded in the Napoleonic Wars. It then became a barracks, but was converted back to a hospital 40 years later and was used to accommodate sailors who were mentally ill. Hence the navy slang to describe those sailors who are showing signs of mental wear and tear is going to Yarmouth." (online leaflet - archive

    "The naval hospital at Great Yarmouth had been constructed between 1809 and 1811 to treat the sick and wounded of the North Sea Fleet." (Jones and Greenberg 5.2006) - "It was completed in 1811 at a total cost of £120,000 and was built to receive 198 wounded in the Navy during the war with France, but no naval wounded ever arrived." (Hansard 3.3.1931)

    From Crisp's History of Yarmouth (1877?) - archive copy - offline text
    The Royal Hospital or Asylum built by Government at a cost of £120,000
    Foundation stone laid by Admiral Rilly Douglas in 1809
    The building was erected by Mr Peto (father of Sir Samuel Morton Peto) from designs by H. Pakington, Esq., for a Naval Hospital. "The rooms in front are 150 feet long, and the whole area within the Asylum is about fifteen acres, and the interior arrangements are admirable, to say nothing of the spacious court-yard to the north".
    Opened 1811?
    13.3.1812 The South Gate taken down and sold for £26 to Mr. Jonathan Poppy. It presented, two massive round towers, flanking a square curtain, beneath which was the arch.
    1815 600 wounded men from Waterloo lodged in the Naval Hospital

    See 1818 and 1819 on the timeline

    "It was next turned into a barracks but was rarely used as such". (Hansard 3.3.1931)

    St Nicholas Gatt, the seaway approach between sandbanks, became shallower and unsafe for men at war. The Admiralty converted the hospital to a foot barracks. (History, gazetteer, and directory of Norfolk, 1845)

    April 1818 (passage written) Excursions in the County of Norfolk "The most splendid public ediface in Yarmouth is the royal barracks (originally intended for a naval hospital) on the South Denes." - "Nelson monument now building on the South Denes between the royal barracks and the haven's mouth" (page 117)

    "In 1844 it became a military lunatic asylum and was used for this purpose for ten years." (Hansard 3.3.1931)

    1844 The Naval Hospital converted into a Lunatic Asylum.

    "Taken over by the army in 1844, it housed a 'Military Lunatic Asylum' until the outbreak of the Crimean War when the Admiralty re-acquired the building." (Jones and Greenberg 5.2006)

    "The hospital was inspected by Commissioners during the period it was used as a military lunatic asylum-that is, in 1844 and 1845" (Hansard 3.3.1931)

    Dr Sillery was the staff surgeon initially in charge.

    October 1846 Patients moved from Shorncliffe to Yarmouth

    February 1847 Charles Alexander Lockhart Robertson (1825-1897) was Asistant Staff-Surgeon for five years. Previously at Dunston Lodge. Appointed after a short service as Assistant Surgeon in the Army. (1896 retirement notice)

    18.5.1848 to 24.6.1852 Lunacy Commission Reports on the Royal Military Lunatic Asylum, Yarmouth numbers 72, 73, 74, 75, 76 in the National Archives at MH51/42

    See also Royal Military Lunatic Asylum at Fort Pitt

    June? 1848 Volume seven of The half-yearly abstract of the medical sciences (January to June 1848) , edited by William Harcourt Ranking (of Norwich), included, for the first time, a "A Report on the Recent Progress of Psychological Medicine". This was written by Charles Lockhart Robertson. (offline) ["Assisted Dr Ranking, of Norwich, in preparing his 'half-yearly abstract', in which his thorough knowledge of French and German was of great service." (1896 retirement notice)

    5.5.1849 Unsuccesful application by Charles Lockhart Robertson for the post of Resident Physician and Superintendent in the Glasgow Royal Lunatic Asylum

    7.2.1851, Andrew Smith promoted to inspector-general when Sir James McGrigor retired as director-general. He had been deputy inspector-general since 1845. Lockhart Robertson (1856) says Andrew Smith "believes that the insane patients of the army are best cared for by a frequent change of medical officers, inexperienced as regards the treatment of mental disease."

    September 1851 Charles Lockhart Robertson resigned as he was refused permission to continue working at the Yarmouth Asylum. He wrote to the Secretary at War: " It cannot, I think, be "questioned by any competent member of the medical profession, that the practice of frequently handing over the insane patients of the army to the care of officers quite unconversant with the practice of this special department of medicine, is alike injurious to their interests, and to the scientific status of the Military Lunatic Asylum." - "His tenure of office at Yarmouth having expired, he resigned the Army service, entered at Cambridge, graduated as M.B. in 1853, and practised as an alienist physician for four years in London. In 1858 he was appointed Medical Superintendent of the Sussex County Asylum, then in course of erection. This post he held until 1870, when he was appointed Lord Chancellor's Visitor." (offline)

    Towards the close of 1852 George Russell Dartnell (1799-1878), Army surgeon in charge of the Military Lunatic Hospital, Great Yarmouth. He had returned to Britain in 1843. By 1854 he was Deputy Inspector-General, Army Medical Department. After retiring from the army in 1857, he operated Arden House Private Lunatic Asylum at Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire which he also owned from 1858 to 1876.

    25.2.1853 Andrew Smith became Director-General of Army Medical Services.

    Crimea and after

    The Naval Hospital Muster Books for Haslar finish in 1854

    May 1854 "The Yarmouth Hospital ceased.. to be "occupied as a hospital for military lunatics, possession of it having been resumed by the Board of Admiralty for the purposes of a general hospital foi the sailors of the Baltic fleet... The lunatic patients at Yarmouth consisted of 19 officers, 69 soldiers, and 5 women... The Secretary at War having requested our opinion as to the best mode of providing for those inmates, we named Grove Hall, Bow, as a well-conducted asylum, and capable of affording proper accommodation for the soldiers and women; and ... Coton Hill Lunatic Asylum Hospital, (an institution under good management, near Stafford,) for the officers... But we trust the arrangements thus made are "merely of a temporary character". (May 1850 report of the Commissioners in Lunacy, quoted (Lockhart Robertson 1856)

    "On the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854 the Admiralty claimed the building. The military patients were removed and the place fitted to receive wounded from the Baltic, but none ever came". (Hansard 3.3.1931)

    20.7.1855 Question in House of Commons subsequent to a leading article in the Asylum Journal (No. 11) about the breaking up of the Military Lunatic Hospital at Yarmouth, and (No. 12) Charles Lockhart Robertson writing "actuated by a natural sympathy with the present sad state of my former patients."

    3.3.1856 Hansard: Colonel Henry Boldero "had minutely visited the lunatic asylum at Chatham some years ago, and was disgusted and horrified with what he saw. After some considerable difficulty he had found a building, an unused barrack at Yarmouth exactly fitted for the purpose; he had reported this to the Government, who had sent down a medical officer, whose report was unfavourable. He was not discouraged; he obtained leave from the Government of the day to take down other officers, and at last he prevailed upon the Government to have the lunatics transferred to that place. He was astonished to find that they had been retransferred again to Chatham." Told "that the reason was simply this. The buildings in question belonged to the Admiralty, and as there was an expectation of a large number of invalid seamen during the war, the Admiralty had reclaimed the property, and the War Department had no choice but to give it up."

    "When peace was declared the War Office again took over the hospital and it was used by them as a convalescent hospital for soldiers." (Hansard 3.3.1931)

    July 1858 Fifty-seven invalids, mostly Indian sufferers, arrived at the Military Hospital on the South Denes from Chatham - (Crisp)

    11.7.1859 Eighty invalids, mostly Indian sufferers,. arrived at the Military Hospital on the South Denes from Chatham. - (Crisp)

    The building was re-modelled in 1863, and 37 new wards added, by Mr. G. Tyrrell. Eighty inmates were received the same year (September) from Haslar, making a total of 169. [See Netley]

    "In 1863 the Admiralty again claimed the building, this time for the use of naval lunatics. Various alterations were then made. The boundaries were enlarged by taking in ground on the north and west sides and by the purchase in 1865 of about ten acres from the Corporation of Yarmouth at a cost of £10,982." (Hansard 3.3.1931)

    The eleven acres of ground on the east cost the Government £11,000 in 1875.

    The Twenty Second Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy (1867/1868) includes a "Report on Yarmouth Naval Lunatic Hospital" (See Rossbret site)

    1914-1918 "During the War arrangements were made for the admission of a number of ex-naval patients chargeable to the Ministry of Pensions". (Hansard 3.3.1931)

    3.3.1931 Hansard Yarmouth Naval Hospital Bill - House of Lords - Contains detailed history - "The hospital has been continuously used by the Admiralty as a mental hospital since 1863 and is still so used." - "The Ministry of Pensions are also anxious to increase the number of patients they have under treatment at Yarmouth by removing them from other institutions, and thus providing further accommodation for civil patients". Currently 119 patients. About ten new naval patients a year anticipated. Ministry of Pensions want to transfer between 100 1nd 130 patients. "There is normal peace accommodation for 213 patients, but this number could be increased to 260".

    Report of the Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency. 1954-1957, paragraph 880: "The Yarmouth Naval Hospital Act, 1931 Under this Act special procedures are laid down for the admission, detention and discharge of patients in the Yarmouth Naval Hospital. Persons who may be admitted as patients include officers of the Royal Navy or Royal Marines whether they are on the active list or not, and certain other categories of persons who are serving of have previously served in the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Royal Fleet Reserve, Royal Naval reserve or Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and also other war pensioners already detained elsewhere under the Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts (except voluntary and temporary patients). The procedures for the compulsory admission, detention, visitation and discharge of patients in this hospital (other than voluntary patients) differ in many ways from those which apply to certified and temporary patients under the Lunacy and Mental Treatments Acts. We understand that the future of this hospital is at present under consideration, and that changes are contemplated which, if approved, would involve the abolition of these special procedures. It seems to us desirable that the procedures and safeguards which we have recommended for patients in other hospitals should also apply to patients in this hospital.


    Queens Road, Great Yarmouth.
    Simon Cornwall:: Originally: Naval Hospital/Barracks Built: 1800-1811. Architect: Henry Pilkington. Converted to housing.
    Clive Baulch: This building opened 1876. Closed as a naval hospital in 1956. Became NHS.
    St. Nicholas' Hospital in Great Yarmouth, the former Royal Naval Hospital, was attached to the St Andrew's Hospital under the Yarmouth Hospital Transfer Act 1957
    1960 Hospital Plan 245 beds. Planned to close by 1975
    31.12.1977 211 beds. Mental Illness

    Paul P. Davies History of Medicine in Great Yarmouth, Hospitals and Doctors (ISBN:0954450906), published by the author, Great Yarmouth, 2003. I am told that this has about 100 pages devoted to the Royal Navy Hospital. This description is taken from an online bookseller: 718 pages of A4 size... history of all the Gt Yarmouth hospitals up to the opening of the James Paget Hospital in 1981. It includes the General, Escourt (Isolation), St Nicholas' (Naval), Gorleston Cottage, Gorleston and Northgate (Workhouse) Hospitals. The various smallpox, cholera and military hospitals, which at one time were in the town are also included. Details of many of the past doctors of the town are given, dating back to the 18th century and the well-established practices are traced back to their origins. The book is well illustrated with photographs, advertisement and health notices. Medicine is interlinked witrh local and social history and, were appropriate, this is included.

    Samuel Whitbread (30.8.1720-11.6.1796), founder of Whitbread's brewery who bought large estates in Bedfordshire and Bedwell Park in Hertfordshire, was Tory MP for Bedford from 1768 to 1790. He was very strictly religious. (DNB under son)
    1803 Bedford General Infirmary, "on the Ampthill Road" erected "with funds bequeathed chiefly from Samuel Whitbread esq". (See Rossbret site)
    Samuel Whitbread (1758-1815) Only son of Samuel who died in 1796. He did not share his father's strict religious views. He married, in 1789, Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Charles (later 1st Earl) Grey. Samuel Whitbread was Whig MP for Bedford. He was on the 1807 select committee on criminal and pauper lunatics. A speech recorded in Hansard 14.6.1814 (A governor of St Lukes) On 1814-1816 Select Committee on Madhouses , but cut his own throat 6.7.1815, before the committee's third session. He had three sisters including Mary his step-sister who married George Grey, the father of the lunacy commissioner.
    William Henry Whitbread (4.1.1795-1867) The eldest son of Samuel who died in 1815, was MP for Bedford Borough from 1818 to the 1830s. His votes recorded in the Annual Register for 1820 were radical.
    Samuel Charles Whitbread (1796 - 27.5.1879), the second son of Samuel who died in 1815, was MP for Middlesex from 1820 to 1830.

    Bedfordshire County Asylum

    5.10.1808 Bedfordshire Justices gave notice of their intention to provide a lunatic asylum

    Building commenced 1810
    Architect: J. Wing. Landscape designer unknown. "Limited grounds reminiscent of earlier charitable asylums". Archive at Bedfordshire Record Office.
    Opened June or August 1812
    Ampthill Road, Bedford from 1812 to 1860
    National Grid Reference SP 047 485
    Dr Grant David Yeates, physician to the Duke of Bedford, helped to establish both the Bedford Infirmary and the County Asylum. He was the infirmary physician and visiting physician to the County Asylum from 1813 to 1814. He tried to convince the Bedfordshire magistrates that they should concern themselves as much with the cure of asylum inmates as with their safe custody. (Munk and Scull, A.T. 1979 p. 155)
    27.4.1812 William Pether and his wife appointed "the Governor and Matron of the Lunatic Asylum".
    May have provided for 52 patients at opening. Twice enlarged before 1844. The second enlargement being with a view to taking paupers from other counties, to reduce the cost of the asylum to Bedfordshire.
    1825: Copied mounds in yards from Brislington House
    1844 (and long before) Superintendent J. Harris, Surgeon
    1.1.1844: 139 patients. All pauper. It had accommodation for 180.
    Weekly charge for paupers 7/6. For out-county paupers 8/6

    Bedfordshire County Asylum became Bedford and Hertfordshire County Asylum in 1847.
    Demolished in 1860

    A Bedford, Hertfordshire and Huntingdonshire County Asylum at Arlsey (Arlesey) was being erected in 1858. It may have opened in 1860 and was known as the Three Counties Asylum (until 1928) and then Arlesey Three Counties Hospital.
    Corridor form - Too large for Conolly's ideal?
    From 1964: Fairfield Hospital, Stotfold, Hitchin, SG5 4AA. It closed in 1999. The Rossbret Asylums Website has history and photographs under "Three Counties Asylum". GenUK on Bedford has 1831 information about Bedford, including the asylum. The site has now been developed.


    1795-1796 Bedford House of Industry, a three storey red-brick building, erected on the south side of Kimbolton Road (National Grid Reference: TL055504). Architect John Wing

    1835 Bedford House of Industry let on a perpetual lease to the Bedford Union Board of Guardians. Became Bedford Union Workhouse

    Early 1900s A chapel added at the east of the workhouse

    1914-1918 An infirmary (later the maternity department) built to the north of the workhouse, and lunatic observation wards to the north of the chapel

    "Between 1929 and 1948, the former workhouse was known as St Peter's Hospital. After the inauguration of the National Health Service it became the North Wing of Bedford General Hospital. Almost all of the later buildings were demolished in 2007 leaving only the original 1795 main building, now known as as Shires House".


    See The Imbeciles Asylum, Leavesden on Peter Higginbotham's website

    Leavesden Asylum was one of two asylums for chronic patients opened by the Metropolitan Asylums Board in October 1870.
    Architects: Giles and Biven - Dual Pavilion
    May 1871: 1,600 patients
    1915: Medical Superintendent: Frank Ashby Elkins
    1920: Leavesden Mental Hospital
    1937: Leavesden Hospital
    As a student in the 1960s Liz Lane worked there in the summers and winters with patents who were known as "high grades":

    "Leavesden was a grim place that looked like a Victorian workhouse, on both sides of the main road with a tunnel going under so that people didn't get run over.. I was on the easier side, away from the more secure part.

    Probably 60% of the patients I dealt with (about 60-80 altogether I think) would have been considered mentally handicapped by today's standards, but not enough to be institutionalised, better dealt with in a special needs educational class. There was one woman who was referred to as a "burnt out" psychopath who had been transferred from Rampton, and did have violent tendencies. There were a few who had been caught for various kinds of sexual misconduct when they were kids. and then there were a few who seemed perfectly normal intelligence-wise, but just a bit "off" or easily agitated. I think there was probably some truancy or what would now be considered attention deficit and/or hyperactivity disorder. It was really hard to tell, given that these people had been locked up for 40 years or more.

    By the way, "high grade" was a term used by the patients themselves. I seem to remember some of the "high grades" reading the paper, and they were certainly capable of carrying on a conversation, although often repeptitive. Probably bored half to death!

    I remember the staff doing the best they could mostly. Our patients didn't get, or seem to need, much in the way of psychiatric help other than some antipsychotics here and there, so the day was spent keeping an eye on them, providing some sort of entertainment, three meals a day plus snacks, and the bathing routine which involved three or four patients at a time, all in very large bathtubs in a huge bathroom, and a lot of clothes-darning and repair done by the staff. It seems really archaic looking back..."

    1971 listed a Mental Handicap Hospital with 2,164 beds, 111 in locked wards.
    Address: Leavesden Hospital, College Road, Abbotts Langley, Hertfordshire, WD5 0NU (map to postcode -- multi-map)
    Closed 1995
    A pamphlet on its history of Leavesden Hospital should be in both Hertfordshire Archives and the London Metropolitan Archives (Placed there by Christine Lawes).

    Hertfordshire County Mental Hospital
    Opened 1899
    Simon Cornwall: Hill End, St. Alban's, Hertfordshire. Built: 1896-1900. Architect: George Thomas Hine
    Sometimes known as Hill End Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases and Hill End Hospital and Clinic for the Prevention and Treatment of Mental and Nervous Disorders.
    Then as Hill End Hospital, Hill End Road, St Albans, AL4 0RB
    1994: 153 patients
    Closed 1997
    Autumn 2002: Reported still empty
    Simon Cornwall: Closed in 1997, now looks totally demolished for housing.
    2003 use: "Housing"

    In 1939, Middlesex had three mental hospitals and two institutions for mental defectives, all but the smallest of these (Bramley House, Enfield) were outside the county. The oldest was in Surrey. The others were in Hertfordshire: Napsbury, Shenley Mental Hospital and Shenley Colony. Between them they had "approximately 7000 patients, and the care of these unfortunate people requires the services of a very large staff."

    Napsbury Asylum, Hertfordshire opened in 1905. It was a Middlesex County Council Asylum from 1905 to 1948
    County of Middlesex War Hospital, Napsbury from September 1915 to 1.8.1919, with 1600 beds, 350 of which were for mental patients (no officers) (external link) - Some of the patients went to Brentwood, in Essex.
    1920 Patients returned from Brentwood
    It was known as Napsbury Mental Hospital from about 1918 to about 1943.
    1927 Dr Thomas Percy Rees moved to Croydon
    From about 1943 Napsbury Hospital, Napsbury, St Albans (AL2 1AA).
    1965 Mike Lawson
    Autumn 1990 Home to Survivors Speak Out editor
    English Heritage: Napsbury, Herts, built 1902-1904 as the pauper asylum for the county of Middlesex

    "In 1994 proposals were made in the Mental Health Strategy for Barnet that Napsbury Psychiatric Hospital, a Victorian 'asylum' in London Colney be closed and patients be cared for in the Borough of Barnet. A cornerstone of the agreement was that services be provided on both the East and West sides of the Borough. Napsbury Hospital finally closed in 1999 and in-patients have since been cared for at Edgware Community Hospital, where an old hospital building was refurbished to create the Dennis Scott Unit." (Barnet CHC)

    2003 use: "Luxury housing"

    Shenley Mental Hospital
    Opened
    1934. It was one of the two last mental illness asylums to open, the other being Runwell.
    See Harperbury
    Became Shenley Hospital, Shenley, Radlett, Hertfordshire, (WD7 9HB).
    1973 "The last time I had a visitor was 1963"
    2003 use: "Luxury housing"

    Middlesex Colony
    Opened 1934 and known as that until 1949. Later known as Harperbury Hospital, Harper Lane, Shenley, Radlett, WD7 9HQ. See
    Shenley
    "awaiting immediate development" in Autumn 2002
    "Harperbury, previously Harperbury Hospital, is still in existence, but with only about 60-90 residents on the site. They live in purpose built bungalows on two locations called Bowlers Green (beside the still-used bowling green) and Forest Lane. Other services on the site include wheelchair assessment and continence services, but the site is now largely used for training purposes such as IT training, inductions, and postgraduate medical education. Owned by Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust and previously by Horizon NHS Trust. There is a booklet on the history of Harperbury in the possession of both Hertfordshire Archives and the London Metropolitan Archives." (Christine Lawes)
    Cambridgeshire

    Addenbrookes Hospital, established in 1766, does not appear to have developed an associated asylum - See Oxfordshire (the other English University county)

    Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridgeshire served Huntingdonshire after 1939. Cambridgeshire was slow to build an asylum. In 1852 they "counted up the lunatics in Huntingdonshire to try to bring them in". Then they tried to combine with Bedfordshire, and were stopped by the Lunacy Commission. Eventually, they began to build in 1856. The Pauper Lunatic Asylum for the County and Borough of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely - opened at Fulbourn in November 1858
    Corridor form - Close to Conolly's ideal?

    See David Clark's "Fulbourn - The asylum years". [A story of a Mental Hospital, Fulbourn is the memoirs of a former Superintendent until 1983.

    The following history of Cambridge psychiatry is taken from the Cambridge University psychiatry website:

    "Addenbrooke's Hospital used to be situated in Trumpington Street: a psychiatric clinic was established in the nineteenth century." In 1934 "a child guidance clinic was established at the previous Addenbrooke's Hospital."

    1960s: "Fulbourn rose to international prominence for its pioneering therapeutic community under the leadership of Dr David Clark, the last holder of the title of Medical Superintendent and later Consultant for the Cambridge Psychiatric Rehabilitation Service. Subsequently the early community psychiatric work in Fenland and in general practice by Dr A R K Mitchell became well known nationally. The psychiatric outpatient clinic was established at 2 Benet Place on the edge of the old Addenbrooke's site. 1966: The Ida Darwin Hospital opened on an adjacent site to Fulbourn. Dr Gwyn Roberts was subsequently appointed from it to become the first Professor of Mental Handicap in Nottingham. 1970: Child and adolescent inpatient units were established in Douglas House. 1970s and 1980s: The Hospital gradually transferred to its new site on Hills Road at the southern edge of Cambridge. 1989: The first psychiatric ward in Addenbrooke's (R4) was opened by transfer of the Professorial Unit from Fulbourn Hospital. 1992: The outpatient clinic, the Psychotherapy Unit and Young People's Psychiatric Service moved to Addenbrooke's on the closure of Benet Place. Further facilities have since been opened on the Addenbrooke's site.
    County Asylums website "Closed 1992, although still operates on adjoining site"
    1999 Consultation that could lead to full closure
    External link: Cambridgeshire Mental Health Hospital Services

    Mental Handicap Hospital

    Ida Darwin Hospital, Fulbourn, Cambridge, CB1 5EE see above

    South West England

    Dorset and Hampshire

    Dorsetshire County Asylum (Forston, near Dorchester)
    Dorset County Lunatic Asylum
    National Grid Reference ST 667 953
    Erection 1827-1832
    Opened 1.8.1832
    Sarah Rutherford: "A small manor house was incorporated at the centre of a much larger asylum bsuilding"
    Reported in 1843 that patients had previously been subject to dysentery "from the floors being damp". Patients admitted since the floors were replaced had not suffered dysentery. (1844 Report p.17)
    1834: Circular letter from George Wallett medical superintendent of Dorset County Lunatic Asylum promoting cheap method of constructing Lunatic Asylums; with testimonial of Suffolk Magistrates (29 November). [In Essex County Archives: Reference Q/SBb 518/79]
    1.1.1844: 107 patients. All pauper.
    Superintendent: G.P. Button

    A new hospital (Charminster) was opened in 1864, but both remained in operation. They were close to one another and were administratively interrelated.
    Simon Cornwall: Originally: Second Dorset County Lunatic Asylum. Built: 1859-1863 Architect: HE Kendall Junior Corridor form - extended often.
    1881 Census: "Dorset County Lunatic Asylum, Charminster" Surgeon Medical Superintendant: Joseph Gustavus Symes, married, age 56, born Crewkerne, Somerset.
    1890: enlarged by George Thomas Hine - Compact Arrow
    1895 New female annexe and Chapel added. (Peter Cracknell)
    1900 "None of the doors were locked"

    A hospital for private patients, known as Herrison was opened in 1904.
    8.1.1902 Private Patients at Dorset County Asylum (external link)
    [About 1940? Herrison Hospital was adopted as the name for the whole hospital]

    Dorset County Mental Hospital from 1920 to about 1940
    1.1.1927: 902 patients, including 206 who were not Rate Aided. 365 were men, 535 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 31.6%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 5.1%
    1940? Herrison Hospital, Herrison, Dorsetshire, [DT2 9RL]
    1962 (Hospital Plan) On 31.12.1960 there were 1,186 staffed beds. In 1975 there were expected to be only 860.

    "Patients in Herrison psychiatric hospital in Dorset, which opened in 1863, were locked in at night and left unsupervised until morning. It closed in 1992, and is being redeveloped by Bellway Homes and Charlton Down Developments, which has turned the three main buildings into luxury apartments" (Anne Caborn, The Observer Sunday 18.8.2002)


    Hampshire

    In 1844, the Poor Law Unions in Hampshire had more pauper lunatics in licensed houses those of any other county apart from Middlesex. The 1844 Report, appendix F shows 452 pauper lunatics and idiots chargeable to Hampshire unions; 3 in county asylum/s; 199 in licensed houses (compared to 245 for Middlesex); 135 in a workhouse and 115 with friends or elsewhere. Appendix D makes an estimate of 43 pauper lunatics not in unions, which it adds to 405 (yes) in unions to give 448 as the estimated total. As far as one can tell from the figures, Hampshire paupers were in Hampshire licensed houses and the Hampshire houses catered for Hampshire patients.

    The truly private Hampshire pauper houses were at Lainston, near Winchester, and Nursling, near Southampton. In the Portsmouth area and, across the Solent, on the Isle of Wight there were smaller institutions connected with workhouses. Two of these, Carisbrooke and Hilsea were licensed. Portsea Workhouse was not licensed.

    Planning a Hampshire County Asylum (in the Portsmouth area) did not begin until 1849. It opened at the end of 1852. The pauper houses were no longer licensed in 1867.

    Portsea Island and Portsmouth

    In the 1830s, Portsmouth was the area now known as Old Portsmouth. Portsea was the area around the Portsmouth Naval Base (previously the Dockyard). Both areas were surrounded with massive wails, and gates, so that at that time Portsmouth was the most heavily defended town in Europe. (Terry Swetnam). See also Tim Lambert's Brief History of Portsmouth (archive of old site)

    Jump to Potsmouth Borough Asylum
    1702 Sick and Hurt Board established
    See naval lunatics summary on timeline

    "The Haslar site was bought in 1745. It is a glorious 55-acre site overlooking the mouth of Portsmouth harbour, and it became the first purpose-built hospital for the Royal Navy. It was opened in 1754 and took some 1,800 patients. Its distinctive high walls were there to prevent the patients from escaping should they wish to do so, having been press-ganged into the Navy initially. It is historically very interesting. The expression "up the creek" refers to Haslar creek, which is not a good place to be. It was for years the main home of the Royal Naval Medical Service, but following changes it eventually became the only military hospital in the United Kingdom, and was renamed the Royal Hospital Haslar. That was the position on 10 December 1998. On that date, the Government announced they were proposing that the military forces withdraw from Haslar, and it was stated that the hospital would close in about two years. In fact, some 10 years later the Royal Hospital Haslar is still there." (Peter Viggers, MP, Gosport, Conservative, Friday 20.3.2009

      This section of a present day conservation map shows signs of the three stages of Haslar's mental health history - The original boundary wall (mid- 18th century to keep all the sailors from escaping - The walls of the lunatics airing grounds for the early 19th century asylum within the hospital - The 1908/1910 mental hospital.

    Haslar Hospital:

    "from its opening in 1753, the Royal Hospital at Haslar had admitted psychiatric patients" Jones and Greenberg 5.2006

    Asylum part opened 1818

    The Hospital Muster Books for "Haslar (Lunatics)" begin with a book for 1818 to 1819 (ADM 102/356) and continue to 1854 (ADM 102/373). Naval lunatics were moved from Hoxton House in 1818. However, there is also ADM 305/35 "Governor's orders; with (at back) list of Haslar lunatics 1813-1817". Possibly a list of insane patients in the general naval hospital who had not (yet?) been moved to Hoxton.

    1822 William Burnett a member of the victualling board as colleague of Dr Weir, then chief medical officer of the navy. Later he became physician-general of the navy. In this capacity... he introduced a much more humane treatment of naval lunatics at Haslar than had been previously practised." (DNB 1886)

    1826 Dr James Scott (1785-1859) apointed first medical lecturer at Haslar. He resigned (as lecturer?) due to ill-health in 1838.

    1828 Behind the south wing are the wards for the lunatics, with large enclosures for their proper exercise, &c.: there are also baths for patients with infectious diseases. (Chronicles of Portsmouth by Henry Slight, Julian Slight. 1828).

    "To the south of the Hospital were wards designed for insane patients who had their own secure Airing Yard enclosed by walls at either end. These walls remain in large part and form an important historic feature of the grounds to the Hospital." (conservation plan March 2007

    National Archives ADM 305/102 is listed as Journal of lunatic asylum Covering dates 1830-1842. Jones and Greenberg 5.2006 list as James Scott, Journal of the Lunatic Asylum of the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar, 11 Nov 1830 to 28 Feb 1842.

    22.3.1838 Letter from Dr James Scott, LL. B., Surgeon and Lecturer to the Royal Hospital at Haslar ; Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London ; Surgeon and Medical Superintendent of the Royal Naval Lunatic Asylum ; President of the Hampshire Phrenological Society, &c. &c. (external link)

    In 1844 Haslar's principal medical officer was Sir W. Burnett, M.D., and it had 98 patients, 29 of whom were commissioned officers. (Sir William Burnett (1779 - 16.2.1861) was a Fellow of the Royal Society)

    "The part of the Naval Hospital at Haslar which is set apart for officers of the Navy and seamen afflicted with insanity, is admirably adapted to its purpose. The rooms are lofty, spacious and airy; and they command a view of the entrance to Portsmouth harbour. There are excellent exercising-grounds between the hospital and the shore, and the patients are frequently taken out in boats" (1844 Report pages 31-32)

    The Haslar Muster Books finish in 1854, which is when the hospital at Yarmouth ceased being used for military lunatics. However, Yarmouth did not become a Naval Lunatic Asylum until 1863

    1863 to 1908 Not clear what provision Haslar made for lunatics.

    1908-1910 "a purpose-built psychiatric unit, 'N [now G] Block', was constructed at Haslar, comprising two wards of 12 beds and a padded cell. G Block acted as an assessment centre and sailors who required long-term treatment were transferred to a psychiatric unit at Great Yarmouth." Jones and Greenberg 5.2006

    During the interwar period the navy employed two regular psychiatrists - one at Haslar and the other at Great Yarmouth. Their focus was on the treatment of major mental illness. Jones and Greenberg 5.2006

    Principle Royal Naval Psychiatric Units To the Royal Naval Hospitals at Haslar and Great Yarmouth (and later Lancaster) were added Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospitals at Barrow Gurney, Bristol - Kingseat, Aberdeenshire - Knowle, Hampshire - Cholmondeley Castle, Malpas, Cheshire - Wraxall Court, near Bristol, Somerset - Jones and Greenberg 5.2006

    Portsea Workhouse, near Portsmouth, Hampshire
    [St Mary's Road]
    A Workhouse Asylum
    Portsea Island Poor Law Union was formed 18.7.1836. It include the two parishes of Portsea and Portsmouth, population 1831: 50,389 (Portsea - 42,306, Portsmouth - 8,083).

    Visited 28.8.1843:

    "26 Lunatics; 15 Females and 11 Males ... 7 were Epileptics and 2 Idiots. Many of the Patients, although not strictly speaking, imbecile persons, were individuals of weak intellect. Some of them, however, were decidedly Insane, and occasionally violent and unmanageable unless restrained, and some of them were labouring under delusions." (1844 Report p.234)

    See Peter Higginbotham's workhouse site from which it is clear that the workhouse and infirmary continued to accommodate lunatics throughout the 19th century.

    1881 Census: Union Work House, Portsea Island, Portsea, Hampshire. Master of Workhouse: John Quintrell
    There is a separate entry:
    1881 Census: Portsea Island Borough Lunatic Asylum, Milton, Portsea, Hampshire: Medical Superintendent: William Charles Bland, married, surgeon, aged 33.
    I think this is the separate building that became St James Hospital (see below). St Marys, St James and the Prison all seem to be in what was the village of Milton. [See map. St Marys south of the prison. St James to the east by the creek]
    1898 Portsea Island Union Infirmary
    1928St Mary's Infirmary
    1930 St Mary's Hospital
    by 1969 St Mary's General Hospital
    by about 1980 St Mary's Hospital, Milton Street, Portsmouth, PO3 6AD

    Hilsea Asylum, Portsea Island, near Portsmouth
    A Licensed House
    1844: Proprietor G.J. Scales (Surgeon) who appears to have recently taken over, his predecessor having died as a consequence of a bite from an inmate.
    1.1.1844: 35 patients. 29 pauper and 6 private.
    Weekly charge for paupers: 9/- to 9/6 a week. "established and carried on" in connection with a workhouse (not named) which sent unmanageable patients and took them back when tolerably tranquil. (See quotations from 1844 Report)
    Hilsea was in the area of the Fareham Union (not Portsea Union) (links are to Peter Higginbotham's workhouse site). Portsea had a workhouse asylum.
    1868 Lunatic asylum in the hamlet of Hilsea mentioned in National Gazeteer . However, Hilsea was not a licensed house by 1867 (see Rossbret)

    Portsmouth Lunatic Asylum
    28.3.1868 The Builder 1868 Volume 26 p.235: "Proposed Lunatic Asylum for Borough of Southampton - The County Asylum getting more crowded, pauper lunatics from Southampton and Portsmouth have been removed from it, and the lunatic commissioners have intimated to the Town Council of Southampton that they will require the borough to erect an asylum of its own, or conjointly with Portsmouth. The estimated cost of the new asylum is stated at £16,000." (Submitted by Alan Longbottom to asylums.org )
    Simon Cornwall: Built 1875
    Opened 1879
    Architect: George Rake Peter Cracknell classifies it as Corridor form.
    First superintendent William Charles Bland
    1880: Many patients moved back from Fisherton House (Judith Kennerdale, email 14.7.2003)
    see above for 1881 census
    1896 Dr Bland retired and was succeded by Bonner Harris Mumby as superintendent. Mumby was born in Alverstoke, Hampshire in spring 1856. He had been Medical Officer of Health for Portsmouth since 1884 and was "appointed unanimously" to his new post by the Portsmouth "borough county council".
    1904 Postmark on fancy postcard - 02 in Stephen Pomeroy's collection. This has more pictures than 01, but they are not labelled. They include two group pictures of staff and pictures of the church. A used postcard. No publisher details. "Used cards just say a view from nearby not from an inmate!"
    1905ish Unused postcards in Stephen Pomeroy's collection: 03 is a front-view coloured - 04 is a black and white photogarph labelled "Milton Asylum Female Side" (outside) - 05 is similar to 03? but black and white.
    Postcards (02?) and 03 are labelled "Postsmouth Boro' Asylum. Milton" - 03 was published by Lawrence of Gosport

    The two pictures of staff both feature the superintendent,
    Bonner Harris Mumby, in the centre.

    1907: picture postcard on Stephen Pomeroy's web"Greetings from Portsmouth Borough Asylum" - 01 in Stephen Pomeroy's collection
    The Postcard 01 pictures are "Ward Three" - "Milton Asylum Laundry" - a front view - "Ward 5" - "Milton Asylum Ball Room" - "Milton Asylum Dormitory" - "Milton Asylum Kitchen" - It is a used postcard 1907, no publisher.
    1919 Post Office Directory: [out of date - see below] Portsmouth Borough Lunatic Asylum, Asylum Road, Milton, Portsmouth. Bonner Harris Mumby MD medical superintendent; Frederick Ernest Stokes MB, Ch B. Glasgow, DPH Cambridge and Edward Hope Ridley, MD Edinburgh, assistant medical officers; Rev Joseph Fowler, MA, chaplain; Arthur E. Bone, treasurer; Edward W. Rogers, clerk
    29.4.1914 Bonner Harris Mumby, "medical superintendent of Milton Asylum, Portsmouth" died (Journal of Mental Science obituary)
    1914 Henry Devine appointed Medical Superintendent of the Portsmouth Borough Asylum
    Known as Borough of Portsmouth Mental Hospital from 1914 to 1926.
    an external link Dr Marjorie Franklin, "as a young junior medical officer in the Portsmouth Borough Mental Hospital in the early 1920s, became intensely interested in the relationship between mental illness and the patients' environment. She observed not only the often-noted improvements that occurred in response to a cheerful, encouraging environment and sympathetic nursing but also, in some cases, the dramatic improvement of the psychotic condition with the onset of severe physical illness. The latter phenomenon she attributed not only to a change in the location of the cathexis but also to the greatly increased attention and care which the ill patient received. The improvement was seldom maintained but Dr Franklin considered that with skilful psychoanalytical intervention and support it might have been"
    1.1.1927: 866 patients of whom all but 184 were Rate Aided. 331 were men, 535 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 31.3%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 6%
    After 1926: uncertainty about its name until it became St James' Hospital in 1937.
    By 1930 Thomas Beaton (1888-1964) had succeded Henry Devine
    1946 "St James' Mental Hospital, Portsmouth" given glowing praise by Carlos Blacker (page 62) for its success in educating the local population in removing fear. "Out-patient sessions are attended by all social and diagnostic classes with as little qualms as might be provoked by a visit to a Voluntary hospital". "Without an afterthought, parents bring their children for advice and guidance"
    1960s Postcard 06 in Stephen Pomeroy's collection is a black and white aerial view labelled "St James' Hospital, Portsmouth" - not used, no publisher.
    6.12.1973 Portsmouth Mental Patients Union founded
    1970s Stephen Pomeroy's postcard collection begun
    The hospital was in Asylum Road until the name of the Road was changed to Locksway Road, Portsmouth (PO4 8LD). (map)
    Simon Cornwall: "Grounds preserved as city park. Some rebuilds and regeneration going on". Peter Cracknell: "Asylum building in NHS use"
    Isle of Wight

    Isle of Wight History Links

    Peter Higginbotham's site: The Isle of Wight had control over its own poor law administration under a local Act of Parliament of 1771. It had the power "to manage the poor persons incapable of providing for themselves in the parishes of the island; to let out poor to harvest work" and "to apprehend idle persons not maintaining their families in the island". It did not adopt Poor Law Union status under the 1834 Act until 1865. The island's workhouse was to the north of Newport (see map). It was a large two-storey L-shaped building in red brick.

    Also see Rossbret site

    modern maplink Newport and Carisbrooke
    1890s maplink

    Eric F. Laidlaw's 1994 A History of the Isle of Wight Hospitals (Newport: Cross, 207 pages: illustrated, with maps and plans) is currently out of print. See review on the Isle of Wight Family History Society website. It includes The House of Industry - Whitecroft (mental hospital) - Military and Naval hospitals - and Parkhurst Prison Hospital.

    House of Industry, Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight [St Mary's Hospital, Newport, developed in three parts: The lower (south) part, which is the House of Industry (later workhouse) discussed below. The upper, north part, which developed from the infirmary of the House, and the new buildings recently constructed between the two parts]
    1771 Act of Parliament authorising construction of a House of Industry. (Laidlaw p. 60)
    1784 Two "cells" provided for lunatics.
    By 1810 there were six cells for lunatics.
    1820 Some female lunatics sent to Finch's Laverstock House (Laidlaw p. 68)
    By 1813 a separate building for lunatics. This was the west side of the quadrilateral of buildings making the House. (see map below)
    1822 lunatic wing enlarged
    1830 lunatic wing enlarged
    By 1831: the part of the workhouse containing lunatics and idiots was licensed as an asylum. (A Licensed Workhouse Asylum from 1832-1853)
    1832 28 asylum inmates
    1840 Some female lunatics sent to Finch's LaverstockHouse (Laidlaw p. 68)
    1.1.1844 27 patients all pauper.
    Proprietor: Riches, Surgeon
    Weekly charge for paupers not stated.
    On 1844 list of best conducted: reasons commended
    1853 ceased to be a licensed house. I think this would be due to the opening of the Hampshire County Asylum. In 1852 the Guardians had resisted a comprehensive transfer of patients the new County Asylum. In 1853, twenty women and several men were sent across the Solent in a steamer specially commissioned (for seven guineas) from The Isle of Wight Steam Packet. Some patients had been absorbed by the main workhouse and the west wing was re-planned and re-built with male and female receiving wards, an "Idiot Ward" and a residence for the chaplain. (Laidlaw p. 69)
    Union Workhouse on an 1862 map. The coloured areas are the imbecile airing grounds. Yellow = female. Green = male. The imbecile wards are in the adjacent building. This is the west wing of the House. Although many time re-built, buildings on the west appear to have been used for mentally handicapped people from the late 18th century through to the second half of the twentieth.

    1865 Poor Law Union
    1867 35 insane, idiotic, and imbecile inmates. 16 men, 19 women.
    1896 Opening of Whitecroft
    Known as Forest House, because it was in the forest of Parkhurst
    1935 St Mary's Hospital (not a mental hospital)
    Address Parkhurst Newport PO30 5TB (Since 1771)
    Closed 1999 [Hospital database:, but I think that has to be wrong - See below]
    Woops! new hospital - remedial work - (archive)

    1990 Patients from Whitecroft transferred to Newcroft. Newcroft, although a modern building, did not allow staff to keep patients under observation effectively and high levels of violence developed. A new purpose built unit, Sevenacres, was designed to clinical specifications. Building began in July 1999 and was completed in 22 months. The cost was 5.2 million pounds. Whilst attempting to get away from an "institutional feel" and be "homely", the unit seeks a "balance of observation and privacy". There is a central point (the doughnut) from which the staff can see both wings (male and female). In the intensive care unit, staff can see into bedrooms. There is a "seclusion room", although the design of the building has meant it has not been used much. Patients have gardens and an opportunity to garden. (Video about Newcroft and Sevenacres)

    Sevenacres appears to incorporate many design principles that would have been approved by Jeremy Bentham and John Conolly. An analysis of the similarities and differences between the ideal early 19th century model and the ideal early 21st century model of a mental health unit would be interesting.

    "Sevenacres, which houses the Mental Health Unit, is also on this site and is the base of the administration and management of the Mental Health and Learning Disability Services. Also based here is the Island Crisis Intervention Services and the Mental Health Assertive Outreach Team. Other parts of this service are delivered from 17 properties across the Island." (The Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Trust)

    April 1890 Isle of Wight County Council established
    1896: Isle of Wight (County) Lunatic Asylum Sandy Lane Newport [PO30 3EB] See also modern streetmap and 1890s maplink
    Architect: B.S. Jacobs of Hull. Peter Cracknell classifies it as Compact Arrow.
    Harold Bailey Shaw, previously a medical officer at the Hampshire County Asylum was appointed Medical Superintendent in August 1895, but started in September 1896. He died in office in 1914. Several other asylum staff, as well as patients, came from Hampshire.
    "In the first Annual Report by the Medical Superintendent, he indicated that a block to hold 50 private patients would soon be ready". "Soon after opening a private patient block was available with a billiard room. This was the block near the main gate separate from the rest of the hospital; later it became an admission ward, and was named Tennyson Ward. (p.99)
    1899 Kelly's Directory page ---: "The Isle of Wight County Lunatic Asylum, erected in 1896 at a cost of £60,000 (not including equipment), is a building of red brick, pleasantly situated about the centre of the Island; there is a separate block employed for the accommodation of private paying patients; the building is capable of holding 310 persons, and there are at present (1898) 260 inmates". page ---: County Lunatic Asylum. Harold Bailey Shaw BA, MB, BC, DPH superintendent; Patrick Taffe Finn LRCP + S. Edinburgh, assistant superintendent; William Morgans, clerk
    4.2.1899 Freda Mew admitted to the private block. Previously in The Limes - Her certificates were signed by "J. Groves, M.B. and S.Foster, LRCP.Ed, Newport". Trade directories show: Joseph Groves BA, MD, London, FGS, FR Met. Soc. Glen cottage. Physician and medical officer for the Isle of Wight rural sanitary district. Stanley Foster, LRCP + S. Ed. (of Coombs and Foster, surgeons, 6 + 10 High Street) Arreton District Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator fro Whippingham District, who lived at 6 High Street. His partner, Milbourne Lascombe Bloom Coombs, LRCP, LRCS Edin., surgeon and medical officer for Newport and Whippingham district Isle of Wight union and public vaccinator for Newport borough, lived at 104 High Street,
    1898-1903 Contracts for the reception of patients from Croydon made by Visiting Committee of Isle of Wight County Council. Other contracts with West Sussex and London County Council
    1901 census: Isle of Wight County Lunatic Asylum, Whitecroft. It is in the civil parish of Carisbrooke, but the ecclesiastical parish of St John the Baptist. Also in Carisbrooke, but the ecclesiastical parish of St Mary the Virgin, are the Isle of Wight Union Workhouse Parkhurst, Parkhurst Prison Convict Prison and Parkhurst Barracks. On the 1866 Ordnance Survey map, Albany Barracks is just south of the prison and the workhouse south-east of that.
    1901 Occupations of women in private unit.
    1911 Kelly's Directory page 677: "The Isle of Wight County Lunatic Asylum, erected in 1896 at a cost of £45,000 (not including equipment), is a structure of red brick, pleasantly situated, nearly in the centre of the island, and includes a separate block for private patients; the building is capable of holding 330 persons, and there are at present (1911) 316 inmates". page 678: County Lunatic Asylum. Harold Bailey Shaw BA, MB, BC, DPH superintendent; Arthur Francis Reardon LMSSA London, assistant medical officer; James H. Green, clerk
    January 1919 380 patients, including 58 private patients, 38 patients from outside the island and seven "service" patients.
    8.12.1921 Letter stating annual cost of Freda Mew's maintenance about £130 a year.
    1925: The Branch Secretary of the Nation Asylum Workers Union at Whitecroft was "Mr L.B. Sykes, County Mental Hospital, Whitecroft, Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight"
    1.1.1927: 328 patients of whom all but 54 were Rate Aided. 119 were men, 209 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 43.5% (One of the highest). The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 8.6%
    Became Isle of Wight (County) Mental Hospital by 1929
    1932 Dr Erskine, Medical Superintendent since 1915, retired. Dr Charles Davies-Jones (from Oxfordshire) succeeded. Dr A. Wood joined him in 1933. About this time "the private patient block was converted into an admission block". (p.103) [See national changes]
    The following taken from the archives catalogue:
    December 1933 'Programme of a mystery play in honour of the Nativity of Our Lord' by Robert Hugh Benson
    1937 Notes re arrangements for Christmas includes list of food required.
    Notes re arrangements for patients' holiday camps June 1937 and July 1939
    28.10.1937 Contrct to send some patients to Basingstoke
    11.6.1938 Contract to send some mentally defective from the Isle of Wight to West Hartlepool, County Durham
    1938/1939 Plans and contract for a new nurses home
    1939Papers giving details of arrangements for annual fete
    1941-1943 Circulars and other papers re food rationing
    1947 Correspondence and papers re Patients' Sports Day
    1950 Whitecroft Hospital, Newport
    1.3.1958 death of Freda Mew, aged about 78
    1960: 455 staffed beds, planned to be reduced to 170 by 1975
    31.12.1975: 410 beds, only 270 of which were occupied. The 66% bed occupancy was almost the lowest in England and Wales. 55 beds were in a special "self care" unit or wards and 7 beds were in a rehabilitation ward.
    1979: 327 beds
    Closed 1990 "The few remaining patients were transferred to a new ward, "Newcroft" at St Mary's Hospital in Newport" (Andrew Crowther)
    Gatcombe Valley - OK - try one of these!
    26.8.2004 Isle of Wight County Press
    3.9.2004 Isle of Wight County Press

    Archives at the Isle of White Record Office - See access to records

    Outpatient facilities

    After 1932 a Mental Welfare Clinic, which also became a Child Guidance service, was established at the County Hall (Newport)

    Shortly after the County Hall facility, a weekly psychiatric out-patient clinic was established at Ryde Hospital: the Royal Isle of Wight County Hospital, West Street Ryde [PO33 2PD] which was established in 1849 as the Royal Isle of Wight Infirmary (name changed 1905).
    1979: There were three acute general hospitals on the Island. Ryde had 121 beds, Frank James (Cowes) had 31 beds and Shanklin had 33. No in- patient psychiatric beds were planned for these hospitals, but they may have had out-patient clinics.

    St Mary's, Parkhurst, with 327 beds, was mainly long stay. A psychiatric unit had been planned for it (since 1962 or earlier).

    Whitecroft had 327 beds. It had been planned to close it when the St Mary's Psychiatric Unit was opened.

    Ryde Hospital closed in 1992.

    Isle of Wight Mental Handicap

    Longford Hospital
    Havenstreet, Ryde, PO33 4DR
    1979: 42 beds

    Castle View:
    52 Staplers Road, Newport, PO30 2DE
    1979: 25 beds

    The Limes, Newport In 1899, Freda Mew was admitted to the Isle of Wight Lunatic Asylum from "The Limes, Newport". I have not been able to identify in Trade Directories. There was a

    Mrs Weeks, The Limes, Cambridge Road, East Cowes and a
    Mrs Weeks, 85 Castle Road, Newport, IOW

    Lainston House, Winchester
    Licensed House   A mansion and outhouses asylum
    "A fine brick house of about 1700, with something older and something a little younger" (Pevsner's Buildings)   "There is a private lunatic asylum, situated in an ample demesne of 40 acres, and approached by three avenues of trees. The house was built in the reign of Charles 2nd, and was once the seat of Lord Bayning". (1868 Gazeteer)
    1825 Leased to Dr Twynham - continuing so until 1847 (Pelham Warner citing a Sparsholt Village History book). [The name is Twynam, without an h, in all original sources consulted - Apart from one entry in the 1844 report as Twyman]
    "From 1825-1846 Lainston was rented out as a lunatic asylum, Mr John Twynham was the resident physician who lived in the house with his wife and staff and about 80 patients were housed in huts around the grounds. Sadly it was after this episode in the in the history of Lainston that when these huts were being demolished, the workmen, using horses, pulled the roof from the Chapel, which by now was in a bad state of repair - in order to sell the lead." (source)
    2.10.1828 John Twynam of Bishopstoke, age 29, bachelor, married Mary Read of St John cum St Lawrence, Southampton, aged 30, spinster, at St Lawrence.
    July 1831: Thomas Miles criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Lainston House". He had been tried for murder at Winchester. (HO 20/13)

    18.6.1831 Harriet North married Henry Warner, a labourer, in Shalden, near of Alton, Hampshire. Of their children, James wasborn in 1834, Charles in 1837, George in 1839, John in 1842 and Harry in 1844. About 1846, Harriet was confined in Lainston House. Another child, Mary Ann (or Marianne), was born on 13.2.1848. Harriet was a patient in the new County Asylum at Knowle from 20.8.1853 to 3.9.1861. In 1891 she was and inmate of Alton Union Workhouse
    October 1832 Robert Frampton criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Lainston House, Hampshire". He had tried at "Winchester" for assault. (HO 20/13)
    1836: John Marchant criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Winchester". He had been committed from "Winchester". (HO 20/13)
    1839: William Fizzard criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Lainston House". He had been committed from "Hampshire". (HO 20/13)
    6.6.1841 Census: John Twynam, aged 40 living at the Lainston House Lunatic Asylum. Married to Mary, aged 50 [HO107 404 1/3 Page 2] 42 female and 39 male "patients". Ten female and three male staff. The female staff included four nurses, a kitchen maid, two house maids. The male staff were two keepers (one also a cordwainer/shoemaker) and a groom. (Information from Pelham Warner).

    SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT
    Dr Twynam was unresponsive to national or local efforts to improve his house:
    Friday 14.10.1842: First visit of the commissioners who found the "buildings appropriated to the paupers consisted of stabling and out-houses converted to that purpose, and were quite unfit to be used as an asylum". They called attention to the urgent need for a county asylum.
    No date given: "these evils were so manifest, that the visiting commissioners expressed a hope that means would be found to put an end to them, either by refusing the license, or otherwise"
    Local magistrates visited the house several times
    Tuesday 22.8.1843 Third visit:
    1.1.1844: 94 patients. 84 pauper and 10 private.
    Weekly charge for paupers: 9/- including clothes.
    Proprietor J. Twynam, M.D. (page 213) - J. Twyman (page 260)
    April 1844 Another visit
    1846/1847 Harriet Warner (aged 41) first attack of lunacy. Possibly at this time that she was "previously confined at Lainston House" (Knowle case notes) . Information on Harriet from Pelham Warner.
    16.10.1846 Dr Twynam to quit Lainston House. He had offered it to the visiting justices. (Lunacy Commission minutes Friday 9.10.1846)
    Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 (p.254) says that Lainston House had closed by 1847
    March 1849 quarter death of Mary Twynam recorded Winchester
    1851 Census: John Twynam MD, aged 51, widower, 63 Nuhill Lane, Bishopstoke, Winchester. Head of household. Born Bishopstoke. Occupation: "graduate of the University of Edinburgh as physician", so I am fairly certain this is "our" John Twynam. Living with a cook and a groom. (Information from Pelham Warner).
    December 1855 quarter death of John Twynam recorded Winchester
    Not a licensed house by 1867 (see Rossbret), although 1868 Gazeteer still mentions.
    Lainston House now Lainston House is now a hotel. Its old web site - (archive) - did not discuss its history. The new website does not seem to mention its asylum history, but the proprietors provided material for a website that does.
    January 2009: Information from Pelham Warner that Hampshire Record Office know little about Lainston House (now a luxury five star hotel) apart from that it was, at one time, a private lunatic asylum. Pelham is researching his Great Great Grandmother Harriet Warner (1806 to 1894)

    Grove Place, Nursling, near Southampton
    Licensed House
    A mansion and outhouses asylum
    Present building probably erected between 1565 and 1576. It is on the site of an older house.
    "In 1831 the manor was bought by Dr. Edward Middleton who transformed it into a lunatic asylum" But: Epiphany 1823 James Banting, criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Grave Place". He had been tried for assault and sent from "Hampshire". (HO 20/13)
    February 1832 Thomas Randall criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Southampton". He had been previously held in a "Lunatic Asylum, Dorset". He had been tried for murder at Winchester.
    1844: Proprietor Mrs H. Middleton.
    1.1.1844: 72 patients. 53 pauper and 19 private.
    Weekly charge for paupers not stated.
    Severely censured in 1844 Report: summary of criticisms
    Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.247: In 1853 "the Hampshire Visiting Magistrates recommended the discontinuation of the licence granted to the proprietor of Grove Place, Nursling, largely because of substantiated evidence of the cruel and severe treatment of a patient.." (Eighth Report (1854) Lunacy Commission, pp 19-20)
    Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.88: In 1854 Dr James Baillie bought Grove Place, paying a large sum of money for the good will. In their 1855 Report (pages 20-21) the Lunacy Commissioners considered "A payment of this nature... offers a strong temptation to those who purchase to curtail the comforts and accommodation of the patients... in an attempt to reimburse themselves out of the profits of the asylum". However, Parry Jones says "This statement was contradicted in the next report and the licence was not renewed". [I do not understand that]
    "There is a private lunatic asylum, called Grove Place, which was formerly a hunting-seat of Queen Elizabeth, and is approached by an avenue of lime trees" (1868 Gazeteer). In fact, it was not a licensed house by 1867 (see Rossbret). The avenue of lime trees may be the trees framing the top picture on the Grove Place Prep Schools site (below)
    used as a farmhouse from 1867
    Now The Atherley & Grove Place Prep Schools, Grove Place, Upton Lane, Nursling, Southampton SO16 0AB

    Hampshire County Asylum
    Situated near the hamlet of Funtley in the parish of Fareham [map]   This being a little north of Portsmouth and east of Southampton. [map]
    Hospital database: "The first minute book of the Committee of Visitors for erecting a County Lunatic Asylum is dated 1849 - 1853 (18M93) but is not with the main collection". See 1842-1844 Inquiry
    Simon Cornwall: Built: 1850-1852
    Architect: J. Harris
    Opened 13.12.1852
    First Medical Superintendent: Dr Ferguson
    20.8.1853 to 3.9.1861 Harriet Warner a patient in Knowle Lunatic Asylum. Her case notes say she was "previously confined at Lainston House".
    1868 Overcrowding had led to the removal of Portsmouth and Southampton patients
    1879 Portsmouth Borough Asylum opened
    1881 Census: Hants County Lunatic Asylum, Knowle, Fareham, Hampshire. Medical Superintendent: John Manley, Physician, married, age 56.
    1896 Isle of Wight County Asylum opened
    1911: A child born to RN Stoker of Hants Lunatic Asylum
    1919 Post Office Directory: Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum. Knowle, Fareham, Henry Kingsmill Abbott BA, MD superiintendent; William John MacKeown BA, MB, B,Ch, senioar assisstant medical officer; Joseph William Rodgers, LRCS and LRCP Ireland, second assistant medical offcer; Wilfred Metcalfe Chambers, LRCS and LRCP Edinburgh, third assistant medical officer; Rev William Richard Williams chaplain; John Railton Wyatt, clerk to the asylum and visitors; Frederick Joyce, storekeeper; Miss Mary Heading, housekeeper.
    Knowle Mental Hospital about 1923
    1948: became Knowle Hospital
    1976: R. Bursell, History of Knowle Hospital (Hampshire County Asylum), 1852-1884 Duplicated typescript. Southampton University Library
    Closed 1996
    2003 Susan Margaret Burt: "Fit objects for an asylum" : the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum and its patients, 1852-1899 Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Southampton, Department of Sociology and Social Policy.
    Simon Cornwall: Proposals for conversion to housing. Probably all housing now. weblink to plans for Knowle Village Jess Knowles: "the old site is not quite all houses. Ravenswood House, the regional medium secure unit, is still there and thriving. Originally the secure unit moved into Ravenswood Ward the one time admission ward for Knowle Hospital. The medium secure unit has grown, but the old building is still there in the middle of it all."

    Park Prewett Hospital, Aldermaston Road, Basingstoke
    Simon Cornwall: Park Prewett, Sherbourne St John, Hampshire.
    Second Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum. Built in response to overcrowding at Knowle Hospital. The special committee to look at the feasibility was appointed in 1898 and building work started in 1910. Work had commenced in 1912 but the opening was delayed due to World War.
    Opened 1921
    Architect: George Thomas Hine . Size: 1200 patients.
    Peter Cracknell classifies it as Compact Arrow of the later type with with open sided corridors and ward blocks becoming further detached - a movement towards the "perceived therapeutic benefits" of the colony layout.
    1930 Rooksdown House opened as private patient block. During Second World War Rooksdown House became plastic surgery hospital and continued in this capacity till 1959
    1939 Emergency Military Hospital. Patients moved to Wells, Somerset
    Closed 1996. Appears intact.
    June 2004 Photographic tour of abandoned hospital - archive
    Photos spark review

    Royal Victoria (Military) Hospital:
    Southampton SO3 5GZ
    Opened 1863

    See Chatham and Yarmouth - Bow

    26.7.1866 Hansard question As there were 195 male and six female military service lunatics at Bow, would 60 places be enough at Netley? The "building now being erected", for insane soldiers was placed at Netley in "consequence of the Report of the Committee that sat in 1863, on the removal of the establishment from Chatham. It could hardly be called an asylum, because the patients were only placed there for the purpose of observation, and would after a short period be removed to their friends, or to private asylums".

    1870 Asylum for insane soldiers opened: D Block.

    1908 An extension built (E Block?)

    1914 During the first world war the asylum had beds for 3 officers and 121 others. (external link).

    Major Charles Stanford Read (born 1871), Royal Army Medical Corps, was the Officer in Charge of D Block for the greater part of the war. In 1920 he published Military Psychiatry in Peace and War (London: H.K. Lewis, 168 pages)

    The average stay in D Block was five or six days. Soldiers were moved on. Read, C.S. 1920 (preface) calls it a "Clearing Hospital" and refers to "3,000 cases which were dispersed over various parts of the United Kingdom".

    Many went to the War Mental Hospitals at Liverpool - Napsbury - Warrington - Cardiff - Paisley - Crookston - Perthshire - Newcastle - Nottinghamshire - Belfast - Dublin -

    16.6.1917 Wilfred Owen admitted to the Welsh Hospital, Netley, diagnosed with Neurasthenia. On 25.6.1917 he was transferred to Craiglockhart War Hospital for Officers, near Edinburgh

    Read, C.S. 1920, page 42, says that in 1918 there were 4,470 War Hospital "beds available in the British Isles for mental cases. These War Mental Hospitals were: The County of Middlesex, Napsbury (350 beds); Lord Derby's War Hospital, Warrington (1,000 beds); Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital, Cardiff (450 beds); Dykebar War Hospital, Paisley (500 beds), and Auxiliary Hospital at Crookston (350 beds); Murthly War Hospital, Murthly, Perth (380 beds); Northumberland War Hospital, Newcastle (100 beds); Notts County War Hospital, Nottingham (540 beds). From the above Irish cases could be transferred to Belfast War Hospital (500 beds) and Dublin War Hospital (300 beds)."

    World War 2 D block, Victoria House at Netley treated over 15000 patients, including Rudolf Hess

    1950 an E block was added and the army psychiatric facility was renamed Albert House. It continued to treat army personnel with psychiatric illnesses and alcohol dependency problems. From 1960 Navy personnel was also treated at Netley.

    1953 to 1983 Godfrey Dykes' naval service. He says:

    "Our mess-mates who had 'thrown-a-wobly' or who had witnessed giant flesh eating monsters climbing onto their beds because of DT's, were sent to Netley and not, emphatically not in naval speak terms, to BLOCK 'D' or to Victoria House. Netley was the 'nut-house' and the butt of our jokes and teasing. The word NETLEY was used in everyday speech by all sailors and its applied meaning was universally understood."

    1958 Royal Victoria Military Hospital Netley closed - But not the psychiatric hospital.

    June 1963 Empty main hospital badly damaged by fire.

    16.9.1966 Demolition of main building

    4.8.1975 Hansard question about closure

    21.12.1976: Hansard: Planned closures: Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital, Millbank: 1.4.1977 - Military Hospital, Colchester: by 1.1.1978 - Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley: by 1.2.1978. Functions of all three to be transferred to the new Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital at Woolwich, due to be commissioned on 1.4.1977.

    1978 Closure of psychiatric hospital.

    Department of Psychiatry - Southampton

    1970 Opened at the Royal South Hampshire Hospital

    Alton Union Workhouse

    1881 census shows 104 "inmates" of whom twelve are recorded as "Idiot" and three as "Lunatic". The ages of those shown as lunatic are 67 and 70.

    1891 census Harriet Warner shown as "lunatic, many years". Her age is given as 84.

    Mental Handicap Hospitals Wessex

    Sherbourne House
    Sherbourne Road, Basingstoke
    30 beds in 1979
    2000+ Undated research findings Social validation data on three methods of physical restraint, Joanna Cunningham, University of Portsmouth, thanks "the carers and service-users of Sherbourne House, Basingstoke"

    Darlington House
    1 Darlington Road, Basingstoke, RG21 2NY
    20 beds in 1979
    Not far from Sherbourne House map

    Coldeast Hospital
    Sarisbury Green, Southampton, SO3 6ZD
    854 beds on 31.12.1971
    559 beds in 1979

    Tatchbury Mount and White House 556 beds on 31.12.1971
    Tatchbury Mount Hospital
    Calmore, Southampton, SO4 2RZ
    397 beds in 1979
    White House Hospital
    Westover Road, Milford-on-Sea, Lymington, Hampshire
    35 beds in 1979

    Coldharbour Hospital
    Coldharbour, Sherbourne, Dorset, DT9 3JU
    Hospital Scandal - Bopcris
    363 beds on 31.12.1971
    309 beds in 1979

    Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset
    1: Near
    Bristol or Bath

    In 1720 the three largest towns in England were London (half a million people?), followed by Norwich, followed closely by Bristol, each of which had probably no more than 30,000 inhabitants. (Cole, G.D.H. 1938 p.63). Public asylums developed early in Bristol and Norwich. Bristol was still the sixth largest British city in 1801. Bristol was the second port (after London) at the start of the 18th century, but was eclipsed by Liverpool during the century. (See John Penny . "Is the Economic History of the Bristol Region between 1780 and 1850 a Story of Relative Decline?". The roads between London and Bristol, were, therefore, amongst the busiest in the country. The roads passed through Wiltshire, which, although mainly rural (it had a woollen industry), developed a number of large private madhouses receiving patients from a wide area. Following a line from Bristol to London (1844): Bristol itself had Fishponds and Brislington, Bath had Bailbrook, Box had Kingsdown and mid-Wiltshire had Belle Vue and Fiddington. Further south in Wiltshire, the Finch family had houses near Salisbury which were linked with houses in West London. Apart from the mid-Wiltshire houses, all these asylums had a long history.

    St Peter's Hospital, Bristol
    This 17th century building was destroyed by bombs in 1940. It stood between St Peter's Church and the River Avon. The area is now Castle Park
    Used as a workhouse from 1696.
    Kathleen Jones says that "almost from its inception" the original building (The Mint) was used for the "impotent poor" and other premises used as a "manufactuary".
    An "early regulation" (Jones) recommended "the lunatic wards be floored with planks".
    Local physicians and surgeons attended patients without fee. In April 1768 a regulation said they should visit the "Frenzy Objects" once a week, and also "such Objects as shall from time to time be brought in by Warrants of Lunacy"
    29.2.1814: James Cowles Prichard a physician to to St Peters, which is described as "having a ward for lunatics"
    1832 Due to overcrowding following cholera, most pauper patients moved to Stapleton workhouse. Lunatics remained in Bristol.
    Made a "County Asylum" under a local Act (date not known, but before 1844)
    1.1.1844: 72 patients. All pauper.
    Treatment praised but building criticised in 1844 Report

    "...in March 1857, Fishponds was approved as the site of a new asylum. J. R. Lysaght, a local architect of Imperial Chambers, Bristol was commissioned to produce the plans. Work began tardily in 1858 and proceeded slowly. When the first patients were transferred from St Peters to Fishponds in March 1861, the building work was still incomplete: (Glenside history)

    The Bristol Lunatic Asylum was opened in 1861 immediately to the north-west of Fishponds workhouse in Stapleton.
    Corridor form - Close to Conolly's ideal?

    "By 1915 the Hospital became the Beaufort War Hospital, when patients were moved to other hospitals in the West, and the premises taken over by the War Office to provide general hospital care for wounded soldiers." (Glenside history)

    "The hospital was handed back to the City of Bristol on the 28th February 1919".

    "By 1921 the name was changed to the Bristol Mental Hospital, originally designed for 250 patients, it became very overcrowded, resulting in the building being enlarged until its bed capacity reached 800. Many improvements followed including, Out-patient departments, Pathology Dept. Occupational Therapy, etc."

    1938 New Barrow Hospital

    "..following the inauguration of the National Health Service in 1948, the large 120 bedded wards were divided into more manageable units, and an Industrial Therapy Unit was established.

    It became Glenside Hospital, Blackberry Hill, Stapleton, Bristol, BS16 1DD. [Name changed 1959]
    1960 1,150 beds, expected to fall to 800 by 1975
    Late 1969 "My ... admission ... was a ... much more positive experience." Judith Watson
    31.12.1977 633 beds
    20.8.1994 Main hospital closed. It now houses the Faculty of Health and Social Care of the University of West of England
    Rossbret says closed 1992 - But I think this should be 1994
    There is a book: The Lunatic Pauper Palace. Glenside Hospital Bristol 1861-1994

    April 2002 Report of Bristol Mind User Focused Research Project: "Blackberry Hill has one acute psychiatric inpatient ward and is based on a site that acts as a teaching campus for Health and Social Care students, including nurses. The site used to be called Glenside and was an old Victorian asylum which was wound down and closed in the 1990s. The site also has a forensic medium secure unit called 'Fromeside' and a recently opened 'Low secure -rehabilitation unit'. There are extensive plans to expand forensic services on this site in the near future. The site also has several outpatient facilities specialising in substance misuse and a more general psychiatric outpatient facility. The nearest shops are about a 15-minute walk and the site is surrounded by new build housing developments. It is serviced by local public transport."

    This account of the Glenside Hospital Museum is copied from the Wrington World Day - Saturday, 21st June 2003 website

    Julius Herrstein - Wrington - I am the deputy chairman of Glenside Hospital Museum and I spent the morning showing visitors round the museum, in fact, this morning we had a lady from Göttingen, Germany.

    Glenside Hospital was built in 1861 and served the city until 1994 when apart from two wards and the forensic unit it, was passed over to the University of West of England.

    What used to be the patients' chapel is now the museum and it is the latest museum of Bristol. We are open every Wednesday and Saturday morning from 10a.m until 1.00 p.m depending how many visitors we entertain. If we have no visitors then we close at 12.30

    The museum is registered charity we have no admission charges but if anybody is generous enough to put a pound or two in the box we give them a few booklets to describe life in the hospital as it was experienced by patients in the past. The museum is situated between Fishponds and Stapleton, the entrance is opposite the Old Tavern

    Barrow Hospital
    Barrow Gurney Bristol BS19 3SG
    (map)
    See Glenside history
    1930 Bristol City Council bought 260 acres of land at Barrow Gurney, North Somerset, eleven miles from Fishponds.
    "landscaped grounds to purpose-built hospital, encompassing ancient woodlands. Hospital built 1934-1937.
    May 1938 Barrow Hospital received its first patients
    Visiting Consultants were common to Fishponds and Barrow Hospital
    3.5.1939 Official opening by Sir Lawrence Brock CBE, Chairman of The Board of Control
    3.9.1939 Became a Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospital for the duration of the war
    Autumn 1946 Returned to Bristol City, relieving overcrowding at Fishponds
    1948 Under the National Health Service Fishponds and Barrow Hospital were run under joint management
    1951 290 beds
    1960 453 beds, expected to fall to 200 by 1975
    May 1965 "9 p.m. on a Friday night was definitely the wrong time to be admitted". Judith Watson
    31.12.1977 356 beds
    "Among Returns of Glenside Hospital"
    External links:
    Trees at Barrow Hospital
    "to close"
    April 2002 Report of Bristol Mind User Focused Research Project: "Barrow is an old hospital site. Many of the wards are in need of major refurbishment and have shared accommodation in dormitories. It is situated about seven miles outside Bristol near the village of Long Ashton. A hospital bus runs between the hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary near the city centre. Barrow is surrounded by protected woodlands and the wards are built around a horseshoe shaped driveway about a mile all round. There are no local community facilities off site, the village being about a 25-minute walk from the hospital."
    The future of mental health services
    15.12.2005 Apologies for dirt

    Grove Road Psychiatric Hospital
    Now Grove Road Day Service
    Opened 1955
    "We think it was the second Day Hospital to open in the country. It was a crippled children's hospital in 1875 until about 1910.
    1979: The Day Hospital (Mental Illness), 12 Grove Road, Redland, Bristol, BS6 6UJ
    It is the 50th anniversary this year (2005) and we would like to hear people's memories. (Trish - from the day service)

    Mental Handicap Hospital

    Farleigh Hospital, Flax Bourton, Bristol, BS19 3QX, was the Bedminster Workhouse from the 1830s to 1929. It then became Cambridge House It closed in 1993, but the building remains as it is listed.

    See Peter Higginbotham's site: "The Bedminster Union was renamed Long Ashton in 1899. Between 1929 and 1956, the workhouse became Cambridge House, a mental deficiency colony run by Somerset County Council. It subsequently became known as Farleigh Hospital, which was the centre of a scandal in 1971 when two members of the nursing staff spoke out about the appalling treatment being meted out to the vulnerable patients. The former hospital site has now been redeveloped for other uses although much of the original building has been preserved."

    Bopcris

    The Burdens were the family behind Stoke Park Colony and other "Institutions for Persons Requiring Care and Control". There were three of them:
    Rev Harold Nelson Burden (1859-1930)
    Mrs Katharine Mary Burden (1856-1919)
    Mrs Rosa Gladys Burden (1871-1939)
    26.9.1888 Harold Nelson Burden married Catherine Mary Garton at St John, Hoxton.
    1895 Harold and Katherine Burden opened The Royal Victoria Home, near Horfield Prison, Bristol, for the care of inebriate women and girls in moral danger - After the passing of the Inebriate Act of 1898 they founded the Brentry Certified Inebriate Reformatory for men and women, which became the 'Brentry Certified Institution' within the meaning of the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 and 1919 on 3.1.1922.
    In 1901 Harold (aged 41) and Katharine (aged 43) were in charge of the Home for Inebriates at Brentry, Westbury on Trym, Bristol. One of the officers was Gladys Williams, store keeprer (clothing) aged 32, born Cumberland.
    1902 Harold Burden founded the National Institution for Persons Requiring Care and Control
    1904 Harold Burden appointed to the Royal Commission enquiring into the care of the feeble-minded.
    1909 Harold and Katherine Burden opened the Stoke Park Colony and later acquired Heath House and Grove Beech House, followed by Hanham Hall and Leigh Court and Whittington Hall, Chesterfield.
    1911 Gladys Rose Williams, born about 1874 in Whitehaven, Cumberland, was living with Harold and Katharine as their "adopted daughter" at 34 Westbourne Gardens, South Paddington West.
    25.9.1919 Katherine Mary died in Bristol. She bequethed £4,256 14s 2d to Harold.
    1920 Harold N Burden's marriage to Rosa G. Williams was registered in the April-June quarter at St George Hanover Square, London.
    15.5.1930 Harold died and Rosa was appointed Warden in his place.
    September 1939 The death of Rosa G Burden born about 1871, aged 68, was registered in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. Rosa Gladys died Clevedon Hall, Clevedon, Somerset on 17.9.1939 leaving an estate of £165,164 1s 7d.

    Stoke Park Colony
    founded 1909 by Rev
    Harold Nelson Burden (1859-1930)

    Stoke Park Colony was the first in the British Isles to be certified under the Act of 1913 as an Institution for Mental Defectives.

    1930 Harold Burden made financial provision for a centre at Stoke Park for research into the causes, treatment and prevention of mental deficiency. He appointed Professor R. J. A. Berry as Director of the Research Centre.

    1933 Stoke Park monographs on mental deficiency and other problems of the human brain and mind. No.1 The Burden memorial volume : dedicated to the memory of the late Reverend Harold Nelson Burden / edited... by Richard James Arthur Berry (1867- ) Stoke Park Colony (Bristol) London: Macmillan 1933. xix and 249 pages [Later volume issued in 1961 by the Stoke Park Hospital with title: Stoke Park studies; mental subnormality, second series]

    1938 Richard Berry's A Cerebral Atlas published

    1981 Research at Stoke Park : mental handicap (1930-1980) : the supplement to Stoke Park studies by J. Jancar. Bristol: Stoke Park Hospital] 1981. x and 70 pages

    "Historical publications from mental handicap hospitals have not been numerous... The scope of the booklet, however, gives the impressive list of research articles and reports which have emanated from the group. There are, besides, chapters on the lives of the founders, the Rev H. N. Burden and the two Mrs Burdens, and of the two outstand ing research directors, R. J. A. Berry and R. M. Norman, a full history of the Stoke Park group of hospitals and of the Burden Institute, and some delightful illustrated notes on the various manor houses dotted around Bristol which constitute the group". (Walk, A. 1982)

    1989 Psychiatric Bulletin (1989), 13, pages 552-555 "Sketches from the history of psychiatry - The Burdens-pioneers in mental health" by J. Jangar, Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist, Stoke Park Hospital, Stapleton, Bristol BS16 1QU

    Wikipedia - The History of Stoke Park

    Bath Union Workhouse
    A Workhouse Asylum
    "Wards exclusively appropriated to lunatics" (1844 Report p.10) Visited 20.10.1843 (1844 Report p.233)

    "...there were twenty-one insane persons, of whom one female was constantly under restraint; another was under excitement, and secluded in a cell; and one man had been in the house four months without any medicine, although his case appeared susceptible of benefit from medical treatment." (1844 Report p.98)

    Kingsdown House, Box, Wiltshire
    Licensed House
    may have been a madhouse since about 1615 as it was claimed in 1815 that there had been a madhouse in Box for 200 years. (map showing Box)
    On 1815 list
    Place: Kingsdown. Name: Changworthy (Langworthy?)
    1.1.1844 137 patients. 101 pauper and 36 private.
    Weekly charge for paupers: 8/- to 9/-
    SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT
    Proprietor 1844: C.C. Langworthy M.D.
    The proprietor, Dr R.A. Langworthy, became a patient in Fishponds (below) on 23.3.1847. In May 1848 it was alleged to the Lunacy Commission that the interested motives of his wife were keeping him there, although he had recovered. (MH50 3.5.1848)
    1881 Census: Kingsdown Asylum, Box. Charles Knight Hitchcock, aged 32, born Market Lavington see Fiddington House, Physician and his wife, Alice, aged 25, born Bottisham, Cambridge, with six month baby son, Humphrey K., born Market Lavington. Matron of Asylum (Hospital), Jane Elliott, unmarried, born Box. Visitor: Harriett Elliott, widow, aged 59, also born Box. All but one of the inmates are described as "Insane Patient". M. W., unmarried famale born Warminster, Wiltshire, is described as "Boarder"
    Early 20th century: external link to photograph - archive

    "The postal address of Kingsdown, Box, Chippenham, Wiltshire for at least a hundred years have been known almost world wide For Kingsdown House became one of the very best nursing homes for the very rich people of the land that had mental trouble. In fact Kingsdown House was called an asylum and it was run by a Doctor Mac Bryant who had a large staff of high-class nurses of both male and female also doctors on hand, and of course, there were a very large staff of servant girls and the very best cooks and kitchen maids" (from The Kingsdown Memories of Victor Painter (born 1906, died 2002) archive. See part eight archive)
    Asylum remained open until November 1947

    Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office have patient records for Fiddington House, Market Lavington, Laverstock House and Kingsdown House, Box. However, the catalogue is marked "Not to be produced before 2006" Reference A1/565

    Fishponds, Stapleton, Bristol
    Licensed House
    Originally (1738) opened as Mason's Madhouse by Joseph Mason in Stapleton, it moved to Fishponds in 1760.
    1779 Death of Joseph Mason, the founder
    Until 1788, Mason's married daughters, Elizabeth Cox and Sarah Carpenter, continued the asylum.
    1787 A birth in the Bompas family who worshiped at Broadmead Baptist Church, Bristol. George Gwinnett Bompas senior and his wife (born Selina Carpenter in 1767, died 1809) had a daughter, Sarah, who died in 1810.
    6.6.1789 Birth, in Bristol, of George Gwinnett Bompas(s) (junior), who became a doctor and Superintendant of Fishponds Lunatic Asylum. He died in 1847.
    1788 Joseph Mason Cox (1763- 1818), a grandson of Joseph Mason, took Fishponds over. His Practical Observations on Insanity in 1806 propounded the theory that insanity can be cured by inducing the symptoms of severe physical illness in patients.
    15.2.1791 Birth of Charles Carpenter Bompass (Son of George Gwinnett senior and Selina). He became Serjeant-at-Law and is thought to be the inspiration for Charles Dickens's Serjeant Buzfuz in Pickwick Papers. Henry Mason Bompas was his son.
    2.6.1793 Birth of Joseph Cox Bompass, later Joseph Cox Cox, Physician of Park St Bristol, who died in 1851. (Son of George Gwinnett senior and Selina). Not long before he died, he took over Fishponds from his nephew.
    About Spring 1806 the Baptist minister Robert Hall became a patient of Dr Cox. He spent about a year here, before returning to his relatives in Leicestershire. Robert Hall spoke his mind. He would speak openly of the necessity of ameliorating the condition of the insane. At a large party he showed people the scars on his head to illustrate his point, saying "for these are the wounds that I received in the house of my friends". His biographer thinks they were the result of a blow from a keeper. However, Cox in 1806 recommended shaving a patient's head and rubbing in a powder that produced a "crop of eruptions, very similar to those of small-pox...Blisters, issues, setons etc"
    By 1812: George Gwinnett Bompas(s), surgeon, Superintendent of Fishponds Lunatic Asylum. He was the cousin of the proprietor, Joseph Mason Cox, and took over Fishponds after his death. He was married to Frances Henrietta Smith (daughter of Joseph Smith) who was born in 1792 at Bath Easton, and died in 1863.
    6.9.1812 Birth of George Joseph Bompas (died 23.6.1889), (eldest child?) of Dr George Gwinnett junior and Frances. He became MD and Schoolmaster in Fishponds House.
    4.10.1816 Birth of Mason Cox Bompas, another son of Dr George Gwinnett junior and Frances.
    1818 Death of Joseph Mason Cox
    24.1.1823 Birth of Joseph Carpenter Bompas (died 1855), another son of Dr George Gwinnett junior and Frances. He became MD and proprietor of Fishponds. He married Ruth Conquest Bompas (born about 1823), who was head of a school in Middlesex in 1881.
    19.4.1835 Birth of Charlotte Shay Bompas, a daughter of Dr George Gwinnett junior and Frances. By 1881 she was a patient in the Warneford Lunatic Asylum, Oxford
    1.1.1844 49 patients. 1 pauper and 48 private. Proprietor G.G. Bompas MD.
    1847 Death of George Gwinnett Bompas senior
    1848 Gloucester JPs Inquiry: Proprietor, Dr Joseph Carpenter Bompas accused of numerous misdemeanours such as receiving patients without certificate. Evidence presented of harsh and neglectful treatment.
    The evidence taken on the inquiry into the management [by J.C. Bompas] of the Fishponds Private Lunatic Asylum Ordered by the last Court of Quarter Sessions to be printed, and sent to every acting magistrate in the County of Gloucester. 1848. 139 pages. It included illustrations.
    Dr J.C. Bompas was eventually prevented from holding a licence and the asylum was managed by other members of the family, including Dr J.C. Cox "late of Naples". Joseph Carpenter Bompas died in 1855 "late of Adelaide, Australia".
    1851 Death of Dr Joseph Cox Cox
    1852 Fishponds taken over by Dr J.D.F. Parsons, previously proprietor of White Hall House, near Bristol
    1859 Closed. Parry-Jones, (1972) (p.277) links the closure to the opening of Bristol Borough Asylum in the Fishponds district of Bristol
    1871 The Best Means of Evangelising the Masses, a paper read at the annual meeting of the Baptist Union by Henry Mason Bompas.

    Bailbrook House, near Bath
    An 18th Century Mansion designed by John Everleigh
    Opened as an asylum in 1831
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844 94 patients. 66 pauper and 28 private.
    A mansion and outhouses asylum
    A Registered Mental Nursing Home under the 1959 Mental Health Act?
    Now a Conference Centre: Bailbrook Road House, London Road West, Bath, BA1 7JD

    Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset
    2: Away from Bristol

    Fairford Asylum, Fairford, Gloucestershire
    Licensed House
    external link to history by Shelagh Diplock


    Daniel Iles was a yeoman farmer of Kempsford
    12.3.1792 Daniel and Ann Iles christened a son, Alexander Iles, at Fairford.
    Alexander Iles worked in asylums in London
    28.9.1816 Mary Anderson married Alexander Iles at Spitalfields Christ Church, Stepney, London
    26.5.1815 John Hitchman born Northleach, Gloucestershire. He learnt Greek and Latin, but had to go elsewhere for English and Mathematics.
    about 1818 Mary Ann Iles born Hackney
    19.9.1819 Alexander and Marianne Iles christened a son, Daniel Iles, at Fairford.
    23.9.1819 Charles and Anne Cornwall christened a son, Charles Philip Durell Cornwall, at Fairford.
    22.10.1820 Charles and Anne Cornwall christened a son, James Cornwall, at Fairford.
    5.3.1823 Alexander and Mary Iles christened a son, Alexander Iles, at Fairford.


    1823 Alexander Iles obtained a licence for ten patients and took patients into his own house.
    1827 Thirteen patients
    1829 Forty patients
    1832 John Hitchman was apprenticed to Dr Charles Cornwall of Fairford for five years to learn his profession. Shelagh Diplock says that Charles Cornwall was the first physician to the asylum.
    1834 Poor Law Amendment Act "increased the intake of pauper admissions and Alexander quickly started to build to accommodate them."
    Before 1835? John Hitchman married Mary Ann Iles
    September 1836 John Hitchman "went to London and gained some qualifications (MRCS, LSA)" (source)]
    1838 John Hitchman obtained the diploma of M.R.C.S. and the L.S.A. "He then returned to Fairford to act as assistant to his former master, and shortly afterwards became the resident medical officer of the Fairford Lunatic Asylum, now known as 'The Retreat'.
    1841 census over 119 patients
    1.1.1844 140 patients. 119 pauper and 21 private.
    ON 1844 LIST OF BEST CONDUCTED.
    Commended, along with Fiddington House and Belle Vue, in Wiltshire, and Dunston Lodge, in Durham, because it had a farm.
    1845 John Hitchman at Hanwell
    1850 Fairford Retreat (Lunatic Asylum) Fairford --- Messrs Alexander Iles & Sons, proprietors and managers ; Mr James Cornwall, resident surgeon. Slater's Directory of Gloucestershire
    1856 Alexander Iles died. Succeeded by his eldest son, Daniel Iles and his wife Susan. [Their eldest son also Daniel. Younger son Albert, married to Ellen Matilda.]
    1859 national comparisons - 77 patients: 25 paupers and 52 private.
    1861 49 patients.
    Albert Iles moved back to Fairford from his doctor's practice in Cirencester. He bought Croft House and had hoped to join Dr Charles Cornwall's practice.
    July 1863 Albert Iles killed in an accident, leaving Ellen pregnant with their eighth child.
    1864 Daniel Iles junio qualified as a surgeon and joined the family businees shortly afterwards.
    Before 1870 Ellen Matilda Iles set up a small female private asylum in Croft House.
    1872 Retirement of John and Mary Ann Hitchman from Derby County Asylum. "Leaving Mickleover, he went to reside at Cheltenham for a short period" (BMJ Obituary)
    1875 "for family reasons" John and Mary Ann Hitchman moved to Fairford.
    1881 Census "Fairford Retreat Lunatic Asylum". Daniel Iles (age 62) Proprietor of Fairford Retreat - Farming 215 acres and Employing 9 Men, 4 Boys and 2 Women. Susan, his wife, age 65, is the matron.
    1881 Census for Daniel Iles surgeon
    1881 Census for Ellen Matilda Iles
    1881 Census for John and Mary Hitchman in retirement
    1881 Census for Charles Cornwall
    March 1884 Death of Mary Ann Hitchman, aged 66, registered Cirencester
    1883 Death of Susan Iles
    1887 Death of Daniel Iles
    Wednesday 5.4.1893 Death of John Hitchman, aged 77, at his home, the Laurels, Fairford. Registered Cirencester in June 1893.
    22.4.1893 John Hitchman's Obituary in British Medical Journal
    1901 The Retreat sold to Dr A C King Turner
    1944 The Retreat closed. Building later became "Coln House School - a special school with fifty five... pupils with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, aged nine to sixteen."

    Gloucester Public Asylums and Hospitals

    Gloucester Lunatic Asylum (Gloucester)
    A County/Subscription Hospital
    Originally planned (1793) as a Subscription Hospital by the governors of the Gloucester Infirmary. In 1806, one of those involved, George Onesiphorus Paul, gave evidence about the pressure on County funds of the 1800 Criminal Lunatics Act, and the need for asylums that would share costs. This was made possible by the 1808 County Asylums Act, under which the asylum was eventually opened.
    A union of the county, city and subscribers was agreed in 1813, for the purpose of building the asylum.
    Opened 24.7.1823
    Original accommodation for 120: 30 of each sex, private and pauper.
    The first asylum became Horton Road Hospital, Horton Road, Gloucester, GL1 3PS.
    Visit the new gloucesterasylums.co.uk site Horton Road Hospital.
    [External link to position of Horton Road Hospital Annex on modern map]
    Samuel Hitch was resident medical superintendent from 1828 to 1845.
    Rev. F.T. Bayly as Chaplain and S. Hiteth? (Hitch?) as Surgeon and Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum in Pigot's Directory for 1830
    1841 As "the treatment is the most successful, the diet is generous and nutritious, and the patients live as much as possible in the open air", William Farr used to provide a statistical "natural" death rate.
    1844 accommodation for 261 (actual numbers below): 95 of each sex, paupers. 32 male and 39 female private patients.
    1.1.1844 257 patients. 189 pauper and 68 private. Superintendent: Samuel Hitch, M.D.
    Weekly charge for paupers:: 9/- including clothes
    Samuel Hitch was the founder of the asylum doctors' association in 1841. He was a loud campaigner on behalf of Welsh lunatics. Statisticians used the Gloucester Asylum death rate as the "natural" death rate for lunacy - on the basis that Gloucester patients were well cared for.
    See below for history after 1844

    First Gloustershire County Lunatic Asylum

    The County/City and Subscription parts of Gloucester Lunatic Asylum separated in 1856 and the asylum became a county asylum for pauper patients only. A new asylum (Barnwood House) was built for the private patients (opened in 1860).
    1881 Census: Gloucester County Lunatic Asylum, Wotton St Mary, Gloucester, England. Assistant Medical Officers (both unmarried surgeons): William Kebbell, aged 29, and Edward George Thomas, aged 27.

    A second Gloucestershire County Asylum opened in 1884. It was under the same management as the first, and had the same superintendent.
    Visit the new gloucesterasylums.co.uk site The second asylum became Coney Hill Hospital, Coney Hill, Gloucester, GL4 7RQ.

    Click here to see what it looks like in 2003
    [This external link should show Horton Road Hospital ringed and position of Coney Hill Hospital]


    Architect: Giles and Gough - Broad Arrow
    1971 Hospital Statistics group Coney Hill with Horton Road. The combined hospitals had 1,251 beds and 1,114 patients.
    In 1979, Horton Road had 353 beds and Coney Hill had 467 for mental illness. The Twyver Unit at Coney Hill had 60 beds for mental handicap.
    Horton Road, the original asylum, closed in 1988. It is a listed building. For plans to develop, see Redrow developers
    Coney Hill Hospital closed in the mid 1990s

    See Rossbret entry on Gloucestershire asylums (archive of old site). I have drawn heavily on this article, which comes from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire

    Barnwood House Hospital for the Insane
    Barnwood Road, Gloucester
    A Hospital.
    Opened 1860
    1881 Census: Superintendent: Fredrick Needham
    Barnwood House Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases from an unknown date to about 1948
    Barnwood House Hospital
    Hospital closed 1968
    Manor House Nursing Home (Barnwood House Trust)
    Closed 1977

    See Gloucester Asylums

    Wiltshire was a major centre for madhouses, and the second largest centre of the trade in pauper lunacy after London. The next largest was County Durham. The importance of Wiltshire is related to its position between London to Bristol. A large percentage of the pauper patients in Wiltshire asylums (1844) came from outside the county. Most Wiltshire parishes were in Poor Law Unions, but only 174 of the 519 paupers in the houses came from Wiltshire unions. (1844 Report, appendix A and F).

    Wiltshire asylums receiving paupers in 1844

    In 1844, most private asylums in Wiltshire received paupers.
    Click here for the asylums in South West England that did not.
    Some of these will have received paupers at other times.

    Kingsdown House, Box, Wiltshire, is near Bath, and listed there.

    map showing Salisbury with arrow pointing to Laverstock
    The Finch family had asylums in London and Wiltshire
    William Finch
    William Finch (surgeon), grandson of above, took over Laverstock in 1799. His name is on an advertisement of 26.12.1807
    Entry in Fellows list of the R.M.+C.S. 1843: "elected 1841, William Finch, M.D., F.L.S., Laverstock-hall, Salisbury."
    William Corbyn Finch (born about 1800? died 7.1.1848, at some time owned Laverstock
    External Link: William Corbyn Finch - archive
    William Corbyn Finch (eldest son of above) was born 1833 in Kensington and christened 17.1.1840 in Fisherton Anger, Wiltshire.

    Finch's Laverstock House, Salisbury, Wiltshire
    Licensed House
    Opened before 1779
    1810 Female paupers from the Isle of Wight
    On 1815 list
    Place: Laverstock. Name: Finch
    1823 Laverstock House Lunatic Asylum, near Salisbury : for the reception of insane patients, under the immediate superintendence of William Finch, M.D. Three page Prospectus written by Finch. Printed by Brodie & Dowding, Sarum. [Cambridge University Library]
    1825: 103 patients. Only provincial house apart from Droitwich with over 100.
    1828: Resident medical officer required by law
    1831: 120 patients.
    1840 Female paupers from the Isle of Wight
    1.1.1844 126 patients. 35 pauper and 91 private.
    Proprietor: W. Finch MD.
    Weekly charge for paupers: 7/6d to 8/- (including clothes)
    1860 Our holiday at Laverstock House Asylum; how we visited Stonehenge, and what we learned there by John Stevenson Bushnan. 67 pages. London: Churchill
    1870: Licensed to Dr S L Haynes
    1881 Census Henry John Manning, age 45, born St Pancras, Middlesex. Medical Superintendent MRCS, and Ellen Frances Manning, his wife, age 36, born Marylebone, Middlesex. Daughters born Laverstock: Grace Ellen (age 12) and Mary Agnes (age 9), plus their Governess, Inez Uhlhorn, aged 20, born in Hanover. Mary Haynes, Mother In Law, age 63, born St Giles, Middlesex, and Jane Adela Haynes, Sister In Law (unmarried), aged 28, born Marylebone, Middlesex.
    1955: Closed.

    A complete register of patients from 1797 to 1955 exists. See Archives

    Finch's Fisherton House, Salisbury, Wiltshire
    Not shown on 1815 list, although claims to have been founded 1813
    Open by 1826
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844: 112 patients. 90 pauper and 22 private.
    Proprietor W.C. Finch M.D.
    Weekly charge for paupers: 8/- (including clothes)
    1850 One of three licensed house outside London named as especially defective in the Lunacy Commission's Report. The other two houses named were Belle Vue and Kingsland Workhouse . (Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.255)
    "Largely because of the overcrowding of the Bethlem criminal lunatic buildings, official arrangements were made in 1850, for the reception in special wards at Fisherton House, of a number of harmless criminal lunatics from Bethlem and from asylums in other parts of the country" Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.66)
    1859 national comparisons
    1870: 616 patients, 502 of them paupers (Parry-Jones Table 6)
    1870: Licensed to W C Finch (surgeon) and Dr J A Lush M.P.
    Reception of criminal lunatics had ceased by 1872
    1877-1878 Dr Lush a member of the Select Committee of the House of Commons inquiring into the operations of Lunacy Law so far as regards security afforded by it against violations of personal liberty
    "During the period 1878 to 1890, Fisherton House was licensed to receive 672 patients, including 542 pauper or criminal lunatics, making it the largest private licensed house ever known in this country" Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.43)
    1880 Patients from Portsea Island moved to the new Portsmouth Lunatic Asylum
    1881 Census Fisherton House Asylum, Fisherton Anger, Wiltshire. Two Medical Officers, both unmarried, both born London, Middlesex, and both Surgeon MRCS ELSA: Henry Baskcombe Harrison, aged 32 and Henry Joseph Hind, aged 28
    1885-1902 imbecile patients from Westminster
    1911 Rules for the attendants at Fisherton Asylum, Salisbury 28 pages. Bennett Bros. Salisbury
    1913 Charles Stanford Read, MB London, MRCS, LRCP (born 1871), was Assistant Medical Officer. He went on to be Officer in charge of D Block, Netley, for the greater part of the war.
    1920 Charles Stanford Read, Physician, Fisherton House Mental Hospital, Salisbury published Military Psychiatry in Peace and War
    Taken over by the Ministry of Health in 1954. It became the Old Manor, Wilton Road, Salisbury, SP2 7EP (map)

    Fonthill Gifford, Hindon, Wiltshire
    Opened 1718
    Licensed House
    On 1815 list
    Place: Fonthill. Nane: Spencer
    1.1.1844 4 patients. 1 pauper and 3 private.

    The mid-Wiltshire asylums. Belle Vue and Fiddington were considered by the Metropolitan Commissioners in 1844 as amongst the best outside London. Both had large farms which provided employment for their pauper patients. The proprietors were non-medical men, but the houses had "resident physicians or apothecaries" (1844 Report p.41). Both provided a good diet for their pauper patients, and the commissioners commended their dormitories, saying they had "seldom seen any sleeping rooms for paupers more comfortable, and more cleanly or better ventilated, than some of the dormitories in the licensed house at Bethnal Green, Fairford, Devizes and Market Lavington". (1844 Report pp 12-13) Belle Vue, Devizes, Wiltshire
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844 156 patients. 148 pauper and 8 private.
    The provincial licensed house with the most pauper patients, but not many more than Fiddington House
    ON 1844 LIST OF BEST CONDUCTED.
    HAD A FARM.
    Proprietor: T. Phillips (Surgeon) [This is given on page 213 of the 1844 Report. Page 41 (see above) says the proprietor was non medical]
    Weekly charge for paupers: 8/- (including clothes)
    1850 One of three licensed house outside London named as especially defective in the Lunacy Commission's Report. The other two houses named were Fisherton House and Kingsland Workhouse . (Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.255)
    1853 Commissioners recommended closure of the pauper department, but the justices re-licensed it. . (Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.255)

    Fiddington House, Market Lavington, Wiltshire
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844 180 patients. 144 pauper and 36 private.
    Proprietor: R. Willett
    Weekly charge for paupers: 8/-
    ON 1844 LIST OF BEST CONDUCTED.
    HAD A FARM.
    William Charles Hood, a resident physician at Fiddington House, became medical superintendent of the second Middlesex County Asylum in June 1851, then superintendent of Bethlem, then Lord Chancellor Visitor in Lunacy.
    1851 Census Worthy Dunford (christened Great Cheverell 3.7.1825, died 1885, married Mary Watts, 1.11.1849 in Great Cheverell) was Assistant at Lunatic Asylum (Fiddington Parish. Wife and baby Benjamin at home in Great Cheverell). By 1861, he was a millwright in Great Chervil. In 1881, he and daughter Emily are at Great Cheverell, but his wife Mary is a patient in Devizes Lunatic Asylum.
    1870: Licensed to Dr C Hitchcock (See Kingsdown House)
    1881 Census Fiddington House, Lavington West: Charles Hitchcock, widower, age 69, born Bushton Clyffe Pypard, Wiltshire, Physician MRCL FSA RCP. Elizabeth Watts, House Keeper, widow, age 46, born Market Lavington. Hospital Matron. George Gusdale Hicks, Boarder, age 45 Coberley, Gloucester, Clergyman Without Cure Of Souls. Other inmates are entered as Patient.

    Wiltshire County Asylum, Devizes opened 19.9.1851. In 1858 it had 350 patients. Became Roundway Hospital, Devizes, Wiltshire.
    1881 Census:. "Wilts County Lunatic Asylum" Devizes St James, Wiltshire. Medical Superintendent Edward Marriott Cooke, physician aged 29, born Gosport, Hampshire, living with his wife, Mary Anne Henrietta Cecil Cooke, housewife aged 30, born Reading, Berkshire, and two local women as cook and housemaid. The patients in this asylum are listed by names not just initials.
    There is a book: Down Pans Lane - Wiltshire County Asylum, Roundway Hospital

    Somerset runs south from the river Avon, and Bristol and Bath, to Dorset and Devon. Taunton is at the Dorset/Devon end of the county. [See St Thomas's, Exeter.] Many unions in north and east Somerset may have sent paupers to licensed houses in or near Bristol, but across the Gloucesterishire border, or Bath, or further into Wiltshire on the east. (See counties map)

    In 1844 Somerset had almost as many pauper lunatics as Devon (1844 Report appendix D). The 1844 Report, appendix F shows 584 pauper lunatics and idiots chargeable to Somerset unions; 12 in county asylum/s; 160 in licensed houses; 153 in a workhouse and 259 with friends or elsewhere. All of Somerset was organised in unions, so the 572 (yes) total in appendix D, compares with the estimated total of 611 for Devon. Appendix D makes an estimate of 103 pauper lunatics not in unions, which it adds to 508 (yes) in unions to give 572 as the estimated total. Accommodation for paupers in licensed houses within Somerset is given as 73, so the majority of Somerset paupers in licensed houses were outside the county.

    Fivehead House, Taunton, Somerset
    1815: Proprietor "Mr Gillett" (presumably Joseph Gillett) who Edward Wakefield told the 1815 Select Committee "bragged of having been a keeper at Bethlem, and was sent from that hospital to Exeter Asylum, from whence he came to keep this house for himself"
    Succeded as proprietor by W.E. Gillett
    1828 Business moved to Fairwater House
    Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.80)

    Fairwater House, Staplegrove, near Taunton, Somerset
    Licensed House
    1830 Pigot's: William Edward Gillett Fairwater house lunatic asylum
    1.1.1844 52 patients. 6 pauper and 46 private.
    Proprietor: W.E. Gillett, surgeon
    It seems the buildings are now part of Taunton School. See Ben Grove's web site, which says: "Originally Taunton School was an asylum but later it became a small school. Founded in 1847 ... it was originally in houses in Wellington Road. The present school opened in Fairwater House in 1870"

    Somerset County Asylum for Pauper Lunatics opened 1.3.1848 at Wells. Built for 400 patients, it had 416 in 1858. Situated close to Wells.
    Architect: Scott & Moffatt. Later additions by Hine
    Corridor form
    Became Somerset and Bath Asylum about 1880 (named used by next asylum from 1897)
    Wells Mental Hospital by 1929
    Photo: "The Mental Hospital Wells December 1933" Stage performance
    Photo: "The Mental Hospital Concert Party December 1934" Violinist Joseph Hall.
    21.10.1939: Bosley family move to Mendip. Soon after "with already approximately 950 patients of its own, Park Prewett Hospital, Basingstoke, was converted into a military hospital, so all the patients (but without the staff) were evacuated to Wells. There were now 1,300 patients"
    1960s? Pantomimes: "The pantomime was held in the Hall throughout the week bordering January and February. Three nights were for patients from Mendip, Tone Vale (near Taunton), Fishponds and other hospitals including the Priory Hospital in Wells, and for the Darby and Joan clubs, Coaches came from quite a distance"
    Mendip Hospital, Bath Road, Wells, BA5 3DJ
    Closed 1991 "Now sympathetically restored" (Peter Cracknell)
    2000Memories of Mendip Hospital by Josie Bosley, published by Gerald Burton
    The website of the Friends of Mendip Hospital Cemetery contains some history

    Somerset and Bath Mental Hospital (Taunton) opened 1897
    Architect: Giles, Gough and Trollope
    Compact Arrow design.
    Until 1948 known as Tone Valley Hospital or Tone Vale Hospital
    1960s Pantomime trips to Mendip
    Tone Vale Hospital, Norton Fitzwarren, Taunton, TA4 1DB
    Now closed. The building is to be redeveloped as apartments. (Autumn 2002: reported developed)
    The website of Cotford St Luke's Residents Association has pictures . The stonework on the front of the clock tower has 1896 engraved on it.
    Durham University researched the transition from asylum to community care .

    Devon and Cornwall

    Devon

    In 1844 no English County without a County Asylum had as many pauper lunatics as Devon (1844 Report appendix D) and, unlike Somerset, which had nearly as many, Devon did not have easy access to licensed houses receiving paupers. (See counties map) Devon County Asylum was constructed during the Inquiry years, but was not opened until July 1845. The 1844 Report, appendix F shows 547 pauper lunatics and idiots chargeable to Devon unions; 25 in county asylum/s; 102 in licensed houses; 145 in a workhouse and 275 with friends or elsewhere. Appendix D makes an estimate of 103 pauper lunatics not in unions, which it adds to 508 (yes) in unions to give 611 as the estimated total. (Compared with 572 for Somerset)

    1741 Devon and Exeter Hospital (Royal from 1899) established Southernhay, Exeter. (Later moved to Barrack Road Exeter EX2 5DW). "In 1795 a Mr Pitfield..left £200 in his will... to building a lunatic ward in or near the... Hospital, for the benefit of insane persons deemed curable" (Hervey, 1980, p.12)

    St Thomas's Hospital, Exeter, Devon
    The hospital appears to have served Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall
    Bowhill House purchased in 1801 for use as an asylum. Cost about £2650, including the cost of the furniture & repairs.
    Joseph Gillett as Director was recommended by John Haslam of Bethlem. Mrs Gillett was housekeeper. By 1815 Mr Gillett had established his own asylum.
    July 1817 answers enquiry about religious provision
    1823 Paupers confined to the 15/- class, wheras previously they could be in the 10/6d class, now reserved for poor non-paupers. (Hervey, 1980, p.18)
    1824 Under influx of parish applications for pauper admissions, Governors complain that the county ought to have a county asylum (Hervey, 1980, p.6)
    1830 Stoke Damerel opened
    1835 Plympton opened
    1.1.1844 48 patients. 1 pauper and 47 private.
    Superintendent: Luke Ponsford, Surgeon
    Weekly charge for paupers 15/-
    July 1845 Devon County Asylum opened. Pauper lunatics removed from St Thomas's "as the majority were incurable" Nick Hervey (1980 p.58). Nick says that before 1845, St Thomas's "took as many paupers as their finances could sustain, and as many as their parishes would support"
    Became Wonford House Hospital
    Simon Cornwall: Wonford House built: 1865. Architect: WF Cross
    In 1979: Exe Vale Hospital (Wonford Branch), Dryden Road, Wonford, Exeter, EX2 5AF
    1979: 110 beds
    Hervey, N.B. 1980 Bowhill House. St Thomas's Hospital for Lunatics. Asylum for the Four Western Counties. 1801-1869
    Simon Cornwall: Leased to a mental health trust. Not expected to close.

    The Workhouse, Stoke Damerel, Devon
    Opened 1830?
    1.1.1844 23 patients, all pauper.
    A Licensed Workhouse Asylum

    Plympton House, Plympton St Mary, Devon
    Licensed House
    Opened 1835
    A mansion and outhouses asylum
    1838: Thomas Harpur, criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Plymouth"
    1839: William Arnold, criminal lunatic, recorded "Lunatic Asylum, Plymouth"
    1844 Proprietor: R. C. Langworthy, surgeon.
    1.1.1844 83 patients. 66 pauper and 17 private.
    Admission charge for paupers: £1..1/-. Weekly charge for paupers 10/6d excluding clothes. The same as Cornwall County Asylum). Apart from St Thomas's (15/-) the only known higher charges in England were Hereford and the charges of some County Asylums for paupers from outside the county.
    SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT
    Conditions in 1842-1843 and the commission's efforts to improve them
    29.12.1845 Mr Richard Langworthy authorised by the Lunacy Commission to "retain as servants two female pauper patients still insane", given they were discharged first, entirely free from restraint or control as patients and their employment would be of advantage to them and not injurious to other inmates.
    1870 Plympton House, Plympton, Devon licensed to S Langworthy (surgeon)

    Devon County Asylum opened July 1845
    Simon Cornwall: Built: 1842-1845.
    Kensington Taylor website (has picture) "Charles Fowler, the architect of Covent Garden Market", designed it on concept "of radiating wards around a central administration and service block" Peter Cracknell classifies as Radial design.
    About 1875 G. Symes Saunders was Superintendent
    Became Devon Mental Hospital by 1929 and Exe Vale Hospital (Exminster Branch) by 1973 until 1981 when it became Exminster Hospital, Exminster, near Exeter, EX6 8AB.
    1979: 784 beds
    Closed 1985
    Simon Cornwall: Sold in late 1980s, roofs stripped, appears now to be housing. web link to Kensington Taylor architect

    Exeter City Asylum opened 1886
    Became Exeter City Mental Hospital by 1929. Digby Hospital from 1949 to 1961). Exe Vale Hospital, Digby Branch (1962 to 1982/1986), then Digby Hospital, Woodwater Lane, Exeter, EX2 7EY
    1979: 301 beds

    Plymouth Borough Asylum opened 1891.
    at Ivybridge
    Became Plymouth Mental Hospital in 1918, and then Moorhaven Hospital Ivybridge, (PL21 0EX)
    map shows position on edge of moors
    Closed 1993 and developed into Moorhaven Village (housing) (external link - archive)

    Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse

    One extra block of buildings was added in 1905 to house lunatics and alcoholics. Block numbers were replaced with letters and names in 1924. Within each block the wards were then numbered 1, 2 or 3. "The block for housing the lunatics and alcoholics was apparently just known as K block". (external source)

    Cornwall

    Cornwall County Asylum (Bodmin)
    A County/Subscription Hospital
    It appears (below) that subscriptions for an asylum commenced before the decision to construct a county asylum
    The archives for R Rogers and Son, Solicitors in Helston (Lands End end of Cornwall) include correspondence from September 1807 to February 1808 re committal of John Cornish, resident at East Stonehouse (Plymouth, Devon), chargeable to Helston, to Exeter lunatic asylum ("seized with a down right madness in his brain")
    Administrative records from 1809. "Foundation Year: 1815" The following from Cornwall Quarter Sessions Records Order Books [reference QS/1] catalogue of Cornwall Record Office: Bodmin: 2.10.1810: Following Act to deal with maintenance of pauper and criminal lunatics, notice to be given in local newspapers that consideration to be given at next sessions at Lostwithiel on 15.1.1811 for providing a lunatic asylum. Bodmin: 8.10.1811: Four magistrates to form committee to consider the proposal. Robert Walker, clerk. To report proceedings at an adjournment of the sessions at St Austell on 26.11.1811. Lostwithiel: 14.1.1812: Resolved unanimously to establish lunatic asylum in county to provide for number of lunatics, not to exceed seventy. Also resolved "with the view of extending the benefits of such an asylum to Lunatics of a Higher Class who are not objects of the Poor Rate" to continue the voluntary contribution already in existence. Committee of nine Visiting Justices appointed to superintend building and management of the asylum. Committee of five JPs appointed to confer with committee of subscribers for benefit of "Higher Class" lunatics. Chairman requested to tell Lord Warden of the Stannaries of the court's appreciation of the fact that the Prince Regent [Duke of Cornwall, a large part of whose income came from the County] had agreed to be patron of the intended asylum.
    Opened 1820. Accommodation for 102
    Radial and Corridor form
    1.1.1844: 153 patients. 133 pauper and 20 private.
    Weekly charge for paupers: from outside Cornwall: 10/6. (Cornwall paupers: 5/6d)
    [Notice that Plympton House, in Devon, charged the same for paupers as Cornwall County charged for paupers from outside Cornwall]
    Became St Lawrence's Hospital, Westheath Avenue, Bodmin, PL31 2QT
    Autumn 2002: Reported closed, empty building fire damaged.

    Redruth Union Workhouse, Cornwall
    A Workhouse Asylum
    "Wards exclusively appropriated to lunatics" (1844 Report p.10) Visited 6.10.1843 (1844 Report p.232) 41 Insane paupers (of whom six were idiots), but also "5 others of weak intellect, and unable to take care of themselves" who had not been included in the return of lunatics made to the Clerk of the Peace in 1842. "Several of them were violent, and at times required restraint" (1844 Report pp 98 + 232)

    Wales, Welsh Border and West Midlands away from Birmingham

    Map of Wales 1929 or earlier Anglesy North Wales Asylum at Denbigh Joint Counties Asylum at Abergavenny

    In 1844 Wales and most of its immediate borders had no County Asylum - properly speaking (see Haverfordwest)

    Most of the (few) Welsh pauper lunatics in asylums were in Haverfordest (17), Vernon House (2), Cheshire County Asylum (12), and Haydock Lodge [Lancashire] (18). For others see Welsh lunatics on outdoor relief

      For central Wales: An adequate Shropshire Asylum (England) offically opened on 28.3.1845. An earlier proposal (July 1842) that Montgomery and Shropshire should share the costs had fallen through mainly because of the constraints of two languages. "Welsh patients would have been treated as one class". Agreement was eventually reached between the English and Welsh counties in April 1846. Joint provision meant an additional wing had to be built.
      Shropshire and Wenlock Borough Lunatic Asylum (1845-1846)
      Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Counties and Wenlock Borough Lunatic Asylum (1846-1851)
      Shropshire and Montgomeryshire and Wenlock Borough, Shrewsbury and Oswestry Lunatic Asylum (1851-1863)
      Lunatic Asylum for the Counties of Salop and Montgomery, and for the Borough of Much Wenlock (1864-1911)
      1881 Census: Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Bicton Heath, Shrewsbury (Shrewsbury St Julian) Shropshire. Physician Superintendent: Arthur Strange (aged 37, married)
      "In 1911 the agreement between Salop and Montgommery was dissolved. resulting in 149 Mongomershire patients being transfreed to other asylums" [Note Mid Wales] "and releasing more places for Salopians." -- The history continues below --

      For north Wales: In 1844 an asylum was about to be erected for Denbigh and Flint. A North Wales (5 counties) County Asylum was opened 14.11.1848, at Denbigh, for Flint, Denbigh, Merioneth, Caenarvon and Anglesea. [27.10.1848 Archives XD2/22589: Letter: Richard A. Poole, Caernarfon to Lord Newborough, refers to an account sent by the clerk of the North Wales Lunatic Asylum at Denbigh. It will open on November 14, to receive 80 patients. It has not been decided when the full number of patients will be received. This will probably depend on the payments of the remaining quota from the contributory counties.]
      Corridor form
      22.7.1873 Archives XQA/G/170 Letter from Mr Robinson (Clerk to the visitors, the North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum) to Mr T. Poole, Esq., Clerk of the Peace, Caernarfon, stating that the rate of payment, for Pauper Patients will be increased from 8/2d to 8/9d per week.
      1881 Census: North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum, Denbigh, Denbigh, Wales. The Medical Superintendent, William Williams (aged 35, unmarried) was being visited by his cousins, Hermina Eleanor (aged 13) and Elizabeth Maude (aged 11) Williams on census night.
      1900 Archives X/POOLE/825 Circular letter from the Clerk of Caernarfonshire County Council re the proposals for an Act for the dissolution of a Joint Counties Union for the North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum
      1.1.1914 Archives ZQS/H.1914/9 List of Pauper Lunatics in the North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum, Denbigh. Attached: Note from the Asylum's Clerk with tables showing the number of patients. Attached: Table showing the Quota of Patients for Denbigh, Flint, Anglesey, Caernarfon and Merioneth [Meirionnydd], also the number of Patients belonging to each county resident in the Asylum.
      1914 Hilary Archives ZQS/H.1914/34 Report of the representatives appointed by the County Council to attend a conference, convened by the Committee of Visitors of the North Wales Counties Lunatic Asylum at Denbigh on the steps to be taken to administer the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913.
      1925: The Branch Secretary of the Denbigh branch of the National Asylum Workers Union was Mr T. Hughes, who lived at 1 Brynnffynon Terrace, Denbigh
      1.1.1927: 1,078 patients of whom all but 126 were Rate Aided. 541 were men, 537 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 40.2%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 7.8%
      December 1927 Name given as the North Wales Counties Mental Hospital on a patient's death certiicate
      By 1948 the North Wales Hospital for Nervous and Mental Disorders.
      1974 Article by M.R. Olsen "Founding of the Hospital for the Insane Poor, Denbigh" in Denbighshire Historical Society Transactions volume 23 (1974), pages 193-217.
      From about 1981) the North Wales Hospital, Denbigh, LL16 5SS. (LL16 5SR locates site) map
      Closed 1995
      Autumn 2002 information: "architecturally superb remains standing although neglected whilst its fate is undecided". External link
      Visit Denbighweb. CLick Buildings/PLaces for pictures of the asylum.
      North Wales Hospital Historical Society
      Hospital records are at Gwynedd Archives, Caernarfon Record Office Archon Code : 219. (website)

      For south east Wales: A joint Monmouth, Hereford (England), Brecon and Radnor County Asylum was opened in 1.12.1851 at Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. This was the Joint Counties Lunatic Asylum from 1851 to 1897
      1881 Census: Joint Counties Lunatic Asylum, Abergavenny, Monmouth, Wales. Medical Superintendent not recorded. Assistant Medical Officers: James Glendinning, (unmarried, aged 34, born Scotland) and William F. Nelis (unmarried, aged 34, born Victoria, Australia). The census gives the full names of patients in this asylum, not just initials as is usual with asylums.
      just Monmouthshire Lunatic Asylum from 1897.
      1901 Census William F. Nelis M.D.(Durham), L.R.C.P.(Edin.), County Lunatic Asylum, Old Monmouth Road
      It was Monmouthshire Mental Hospital from 1916 to 1923. Pen-Y-Val Hospital until 1950, and then Pen-Y-Fal Hospital, Old Monmouthshire Road, Abergavenny, NP7 5YY
      County Asylums website

      Newport Borough Mental Hospital opened in 1906. Developed from Newport Union Workhouse (which became St. Woolo's Hospital - See Peter Higginbotham's site). It became St Cadoc's Hospital, Caerleon, Newport, Monmouthshire, NP6 1XQ
      Compact Arrow
      Architect: Alfred J. Wood FRIBA, of London
      photograph during construction on Caerleon.net
      1934 John's Directory of Caerleon on Caerleon.net "NEWPORT ASYLUM. - Accommodation is provided for 368, with administrative offices sufficient for 500 patients. Dr. Magnus Mackay, resident medical officer; and Mr. J. Bass, clerk"
      1949/1950 Christmas Party photograph on Caerleon.net
      1971: 462 beds
      31.12.1977: 402 beds
      Hospital website
      County Asylums website
      [Help from Terry Williams 19.10.2006]

      In 1903 a Mid Wales Counties Mental Hospital opened at Brecon (also called Brecon and Radnor Asylum). ["Talgarth, Brecon and Radnor Asylum was opened around 1900 (1901 over the door) It closed about April 2000." (geomancer - asylums forum)]
      Compact Arrow design.
      Now Mid Wales Hospital, Talgarth, Brecon, LD3 ODS.
      31.12.1977: 422 beds
      1979 Listed under Powys Health Authority. The only mental illness hospital. Powys appears to be the old Brecknock, Radnor and Montgomery
      "A small welsh county asylum". Considered surplus to requirements about 1994, put on the market in 1997 and sold in 1999, It was considered as a Prison or for Asylum Seekers, but rejected for both. Owned by PRYA, various businesses are located there. The picture was taken by Nigel Roberts. (map) - (multimap). Powys Tourist Board has a map

      For south west Wales: In 1847 a union of Glamorgan, Carmathen and Pembroke was contemplated. This opened as The United Lunatic Asylum for Cardigan, Carmarthen, Glamorgan and Pembroke. [However, it does not seem to have opened by 1858, and may only have opened in the 1860s.]
      Corridor form - Too large for Conolly's ideal
      1865: Carmarthen, Cardigan and Pembroke County Asylum
      Jonathan Marsden, Vicar of Llanllwch (SA31 3HB) from 1869 to 1922 was chaplain to the "Joint Counties Asylum".
      by 1929: Joint Counties Mental Hospital
      1881 Census: Joint Counties Asylum, Carmarthen, Carmarthen St Peter, Carmarthen, Wales. Medical Superintendent: George Jonathan Hearder (age 41, married)
      1948: became St David's Hospital, Jobs Well Road, Carmarthen (Caerfyrddin) SA31 3HB. map.
      1956-1958 "Nurses did far more than they were paid to do... but.. the fear of going back is strong"
      It had 940 beds in 1971.
      Was expected to close in 2003, but in Autumn 2002 reported to be already closed, but standing empty.

      Glamorgan County Asylum
      Opened at Angleton, Bridgend, 4.11.1864 (Renamed Glanrhyd by or in 1948)
      map
      1881 Census: Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum, Near Bridgend, Newcastle Higher, Glamorgan, Wales. Henry Turnbull Pringle (married, aged 40) was the Physician Superintendent. His wife doe not appear to have been at home on census night and a nurse was caring for his one year old son.
      1887 An additional hospital, Parc Gwyllt opened nearby. (renamed Parc by or in 1948) map (Angleton can be seen on the west border of the map)
      Known as Angelton and Parc Gwyllt from 1887 to 1922
      Known as Glamorgan County Mental Hospital from 1922 to 1948
      1901 There is an entry for Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum, Higher Coyty in the 1901 Census
      1905 civil parish of Bridgend formed out of portions of the parishes of Newcastle and Coity.
      1911 Encyclopedia Britannica: Bridgend (Welsh name Penybont-ar-Ogwr) is a market town straddling the river Ogwr. 1901 population of urban district: 6,062. "Just outside the town at Angelton and Parc Gwyllt are the Glamorgan county lunatic asylums."
      1934 Penyfai, a new hospital for admissions, opened on the Glanrhyd site
      1948: Glanrhyd and Parc and Penyfai became Morgannwg Hospital
      In 1979, Morgannwg Hospital consisted of Glanrhyd Hospital (416 beds) and Penyfai (161 beds), both at Bridgend, CF31 4LN, Mid Glamorgan, and Parc Hospital (845 beds), Bridgend, CF35 6AP
      Parc and Penyfai are closed. Glanrhyd Hospital is active (website)

      Cardiff City Mental Hospital, opened 1908.
      Compact Arrow design.
      (Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital from 1915 to 1919).
      (Whitchurch Emergency Hospital 1939 - 1945)
      Cardiff City Mental Hospital (1945 - 1948),
      Whitchurch Hospital 1948.
      Whitchurch, Cardiff, CF4 7XB
      Autumn 2007 Start of Whitchurch Project

      Swansea Borough Cefn Coed opened 1932. Peter Cracknell suggests the last Compact Arrow design.

      In 1858 Haverfordwest had a borough asylum with 34 patients and Vernon House contained 183 pauper patients.

    Vernon House, Britten (or Briton) Ferry. Near Swansea, Glamorgan, South Wales
    Licensed House
    AN A mansion and outhouses asylum
    Opened 1843 (1844 Report p.200) 1.1.1844: 3 patients. 2 pauper and 1 private. In 1858 209 patients. 183 pauper and 26 private.
    1859 national comparisons
    1870: 120 patients, 54 of them paupers (Parry-Jones Table 6)
    1881 Census: "Asylum", Briton Ferry, Glamorgan, Wales. Charles Pegge (aged 47, married) Surgeon and Asylum Proprieter.


    Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, South Wales
    Made a "County Asylum" under a local Act in 1822
    Formerly a small gaol for the criminals of the town. No addition or alteration was made to the building when it was taken over for the confinment of pauper lunatics. The corporation contracted with a private individual to supply all food and other necessities and employed a husband and wife at £20 a year as the asylum staff.

    From Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1833), reproduced on the Genuki site

    "The borough gaol and house of correction, a modern building situated on St. Thomas' Green, in the upper part of the town, is now, by a recent act of parliament, devoted to a lunatic asylum, as well for Pembrokeshire as for Haverfordwest; and by the same act the common gaol and house of correction for Pembrokeshire, to the purposes of which the remains of the ancient castle have been assigned, are appropriated for the reception of prisoners both for Pembrokeshire and Haverfordwest: the buildings are well calculated for the classification of prisoners, and comprise eight wards; two work-rooms, one for males and one for females; eight day-rooms and eight airing-yards, in one of which is a tread-mill."

    1844 Pigot directory on Genuki site had George Amson , Keeper and George Millard, Surgeon, at Lunatic Asylum, St Thomas' Green
    1844 Report: Superintendent: G. Hampson. 1.1.1844 17 patients. All pauper.

    In 1858 there was a borough asylum
    Today, a "former lunatic asylum" has been identified.

    Mental Handicap Hospitals in Wales

    Ely Hospital, Cowbridge Road, Cardiff. Established by Cardiff Poor Law Union in grounds of Ely Lodge Children's Homes in 1903. An asylum for mental patients that later specialised in mental handicap.

    Hospital Scandal - Bopcris Closed 1996. Address was Ely Hospital, Cowbridge Road West, Cardiff, CF5 5XE.

    Hensol Hospital, near Pontyclun, South Glamorgan.
    Still active. (website)

    Llanfrechfa Grange. Llanfrechfa, near Cwmbran, Gwent, NP4 2YN
    Opened 1948
    Still active
    (website)

    Gwynedd Health Authority (North West Wales) 1979:

    Bryn-y-Neuadd Hospital, Llanfairfechan, Gwynedd, LL33 0HH
    A house, built about 1667, was demolished in 1858 and rebuilt in 1858.
    St Andrew's Hospital, Northampton owned the house from about 1900 to the early nineteen sixties, and provided care for middle class residents with mental health problems. The house was demolished in August 1967 and the site used to construct the last National Health Service mental handicap hospital to be built - (see 1971 change of policy). It opened in 1971. People were moved into the hospital from Oakwood Park, near Conway, and Garth Anghard near Dolgellau. Bryn-y-Neuadd has villa style accommodation in wooded grounds. There were 233 patients on 31.12.1971, and it carried on growing. But resettlement from the hospital began almost as soon as it opened, as, in the 1970s, adults with low dependency moved into the community. There were 350 beds on 31.12.1977. By the mid 1980s all children, except one, were found successful placements in the community. But on 30.9.1989 there were still 208 people living there long-term. 102 still lived there in January 2001. They came, originally, from a wide area: Ynys Mon, Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham will all be involved in finding them new homes by 2005/2006.
    access to consultation document

    Garth Angharad Hospital, Dolgellau, Gwynedd, LL40 1YF
    43 beds on 31.12.1977.

    Llwyn View Hospital, Dolgellau, Gwynedd, LL40 1YF
    68 beds on 31.12.1977.

    See Historic Herefordshire Online: "Infirmary and Lunatic Asylum, Old General Hospital, Nelson Street, Parish Hereford NGR SO 5135 3937" map link to present Nelson Street . Infirmary foundation stone laid 1.3.1781, opened August 1783. "William Parker of Hereford was architect and builder. The building had three storeys with two ground floor wings, plus cellars and attics. Built on land donated by Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, it cost 4,803, and could accommodate 55 patients."

    Hereford Lunatic Asylum
    Licensed House at one time a Hospital.
    Founded 1797 under the auspices of the governors of Hereford Infirmary (founded 1776) with funds raised by voluntary contributions. Fund to set up asylum was begun in 1777, but took until 1792 to collect enough money to begin work. A two-storey building, in the grounds of the Infirmary, designed by John Nash and built by Mr Knight. The resident superintendents suite of rooms was at the front of the building. 20 patients could be accommodated.
    In 1802 licensed to a physician and surgeon who were to run it jointly as a private house. The building was still owned by the infirmary's governors. It was extended in 1838.
    History to 1839
    1839 Select Committee of the House of Commons Hereford Lunatic Asylum
    Proprietor (1844) J. Gililand (Surgeon).
    1.1.1844 35 patients. 28 pauper and 7 private.
    Weekly charge for paupers: 10/- to 12/- excluding clothes. [Highest recorded for a private pauper house at this time. See Plympton House, Devon]
    Following the 1845 County Asylums Act, it was decided that the counties of Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Breconshire and Radnorshire, plus the city of Hereford, would form a union to build a joint asylum at Abergavenny. This opened 1.12.1851 "and the last patient was discharged from the Hereford asylum in January 1853, and it was demolished soon after".

    Millard's, Whitechurch, Ross, Herefordshire
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844 18 patients. 9 pauper and 9 private.
    Later Portland House
    1859 national comparisons

    From 1851, Hereford county shared the joint Monmouth, Hereford, Brecon and Radnor County Asylum at Abergavenny By 1864, Abergavenny was overcrowded, and Hereford city and Herefordshire decided to build their own asylum.
    The Builder 21.3.1868 Competition for Hereford Lunatic Asylum (work began in 1868)
    Hereford County and City Lunatic Asylum Burghill, three miles north of Hereford [HR7 4QN] opened in 1871
    see Historic Hereford Online
    Architect: R. Griffiths of Stafford.
    Corridor form - Small enough for Conolly's ideal
    1875: The fourth annual report of the committee of visitors of the Hereford City and County Asylum at Burghill, near Hereford Printed at the "Hereford Times" offices, 1876, 50 pages. Consists of a list of committee members, the report of the committee of visitors (Archer Clive, chairman), report of the Commissioners in Lunacy (Charles Palmer Phillips, John D. Cleaton), report of the medical superintendent (T. Algernon Chapman), the report of the chaplain (C.H. Bulmer), statistical tables and financial statements (Wellcome Library catalogue)
    1881 Census: Thomas A. Chapman, Medical Superintendent (married), living with his mother and sisters. [I have not found the asylum. They are living in a separate house]
    1900 Extension by Giles, Gough and Trollope
    In 1901 census: Hereford County and City Asylum. Note ecclesiastical parish is St Mary.
    St Mary's Asylum
    1.1.1927: 509 patients of whom all but 33 were Rate Aided. 206 were men, 303 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 33.3%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 5.7%
    31.12.1960 "Burghill" 655 beds. Expected to reduce to 231 by 1975
    Became St Mary's Hospital, Burghill, near Hereford, HR7 4QN
    31.12.1977: 327 beds
    Closed 1994
    Herefordshire MIND and Logaston Press published a book of the memories of ex patients and staff in 1995, entitled, "Boots on! Out! Reflections on life at St. Mary's Hospital." The interviews cover a period of more than forty years.
    See external link Public Health in Herefordshire in the 19th Century
    Archives believed to be in Hereford Record Office

    Holme Lacey Hospital
    Holme Lacey, near Hereford
    Two archives in Hereford Record Office:
    1934: architectural plans
    1950-1975: staff registers, Burghill and Holme Lacy Hospital House committee minutes
    31.12.1960 106 beds. Expected to close before 1975
    about 1978 100 amenity (section 4) beds for mental illness

    Mental Handicap Hospitals in Herefordshire

    Ross on Wye What was the Ross Union Workhouse (Peter Higginbotham's site) is recorded as a subnormality hospital (1960) with beds for geriatric patients as well (1977)
    31.13.1960: Alton Street: 127 beds
    31.12.1977: Dean Hill Hospital: 112 beds "Mental Handicap and Geriatric"
    1997 Building demolished to make room for Ross Community Hospital. (Ross Town Walk)


    House of Industry, Kingsland, Shrewsbury, Shropshire
    History on
    Peter Higginbotham's website
    "The local workhouse (House of Industry) for Shrewsbury was situated in Kingsland and is now the main building of Shrewsbury School. Kingsland Lunatic Asylum was attached to the workhouse in the early 1830s and was possibly paid for by individual subscription" Rosie Barnes 1998 p.1
    A Licensed Workhouse Asylum
    1.1.1844 90 patients. 79 pauper and 11 private. Sometimes received Welsh paupers (1844 Welsh Report p.5)
    1850 Kingsland Asylum, Shrewsbury, one of three licensed house outside London named as especially defective in the Lunacy Commission's Report. The whole establishment was considered unsuitable for the reception of lunatics. The gutters, privies and airing-courst were dirty and offensive, the drainage deficient, the walls damp and the clothing and bedding filthy and inadequate. The other two houses named were Fisherton House and Belle Vue House in Wiltshire. . (Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.255)

    House of Industry, Morda, Oswestry, Shropshire
    History on
    Peter Higginbotham's website
    A Licensed Workhouse Asylum
    1.1.1844 15 patients. 13 pauper and 2 private.

    "The Diary of a Country Gentleman: Sir Baldwin Leighton, Bt (1805-71)" by Vincent J. Walsh in Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society Volume 59 part 2, contains information about the formation of the Shropshire, Wenlock and Montgomery County Asylum, drawn on by Rosie Barnes 1998:

    Shropsire Archives catalogues "Asylum Visiting Justices Committee" - "Minute and Report Books" 1838-1846

    January 1841 Shropshire Quarter Sessions formed a committee to provide a pauper lunatic asylum. Baldwin Leighton, a member of the committee, was a magistrate for both Shropshire and Montgomery. He was influential in selecting the site at Shelton, on the road west from Shrewsbury (Diary 5.1.1841 and 3.4.1841). In August and September 1841 he visited asylums throughout the country. In July 1842, Leighton told Shrewsbury Quarter Sessions that Montgomery was willing to share costs. "Initially, the motion failed primarily because of language difficulties between English speaking staff and Welsh speaking patients ~ 'Welsh patients would have been treated as one class'. (Rosie Barnes 1998 p.3)


    Shropshire County Asylum opened in March 1845, becoming Shropshire and Montgomery County Asylum in 1846. It was the first county asylum provided for part of Wales and continued as a jount English/Welsh asylum until 1911. Its history from 1845 to 1911 is outlined above.

    From 1851-1863, the addition of Shrewsbury and Oswestry was made to the county asylum's title. The county asylum, was a joint institution of which the Counties of Shropshire and Montgomeryshire and the Borough of Wenlock were owners and formed the management committee, while Shrewsbury and Oswestry had the use of it on payment of a capitation rent. (Annotation in Shropshire Archives)


    Shropshire and Borough of Wenlock Lunatic Asylum (1911 to 1921)
    In 1911 - 765 patients were resident - 332 male and 433 female which included 28 private class, and 7 criminals. (Rosie Barnes 1998 p.13)
    Salop Mental Hospital (1921-1948)
    Copthorne and Shelton Emergency Hospital (1940-1941)
    Shelton Hospital (1948-)
    26.2.1968 Fire kills 24 patients. (external BBC link) Rosie Barnes 1998 (pages 47-48): The fire on Beech Ward brought the highest hospital death toll in Britain for 14 years: 24 dead and 11 seriously injured. The evidence suggests that the fire began with a lighted cigarette smouldering in a chair for some time before igniting it. Patients were not killed by the flames, but by toxic fumes.. Beech Ward was a locked (closed) ward. Due to overcrowding, beds were 'top to tail' along the window wall. All the patients sleeping in those beds died of asphyxia and carbon monoxide poisoning. The fire was reported in local and national newspapers, on radio and television, and as far away as America. As a result, many of the fire procedures in hospitals throughout the country were evaluated and updated.
    September 1975 Retirement of the last Medical Superintendent. Dr Littlejohn
    The hospital is now the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (Shelton), Bicton Heath, Shelton.
    picture
website

    1998 Shelton Past and Present by Rosie Morris published by Shropshire's Community and Mental Health Services NHS Trust. 56 pages, with maps, plans and portraits. Clicking on the picture will take you to a collection of the pictures

    "Shelton Hospital is still up and running but plans are for it to close and have a new unit built by 2011" (email from Rosie Morris, May 2006)

    Midlands

    Birmingham and West Midlands

    Birmingham (Parish) Workhouse

    A Workhouse Asylum
    "Wards exclusively appropriated to lunatics (1844 Report p.10) Visited 29.9.1843 (1844 Report p.234)

    "there were seventy-one insane persons, subject to insanity in various forms; several of them being epileptics, liable, after their paroxysms of epilepsy, to fits of raving madness, during which they were usually excessively violent, and some of them under great excitement, and furiously maniacal." (1844 Report p.98)

    Birmingham Lunatic Asylum opened in Lodge Road, Winson Green, in 1852. A new workhouse was opened 9.3.1852 at the junction of Dudley Road and Western Road, Winson Green. This appears to be just south of the asylum site on Lodge Road. The Birmingham Workhouse Infirmary (1889-1920) became Dudley Road Hospital, B18 7QH. See Peter Higginbotham's site. The following passage from a local history with pictures relates the construction of the prison, asylum, workhouse and infirmary:

    "The land around Winson Green was unsuitable for agricultural use and was deemed a favourable location for the public institutions that a developing city required. In the early 19th century Birmingham was having to send its prisoners to the County Gaol at Warwick. In 1844 the council resolved to build a gaol within the borough. Mayor Thomas Philips laid a foundation stone at Winson Green on October 29th 1845 but the prison took four years to complete. Built on the Pentonville model, Winson Green Prison cost some £60,000. The first inmate was interned on October 17th 1849. The gaol was followed by the Borough Lunatic Asylum which opened the following year. Construction had started in 1847 to the designs of D.R.Hill who was also the architect for the prison. The Corporation resolved to erect the Birmingham Union Workhouse next to the gaol and asylum. Designed by John Jones Bateman, the building was opened on March 29th 1852. Bateman worked on a number of Birmingham Gothic buildings, notably the Unitarian Church of the Messiah in Broad Street. By the mid-1880's much of the workhouse was given over to sick wards and in 1890 a dedicated infirmary had to be constructed to meet the needs of the sick. The concentration of public buildings inevitably led to the urbanisation of the local area. This was compounded by the arrival first of the canal and later the railway. "

    Duddeston Hall, near Birmingham, Warwickshire
    Licensed House
    opened 1835 for 18 paupers (closed 1865) "formerly the villa of a banker, in the suburbs of Birmingham" . Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 pp 58 + 176 + 190
    Number of patients admitted 1835-1841 (seven years): 353. Outcome of treatment: discharged cured 112; discharged improved 24; discharged not cured 83; died 56; remaining under treatment 78.
    This from an handbill advertisement issued by the proprietors which also contrasts with Hanwell: for last three months of 1841, average patients in Hanwell 992 of whom four were discharged cured and two improved. Duddeston Hall, same period, average patients 88 of whom seven were discharged cured and two improved Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.205 (Handbill: Warwickshire County Record Office, QA.24/a/I/5)
    1842: Licensed for 99 patients. Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 (pp 40-43) suggests this was to avoid the requirement for a resident medical officer
    About 1842 Rules and Regulations for the Male and Female Keepers and Servants, at Duddeston Hall Lunatic Asylum (Warwickshire County Records Office, Quarter Sessions lunacy records), reproduced Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 pp 190-192) 1.1.1844 80 patients. 60 pauper and 20 private. Weekly charge for paupers 10/- including clothes.
    Proprietor (1844) Messrs Lewis.
    A mansion and outhouses asylum. "established and carried on" in connection with
    Birmingham Workhouse which sent unmanageable patients and took them back when tolerably tranquil. (1844 Report p.42)
    1867 Became St Anne's School, Devon Street - external link to www.heartlandshistory.co.uk, where it is explained that there were two Dudeston Halls. The asylum was not the Vaux Hall one

    Haugh House, Packwood, Warwickshire
    Licensed House
    1844 Proprietor Mrs M. Gibbs
    1.1.1844 4 patients. 1 pauper and 3 private.
    Weekly charge for paupers: not stated.

    Warwickshire County Asylum opened 30.6.1852, had 334 patients in 1858.
    Hospital database says "founded 1846", which I take to be the year a committee was appointed to plan the asylum under the 1845 County Asylums Act
    1881 Census: "Lunatic Asylum" Hatton, Hatton, Warwick. Head: William Henry Parsey, Physician, aged 60, born Chelsea, Middlesex. Married to Julia, aged 58, born Pinner, Middlesex. Daughter, Julia Mary Parsey, unmarried, aged 27, born in Hatton.
    It became Warwick County Mental Hospital in 1930 and Central Hospital, Hatton, Warwick, CV35 7EE about 1948.
    1994: 95 patients
    See Rossbret information and photographs. The hospital is closed and has been redeveloped as expensive residential accommodation.
    2003 use: "Luxury housing"
    Archive catalogues: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

    Birmingham Asylums Try Birmingham City Archives for records

    Winson Green Asylum, Birmingham,
    See County Asylums website
    Opened in 1850. The foundation stone was laid by Robert Martineau, the Mayor of Birmingham, on 29.9.1847. It was built on the same area as the prison and workhouse
    The asylum was called Birmingham City Asylum by 1902 and Birmingham City Mental Hospital by 1929. It became All Saint's Hospital, Lodge Road, Winson Green, Birmingham, B18 58D. [The postcode is not now used, but "All Saints House, 280 Lodge Road, Hockley, Birmingham" has the postcode B18 5SB
    All Saints Hospital had 721 beds in 1979
    Closed 12.4.2000. A listed building. It is now used by the prison authorities.
    2003 use: "Prison"
    Rossbret Asylums Website had photographs (lost?)
    The records are in Birmingham City Archives

    Rubery Hill Lunatic Asylum
    See
    County Asylums website which says "founded 1876"
    Opened 4.1.1882 as the second Birmingham Asylum.
    Cock Hill Lane, Rednal, nr. Rubery Hill, Birmingham, Warwickshire
    Architects: William Martin & John Henry Chamberlain. Layout: Pavilion Plan
    1896 "At Rubery Hill there is but little for Dr. Suffern to make note of, since his patients are almost entirely chronic. He can report, however, two recoveries after seven and twelve years' illness". (offline)
    It is shown on a 1904 map as City of Birmingham Lunatic Asylum (Rubery Hill)
    Maps were on the Rossbret Asylums Website - but now seem to be lost)
    It became Rubery Hill Hospital, Bristol Road South, Birmingham, B45 9BB
    See Joan Hughes' 1965 and 1967
    It had 638 beds in 1979
    John Connolly Hospital, with 105 beds, was the same address.
    Closed 1993
    The records are in Birmingham City Archives

    John Connolly Hospital
    Designed and built as a specialist mental hospital in 1965,
    Built as a modern 90 bedded unit, it also had out-patient and day patients departments.
    Nagy Riad Bishay was Senior Registrar at the John Connolly Hospital from 1976 to September 1979
    It was closed and demolished in 1996.

    Hollymoor Lunatic Asylum
    See County Asylums website
    Construction of Hollymoor Hospital, Rubery,which says it was built after 1900, largely completed by 1904 and officially opened on 6.5.1905 Date closed:

    Location: Tessalls Lane, Northfield, near Longbridge, Birmingham, Warwickshire.
    Architect: William Martin & Martin Layout: Compact Arrow City of Birmingham Lunatic Asylum (Hollymoor) is shown on a 1904 map (See Rossbret Asylums Website). It is just to the east of Rubery Hill. It may have opened in 1905, but there are administrative records from 1899.

    Hollymoor served as an annex to Rubery Hill and was linked to Rubery Hill in research ("Northfield experiments") and "specialised treatment".

    Northfields Military Hospital?


    the so called "Northfield Experiments" took place at the Hollymoor Hospital, Northfield, with as important proponents, J. Rickman, W.R. Bion (Northfield I) and S. Foulkes, Tom Main and H. Bridger (Northfield II) from 1942 to 1948.
    By 1949 it was a distinct hospital from Rubery Hill. (Hospital database)
    Became: Hollymoor Hospital, Tessal Lane, Northfield, Birmingham, B31 5EX.
    In 1959 it had 511 beds. The patient numbers fell slowly to 490 by 1984, and then rapidly to 139 by 1994.
    31.3.1994: 185 patients
    Closed July 1994 (Other source says 1995)
    2003 use: "Theatre, community centre"
    The records are in Birmingham City Archives
    There is a book: The History of Hollymoor Hospital
    The Rubery Hill and Hollymoor Hospital site has been redeveloped as a Business Park.

    Northfield Military Psychiatric Hospital, Birmingham. Opened about 1917. Closed about 1919.

    Highcroft Hospital (Mental Illness) Erdington, Birmingham B23 6AX or B23 7JA is the former Aston Union Workhouse and Infirmary. In 1911, most Aston parishes became part of Birmingham Union. The buildings were developed into a mental hospital under the National Health Service.
    1979: 853 beds
    "The former workhouse buildings are scheduled for refurbishment but are currently derelict and inaccessible" Peter Higginbotham
    By 2000, "the large imposing building was closed and Mental Health services administered by the newly formed North Birmingham Mental Health NHS Trust. New purpose built units have been provided to take health care forward and the Grade II listed Highcroft Hall is to be sold and converted into residential accommodation" Rossbret Workhouse Website

    Mental Handicap Hospitals in Birmingham Area

    St Margaret's and Daisy Bank Avenue
    6.7.1951
    Mary Betteridge admitted. See Hansard
    28.2.1955 Kathleen Bradley - personal case Hansard
    "Kathleen Bradley who had been detained for 20 years. At the age of 19, recovering from rheumatic fever, her local authority had been unable to find anyone to look after her. Though she had been in the top class at her school and had no record of being a delinquent she had been certified as a 'mental defective'. A campaign to release her included questions in Parliament and appeals to the Board of Control. She was released in 1955."
    1971: 1,404 beds

    Monyhull and Agatha Stacey House
    Monyhull Hall Road, Birmingham, B30 3QB
    1908 Monyhull Colony opened
    Dispersed form.
    Charles James Cecil Earl medical superintendent of of Monyhull Hall Hospital, Kings Heath, Birmingham, from 1940 to his retirement in 1953.
    July 1946? Dr Earl examined Peter Whitehead at Besford Court and recommended that he be sent to Rampron.
    1948? Became Monyhull Hospital?
    1971: 777 beds
    1979: 590 patients
    Closed 1998?

    Chelmsley
    1971: 706 beds

    Stallington and Bagnall
    Blythe Bridge, Near Leek, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, ST11 9QL.
    1928: Opened. Patients transferred from The Cloughs
    1971: 661 beds
    1979: 482 patients
    Patients were transferred from Loppington House when that closed
    1997: Closure

    Lea Castle
    1971: 658 beds

    Coleshill Hall and Over Whiteacre House
    1971: 409 beds

    Weston
    1971: 229 beds

    Middlefield
    1971: 237 beds

    Droitwich Lunatic Asylum, Worcestershire
    Opened 1791
    Licensed House
    On 1815 list
    Place: Droitwich. Name: Ricketts
    1819: 102 patients. The only provincial house with over 100.
    1825: 112 patients. Laverstock the only other provincial house with over 100.
    1828: Resident medical officer required by law in houses with over 100 patients
    Proprietors (1844) Messrs Ricketts and Hastings, surgeons.
    1.1.1844: 80 patients. 54 pauper and 26 private.
    Weekly charge for paupers: 9/- including clothes.
    ON 1844 LIST OF BEST CONDUCTED
    1870: Droitwich Asylum. Proprietor: F.I. Bennet (surgeon)
    "Don't you think a short visit to Droitwich would do you good, Ellin?" cried Tod, which was our Worcestershire fashion of recommending people to the lunatic asylum. (Mrs Henry Wood, 1814-1887, from her short story A Mystery
    I have not been able to find in the 1881 Census

    Worcestershire County Asylum, for 200 patients, opened 11.8.1852 at Powick
    It had 365 patients in 1858.
    1873: Edward Marriott Cooke assistant medical officer
    about 1878 Edward Elgar appointed bandmaster of the attendants' orchestra. (Powerful Medicine by James Bartel)
    1881 Census: Worcester Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Powick, Worcester, England: Frederick Hurst Craddock, Superintendant, unmarried surgeon aged 30 (BA Oxford MRCS England), born Lindley Grange, Leicester. Richard Atkinson, Assistant Medical Officer, unmarried surgeon aged 32 (BA Cambridge MRCS England), born Carlisle, Cumberland, England, Eliza Giddings, Matron, unmarried, aged 61, born St Peters, Guernsey, Channel Islands
    1881 Census:: James Sherlock, aged 53, born Ireland, Physician & Surgeon, living with his wife Emily Sherlock, aged 52, born Newport, Isle of Wight, Hampshire, and unmarried daughter, Emily E.A. Sherlock, aged 21, born Powick and a cook and other domestic servant in Doctors House, Powick, Worcester.
    In 1881 Edward Marriott Cooke became Superintendent following the death of Dr Sherlock
    1881 Census: Charles Hubert Bond, aged ten, living with his father, the chaplain to the asylum
    In 1881, Edward W. Elgar, professor of violin, was living as a lodger in Chestnut Walk, Claines, Worcester
    Later known as Powick Hospital. Now closed.
    2003 use: "Luxury housing"

    The history by Robert Ashworth has been taken offline but a partial archive exists.

    Barnsley Hall
    Stourbridge Road Bromsgrove B61 0EU
    Foundation year: 1903
    Compact Arrow form
    By 1929 Worcestershire Mental Hospital
    "In 1929 the hospital had a nominal capacity of 638, and employed 50 male and 54 female attendants to oversee a daily average of 703 patients. The average weekly cost per patients was 21s, recovered from the 22s 7d charged per week, paid quarterly in advance. Private patients were charged 35s per week, also paid quartery in advance. By the time the hospital closed in 1996 the number of beds had shrunk to 45." (Hospital database)
    1948 reference Barnsley Hall Mental Hospital
    1949 Barnsley Hall Hospital for Nervous and Mental Diseases
    1966 Barnsley Hall Hospital, Bromsgrove
    Closed 1996

    Besford Court, Defford, Worcestershire

    25.5.1880 Birth of Thomas Aldhelm Newsome in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. His father, Thomas W Newsome (Channel Islands 1850-) was Superintendant and Teacher of St Phillips Orphanage 11 Oliver Road, Birmingham. His mother, Agnes Newsome (West Bromwich, Staffordshire, 1847), was the Matron. Entered St Mary's College, Oscott, Birmingham (Roman Catholic Seminary) 6.9.1899 Ordained 28.10.1905

    1915 Besford Court for sale. It was purchased by Archbishop Isley of Birmingham [Edward Ilsley 11.5.1838-13.6.1926] to be adapted as a Roman Catholic institution for mentally defective boys. Conversions of buildings made. "Ilsley's most notable achievement was the establishment in 1902 of the Birmingham Diocesan Rescue Society, which under its first administrator, the energetic and innovative George Vincent Hudson, burgeoned into a social care agency of great complexity and size and embraced, among other institutions, a village of residential care at Coleshill and a pioneering home and school for boys with learning difficulties at Besford Court, Pershore." (DNB)
    See Welcome to Besford Court School
    Monsignor "Thomas Aldhelm Newsome, founder in 1915 of the Besford Court Mental Welfare Hospital for Children, died just before Christmas, 1942" (The Tablet)
    1.4.1916 The Tablet The Diocesan Rescue Society' annual income was £4,846 6s. in 1915. The expenditure being £4,851 19s. 2d. During the year 416 fresh applications were dealt with. Of these, 137 were distributed in one or other of the homes at Coleshill or Nazareth House, Rednal, or other Poor Law Schools, St. Vincent's Home for Working Boys, &c. Of the remainder, 110 were dealt with at the Children's Court, 29 emigrated to Canada, 47 were referred to other homes or societies, and 93 were withdrawn as being outside the scope of the society. A valuable property has been acquired at Besford, Worcestershire, to serve as a home for Mentally Deficient Children. The new school at St. Edward's, Coleshill, was completed last October, at a cost of £2,000, the whole of which has been received.
    1917 opened under he supervision of Monsignor Newsome. He was was helped by the Sisters of Charity of St Paul until 1924. "Throughout his period of office, Thomas Newsome not only abhorred physical violence - "it corrodes the soul of both the giver and the receiver" - but saw it as a positive deterrent to progress. An Important Notice to all members of Staff" was printed. 'The administrator warns all members of staff that corporal punishment of any kind given with or without an instrument is most rigidly forbidden by the Managers'.
    1918 Special certification for 76 boys and 46 girls.
    The institution was both Besford Court Special School approved by the Board of Education (boys under 16 ranging from defective to merely backward) and Besford Court Mental Deficiency Institution approved by the Board of Control (idiots and imbeciles up to the age of 40 years and more).
    1920 School recertified with no limits set.
    1923 Board of Education report that boys in special schools needed entirely male supervision and should be taught on specialised industrial lines for some type of work when they left at 16.
    August 1923 Rev Patrick F. M. McSwiney went to St. Patrick's Stafford, from Newcastle-under-Lyme.
    15.12.1924 St Joseph's Special School, Sambourne, Astwood Bank, near Redditch (or near Studley), Worcestershire opened as a junior branch of Besford. "For twenty five years. Sambourne was to provide the base upon which Besford built. until Croome Court was Bought, and the boys transferred there in 1949."
    In 1925 a combined total for Besford and St Joseph's was set at 179.
    4.6.1927 Maria Montessori visited, accompanied by her niece.
    1927 The Story of Besford Court by the Right Rev. Monsignor Newsome (Administrator), Birmingham: The Herald Press. (From 907 - Only last two pages deal with the present day):
    "Boys at Besford Court are high-grade defectives. In ordinary schools they would learn nothing. They would grow up with an anti-social grudge, a feeling of hopeless inferiority successfully preventing them using such slender natural gifts they had to any good purpose. Soon after school age, unless their parents can afford to maintain them, they would have to be taken over by some State institution for life. Mental defect renders a boy quite incapable of profiting by any ordinary system of education. Such a boy must be educated by different methods. Training must take the form of manual work, learning by doing things. Efforts must be concentrated on training abilities, moulding and strengthening character. The physical wreck must be set up in strength and build up into a healthy child in an atmosphere of intense kindness and of perfect sympathy.
    "All these boys have most attractive personalities. Indeed, if they thought with their faces, many of them would be highly intelligent. No visitor can fail to be struck by their charming candour and friendly ways. Watch them at work and play - you will see how happy they are and what a joy it is to them to be able to do things like other people. They do not quarrel with each other like children... Both they and we are here for one object - that each of them will be able to leave the secure haven of Besford Court and set sail bravely and safely in the great ocean of Life. If by chance you pass them, dip your flags to them."
    Thomas Newsome celebrated the silver (25th) Jubilee of his ordination in November 1930
    1933 School recertified with no limits set.
    1.6.1935 CLERICAL APPOINTMENTS.-The Rev. Patrick F. M. McSwiney, rector at St. Patrick's, Stafford, has been appointed assistant administrator at Besford Court, Worcester. The rectorship at St. Patrick's is to be filled by the Rev. Murtagh Dempsey, from St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham. (The Tablet)
    7.6.1935 Father Patrick F.M. McSwiney arrived at Besford as Resident Manager and Thomas Newsome's successor.
    14.6.1935 Thomas Newsome left Besford. He lived at Beaconsfield for seven years until his death in 1942. He was first buried at Olton - and then under the trees at Besford, facing the front door of the house.
    26.1.1937 Peter Whitehead (aged 8) moved from the Nazareth House (Catholic orphanage) in Southampton to St Joseph's [Sambourne].
    25.8.1941 Peter Whitehead (aged 13) moved from St Joseph's to Besford Court. "After the nuns at Sambourne, he was bewildered by this man's world of harsh commands and rough voices... punishments at Besford Court weer much harsher. A leather strap was in constant use, inficted on hands or backsides".
    (Roxan 1958 p, 36).
    Just befor Christmas 1942: death of Monsignor Thomas Newsome
    1943 "Just before his fifteenth birthday he experienced a prolonged bout of depression" (Roxan 1958 p, 41).
    1944 Peter Whitehead: "At the end of term in which he attained the age of 16 years, viz June 30th, 1944, he was discharged from the Special School and admitted on July 1st, 1944 to the Besford Court Certified Institution as "in a place of safety" on the authority of the Medical Officer of Health, Southampton. From that date he became the responsibility of the Southampton Mental Deficiency Committee.
    27.1.1944 Peter Whitehead examined by two GPs (Roxan 1958 p, 63). "His I.Q. was fixed at about 78" (Roxan 1958 p, 68).
    6.12.1944 Peter Whitehead certified under Section 6 of the 1913 Act (Board of Control to Dennis Whitehead 3.2.1955). (Roxan 1958 p,225).
    "Whitehead was certified as a feeble-minded person under the M.D. Acts 1913-38 on December 6th, 1944. He was transferred from Besford Court Certified Institution on August 7, 1946". (Rev. W.A. Warner, Resident Manager 1955, quoted (Roxan 1958 p.228)
    1945 W.A. Warner Resident Manager
    14.1.1946 Peter Whitehead working in Canning Town
    6.8.1946 Peter Whitehead (aged 18) moved from Besford Court to Rampton
    About 1946 Nine year old Jimmy McEvoy went to Besford Court
    About 1948 12 year old Davey Hooper flogged for running away

    About 1948 Danny Lavelle went to Besford Court

    1955 Now solely an ESN. school dealing with some eighty education authorities, Besford Court decided to close the school throughout August, providing all boys with a holiday. (Roxan 1958 p.40)
    About 1955 Ten year old John Connolly went to Besford Court. "He says if anyone tried to run away from the school they would be punished - they would have to kneel on marbles or their head would be held under water." (Northern Echo)
    1956 Father Warner still Resident Manager at Besford Court: "many of us greatly liked Peter [Whitehead]. During all the years he was in Rampton he never forgot to send me a Christmas card and he wrote to several members of staff". (Roxan 1958 p.88)
    1969 Major fire at Besford Court. 8.8.1969 Catholic Herald "Besford Court, a Catholic residential school for educationally sub-normal children in the Birmingham diocese. A fire has put Besford Court out of action"
    1969 John Connolly left Besford Court (age 17?)
    1986 BBC Doomsday "Besford Court is a special school run by the Roman Catholic Church for boys with a variety of learning problems. There are 51 staff including the gardener, chef and launderette attendants. The staff mainly live in their own houses off the grounds, but the Headmaster, Deputy Head and caring staff live on site. The children start the school at the age of 8 and leave at 16 unless they want to stay on until 18. The school has many amenities such as a playing field, swimming pool, sports hall and self care flats. The children like going on trips and doing the gardening. They have a standard curriculum with the exception of modern languages. The children seem to prefer living in the country to living in the towns from which most came. (L.Cooper, K.Ledbury, J.Jackson, A.Finch)
    2001 Coverted into eight houses
    Besford.org

    East Midlands and Lincolnshire

    Northampton General Lunatic Asylum
    A Hospital
    Opened 1.8.1838
    Robert Vernon Smith, a Metropolitan Commissioner in Lunacy, was MP for Northamton Borough. The Lancet for 14.9.1844 states Dr [T.O.] Prichard "has been six years at the head of the asylum". His title by 1841 was "physician superintendent"
    1840 The statutes and rules of the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum 20 pages.
    From 1842: Home of John Clare, until his death.
    1.1.1844 231 patients. 181 pauper and 50 private.
    12.6.1844 Pageant: John Clare's The Nightingale

    26.6.1844 A new patient, Mrs Lindsay, wife of John Lindsay of Coates, was found dead. A post-mortem by Mr Marshall, the house surgeon, revealed a ruptured ileum. Surprise was expressed that a serious state of inflammation, leading to rupture, could have existed without Mrs Lindsay noticing, but The Lancet commented "A lunatic will sometimes be attacked with the most severe malady without its existence being manifested by any of the ordinary symptoms. The action of the brain is too much disturbed for it to appreciate morbid phenomena." There were charges that Dr Prichard had been negligent in not attending Mrs Lindsay. He was ill, but the illness was not severe; and there were allegations (which The Lancet dismissed) that his illness was due to intoxication. The committee of Governors criticised Dr Prichard. "It appears, from what was stated at the meeting, that Dr Prichard is rather a self-willed man, and that he has, in more instances than one, incurred the displeasure of the committee". On the motion of Sir George Robinson, the committee adopted a resolution recommending the appointment of "some medical visitor or visitors , who shall have authority independent of the superintendent of the asylum, to inquire into the practice of the said superintendent, and the general treatment of patients, and report from time to time thereupon to the committee of management".

    "In the 1860s the Hospital had problems with the mix between private and pauper patients, and the number of the latter declined, with the last ones leaving for a new county asylum in 1876. This change led to the title of the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum for the Middle and Upper classes being adopted. The asylum was renamed St Andrew's Hospital in 1887"

    1860 George S. Robinson chairman and William Smyth, vice chairman of the Committee of Management. Edwin Wing medical superintendent. Halford R. Burdett chaplain. Report contained an engraving of the cottage for the reception of lady patients (with conservatory attached)
    1864: John Clare died
    1866: Joseph Bayley medical superintendent.
    1869: Visited by W. G. Campbell and John D. Cleaton
    1870: Visited by R. W. S. Lutwidge and John D. Cleaton
    1871: Visited by W. G. Campbell and James Wilkes

    The report of Saint Andrew's Hospital for Mental Diseases, at Northampton, for the middle and upper classes from 1.1.1901 to 31.12.1901. Medical superintendent: Joseph Bayley. Chaplain: John Cunningham. Chairman of Committee of Management: C. Smyth. Visiting Lunacy Commissioners: G. Harold Urmson, E. Marriott Cooke and F. Needham. Includes photographs of Bryn-y-Neuadd, the hospital's seaside house at Llanfairfechan, Wales
    1.1.1903 to 31.12.1903 report. Visiting commissioners the same except F. A. Inderwick instead of Cooke.

    "After the Second World War St Andrew's sought for exemption from the National Health Service, and was one of four Registered Hospitals allowed to function outside the NHS, maintaining the charitable status it still enjoys today."

    St Andrew's Hospital, Billing Road, Northampton, NN1 5DG
    weblink to its own history site

    Northampton County Lunatic Asylum
    Opened 1876
    Was at Berrywood
    Later Northampton Mental Hospital
    Then St Crispin Hospital, Duston, Northampton, NN5 6UH
    Autumn 2002: Reported closed but empty. "Berry Wood Asylum later became St Crispins Hospital which is now a huge yet mainly derelict series of buildings in the Duston area of Northampton." Bookseller's notice Autumn 2002. (map)
    Northampton Asylum Conservation Area

    Leicestershire County Asylum (Leicester)
    Leicestershire and Rutland Asylum
    A County/Subscription Hospital
    Succeeded the Leicester Lunatic Asylum, which was opened in 1794 in the grounds of Leicester Infirmary (Founded 1771). Thomas Arnold (1742-1816) was joint physician. He was also the owner of a private asylum in Leicester

    "In 1794 a Lunatic Asylum was added to the Infirmary, 14 patients being received at first and more later on. Each patient made a small money payment. This department continued in existence until 1837, when the County Asylum was built and the patients removed there, a sum of £1,558 being paid over with them." (1907 p.102)
    The new County Asylum opened 10.5.1837, its costs partly defrayed by the sale of "Old Institutions", buildings etc.
    From 1837 to 1909 at: Victoria Road (now University Road) Leicester.
    Link to map showing position in what is now the University
    First accommodation for 104: 52 of each sex
    1.1.1844 131 patients. 104 pauper and 27 private.
    October 1869 J C Compston, M.D. appointed Assistant Medical Officer to Leicestershire and Rutlandshire Lunatic Asylum, Leicester
    1881 Census: The Superintendent (William H. Higgins) had his own house (now College House, Leicester University) with a cook and a groom [External link to College House History]
    1907: "The Leicestershire and Rutland asylum, or, as it is commonly called, the 'County Asylum', is situated on the Victoria Road, adjacent to the Victoria Park. It was erected in 1837. It is, however, far too small to meet the requirements of the district, and a new Asylum, standing on an estate of 184 acres, and designed to receive 912 patients, is now in course of erection at Narborough.

    In its early days, the borough mental cases were also treated there, but their great increase led to the opening, in 1867, of an Asylum for their special benefit. This is known as The Leicester Borough Asylum, and is situated near the village of Humberstone. It can accommodate 868 patients. Though lunacy in Leicester is considerably below the average, yet 621 of the patients belong to the parish of Leicester, as against 152 in 1869, so much has the town grown." (p.103)

    From A Guide to Leicester and District. Prepared for the British Association for the Advancement of Science 1907 Meeting. Under the direction of the Publictions Sub-Committee. published by Edward Shardlow, St. Martin's, Leicester.

    Leicestershire County Mental Hospital
    Replaced the Victoria Road (University Road) asylum. It was "built astride the parish boundaries of Narborough and Enderby, two villages about eight miles from the centre of the city of Leicester. (Andrew Crowther)
    "In 1908, the patients were moved to a new asylum in Narborough"
    "Pick, Everard, Keay and Gimson, civil engineers, Leicester - Many notable local undertakings and buildings have been engineered and designed by the firm during its long history. The Leicestershire and Rutland Lunatic Asylum at Narborough (Carlton Hayes Hospital), The Leicester Technical and Art Schools (Leicester Polytechnic), and the former County Council offices (Grey Friars) are worthy of mention"
    "In 1914 the name of the new asylum at Narborough was modernised to become the Leicestershire and Rutland Mental Hospital"
    In 1939 the name "was changed again to Carlton Hayes Hospital. The hospital continued to be administered by the two County Councils and the Charity until it became part of the National Health Service in 1948."
    Carlton Hayes Hospital, Forest Road, Narborough, Leicester, LE9 5ES. Also known as "CHH".
    1971: Average of 786 available beds. 701 patients.
    Woodlands Day Hospital, for people with mainly neurotic disorders, was attached.
    1994: 249 patients in Carlton Hayes
    Carlton Hayes "due to close down" on 1.3.1996 "as a result of the policy of caring for mental patients in the community. Patients will begin to leave in Autumn 1995 and the site is gradually being taken over by the Alliance and Leicester Building Society.
    Carlton Hayes Hospital closed in 1996.
    Now the Alliance & Leicester plc. Registered Office: Carlton Park, Narborough Leicester LE19 0AL. (information from Lynn Barnes, following earlier information from Andrew Crowther)

    Leicester Union Workhouse
    A Workhouse Asylum
    "Wards exclusively appropriated to lunatics" (1844 Report p.10) Visited 6.10.1843 (1844 Report.p.233) (read about it)

    Leicester Borough Lunatic Asylum opened in 1869, just outside the village of Humberstone. (Now part of Leicester: (map) - (another map)
    1881 Census: Superintendent: John Edward Montague Finch (appointed October 1869)
    Became Leicester City Mental Hospital
    It became Towers Hospital in 1948 Gipsy Lane, Leicester, LE5 OTD.
    1971: Average of 746 available beds. 662 patients.
    Closing 2002?


    "Special Schools The Leicester Education Authority was the first in the country, in 1892, to provide special instruction for backward and weak-minded children. Under this provision, the education of the eye and hand is made an instrument to lead up to a small amount of book- learning, with the result that the children are made brighter, happier, and more useful. The special school for mentally defective children occupies a part of the buildings of the elementary school in Willow Street. At this school, the most defective cases (about 40 in number) are taken in hand. In addition special, or 'Standard O', classes are held at two of the elementary schools fro cases of a less severe type than those in Willow Street. After a period of treatment in these classes, the children sometimes succeed in overcoming their backwardness, and are able to take their place in the normal school. Children who are deaf mutes are educated at a special school in Short Street, where there are about 30 scholars on the registers. The method of instruction is the 'pure oral'." (1907 pp 106-107)

    Mental Handicap Hospitals in Leicestershire 1979

    Leicester Frith Frith Hospital Glenfrith
    Opened 1914
    402 beds in 1979
    Groby Street, Leicester, LE3 9QF (map)

    Glengate Hospital, Desford, Leicester, LE9 9JJ
    56 beds in 1979

    Mountsorrel Hospital, 240 Leicester Road, Mountsorrel
    91 beds in 1979

    Stretton Hall Hospital, Oadby, Leicester, LE2 4RP
    157 beds in 1979

    Kibworth Hall Hospital, Kibworth
    38 beds in 1979

    Stoneygate Hospital, 58 Stoneygate Road, Leicester, LE2 2BN
    22 beds in 1979

    The Billesdon Hostel, Uppingham Road, Billesdon, Leicester, LE7 9FL
    18 beds in 1979

    Montrose Court, Thurmaston Lane, Leicester, LE5 0TG
    24 beds in 1979

    The Willis family's high class madhouses were in South Lincolnshire
    John Conolly was born 27.5.1794 in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, but went to school in Yorkshire from the age of six. His family moved to Yorkshire before he was 13.

    Lincoln County Hospital, founded 1769, was in Drury Lane, Lincoln from 1777 to 1878. Edward Parker Charlesworth (1783 to 1853) was a Physician to from 1808 "Before working at the County Hospital, Charlesworth had worked with Doctor Harrison at Horncastle, who ran a private madhouse" (Judy McLoughlin) citing Melton 1969 p.6. He became visiting physician to the lunatic asylum in 1820.

    Lincoln Lunatic Asylum
    A Hospital
    Union Road, Lincoln
    originated by a bequest (1803) of £100 by Paul Parnell, surgeon. (White)
    Architect: Richard Ingleman
    Administrative records from 1817
    instituted 4.11.1819
    25.3.1820 "opened for the reception of patients". Or
    Opened 20.4.1820 with accommodation for 50 patients
    Edward Parker Charlesworth visiting physician from 1820. He worked for the reduction of mechanical restraint.
    Thomas Fisher was Director (resident medical officer - house surgeon) for 10.5 years. His wife, Charlotte, was matron. In 1820 they were both in their mid 30s (1841 census - Derby) He was succeeded by Henry Marston - Samuel Hadwen - Robert Gardiner Hill - William Smith - William Graham - Francis Delavel Walsh and Arthur P. Russell (a physician)
    2.5.1828 Lincoln petitions the House of Lords to be exempt from the provisions of the Madhouse Bill
    13.10.1828 Letter from Charlesworth to the Board urging improvements:

    "That the flagrant abuses lately brought to light before Parliament such as foul offensive unventilated apartments, personal uncleanliness and neglect, brutal means of restraint, harsh and unfeeling demeanour in the attendants and above all improper association in convalescence be effectively prevented without a full and free inspection by Governors and strangers officially introduced. Lincoln Lunatic Asylum is a public institution and not a private establishment.

    Every instrument of restraint without exception used in this Asylum be ticketed and hung up in a place distinctly appropriated for each in some easily accessible place when not in use." (quoted by Judy McLoughlin)

    1829: 72 patients. Death of a patient in consequence of being strapped to the bed in a straight-waistcoat during the night. Rule established that an attendant must remain in the room whenever restraint was used at night. This, in itself, led to a reduction in the use of restraint as it no longer saved staff time.
    abdot 1830 Thomas Fisher a partner in Green Hill House, Derby
    28.3.1831 Seventh Annual Report mentioned a "new director" who D.H. Tuke (1882, p.529) identifies as Mr Henry Marston

    1834 to 1838: abolition of mechanical restraint.
    Early 1834? Samuel Hadwen succeeded Henry Marston
    In August 1834 it was reported that no patient had been in mechanical restraint of any kind for many successive days.
    Robert Gardiner Hill was born Louth, Lincolnshire, 26.2.1811. Whilst medical officer at Lincoln General Dispensary he was persuaded by Dr Charlesworth to apply to be resident medical officer at the asylum. He started in July 1835.
    8.7.1835 Governor's Memorandum Book: "Resolved - That this Board, in acknowledging the services of Mr Hadwen during the period of fifteen months that he held the situation of house surgeon of this institution, feel called upon to express their high approbation of the very small proportion of instances of restraint which have occurred amongst the patients under his care." (Quoted Tuke, D.H. 1882, p.529-530)
    1837: 130 patients. In the 1837 Report it was reported that Robert Gardiner Hill thought it possible to manage an asylum without "any instruments of restraint whatsoever" and had conducted the male side with only one instance of restraint for sixteen months.
    21.6.1838 Lecture on Total abolition of personal restraint in the treatment of the insane given by Robert Gardiner Hill to mechanics institute. (Published 1839)
    May 1839 John Conolly visited Lincoln Asylum. "conversations and correspondence with Dr Charlesworth and Mr Gardiner Hill... strongly inclined me to believe that mechanical restraints might be safely and advantageously abolished in an asylum of any size."
    See timeline
    1840 Robert Gardiner Hill retired to private practice after controversy over non-restraint. He received private patients in his home, Eastgate House, Lincoln, had an interest in Shillingthorpe House, near Stamford, Lincolnshire and was joint owner of some London houses
    William Smith resident medical officer.
    1841 Census: 25 staff, 101 patients (male 55, female 46). 90 born in Lincolnshire. The 1841 and 1861 census has the name of the Lincoln Asylum patients. The 1851 census has names of staff, but only initials of patients, their 'condition' (married, unmarried), rank, profession or occupation, where born, and whether they were blind, deaf or dumb. (Judy McLoughlin)
    1842 Report: Robert Gardiner Hill chairman. William Smith House Surgeon.
    7.1.1842 William Smith reported that Lincoln was also experimenting with abolishing seclusion (solitary confinement) and had not used it since 14.9.1841
    William Graham
    resident medical officer
    27.12.1843 Inquest opened at the asylum on "the body of Maria Hull, a pauper, of Caistor, who had been found dead in bed in the morning". No cause being evident, a postmortem examination was reported to an adjourned inquest on 1.1.1844. "Exhaustion", which had been rumoured, was ruled out because she was "remarkably fat". The organs revealed no defects, so "a general verdict of found dead" was returned. The inquest was held by "Mr Hitchins" and, like the others recorded below, reported in the Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury on a Friday. Details from Anne Cole
    1.1.1844 103 patients. 73 pauper and 30 private.
    Monday 15.4.1844 "... inquest... on the body of a patient named John Parkinson Footitt, of Butterwick, who had been for some time out of health, and who whilst putting on his trousers on Sunday morning fell down and died without a sigh or groan. Verdict, died from nervous exhaustion".
    Boston Union (Lincolnshire) minutes. Many people from this Union were sent to Haydock Lodge:
    28.9.1844. It was unanimously agreed that subject to the approval of the Poor Law Commissioners the whole of the paupers now in Lincoln Asylum chargeable to parishes in this Union be removed therefrom to the establishment kept by Mr Mott at Haydock Lodge near Manchester and the clerk was ordered to communicate this resolution to the Poor Law Commissioners and also to Mr Mott. [Page 348]
    9.11.1844. Resolved and ordered that Thursday next be fixed for removal of the several lunatic paupers mentioned in the following list from Lincoln asylum to the Haydock Lodge establishment. That the clerk do write to the Secretary at the Lincoln asylum and to Mr Mott informing them thereof and do arrange with Mr Coupland to go over to Lincoln and thence to Haydock Lodge to superintend the removal and do prepare the necessary forms and papers for re-admission of the patients. [Page 356 and 357]
    Name - Age - Parish
    Desforges Edward Sibsey
    Parsons Henry 52 Boston
    Burkitt Robert 34 Boston
    [Later stated that Burkitt remained at Lincoln]
    Bradshaw James 64 Boston
    Dulston Thomas 54 Boston
    Parker Samuel 38 Boston
    Rogerson William Skirbeck
    Turner Mary 24 Kirton
    Bettison Mary Ann Leverton
    Warsap Ann 44 Boston.
    [See also names of paupers from minutes:]
    Stamford Union, South Lincolnshire, minutes:
    2.7.1845 Case of Jacob Freer. Jacob Freer, an inmate of the workhouse belonging to Wansford was also reported to be insane. He was examined by the Board and made some very incoherent statements.
    Both the above cases were fully discussed, and as notice had been given that no more patients could be received at Northampton, it was ordered that Jane Stanton and Jacob Freer be sent to Mr Mott's asylum at Haydock Lodge near Warrington under the care of Mr Simpson, the medical officer, and Mrs Clarke, one of the nurses at the workhouse. [page 82]

    16.7.1845 Mr Charles Simpson, medical officer, reported that he had accompanied Jacob Freer to Haydock Lodge and had carefully inspected the establishment, but from defective ventilation etc he could not recommend any other patients to be sent there at present.

    He produced an account of his expences as under:
    For Jacob Freer £2
    His own expenses £4..3/-
    Sub-total: £6..3/-
    Loss of time; 2 days at 2 guineas: £4..4/-
    Total: £10..7/-
    A check was drawn for the £10..7/- and ordered to be charged as under:
    To the parish of Wansford £6..3/-
    To Establishment £4..4/-
    [Page 88]

    There are many more examples in the minute books. St John's Pauper Asylum at Bracebridge near Lincoln was opened in 1852 at which time most of the pauper lunatics were sent there from other asylums. I also notice you mention Peckham. This asylum was also used by some of the Lincolnshire Workhouses, as was Camberwell, Hull refuge and others.

    The Lincolnshire Family History Society has published four books, so far, of all entries from PLU minutes where paupers are mentioned by name, and transcribing continues.

    Lincolnshire FHS Publications Manager
    9.6.2006

    16.10.1845 James Hitchins of Lincoln, appointed as coroner for the City of Lincoln in 1836 and the County of Lincoln in 1838, appointed Edward Farr Broadbent of Lincoln, surgeon, to act as his deputy. [The inquests at the asylum, recorded here are all under Mr Hitchins]
    In November 1845, William Graham complained about the treatment of a Lincoln patient at Haydock Lodge.
    Early March 1847 Inquest on the body of William Barton, who died after a fit of epilepsy.
    Monday 19.4.1847 Inquest on the body of William Cheetham. "Verdict, apoplexy. The jury requested that it might be represented to the authorities of the Asylum that they wished for arrangements to be made so that in future they might be enabled to take their view unobserved by the patients".
    Monday 17.5.1847 Inquest on the body of Thomas Richardson. "He had been an inmate for 14 years. Verdict, died from congestion of the lungs".
    Thursday 10.6.1847 Inquest "on the body of Ann Gates, who had been found dead in bed the same morning. She had been very violent on the previous evening".
    13.8.1847 John Cottingham became a patient. The asylum surgeon at this time was Francis Delavel (Deleral?) Walsh, who was still House Surgeon in 1870.
    19.8.1847 John Cottingham complained of the attendant Smith.
    20.8.1847 John Cottingham complained that Smith had broken his ribs. Francis Walsh examined him "and found that he had not any ribs broken...Deceased had subsequently an attack of dysentery, from which he recovered; and since his recovery he had been subject to daily emaciation and exhaustion, which the witness attributed to his maniacal restlessness".
    Tuesday 5.10.1847 Death of John Cottingham. On postmortem, Francis Walsh found John Cottingham to have "four ribs broken, adhesion of the pleura, aneurism of the aorta, and a brittle state of the bones. From the appearance of the ribs, they must have been broken a short time before death". Before the postmortem, Francis Walsh "entered in his book that the death of the deceased was from maniacal exhaustion, and he retained the same opinion since the post mortem examinations"
    1851 Census: 25 staff, 127 patients (male 60, female 67). 65 born in Lincolnshire. (Judy McLoughlin)
    1852 The new County Asylum at Bracebridge being opened, the pauper patients left and the number of private patients was seldom more than 60 in the 1850s
    31.1.1853 Lengthy entry in the hospital Case Book by
    Edward Parker Charlesworth as visiting physician. He saw every patient. It was his last visit. He died on 21.2.1853. (Judy McLoughlin)
    14.3.1853 Death of Edward Ffrench Bromhead (external peerage link)
    12.7.1854 John Conolly unveiled a statute to Dr Charlesworth.
    1857 Approximate date of extracts from White Directory on the Rossbret Asylums Websit
    1861 Census: 25 staff, 78 patients (male 36, female 42). 53 born in Lincolnshire. (Judy McLoughlin)
    Francis Deleral (Delavel?) Walsh (born about 1811), the House Surgeon, was still in charge in 1870, but had retired by 1881.
    1881 Census: Lunatic Asylum, Lincoln. Arthur P. Russell: "Super (Head)" unmarried, aged 27, born Lancashire, Physician. Graduate of Edinburgh University and Member of College of Physicians (Hospital). Susan M. Munro, Matron, unmarried, aged 40, born Scotland. "Matron of Lunatic Asylum (Hospital)". James Marshall, unmarried, aged 26, born Wadsworth, Surrey. Head Attendant...
    1889 Kelly's Directory: The "Lawn" Lunatic Asylum is at Lincoln. The original building was opened 25.8.1817; the present hospital, erected in 1870, is a spacious building, 260 feet long, with a nobel front and portico of the Ionic order: the average number of resident patients in 1887 was 66- 31 males and 33 females; the total number under treatment being 83... George Mitchinson MKQCP Ireland and William O'Neill MD, physicians; Thomas Sympson LRCP Edinburgh C. Brook, surgeons; Arthur Pickston Russell MB resident medical superintended; Richard Hall secretary; Coningsby C. Sibthorp treasurer; Richard C. Carline and George Vickers auditors; Miss Munro, matron
    1905-1921 Lincoln Lunatic Hospital
    1926: Known as The Lawn.. "present hospital.. 26 feet long with a noble front and portico of the Ionic order" (Kelly's Directory)
    1948 The Lawn became a National Health Service hospital
    1969 Beatrice Louise Melton: One hundred and fifty years at the Lawn a 24 page history.
    31.12.1977: 129 beds
    Closed 1985
    Smith. L.D, 1995 "The Great Experiment: The Place of Lincoln in the History of Psychiatry", Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, Volume 30 1995, pages 55-62
    Can you afford to marry there?
    Take a pleasant walk for free

    Lincolnshire County Asylum, Bracebridge Heath, was opened 9.8.1852. The land for it was purchased in 1846. It had 300 patients in 1858 and was enlarged in 1859, 1866, 1881, 1902, 1917 and 1928. It was built in the "Italian style".
    Architect: Hamilton and Thomas Percy - Close to Conolly's ideal
    1881 Census: Physician: Edward Palmer, aged 64
    1889 Kelly's Directory: The County Lunatic Asylum is situated at Bracebridge, near Lincoln, on an eminence, on the high road to Sleaford; it is a plain building, erected in 1852, in the Italian style, and had room for 250 patients, but has since that date been considerably enlarged, and will no hold upwards of 680 patients: The ground belonging to and occupied by the asylum consists of 120 acres, cultivated chiefly by the spade husbandry of the inmates. The sewage is disposed of by irrigation over ten acres of land about a mile from the asylum, quite inoffensively and profitably. The recreation grounds, which are tastefully laid out, with flower beds, shrubs and trees, occupy about six acres. A chapel was erected in 1869 to seat 450: there is also a cemetery of one acre on the estate, with a mortuary chapel. The Viscount Oxenbridge, chairman to the committee of visitors; Robert Toynbee, Lincoln, clerk to the visitors; Alexander H. Melville, treasurer; John Wilford Marsh, medical superintendent; George Parsons Torrey BA, LKQCP Ireland, assistant medical officer; Rev Charles Christopher Ellison MA chaplain; George Kirkup, steward and clerk to the asylum; Miss E. Sollit, housekeeper; Robert Runacres, head male attendant; Mrs Sophia Peek, head nurse.
    In 1926, "Bracebridge Mental Hospital" on the "high road to Sleaford" had an "estate of 160 acres, cultivated chiefly by spade husbandry of the inmates". (Kellys Directory of Lincolnshire, 1926, page 107) (See also extracts from (1857?) White Directory on the Rossbret Asylums Websit
    Became St John's Hospital, London Road, Bracebridge Heath in 1961.
    31.12.1977: 944 beds
    Simon Cornwall: Closed in 1990, appears redeveloped by housing.
    Grid reference for Lincoln County Lunatic Asylum on 1889/1890 Ordnace Survey map is 498179,367657. The same grid reference on a modern map shows no sign of St John's Hospital. (same area on multimap)

    Kesteven County Asylum, Lincolnshire was erected between 1899 and 1902.
    Became Rauceby Mental Hospital, Rauceby, Sleaford [NG34 8PP] in 1934.
    31.12.1977: 509 beds
    Urbex (Simon Cornwall) map and photograph index and the virtual asylum
    English Heritage: Rauceby, Lincs, built 1899-1902 as the pauper asylum for the county of Lincolnshire

    Mental Handicap Hospitals in Lincolnshire 1975

    Bourne Institution
    Opened 1910
    Became St Peter's Hospital, St Peter's Road, Bourne, Lincolnshire
    31.12.1977: 129 beds

    Fleet Hospital, Fleet Road, Holbeach, PE12 7AY
    Founded 1820? [I think this must be 1910]
    31.12.1977: 190 beds
    Closed 1991

    Caistor Hospital, Kelsey Road, Caistor, Lincoln
    Administrative records from 1930 to 1990
    31.12.1977: 202 beds
    External Link: Caistor Hospital: From House of Industry to Caistor Hospital 1802 - 1990

    Harmston Hall Hospital, Harmston, Lincoln
    Administrative records from 1930
    31.12.1977: 380 beds

    Picture the Past has pictures and historical information for both counties and their county towns. - Counties map - Thoroton Society of Nottingham (History)

    Nottingham General Hospital, (now Park Row, Nottingham, NG1 6HA) opened in 1782 (external link). It had a rule that no lunatics were to be admitted. Dr John Storer, the first physician at the hospital, chaired a commissioning committee to establish an asylum. (Dave Ogden)

    The General Lunatic Asylum for the Town and County of Nottingham
    Nottinghamshire County Asylum
    Sneinton, near Nottingham
    (map link to Sneinton) (upmystreet) (multimap)
    Picture
    A County/Subscription Hospital
    [A Sarah Rutherford case study]

    Architect: Richard Ingleman Early form, later adapted to corridor. Located on Carlton Road in Sneinton. Replaced on closure by Saxondale (1902). (Peter Cracknell)

    "If the Sneinton Asylum, Nottingham was the institution at the top of Dakeyne Street, off Carlton Road, then its buildings survived until the 1960s, though not for mental health purposes. In the late 1950s and 1960s the building was used by the Oliver Hind Boys Brigade Company. I remember being told that in the basement the building still had its padded cells! I think the site was demolished in the mid-1960s after a new Oliver Hind Club had been constructed by the Boys Brigade." (Tim Watkinson 2.1.2004)

    Dave Ogden:: "it is still possible to see part of the original wall near Sneinton Market."

    Administration archives go back to 1803 but the list of donations in the sixth annual report starts in 1789. Substantial donations were made in 1791 and 1792.

    Jeremy Waters visited Nottinghamshire Archives to examine the original records of this asylum, the references for which are:-
    SO/HO/1/1/1: Meetings minutes with related copy letters, reports, financial statements etc concerning purchase of land and establishment of Lunatic Asylum, 1803-1810
    SO/HO/1/2/1-2 Visiting Governor's meetings minutes, 1810-1845
    SO/HO/1/3/1-2 House Committee meetings minutes, 1811-1836
    SO/HO/1/9/1 Medical Superintendent's case books, giving details of diagnoses and treatment, 1824-1829
    SO/HO/1/31 Ledger of lunatic asylum, 1812-1824
    and DD 177/1
    .
    This is Jeremy's summary of the asylum's establishment:

    The asylum was first mooted in about 1803 by a group of doctors at the Nottingham General Hospital, which was prevented by its own constitution from admitting the insane. A committee was set up to further the objective, and the Minute Books stem from this date to about 1840. Originally the intention was to serve just the City, but by the time they had raised the funds, found the land [purchased in July 1808], designed the building, etc, they had joined forces with the County of Nottinghamshire on a larger building to house some 60 patients. The building had a formal opening on Thursday 10.10.1811, although not yet fully furnished, and the first patient was admitted in February 1812.

    Sarah Rutherford says the "group of subscribers, who had been contemplating the erection of a charitable asylum for the previous 20 years" joined the project in 1808, when the ground had been bought

    1809: Dr Edward Fox of Brislington House consulted. He advised privacy and so a screen of trees was planted.

    Patients were divided into three classes:- First, persons of a superior class and opulent means who should contribute in accordance with their pecuniary ability, but not less than £10 per week; second, persons in limited circumstances who desire no aid from any parochial fund, who shall be charged for maintenance and medical attendance according to their means, but not less than 18/- per week; and thirdly, persons being paupers sent to the Asylum by the Justices of the Peace pursuant to Acts of Parliament, for whom their parish pays 18/- per week. The criminally insane were not accepted, nor were those deemed incurable.

    1810 Richard Ingleman, architect, Southwell, Nottinghamshire provided A specification... of the work to be executed... in constructing a General Lunatic Asylum, near Nottingham... according to the intentions of the Committee of the Justices of the Peace, for the county of Nottingham, and the committee of the voluntary subscribers. On page one an Advertisement to builders: the plans and specifications, will, on the 3rd day of April, be lodged with Mr Thompson, at the General Hospital, for inspection.

    31.5.1810 Foundation stone laid

    In 1810 Sneinton was a village about a mile outside of Nottingham town and high on a ridge overlooking the valley of the River Trent.
    A County/Subscription Hospital

    1811 The articles of union... between the Justices of the Peace, for the County of Nottingham [and for].. the County of the Town of Nottingham; and the subscribers to a voluntary institution... together with the by-laws, rules, orders, and regulations... published Newark, printed by S. and J. Ridge. Seventeen page introductory address to the public [by Doctor John Storer] Articles of Union, pp 3-23; By-laws, pp 25- 75; Instructions for those who make application for the admission of patients, pp 77-9; List of the officers [six pages]; Benefactors.[ten pages]

    Original asylum opened for about 60 patients, at a cost of £19,819 and called The General Lunatic Asylum for the Town and County of Nottingham.

    In May 1811, the management committee of Visiting Governors advertised in the papers published in Nottingham, Lincoln and Stamford, and in The Times, for

    "a Director to execute the duties of Apothecary, Secretary and Principal Superintendent and also a Matron to regulate the female department in the Institution."
    An Emergency General Meeting of the Visiting Governors on the 4.9.1811 elected Mr Thomas Morris, aged 40, Surgeon and Apothecary of Grove Place, Hammersmith, to the post at a salary of £100 a year and furnished apartments within the building, board and washing, and his wife Mrs Ann Morris as Matron at a salary of £30 a year.

    In Trade Directories, Thomas Morris was shown as House Director and Secretary and his wife as Matron from about 1812 to 1827. [See below 6.10.1831] Their life is being researched by Jeremy Waters. The Morris's previous home was Great Baddow, Essex. We would like to know what Thomas and Ann Morris did in Essex and Hammersmith that qualified them for this post]

    The establishment was reckoned to have cost to October 1811 £19,820 to erect. This exceeded original estimates, and included £964 for extra earth and rock digging and cutting in the sub-basement, the yards, the courts and the foundations, and £1,755 for the purchase of the land, planting trees and setting down hurdles. (Sarah Rutherford)

    10.10.1811 First patients admitted (One source)
    Thursday 10.10.1811: formal opening although not yet fully furnished. (Jeremy Waters).

    Jeremy Waters:. There were, at that time, similar institutions only [not quite correct] in York, Manchester, Liverpool and Exeter, and Mr Morris was immediately sent to visit the York establishment where he "acquired much useful information." He took up residence in the Institution on 30.11.1811, where he remained until 1832.

    1812 is usually given as the opening date. There may have been a formal opening on Wednesday 12.2.1812.

    Dave Ogden quotes the following extract from a letter written by Rev. Orton, Vicar of Keyworth, 30.9.1812:-

    "Gentlemen, it is a painful task for me to enumerate the evil qualities of anyone but the conduct of Mr George Simpson has been so very inconsistent when at liberty that it is a fortunate circumstance that there are such places of safety for such outrageous characters similiar to your asylum. He has been under the care of Dr Arnold of Leicester for nearly 18 years though his friends every two years give him a trial of his liberty. At those times whenever an opportunity occurs he could not refrain from getting inebriated and in these fits he has attempted the lives of both his sisters and demolished their windows, selling his clothes from off his back and returning to his home forlorn and naked. That if he can be returned under your care it is certainly a charity to this man and a relief to the apprehensions and anxiety of his friends."

    1818: Purchase of additional land

    1825: Physician: Dr Charles Pennington. Surgeon Mr Henry Oldknow. House Director and Secretary: Thomas Morris. Matron: Mrs Ann Morris

    6.10.1831 Thomas Morris resigned - He had become a partner in Green Hill House, Derby

    1.1.1844 177 patients. 125 pauper and 52 private.
    Superintendent: T. Powell, surgeon
    Private patients were moved to The Coppice Hospital, Nottingham in 1855 and the asylum became the County and Borough of Nottingham Lunatic Asylum [ A.D.M. Douglas says The Coppice was opened in 1855 and all private patients moved there in 1873]
    1873: All private patients removed [to the Coppice] from Sneinton (A.D.M. Douglas)
    1880: The asylum only served the county, and city patients were moved to the new asylum at Mapperley Top.
    July 1869: H C Gill, MRCS.E and LSA, from Bethlem, became Assistant Medical Officer, but moved in October to the same post at the North Riding Asylum. He was replaced by Joseph Hume Smith, M.B.
    About 1871 to 1880:
    Dr Alexander McCook Weir was Assistant Medical Officer (If any one has further information about, please mail me)
    about June 1876 Edith Oldknow married Alexander McCook Weir in Notingham.
    8.2.1880 Report of the acquital of Alexander McCook Weir on a charge of wounding his wife Edith Weir with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
    1881 census: Superintendent: William Phillimore (Widower) born 1821. The census gives the full names of patients in this asylum, not just initials as is usual with asylums. Alfred Aplin (Physician, unmarried, aged 26, born Exeter) Assistant Medical Officer. Marion Oldknow (aged 43 unmarried) was housekeeper. Note Henry Oldknow above
    1881 Edith Weir living with her parents
    1884 William Phillimore shown as superintendent on annual report
    1885 Alfred Aplin shown as superintendent on annual report
    1895: Alfred Aplin, Physician and Superintendent
    Rev. W. H. C. Malton, Chaplain
    F. Gell, Clerk See Rossbret
    "In the early 1900s the asylum was superseded by the new asylum at Saxondale, and was closed and demolished. The grounds were reused as King Edward Park." (Sarah Rutherford)

    Saxondale Hospital, Radcliffe on Trent, Nottinghamshire, NG12 2JN was built to replace Sneinton Asylum. (map link to Saxondale) The foundation stone was laid on 25.7.1899. The new building was two stories high, cost £147,000 and had accommodation for 452 patients (226 of each sex). The 130 acres surrounding the hospital cost £6,800. It was officially opened 24.7.1902 by Lady Elinor Denison. (Dave Ogden and A.D.M. Douglas)
    Architect: EP Hooley
    1913: Extensions made for 148 patients, which cost £29.833
    25.7.1919: Notts County War Hospital
    1932: Two further blocks erected, each to accommodate 50 female patients
    1939: F.A. (born 1887) died in Saxondale Hospital, after spending most of his adult life in Basford County Institution, Nottingham - Register codes
    1953 Supplied milk and food by Balderton - about here open doors
    1955 Two further villas built, one to accommodate 36 females and the other 36 males (A.D.M. Douglas)
    9.1.1974 A.D.M. Douglas, Chairman, Medical Staff Advisory Committee, advised me (letter) "we have the original records of the first county mental hospital, Sneinton Asylum, and it would be fair to assume that we have most of the available material from the period 1810 to 1850 although the early clinical notes, unfortunately are missing... At the moment these very valuable records are in the hands of the bookbinders." A.D.M. Douglas did not know of any published material specifically on the history of the asylum. He sent me a two paragraph synopsis of its history.
    1986 Nottingham Patients' Council Support Group active in the hospital.
    Closed in 1987, partly demolished, new housing stands around. (Simon Cornwall)
    County Asylum website

    Coppice Hospital
    This hospital is not listed in the 1844 Report, which suggests that the Hospital Database statement that it was founded in 1789 refers to The General Lunatic Asylum for the Town and County of Nottingham, which took pauper and private patients until the 1850s.
    Lunatic Hospital, Coppice New Road, Nottingham St Mary, Nottingham, England. [The Coppice was a Nottingham source for timber. Coppice Road was constructed through it in 1837. Later, it was renamed Ransom Road.
    Ransom Road, Mapperley, Nottingham, NG3 5HL
    1855 The Coppice Hospital opened according to A.D.M. Douglas (Also see))
    Simon Cornwall says: Built: 1857-1859
    Architect: Thomas Chambers Hine
    1873: All private patients removed [to the Coppice] from Sneinton
    1881 census: Medical Superintendent: William B. Tate, MD. married, aged 54. The census gives the full names of patients in this asylum, not just initials as is usual with asylums.
    1895: See Rossbret
    A voluntary hospital that became part of the National Health Service
    1979: 116 beds (58 "amenity" (private) beds)
    Closed in 1986, converted to flats (Simon Cornwall)

    John Foster's site about some Nottingham "villages" has pages for Sneinton and Mapperley. The Mapperley page has a history of the hospital

    Nottingham City Asylum was opened (unfinished) on 3.8.1880.
    [Porchester Road, Nottingham, NG3 6AA. (map to postcode).]
    Simon Cornwall: Built: 1875-1880 Architect: George Thomas Hine. Corridor form
    "Occupying 125 acres. It had its own farm, bakery and butcher, along with a church and recreation hall. It was designed by local architect George Thomas Hine, son of TC Hine, the designer of the Coppice Hospital. Previously, both Town and County patients were accommodated at Sneinton"
    (1881 Census data on Sue Kaye's site)
    Male annexe and large hall/chapel added in 1887 - now converted to flats. (Peter Cracknell)
    "In 1889 a new wing was added ,but only 12 months later was found to be already overcrowded ,with only 44 patients. In 1896, drawings were produced for further extensions to the wings and a further two storeys were added to the Male Epileptic Dormitory. The female wing was to have electricity installed. In order to persuade the Asylum Committee to consider electric lighting throughout the hospital, Hine encouraged them to visit the Dorsetshire County Asylum in 1900, part of which he had designed. Here, they were surprised that none of the doors were locked, noting that this would hardly be safe at Mapperley. In fact, the locked door practice remained until the arrival of Dr Duncan Macmillan, the medical supervisor from 1942-1966. He was famed for his policy of unlocking the wards to create an open hospital." John Foster's site
    It became Nottingham City Mental Hospital about 1927
    1.1.1927: 898 patients of whom all but 74 were Rate Aided. 412 were men, 486 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 48.9%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 8.1%
    Later Mapperley Hospital
    Two printed schedules issued by the Board of Control are attached to the inside front cover of a medical register for Mapperley Hospital dating 1931-1947:
  • Schedule of Causes and Associated Factors of Insanity.
  • Schedule of Forms of Insanity
    Duncan Macmillan, medical supervisor from 1942 to 1966, unlocked the doors, establishing an open-door policy. Under the National Health Service, he pushed for equal resources with hospitals for physical illnesses and pioneered community care. See Timeline.
    1948 1,310 in-patients
    1956 1,060 in-patients
    6.3.1957 Out of a total of 1,054 in-patients, only one was certified. (Edith Summerskill, Hansard, 8.7.1957)
    1962 (Hospital Plan) 879 beds in 1960 (with annexes) By 1975 expected have 750 beds
    1960-1968 Used, with Severalls and Netherne in a study of institutionalism and schizophrenia - Published 1970
    1971 Mapperley and St Francis: 775 beds, 655 patients on 31.12.1971. 85% bed occupancy. No dormitories with over 30 beds. Special in-patient units/wards for children (20 beds) - adolescent (16 beds) - alcoholic/drug addiction (regional) (33 beds) - psychogeriatric assessment (20)
    The hospital closed for mental illness in December 1994. The site has now been developed.
    Original block in use by NHS as Duncan Macmillan House (Peter Cracknell)
    External link - (archives)
    Archives are mainly in Nottinghamshire Archives

    St Francis Unit, City Hospital
    Previously St Francis Hospital
    Hucknall Road Sherwood Nottingham NG5 1PE
    Geriatric and Mental Health

  • Basford Workhouse

    Peter Higginbotham's site

    Mental Handicap Hospitals in Nottinghamshire 1979

    Balderton Hospital, Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire.
    Balderton Hall (built 1840) was bought by Nottinghamshire County Council for conversion to a hospital in (or soon after) 1930. Building started in 1936 but was suspended, and the Hall used to house officers based at nearby Balderton airfield during the second world war.

    "Part of the Balderton mental colony - begun by Nottinghamshire County Council and abandoned in 1942 - will be completed 'in the near future,' said Sir Basil Gibson, chairman of Sheffield Regional Hospital, on Monday. The whole scheme is for 986 beds. The colony was built at a cost of £250,000. It is a self contained community, with its own farm, which at present supplies Saxondale Hospital with food and milk." (Newark Advertiser 14.1.1953)
    The post- war economic situation and difficulties connected with transfer to Sheffield Regional Health Board meant the first (male) patients were not admitted until October 1957. The hospital was officially opened by Enoch Powell, the Minister of Health, in April 1961.
    380 beds on 31.12.1977
    "One was always aware that the admin' building had at one time been a very special grand house, with intricate ornate covings and lovely thick heavy doors.A stark contrast to the bare 'H' block design of the older ward buildings which some dared to say was the patients' 'home'". (Polly Roughan, who trained there as a nurse 1979-1983. Polly provides the following notes on the plan shown on the online map.)
    At the top end of the hospital grounds on the left hand side - one building is shown. This is the area where the 'H' block type buildings were. There were three along this side Camdale, Bedale and Ainsdale. On the right hand side there was at least one more 'Moorfield'. My memory tells me there may have been another one. There was then the Nursing School and staff houses. In the center there were Laundry buildings, the Kitchens / Staff canteen / Club and to the left of these were the day care buildings.There was also a small farm.
    Not all the wards are on this plan. There were three newer bungalow type buildings plus a hospital block with another ward attatched. These were the childrens/'mental handicap' wards and were situated in the lower grounds near to the admin block. These were Plumfield, Dovedale, Rosefield and Springfield. Also the Mortuary, known as 'Rose cottage' is not shown.Moving up there were two detatched houses situated next to each other 1) Independent living (preparation for hospital closure and 2) Autistic unit.
    Balderton closed 1993 with plans for housing on the site
    map link to the site at NG24 3JR
    External link to history of Balderton House

    Ransom Hospital, Rainworth, Mansfield
    60 beds on 31.12.1977

    Rampton

    The main buildings of Rampton were built in 1910 as England's second Criminal Lunatic Asylum. It became known as The Broadmoor of the North. However, the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act required state institutions for defectives "of dangerous and violent propensities, whether offenders or not". These institutions were to be run by the Board of Control, which took over Rampton for the purpose in 1920.
    1920: Rampton State Institution
    About 1920 Arthur, an epileptic child, admiited aged five. He was 30 in 1946 and still a patient in 1958 (Roxan 1958 p.102)
    In 1932, Dr William Rees Thomas, "previously medical superintendent, Rampton State Institution" was appointed commissioner at the Board of Control
    16.7.1939 Edith Haithwaite detained in Rampton
    In 1940 Dr George W. Mackay resigned as commissioner at the Board of Control to become medical superintendent of Rampton State Institution
    1946 National Health Service Act section 49(4) moved the ownership of Rampton and Moss Side to the Ministry of Health but left their management with the Board of Control.
    Rampton about 1946: "accommodation is designed as three rings. The inner ring is made up of the refractory centres:" D1 and D2 for the men. (women "Iso Block" - isolation). D2 is a half way house above D1. (Roxan 1958 p. 109). "Rampton's middle ring consists of the five large blocks, the buildings built originally to house the criminal lunatics. A and B Blocks house the women; C. D. [above] and E [E1 admissions] the men. They contain the new patients, the recalcitrant, the rebellious, and those who refuse to give a promise to the doctors that they will not try to escape. (Roxan 1958 p. 111) Villas: Moss Rose (about 20 children 5 to 16 years old) - Sweet Briar (old men) - Other men's villas: Cedars (young men mostly under 25), Hawthornes (encephalitics), Firs, Elms, Beeches, Willows, and Acacias . Women's villas: Poplars, Oaks, Maples and Laurels. (Roxan 1958 p. 112)
    6.8.1946 Peter Whitehead transferred from Besford Court to Rampton: "I thought that a stupid mistake must have been made, and that as soon as it was realised, they would let me out. It never entered my head that the doctors might think a mistake hadn't been made." (Roxan 1958 p. 106). "Besides receiving new patients, E1 also contained a number of sick patients who could not be accommodated in the hospital ward" (Roxan 1958 p.95). New patients kept isolated in bed for three days with nothing to do. (Roxan 1958 p.100). "Peter spent three months in E1, the usual period for a new patient". Having finished ward cleaning by mid-day "he passed the time reading, enjoying Edgar Wallace and Peter Cheyney (Roxan 1958 p.105).
    December 1946 First Board of Visitors' review of Peter Whitehead's case. "The future years were to teach him the bitter truth that a man inside Rampton, fighting for his liberty, can achieve nothing by himself. He is lost without outside help and outside pressure" (Roxan 1958 p. 125) survivors' history
    January 1947 Peter Whitehead moved from E3 to the Cedars 7.1.1947 "I hope, please God, to keep out of trouble as I have been doing since I have been here. I am getting quite used to being here, and feel quite cheerful" (Roxan 1958 p. 129)
    Between January and September: Peter told that his mother had died.
    September 1947 Peter Whitehead joined Rampton's Boy Scouts (Roxan 1958 p. 134)
    By Christmas 1947 Peter Whitehead had been visited by Larry Morris and by his uncle Dennis Whitehead. Dennis Whitehead lived in Hammersmith. His member of Parliament was the Labour politican (and barrister) Thomas Williams (22.9.1915 - 28.2.1986). who acted for Peter.
    1948? Rampton Hospital
    14.11.1948 Noele Arden taken to Rampton from an unnamed "mental hospital" in Somerset
    4.2.1950 Peter Whitehead "I have started to live in fear of never being free. These people who say they want to help me would sooner hold a person than give him a chance. My uncle tells me he is up against a brick wall, trying to get me out of here." (Quoted Roxan 1958 p. 155)
    1953: A five year old boy admitted to Rampton
    November 1953 Peter Whitehead transferred to Farmfield to be nearer his uncle.
    about 1954 Noele Arden moved to Moss Side for a period
    about 1955 "While I'd been away at Moss Side the A block wards had been enlarged and modernized, and we were moved... When I went on to the new ward, the doctors had started giving a form of treatment to about three girls. This was the drug largactol. It was new, and I suppose a start in the right direction, and was the only drug apart from Paraldehyde that I saw given. The doctors never seemed to analyse the girls, like they do today. You only saw a doctor if you asked to, or if your privileges were stopped." (Noele Arden 1977 p. 76)
    11.1.1955 Peter Whitehead returned to Rampton from Farmfield
    August/September 1955 Albert R.N., film released October 1953, shown as the Rampton weekly film. Peter Whitehead suggested to others that they make a dummy in the tailoring shop as in the film where it was used as a cover for escape from a prisoner of war camp. The dummy being discovered, Peter was sent to D2 in the middle of September. (Roxan 1958 p.220)
    21.2.1956 Kathleen Rutty discharged from Rampton by the High Court
    December 1956 Peter Whitehead discharged from Rampton whilst writ of habeas corpus before the High Court.
    19.12.1956 First Rampton questions in House of Commons from Norman Dodds
    25.12.1956 Peter Whitehead's review under the 1913 Act [See inside and outside struggle] would have fallen due. The date was important because the weeks just before the Board of Visitors met were the "high tide for escaping" as the Board only had "three month's grace in which to review a patient's detention for another five years" (Roxan 1958 p.238)
    10.4.1957 Edith Haithwaite discharged from Rampton by the High Court
    about April 1957 Noele Arden discharged from Rampton on licence
    May 1957: See Percy Report
    2.12.1957 On 14.11.1957 "there were thirteen boys and three girls, of whom one boy was five years old on admission" in Rampton. Since 1.1.1950 "eleven boys and three girls have been admitted, of whom the youngest was the boy of five years". Hansard
    19.12.1957 Hansard: Debate on Rampton
    Investigation into Rampton Hospital and insanity laws. London. Pathe News: Unissued / Unused material. Various shots people round table, left to right: James Stanton, Peter Whitehead, Robert George, Frank Haskell, Elizabeth Allan, Dr Donald Johnson and Norman Dodds. CU Stanton and Whitehead voting. Various shots Dodds talking.
    1958 Sentenced without Cause - The Story of Peter Whitehead by David Roxan. Frederick Muller Limited, London.
    1959 Mental Health Act sections 97-98: Broadmoor, Rampton and Moss Side became Special Hospitals under the Ministry of Health.
    27.4.1959 Question in Parliament about compensation for Edith Haithwaite
    1970s See Essex Hall
    1977 Child of a System by Noele Arden, Quartet Books.
    May 1979 The Secret Hospital Yorkshire TV Two-part film about Rampton hospital. 22.5.1979 "Rampton - The Big House" - 23.5.1979 "Eastdale - The Way Out". "Part 2 centres on Len Harding, locked up for 18 years, and his first tentative steps of freedom. (Followed up in 1986 by Len Harding: Born a number).

    Late 1996 Decision to set up a Patient Assembly and Patient Council. See
    (The Advocate Autumn1998

    2010 Sweet Briar demolished.
    28.11.2011 A BBC film crew was allowed into Rampton Hospital for the first time in 18 years


    HSH Rampton Hospital
    Flemming Drive, Woodbeck, Retford, Nottinghamshire, DN22 0PD
    400 Patients. Planning/Building an extra high-security wing for 70 more.
    freedom campaign prison list - new website
    400 Patients. Now has an extra high-security wing for 100 more with "Personality Disorder". Also house's the Women's Directorate, a precursor to a new national resource for all female people under psychiatric jurisprudence.

    Derby and Derbyshire north east midlands

    Ashover Poorhouse
    1767 forty-two Derbyshire parishes (some of whom would later form part of the Chesterfield Poor Law union) voluntarily formed themselves into the Ashover Union. The Union bought a large former bath-house at Ashover for use as a joint workhouse. "By 1809, 61 parishes were subscribing to the support of 38 paupers". The union covered a larger area than many of the post 1834 unions. Ashover Poor House closed when the Chesterfield Workhouse opened in 1838.
    The following list, based on
    Sylvia Wright's CD, gives the names of those given in the 1828-1836 returns of lunatics and idiots, in order of the stated or possible (?) admission to Ashover:
    1780? "Saml. Binney age 48 male lunatic, dangerous, disordered 48 years, confined"
    1792? Ellen Riggott (36 in 1828) "female idiot, not dangerous, disordered from infancy"
    1794? Sarah Hartley (34 in 1828) "female idiot, not dangerous, disordered 34 years, confined"
    October 1803 Peter Bollington (62 in 1831) male lunatic, not dangerous, not confined
    February 1809 James Rawson (50 in 1828) "male lunatic, dangerous at times, disordered 19 years"
    1811 Sarah Adkin (51 in 1828) female lunatic, not dangerous, "supposed disordered 18 years", not confined
    1813 John Mitchell (43 in 1828 and 1831. 44 in 1836!) male idiot, not dangerous, disordered 15/18/23 years, confined
    1818? Hannah Sellars (52 in 1828) "female lunatic, dangerous, disordered 20 years, confined"
    June 1818 Maria Beastal (72 in 1828) "female lunatic, not dangerous, disordered 12 years"
    1819 Joseph Robinson (54 in 1828) male lunatic, dangerous, confined
    August 1824 Sarah Raines (70 in 1828) female lunatic, dangerous, disordered 27 years, confined
    19.8.1824 John Wetton (26 in 1828) "male lunatic, dangerous, disordered about 6 years, confined". "Dangerous and requires to be kept under close confinement" (surgeon)
    1826? Joseph Boam (55 in 1828) "male lunatic, dangerous at times, disordered 2 years" "not dangerous" in 1831
    1.9.1827 Mary Ashmore (60 in 1828) "female, insane, not dangerous... confined". In 1836 "age about 70 female lunatic, not dangerous, disordered upwards of 20 years"
    16.9.1828 Francis Flint (37) "male lunatic, not dangerous, disordered 4 days". Still dangerous in 1831
    about 1829 Anne Hardy (31 in 1831) "female lunatic, dangerous, disordered 5 years, confined at Ashover about 2 years" "her confinement indispensable" (surgeon). In 1836 she had been "disordered sine 1837". On 25.8.1836 she had resided for about year "with her uncle J. Burton at Winster, is a lunatic but is quite harmless" (a different surgeon)
    1829 Joseph Fletcher (25 in 1831) "male idiot, not dangerous, disordered 1 year"
    about 1830 Mary Clarke (25 in 1831) "female idiot, not dangerous, disordered from birth, confined in Ashover Workhouse about a year"
    about 1833 Edwd. Wright (54 in 1838) "male lunatic, not dangerous, disordered 3 years"
    about 1834 John Keeton (81 in 1836) "male lunatic, not dangerous, disordered about 2 years"
    30.1.1834 George Bower (32 in 1836) "male idiot, not dangerous, disordered 9 years"
    29.5.1835 Charles Peal (42 in 1836) "male lunatic, dangerous, disordered 3 years" confined. "Subject to fits, not likely ever to be better" (medical certificate)

    1777 A workhouse (60 inmates) recorded for Chapel en le Frith

    1828 Details of all pauper lunatics in a county required to be collected under the 1828 County Asylums Act. - Used by Sylvia Wright

    1828 - 1836 Pauper lunatics from parishes in High Peak Hundred recorded in Manchester Lunatic Asylum and Chapel en le Frith workhouse. (Sylvia Wright)
    1828 - 1836 Pauper lunatics from parishes in most of the other Derbyshire Hundreds recorded in Nottingham Asylum, occasionally Staffordshire County Asylum, and 1836 Green Hill House, Derby. Many in Ashover Poorhouse.

    1839 Workhouse opened on Osmaston Road, Derby
    See Peter Higginbotham's site for workhouses Derby and Burton on Trent (which includes Mickleover.

    Detailed information about Derby lunatics in the 19th century is available on a CD by Sylvia Wright that also contains a history of lunacy, of Green Hill House and of Derby County Asylum. The CD also contains the returns of pauper lunatics for 1828, 1831 and 1836.

    Green Hill House, Derby
    A mansion and outhouses asylum - The paupers were kept in "what had been the coach-house and stables".
    about 1820 Green-Hill House built Cross Lanes, Derby, at the junction of Green Lane and Macklin Street.
    about 1830 purchased by Thomas Morris (wife Anne) of the Nottingham Asylum and Thomas Fisher (wife Charlotte) of the Lincoln Asylum. Thomas Morris would have been about 60 years old and Thomas and Charlotte Fisher about 45.
    1829/1831 Advertisement in Glover's The History and Gazetteer of the County of Derby for a "Private Establishment for the Insane, Green Hill House, Derby. Under the superintendence of Mr Morris and Mr Fisher, surgeons etc" - "Mr and Mrs Morris superintended the General Lunatic Asylum, near Nottingham, for twenty years and Mr and Mrs Fisher also superintended the Lincoln Lunatic Asylum for more than ten years." (Sylvia Wright)
    6.10.1831 Mr Morris, Surgeon, resigned his post at Nottingham
    1835 Thomas Fisher, Lunatic Asylum, Green Hill, listed as a surgeon in Pigot's Trade Directory. Under Public Buildings, Offices etc "Asylum for the Insane, Green Hill House. Thomas Fisher superintendent"
    1836 "Hanh. Bunting age 35 female lunatic, dangerous, disordered 9 months, confined in Derby Lunatic Asylum since 25 Mar 1836 at 9s 0d per week." "Mary Bown age 25 female lunatic, dangerous, disordered 4 or 5 months, confined in Derby Lunatic Asylum since 17 May 1836, at 9s 0d per week" (Both from Matlock) - "Thomas Buxton age 28 male lunatic, dangerous, disordered for some time before being confined, at Derby for the last seven months at 9s 0d per week" (Bakewell) - "Elizabeth Marple age 35 female lunatic, dangerous, disordered 4 months, confined in Derby Asylum (Mr. T. Fisher) since 5 May 1836 at (s )d per week exclusive of clothes" (Curbar) - "Samuel Chadwick age 50 male lunatic, confined in Derby Asylum" - "Joseph Leam age 38 male lunatic, confined in Derby Asylum. Certified by John Wright, Surgeon" (Both Crich) - Francis Calladine age 50 male lunatic, dangerous, disturbed for 8 weeks, confined in Derby Asylum at 9s 0d per week (Denby) - "John Hind age 40 male lunatic, dangerous, disordered 2 years, confined at Mr. Fishers from March 14 1835 (Green-Hill House private asylum, Derby) at 9s 2d per week." (Markeaton) - "Daniel Greatorex age about 50 male lunatic, dangerous, disordered about 9 months, confined at Derby since Aug. 10 1836 and previously at Stafford and Ashover, parish expense 9s 0d per week". "Mary Poyser age 44 female lunatic, dangerous, disordered 3 years, at Derby since Aug.10 1836 and previously at Derby, Nottingham and Ashover, parish expense 9s 0d per week" (Wirksworth)
    1841 Census: Thomas Fisher, Resident Surgeon and Charlotte Fisher, Matron, both given as 55 years old. Elizabeth Fisher, 75 years old. Six other people who are not patients and 21 patients. Three clearly not paupers are not born in Derbyshire. The other patienst are all born in Derbyshire and may be paupers.
    November 1841 Local clerk unable to make a national return as his papers had been lost in the Town Hall fire.
    Visits by Metropolitan and County Visitors
    21.10.1842 First visit of the Metropolitan Commissioners: They released a lady confined without certificates since May. Beds were in a disgusting state and visiting justices had not visited for about a year.
    10.11.1842 Metropolitan Commissioners wrote to Derby Borough and County magistrates. The County had sent most of the paupers in Green Hill House.
    1843
    1.1.1844 28 patients. 19 pauper and 9 private. Weekly charge for paupers 9/- excluding clothes.
    SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT
    "This Asylum has lately been transferred to another Proprietor". - "...the present proprietor of the Derby Asylum, is about to discontinue the Pauper part of his establishment" (1844 Report)
    Proprietor (1844) Brigstocke, M.D.
    "forced to close in 1844 due to the murder of a resident and extremely poor living conditions." (source) [incorrect?]
    1848 The Lunacy Commission asked the Lord Chancellor to enforce the non-renewal of the licence of Green Hill House, Derby, after the death of a patient there, killed by his room-mate. This action followed several previous requests for the asylum to put an end to the prcatce two patients sharing a bedroom together. A circular on the subject was issued the following year. (Hervey, N.B. 1987) (References MH50/3, 7.12.1848 and 21.12.1848 and MH51/236, Circular No.28, 4.1.1849
    3.1.1849 On behalf of the Lunacy Commissioners, Simpson, Frear and Simpson, Derby solicitors, served on Dr Brigstocke, personally, a notice of an application for prohibition of the renewal of licence. (MH50/3 4.1.1849 pp 265-266)
    9.10.1849 and 4.1.1850 Applications for new licences for Green Hill House, Derby, by Dr. W. H. Ramsay. No. 2886 MH51/43 National Archives
    "Green Hill House continued as a private asylum until 13 July 1853. The proprietor at that time was Henry Brigstock, who acquired it in the late 1840s".
    "In 1914 Green Hill House was demolished and the Hippodrome Palladium was built."

    Preparations for a County Asylum

    1844 Doctor Thomas Bent, Mr Oakes and Mr Clewes appointed to enquire about a suitable asylum. "the Derbyshire magistrates visited Conolly at Hanwell together with existing asylums at Wakefield, Nottingham and Gloucester. The importance of buying a larger farm than was initially required was urged, as an asylum farm was regarded as beneficial in treating insanity." (Sarah Rutherford)
    1844 Report on the proposed Pauper Lunatic Asylum for the County of Derby (Derby: for the Committee, 1844).
    24.9.1845 Letters about plans at the Lunacy Commission
    1.1.1845 Henry Duesbury, the architect, attended the Lunacy Commission, which had been selected after public competition from about eighty. For the purposes of this asylum he was associated with Mr Peterson of Derby.
    January 1845 modified plans reported to Quarter Sessions.
    8.10.1845 Henry Duesbury again attended the Lunacy Commission and "stated... that the working drawings were complete, nearly the whole expense so far as regards Architects assigns etc were concerned had been already incurred, that the Visiting Justices did not consider themselves bound in law, but voluntarily submitted the plans to the commissioners"
    4.6.1846 Plans submitted to Elms for consideration
    23.7.1846 Disapproval of Derby County Asylum Plans
    28.11.1846 HO34/7, Letter from Lord Grey to the Lord Chancellor concerning expense of proposed Derby asylum (Hervey, N.B. 1987)
    11.2.1847
    18.2.1847
    29.3.1847 Deputation from Derby seeing Lunacy Commission? (Hervey, N.B. 1987)
    1847 John Conolly reproduced the (original) plan of "Messrs. Paterson and Duesbury for the Lunatic Asylum at Derby" in The Construction and Government of Lunatic Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane as his first example of one "in almost every material point accordant with the principles maintained" in his book. Points on which, Conolly said, the Lunacy Commission had disagreed with the plan were - that it was planned to accommodate 360 patients when only 216 lunatics had been identified in the county (p.11) - that bedroom windows were too high because of the special corridor that allowed people to move round the asylum without going through wards (p.19) - that there was an "unnecessary" proportion (two-thirds) of single rooms (p.25).

    "In the year 1850 a deputation from the committee of the Derby County Asylum visited Hanwell, and after going over the buildings and thoroughly inspecting all the details of that large establishment, then considered unique, a spontaneous offer was made by them of the post of superintendent of the asylum then being built at Mickleover, near Derby." [to John Hitchman] British Medical Journal 1893 April 22; 1(1686): 856.)

    Derbyshire County Asylum
    Corridor form - Close to Conolly's ideal
    [A Sarah Rutherford case study]
    1849 Work started in on Derbyshire Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Designed by Henry Duesbury - Warming and ventilation with assistance of Mr Sylvester, engineer. Contractors Messrs T. and W. Cooper of Derby. Building time: two years.
    1849 The history and directory of the Borough of Derby by Stephen Glover. Fourth edition. "The New County Lunatic Asylum now building at Mickleover near Derby"
    1851 to 1893 registers and case books in Derbyshire Records Office
    1851 Medical Superintendent: John Hitchman - until 1872. (Previously Resident Medical Officer of the female side of Hanwell). His wife, Mary Ann, was matron, and they had a joint salary of £400
    Two rooms furnished for Dr. and Mrs Hitchman who took up residence on 21.5.1851
    10.7.1851 Mr Langley, the Steward, his wife and family arrived at the asylum. Two horses were purchased by Sir Seymour Blane, Bart for the use of the asylum farms, also harness for three horses, a plough and a "scuffler". Two pigs purchased at £5 for the use of the asylum. Vincent Morris, the farming man, and Attendant Trevett (at £25 increasing £1 per year up to £30) entered upon their duties. The Committee authorised the purchase of bagatelle boards, magic lanterns, draughts boards and books for the amusement and instruction of the patients. (Sylvia Wright)
    Unidentified says that Mr and Mrs Hitchman and staff "lived in houses around the farmyard and the doctor devoted much of his to the farm which had to be self-supporting. He became an excellent vet, developing cures for animal illnesses and was a cattle and stock breeder of repute"
    Thursday, 21.8.1851 first patient (Jabez Jackson) admitted. His death was recorded in the district of Burton in the June quarter of 1852. (Most of the information about Jabez is from Sylvia Wright. Family information from online searches)
    21.8.1851 Opened with 300 beds in 12 wards and had patients coming from all over Derbyshire to be treated. "Its building had a profound effect on the people of Mickleover and provided much work for the local population" (Derby online about Mickleover - archive). See also map  
    Unidentified says that "soon after the opening of the asylum, patients were taking part in village activities". John Hitchman "formed a patients' brass band which played at village fetes and other events". "Female patients were encouraged to attend Bible classes in the village and the men played cricket matches against both Mickleover and Findern teams".
    30.10.1851 Ellen Riggott and Mary Clarke admitted from Haydock Lodge, chargeable to Chesterfield Union, that asylum being compelled to close in consequence of two county asylums for Lancaster opening. Both in a deplorable state when admitted, thinly clad and very dirty. Not curable, both imbecile. Ellen Riggot epileptic. The asylum casebook (1851-1858) records a picture of Ellen as "requiring constant attention and care". She had a "great enlargement of the thyroid gland" and walked "slowly and with difficulty". She had "no power to communicate her wants by articulate tongue, being a congenital idiot of the lowest degree". Between 1851 and 1853 she had "severe epileptic attacks which will probably prove suddenly fatal." On 7.6.1853 "This patient died suddenly this morning in a paroxysm of epilepsy. Post mortem, 'Died of natural causes'" (Sylvia Wright)
    28.12.1852 Architect's Report for first Annual Report (pages 5-17). The First Report of the Derbyshire County Lunatic Asylum 1853 contains the report of the Committee of Visitors (chairman, Francis Hurt), presented 4.1.1853, the architect's report (Henry Duesbury) and asylum plan, the report of the Medical Superintendent (John Hitchman), the chaplain's report (Joseph Sowter), financial statements and various statistical tables.[Used by Sarah Rutherford]
    Sarah Rutherford says the asylum was not completed until 1853.
    The Second Report... 1854 contains reports of the Committee of Visitors (chairman, Sir Hugh Seymour Blane) presented 4.1.1854 and John Hitchman, statements and tables.
    The Third Report... 1855 contains the Visitors' report presented 2.1.1855, reports from John Hitchman, and the Chaplain (George Fritche), statements and tables.
    The Fourth Report... 1856 contains reports of the Committee of Visitors (chairman, Sir Hugh Seymour Blane; reporter, Charles Clarke) presented 2.4.1856 and John Hitchman and George Fritche, statements and tables.
    1856 John Conolly's Treatment of the Insane without Mechanical Restraints praised Henry Duesbury and John Hitchman.
    [In "1858 legislation was passed that doctors had to follow a proper course for a degree and be licensed by the General Medical Council. Dr Hitchman and many other doctors of the time had to apply to the University of St Andrews, provided testimonials and certificates and were then were awarded a degree." (source)]
    1860 John Hitchman led a group of landowners and farmers in forming the Derbyshire Agricultural Show. Unidentified says that John Hitchman was its first chairman and drew up the rules of the society,
    1861 census shows Linus and Jane Hubble as attendants at the Derbyshire Lunatic Asylum. (Douglas Poulter)
    1869 chapel erected
    1871 County asylum refused to accept new patients from the borough of Derby
    1872 Lindsay J M, M.D., LRCS.Ed. appointed Physician Superintendent of the Derbyshire Lunatic Asylum, Mickleover, vice, J Hitchman resigned.
    (source)
    1872 John Hitchman retired due to ill health. He and Mary Ann went to live in Fairford. James Murray Lindsay succeded as Superintendent Physician.
    July 1872: E Maguire Courtenay, AB, MB, TCD. late Clinical Assistant West Riding Asylum to be Assistant Medical Officer Derby County Asylum
    October 1873: S F Conolly, LRCP.Ed., MRCS appointed Assistant Medical Officer to the Derbyshire Lunatic Asylum, Mickleover, vice Courtenay, appointed to Limerick Ireland.
    1876-1877 Great Northern Railway arrived: Village expansion has continued ever since, apart from a break during the second world war.
    1881 Census: Medical superintendent: James Murray Lindsay, aged 47
    1879 a water tower erected
    1886 Last annual report. James Murray Lindsay still Medical Superintendent.
    November 1888 Derby Borough Asylum opened.
    May 1891 Kelly's Directory [source]: County Lunatic Asylum, about one mile south-west from the village [Mickleover] and 2 miles from the Great Northern Railway station is a building in the Elizabethan style, constructed of red brick, with portions of blue Staffordshire brick and stone dressings, standing on rising ground and has a southern aspect, overlooking the valley of the Trent, the Charnwood hills, Needwood and portions of Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire and is surrounded by an estate of 101 acres; the building contains 16 wards and is available for 477 patients, there being at present (1891) 456. The asylum includes a large entertainment room and dining hall, capable of seating 250 persons: the east of the building, opened 21.8.1851, was £84,107 19s. 9d.: the chapel, erected in 1869, is an edifice of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, transept and a tower with north porch & spire : the east window is stained and there are also four vitremaine windows, placed in the church by Mrs Murray-Lindsay, and 300 sittings. In 1879 a water tower was erected, capable of holding 20,000 gallons. George Crompton, treasurer; James Murray Lindsay M.D. superintendent physician; Richard John Legge M.D. assistant medical officer; Rev. Reginald Canning Bindley M.A. chaplain ; Benjamin Scott Currey, clerk to the committee ; Harry Langley, clerk ; Frank Barton, storekeeper ; Alexander McWilliams, resident engineer ; Miss Ada Martha Rawlings, housekeeper; Harry Bird and Miss Mary Withers, chief attendants
    April 1918 "William R....admitted to the Mickleover Lunatic Asylum"
    Became Derby County Mental Hospital (Mickleover)
    1937 Journal of Mental Science (1937) 83: article on "Mental Observation Wards: A Discussion of their Work and its Objects" by E. U. H. Pentreath, Deputy Medical Superintendent Derby County Mental Hospital, Mickleover and E. Cunningham Dax, Assistant Medical Officer Leavesden Hospital, Hertfordsire.
    1948 Became Pastures Hospital, Mickleover, Derbyshire
    1953 The Pastures Hospital Mickleover 1851-1953 Sheffield Regional Hospital Board, Derby Area No 3 Hospital Management Committee. (8 pages?)
    1959 William R. spent "the last five years of his life in a villa in the grounds called 'The Woodlands'"
    1962 (Hospital Plan) 1,345 beds in 1960, although this included annexes. Building improvements were expected to start before 1966. A reduction to 900 beds by 1975 anticipated. As new psychiatric units developed (presumably the one at Derby City hospital in particular) Pastures would be one of three (out of 14) large mental illness hospitals in the Sheffield area to close.
    1964 "William R. died in the Pastures Hospital" (Barham, P. 2004, p.358)
    1971 George H. Gordon, a nursing offocer at Pastures, wrote a "History of the Pastures Hospital" as a series in the hospital magazine The Gateway Copies at the Wellcome Library and Nottingham University
    Picture of front of the hospital (overlooking valley) taken by Douglas Poulter in 1999. It shows the administration unit between the male (right) and female (left) wings. To the right, one can see how the original airing court has been built on the provide an extra ward.
    Autumn 1973 I was shown round the hospital by a friend's mother, who was a senior nurse. I had a plan of the original asylum which we compared with the then hospital. At this time it had about 1,100 patients.
    "The front of the asylum overlooks the valley of the Trent... The old building is furthest away from the road and was extended backwards [1880-1910?]. Since then villas have been built between the road and the asylum. The wards of the old building have been gutted, abolishing the single rooms and replacing with dormitories". At the front of the original asylum there had been a gallery that provided a generous day room for patients, overlooking the airing courts and the valley. This was backed by single rooms (cells). In time, the single rooms were replaced by wards (F4 - F6 - ), the gallery became a ward (M1), another ward was added at the front (F1), originally for tuberculosis patients. At the time I visited, the downstairs wards at the front were occupied "entirely by geriatric" patients. Upstairs were "female chronic schizophrenics and a few subnormals" and (in F4 and F6) by "long stay patients with nowhere else to go, many of whom would be suitable for hostels"
    Artist Niall Young "began working at Pastures Hospital in Mickleover in 1989 and worked there until its closure in 1993."
    1991 Looking Back An anthology of writing from the Pastures Hospital and Looking Forward an anthology from after the Pastures, published by East Midlands Shape. (Chronology of Disability Arts)
    Unidentified: Chapter Six The Pastures Hospital
    Date of final closure 1994:
    County Asylums website
    1999 The building was empty when Douglas Poulter took the photograph of the front that I have copied from his web history of the Hubble family. To find his book about the family enter "Hubbles" in the book search at Lulu. Douglas has given me considerable assistance with the construction of the history of this hospital.
    2002 Douglas Poulter took a picture of the front after it had been converted to flats.
    2003 use: "Luxury housing"
    2005 Andy Savage photographs
    2008 aerial photograph of front of asylum converted into flats
    archive


    Kingsway Hospital, Kingsway, Derbyshire, DE22 3LZ   (map)
    Kingsway, Rowditch, Derby, Derbyshire
    Kingsway Hospital (formerly Derby Borough Asylum), [Mickleover?]: records 1888 - 20th cent (D5874) (national archive)
    (external link to history) - County Asylums website


    1863 Recommendation that the borough build an asylum for 200
    1871 Leicester, Mickleover and Burntwood asylums refused to accept new Derby patients

    November 1888 Derby Borough Asylum opened for 27 patients, transferred from Leicester. Size 300 - Architect B.S. Jacobs of Hull
    Farm buildings at Derby
Borough Asylum. The farm buildings at Derby Borough Asylum, photographed by Peter Cracknell for the County Asylums website. Maxwell Craven describes the asylum as "provided with an avenue of trees and wide verges, with a ... cricket ground on its south side. Each part ... separated ... by sweeping lawns and ... beyond the cricket ground, was a model farm on which selected patients could work.
    1899 to 1902 Erection of a separate building for private female patients (Later Albany House).
    1924 Thornhill House and gardens acquired
    1929 Thornhill House opened for 40 female mental defectives
    1932-1933 new nurses' home built.
    1935 Thornhill House housed 40 female child patients under the care of the matron, Miss Kathleen McGrenery, and Dr John Bain.
    1938 Kingsway House built on the north edge of what had been Thornhill's gardens. Intended as an an admission block". "Kingsway House is an art deco architectural tour-de-force". (Maxwell Craven)
    1953 Farm "reduced to a remnant ... after the Second World War, when farm work was no long considered therapeutic." - Half the farm buildings were demolished, leaving the rest for storage.
    1962 (Hospital Plan): 864 beds in 1960. Expected to fall to 600 by 1975.
    May 1966 Fire damage to Thornhill House. Sometime after it became a day centre.
    1979: 535 beds

    Not the Kingsway Hospital

    18.8.2008 Construction of Derby's new mental health hospital nearing completion

    Mental Handicap Hospital

    Aston Hall Hospital, Aston on Trent, Derbyshire, DE7 2AL. Addresses given as Shardlow Road and Weston Road. Postcode as DE72 2AL (map)
    A Col W. Winterbottom bought Aston Hall in 1889 and much enlarged in 1907. He died in 1928 when the Hall was bought by Nottingham Corporation. (Aston on Trent)
    1930 Opened as a home for people with learning difficulties (then mental defect)
    1979 478 beds
    Listed in Hospital Database as closed 1993, but internet sources show it as currently being closed.

    Staffordshire

    Staffordshire County Asylum (Stafford)

    A County/Subscription Hospital
    Rossbret pictures - Asylums - Stafford Asylum
    Opened 1.10.1818
    Architect: Joseph Potter. Early form, later adapted to corridor.
    Accommodation for 120, but only 65 patients in 1820
    Superintendent 1841 to 1855: James Wilkes
    Reported in 1842 that an improved system of warming and ventilation had been introduced. Previously, dysentery had been prevalent, but no cases had occurred since. (1844 Report p.17)
    1.1.1844 245 patients. 183 pauper and 62 private.
    1851 Subscribers' representative Thomas Salt
    1854 Coton Hill opened
    1864 Burntwood opened
    1879 Extended
    1881 Census: The County Lunatic Asylum, Hopton and Coton, Stafford. William Thompson Pater (unmarried, aged 46, surgeon) Superintendent
    1884 Extended
    1898 Cheddleton opened
    1898 Weston Hall rented as an annexe
    Stafford Mental Hospital by 1929 to about 1948
    Became St George's Hospital, Corporation Street, Stafford, ST16 3AG
    1994: 147 patients
    (map)
    Something closed in 1995 (but something still has a website)
    Steve Pick's undated website for something that is closed
    website for something that is open

    Sandfield, Lichfield, Staffordshire
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844: 36 patients. 32 pauper and 4 private.

    "Coton Hill Asylum was built in the 1850s and opened in 1854. It was originally built as an extension to the County Asylum in order to house private patients. It was to be known as The Institution for the Insane of Staffordshire and the Adjacent Counties."

    The Coton Hill Institution for the Insane at Stafford
    for Private Patients of the Middle and Upper Classes
    A Registered Hospital
    Opened 1854,
    1854 Nineteen officers moved to Coton Hill from the Military Luntic Asylum at Yarmouth on the recomendation of the Lunacy Commission
    1881 Census: John Dale Hewson, MD Superintendent
    66 male patients include nine from the army (if one includes "Hospital Assistant Her Majesty's Service") - Four over 70 - Six of the officers on "half-pay" - the other two "retired" . 74 female patients. Total 140

    Coton Hill Theatre "In 1890 a theatre and recreation room was erected, where concerts and dramatic performances are frequently given." This picture is from a brochure, probably dating from the 1930s, sent by Jim Foley
    1896: (see Rossbret - Kelly's Directory 1896)
    Coton Hill Institution
    Robert William Hewson, Superintendent.
    Rev. James Henry Theodosius, Chaplain.
    John Jackson, Clerk and Steward.
    Miss Ada Bailey, Ladies' Matron.
    1930s See brochure

    The Postgraduate Medical Centre Library at Staffordshire General Hospital is in the converted Chapel of Coton Hill. Coton Hill remained until 1976 when, apart from the chapel and the lodges, it was demolished and the new District General Hospital was built on the site.

    Burntwood
    Stafford County Asylum (Burntwood)
    Opened 20.12.1864
    (see Rossbret)
    Rossbret pictures - Asylums - Burntwood Asylum
    1881 Census: Burntwood County Lunatic Asylum Burntwood Edial & Woodhouses, Stafford. Medical Superintendent: James Beveridge Spence (married, aged 31)
    Burntwood Mental Hospital by 1929 to about 1948 - Although it was still known both as Burntwood Mental Hospital and as Stafford County Asylum in 1940.
    St Matthews Mental Hospital from 1948 to about 1955
    St Matthew's Hospital, Burntwood, Walsall, WS7 9ES
    Closed 1995

    Cheddleton County Asylum
    Near Leek, Staffordshire
    Designed and built between 1893 and 1897 by
    Giles, Gough, and Trollope "leaders in the design of lunatic asylums". (English Heritage link). The water tower is "the highest structure in Staffordshire Moorlands". (map)
    Opened 1898?
    Peter Cracknell describes as Compact Arrow design.
    Rossbret pictures - Asylums - Cheddleton Asylum
    Became Staffordshire Mental Hospital in 1948
    St Edward's Mental Hospital, then St Edward's Hospital, Cheadle Road, Cheddleton, Near Leek, ST13 7ER or ST13 7EB
    1979: 908 patients
    Memoirs is a collection of four books (Repetition, Resistance', Reminiscence and Recollection) based on this hospital, with photographs and writings of Sharon Kivland, maps and drawings by patients and references to the rules and regulations which apply to staff. (August 2001)
    There is also a book: The History of St Edward's Hospital
    There was a Nursing History Museum in Ward 4   (other museums)
    Autumn 2002: empty for a year
    development plans to "combine refurbishment and new-build homes, offering a selection of executive detached homes, mews style properties, apartments and townhouses in a beautiful woodland setting." (Redrow developers)

    Weston Hall

    Weston Hall is about four miles from Stafford near the River Trent on the approaches to the village of Weston. Until 1947/1946 it was owned by the Earl of Shrewsbury of nearby Ingestre Hall.
    The Earl of Shrewsbury and Stafford Council agreed to the use of Weston Hall as a Pauper Lunatic Asylum for two years from 24.6.1898 at 150 pounds per year payable half-yearly. The agreement also included the land adjoining comprising 2 acres and 3 rood and 35 perches. In 1905 a further lease was agreed for a period of seven years from 28.3.1904.
    Kelly's 1908 Directory of Birmingham, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire, states that Weston Hall is temporarily rented by the Committee of Visitors of the Staffordshire Lunatic Asylum (branch) that it will hold 45 female patients and that Miss Fanny Dukes is the nurse in charge.
    1911? Ceased being an asylum?
    1947/1948 The parents of Kevin Godwin bought Weston Hall from the Earl of Shrewsbury.
    "My father told me the Hall had once been a mental hospital and that when he bought it all the doors had double locks meaning the key had to be turned twice to open or lock a door. One or two locks required the key to be turned backwards in the locks to confuse any inmates who might get hold of a key." (Kevin Godwin)

    Cheshire and Lancashire

    Cheshire County Asylum (Chester)
    Opened August
    1829. See Rossbret site for some history
    Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum 1829 to 1855
    Originally built for 96, 10 private of each sex and 38 pauper of each sex. To each a separate sleeping room.
    Superintendent 1844 J. Leet. Surgeon.
    1.1.1844 155 patients. 146 pauper and 9 private. In 1844 most paupers were sharing a room. "The sleeping rooms in the pauper galleries are 10 feet by 8 feet and from 11 feet 3 inches to 12 feet in height, and two beds are now, for the most part, placed in each room, providing present accommodation for 152"   1844? 11% of patients epileptic
    Weekly charge for paupers: from outside Cheshire: 10/- (Cheshire paupers: 4/1d, not including clothes).
    (1844 Report) Contained 12 Welsh paupers on 23.7.1844 (1844 Welsh Report pp 5-6 and 47)
    Cheshire Lunatic Asylum 1855 to 1870
    Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum 1870 to 1921
    1881 census: may be Chester County Lunatic Asylum, Chester St Mary On Hill,
    Sometimes known as West Cheshire County Asylum
    About 1918, an Annexe built
    County Mental Hospital 1921 to 1948
    Upton Mental Hospital 1948 to about 1955
    Deva Hospital about 1955 to about 1965 [About 1970 suggested by another source. Local people still know the hospital as "The Deva" in 2002]
    In the 1950s Moston Hospital (Upton-by-Chester, CH2 4AA), an ex- military hospital about two miles away, was used for patients from the Wirral area. Its buildings were "wooden military style"
    West Cheshire Hospital about 1965 to 1984
    About 1972, a Maternity Unit was opened on what had been part of the hospital farm. This was the first stage of the development of the extensive grounds into a group of hospitals in a park.
    About 1976 a Psychiatric Unit was added to the Clatterbridge (General) Hospital Bebington, Wirral, L49 5PE, and took the acute patients from Moston. Others went to West Cheshire or were found homes in the community.
    The 1979 Hospital Year Book lists: West Cheshire Hospital as "Long-stay psychiatric and geriatric" with 997 beds; West Cheshire Hospital Maternity Wing, with 141 beds, at the same address, and Moston Hospital, 272 beds as "Mental Illness". Moston Hospital was demolished not long after it was vacated, and reverted back to army use.
    About 1983 a new District General Hospital opened in the grounds of the West Cheshire, called the Countess of Chester Hospital. The whole site was renamed The Countess of Chester Health Park, but the mental health unit retained the name West Cheshire Hospital and was managed by a different health trust: The Wirral and West Cheshire NHS Trust
    The original 1829 Chester Asylum Building was converted into Health Authority and Ambulance headquarters around 1990. "A handsome brick structure, with noble centre & wings". "superb, and listed". The other admin block on the mental health site is now trust headquarters for the newly formed Wirral, and South Cheshire Partnership NHS Trust. The mental health services (acute wards, cafe, staff dining room recreation hall, admin offices etc) are now in the Annexe. It provides the acute in-patient facility for the districts of Chester and Ellesmere Port, as well as some wards for the functional elderly mentally ill. A new mental health unit is to be built on the site of the former staff home and social club
    1994: 179 patients
    [Some addresses: Countess of Chester Hospital, Liverpool Road, Chester, CH1 2BA. Countess of Chester NHS Trust, Countess of Chester Health Park, Liverpool Road, CH2 1UL]
    (map)
    [My main source for much of this history has been Nigel Roberts who worked as a psychiatric nurse at West Cheshire Hospital from 1973 to 1984. For his photographs see "Northern Asylums" on Gordon Tozer's site].
    There is a book: Insane but not daft - Opening the door on Chester's Mental Hospital Semi fictional story of a male nurse at Chester in the 1960s. Written much later.

    Cheshire County Asylum (Macclesfield)
    Opened 1871
    Corridor form
    1881 Census: Principle Officer: Dr John H. Davidson, unmarried, aged 50. The asylum appears to be next to the workhouse. The address is Chester County Lunatic Asylum, Upton in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England.
    Known as Cheshire County Mental Hospital from about 1920
    Parkside County Mental Hospital (1948 reference)
    Then Parkside Hospital, Victoria Road, Macclesfield, SK10 3JF.
    Autumn 2002: Reported closed but empty "the County Lunatic Asylum (Parkside) at Upton Macclesfield is now the Parkside Hospital, also on the east of the site, where the Macclesfield Union Workhouse was, is Macclesfield General Hospital. It's very confusing as there was also a County Lunatic Asylum at Upton Chester, which is now the Countess of Chester Hospital (Stan Mapstone) [A fever hospital is shown as part of the workhouse on an 1882 map]
    (map)

    From 1732 to 1922 the poor law in Liverpool was administered by the parish. A Liverpool Select Vestry was established in 1821. See The 19th Century Poor Law in Liverpool and its Hinterland: Towards the Origins of the Workhouse Infirmary by Mike Royden. Also Peter Higginbotham's site

    1743 Opening of Liverpool Infirmary. Port Cities website has history 18th/19th/20th centuries, including Lunatic Asylum. 1779 Liverpool Infirmary Library founded (Later became Liverpool Medical Institution)

    Liverpool Lunatic Asylum
    A Hospital
    Opened 1792.
    See University of Liverpool's history of foundation by James Currie
    (archive)
    The asylum was built in the gardens adjoining the Liverpool Infirmary. It had 80 beds. The first Keeper and Matron were brought from St. Luke's Hospital London. The first Governor was Mr John Davies.
    Superintendent 1844 G. Tyrell. 1.1.1844 73 patients. 36 pauper and 37 private. Weekly charge for paupers: 12/- including clothes Sometimes received Welsh paupers (at 12/- a week) (1844 Welsh Report pp 5-6).
    Closed about 1889 to make room for new building of the Liverpool Royal Infirmary.


    1831 "The second Liverpool Lunatic Asylum was built on Brownlow Hill with four acres of grounds. It was part of the Liverpool Infirmary and had beds for 64 "insane people"".
    1834 "This institution formed for the truly benevolent purpose of affording relief to one of the most dreadful of human afflictions was originally opened in the year 1789 near to St John's Church but was recently removed to the present commodious and neat stone building situate in Ashton-street, Brownlow Hill". (source)
    In 1882 University College, Liverpool, opened in a disused lunatic asylum
    1895 "in the grounds of the Victoria Building where part of Brownlow Hill's old vacated lunatic asylum still stood and which housed some of the College's departments." (source)

    Brownlow Hill Workhouse
    "In 1790 the population of Liverpool was 55,732. It already had an Infirmary and a Workhouse. The Infirmary, built in 1745 stood on what is now St. Georges Plateau, and Brownlow Hill Workhouse, built in 1770, stood on the site of the present Metropolitan Cathedral."
    (University of Liverpool's history)
    Not mentioned in the 1844 Report
    On list with lunatic wards MH50 5.2.1849
    8.12.1849 Liverpool Journal Report of a vist to Brownlow Hill Workhouse "an extensive clump of buildings, ranging in the wall, which extends from Mount Pleasant to Brownlow Hill." Includes a visit to "the lunatic asylum" where "poor pauper lunatics are kept here till there is a vacancy at Lancaster". "Four adult men [in a room above] and seven women are confined." "I was surprised that the poor fellows who guard the lunatics, were paupers themselves and were given no extra remuneration." (Source: Old Mersey Times)
    1858 The Magistrates responsible for Rainhill agreed to the transfer of some chronic patients from Rainhill to the Liverpool workhouse, to make room for curable cases. The Lunacy Commission said the magistrates should satisfy themselves:
    1. That a sufficient staff of responsible paid nurses and attendants should be employed.
    2. That a fixed liberal diet (to be sanctioned by the medical superintendent of the asylum) should be allowed.
    3. That the clothing and bedding should be warm and good.
    4. That the rooms should be rendered much more cheerful, and be better furnished than at present.
    5. That the present small flagged yards should be enlarged and planted as gardens.
    6. That the patients should be frequently sent out to walk in the country under proper care.
    7. That the patients should have the benefit of regular daily medical visitation ; and that the register of admissions, discharges, and deaths, and also the medical journal required to be used in asylums (by the Act 16th and 17th Victoria, cap. 97, Schedules 1, 2, 3,) should be kept by the medical officers who shall visit the patients in the workhouse."
    1.11.1858 A description in a letter from Procter, who had visited Liverpool Workhouse to see "the preparations that they were making to receive patients".

    West Derby Workhouse
    Peter Higginbotham's site
    West Derby - an area surrounding Liverpool

    See also Maghull

    Manchester

    Manchester Lunatic Asylum
    not receiving paupers in 1844
    Opened 1766
    Hospital Database says at an "unknown location" from 1763 to about 1850. However, a common picture (see below) suggests it was the same site as the Infirmary, which was in Manchester Picadilly from its foundation in 1752 to 1909
    Much of the following detail is from the Wellcome Library catalogue
    1792: An Extract from a sermon preached in the Collegiate Church of Manchester, March 4, 1792, before the governors of the Infirmary, Dispensary, Lunatic, Hospital and Asylum, for the benefit of those charities by C. Bayley. 10 pages
    1804: A letter to the trustees of the Manchester Infirmary, Dispensary, Lunatic Hospital, & Asylum by James Jackson. Manchester: R. & W. Dean. 48 pages.
    1828 Pauper lunatics from the Hundred of High Peak in Derbyshire are shown as patients. "Samuel Smith age 22 male lunatic, dangerous, disordered 2 years" - "William Hyde age 52 male lunatic dangerous, disordered about 5 years" - 11.3.1828 "Anne Hardy age 29 female lunatic, dangerous, disordered about 3 years, confined ... at 10s 6d per week." - July 1828 "Isaac Hall age 28 male lunatic, dangerous, disordered since July last" was confined by October (probably earlier) -

    Plate 53 in W. H. Pyne, et al, Lancashire Illustrated London, 1831. 1 print: line engraving with etching. Lettering: "The Infirmary, Dispensary, & Lunatic Asylum, Manchester. To the President, the Right Hon. the Earl of Stamford and Warrington and officers, this plate is respectfully inscribed by the publishers". Line engraving by James Hey Davies after Samuel Austin.

    1831 High Peak pauper lunatics: "Sarah Wilson age 47 female lunatic, moderate, disordered 2 years"
    1836 High Peak pauper lunatics: "Charles Bradbury age 23 male lunatic, dangerous, disordered for some time before being confined. At Manchester Lunatic Asylum for 9 months at 10s". Charles Bradbury was later moved to Green Hill House Derby - "John Whalley age 30 male lunatic, dangerous, disordered 2 years and upwards" - "William Hyde age 40 male lunatic, dangerous when disordered" - "Joseph Mellor age 34 male lunatic, dangerous when disordered, disordered about 2 months" -
    Report of the state of the Manchester Royal Infirmary Dispensary, Lunatic Hospital and Asylum Two volumes: 24.6.1837-24.6.1838 and 24.6.1839-24.6.1840
    1.1.1844: 36 private patients
    In 1849 Manchester Infirmary was bounded by Piccadilly, George Street Parker Street and Portland Street

    From about 1850: the Lunatic Hospital at what is now 100 Wilmslow Road, Cheadle SK8 3DG.
    June 1851: Report of the Manchester Royal Lunatic Hospital, situate in the township of Stockport Etchells near Cheadle, Cheshire : this institution is in connexion with the Manchester Royal Infirmary Consists of the report of the general committee (Salis Schwabe, Treasurer) including reports of the Commissioners of Lunacy (S. Gaskell, J.W. Mylne, W.G. Campbell, T. Turner), report of the medical officers (R.F. Ainsworth, F. Renaud, Thomas Dickson) and an engraving of the south east front of the asylum
    Second annual report of the Manchester Royal Lunatic Hospital, situate near Cheadle, Cheshire, for the year from June 25th 1851 to June 24th 1852. Salis Schwabe, chairman. Medical Superintendent: Thomas Dickson.
    1852/1853: Canon Clifton (R.C. Clifton) Treasurer. R.C. Clifton later (1857/1858) shown as chairman of the Committee of Management.

    Henry Maudsley - Cheadle superintendent
    Late 1858 Henry Maudsley became superintendent and remained for three years. He recommended George Mould as his successor.
    1861 Census Henry Maudsley, unmarried, aged 26, born Giggleswick, Physician shown as Superintendent of the Hospital. Completion of records may be defective. For example, instead of listing patients, there is a table of "female patients" showing number in each age range: 15:1 - 20:3 - 25:3: 30:6 - 35:6: 40:3 - 45:3 - 50:3 - 55:2 - 60:0 - 65:2 - 75:2. [Total is 34]

    George W. Mould - Cheadle superintendent
    1870: G. W. Mould (surgeon) was superintendent of "Manchester Royal Lunatic Hospital, Cheadle".
    George Mould President of the Medico-Psychological Association
    1871 Census George W. Mould, aged 35, born Sudbury, Derbyshire, "Medical Superintendent and Landowner". Caroline Mould, wife, aged 40. Children: Gilbert E. Mould (4), Mabel R. Mould (3), Phillip G. Mould, (1)
    1881 Census: "Manchester Royal Lunatic Asylum" Census Place Stockport Etchells, Cheshire, England. Caroline Mould Wife aged 50 born Whitton, Suffolk. Occupation Lady. [Caroline died 1882 aged "52"] Mabel Rebecca Mould, Daughter aged 13 born Stockport Etchells, Cheshire, Scholar. Philip George Mould Son aged 11 born Southport, Lancashire, Scholar
    1888: Marriage of Mabel Rebecca Mould to Charles Tilbury Street
    1891 Census Cheadle Royal Asylum: George William Mould, Medical Superintendent. Walter Scowcroft (36) and Arthur J. Barnard (30), his assistants.
    1901 Census Cheadle Royal Asylum and St Annes Hospital: Walter Scowcroft (36) "Deputy Medical Superintendent". John Sutcliffe (47) and Philip J. Mould (31), his assistants.
    End of July 1900 Rachel Grant Smith admitted as a boarder to Cheadle Royal Asylum
    October 1902 Rachel Grant Smith moved to "Musgrove" (a pseudonym).

    John Allan Chisholm Roy - Cheadle
    1908 Dr John Allan Chisholm Roy (1878-7.5.1954) Assistant Medical Officer Cheadle Royal Hospital
    1922 Chisholm Roy superintendent to 1951.
    Manchester Royal Mental Hospital (by 1929 - 1947)
    Cheadle Royal Mental Hospital (1949 reference)

    William Victor Wadsworth - Cheadle superintendent
    1951 Chisholm Roy retired and was succeded as superintendent by his deputy William Victor Wadsworth (4.4.1920 - 4.9.1983. BSc Manchester (1941) MB ChB (1944) DPM (1948) MRCP (1960) FRCP (1965) FRCPsych (1971.) who carried on "the Cheadle Royal tradition of lavish entertainment... Many people in Manchester, both lay and medical, remember with nostalgia the Cheadle Royal parties of those day. He also "steered it through the changes which occurred in psychiatry in this period, discarding locks on doors and using drugs, ECT and insulin coma therapy, but later more and more discarding the physical treatments for psychotherapeutic ones." (Munks Roll)
    1955 Introduced the features of the "therapeutic community" as outlined by Maxwell Jones. (Jones and Sidebotham 1962 p.34)
    "He was a pioneer in two developments: industrial therapy and day hospitals, helping to build up the very successful industrial unit Cheadle Royal Industries, which virtually became a paper hat making factory, selling to firms such as Woolworths. At this time he wrote a number of papers on the rehabilitation of schizophrenic patients by industrial therapy". (Munks Roll)
    14.9.1957 Lancet (4; 273 (6994): pp 533-534.) article by W. V. Wadsworth, W. L. Tonge and L. E. Barber "Cost of treatment of affective disorders; a comparison between three mental hospitals." William Lawton Tonge, born 1925, was Deputy Medical Superintendent at Cheadle Royal [The idea for the research (1958-1959) that lead to Mental Hospitals at Work (1962) originated with Dr Wadsworth. (Jones and Sidebotham 1962 p.ix). They describe the study by Wadsworth, Tonge and Barber as "A pilot survey of three hospitals" (Jones and Sidebotham 1962, p.166)]
    25.10.1958 Lancet (25; 2 (7052): pp 896-897. article by W.V. Wadsworth, R.F. Scott, and W.L. Tonge "A hospital workshop".
    R.F. Scott, B.A. London, Diploma Psychology was Industrial Director at Cheadle.
    "In 1959 he [Wadsworth] invited Gordon Cross to come from the Bristol Day Hospital to open a similar one at Cheadle. This developed as a therapeutic community and in association with the industrial unit helped in the rehabilitation of both neurotic and psychotic patients." (Munks Roll)
    9.9.1961 Lancet (Volume 278, No. 7202, pp 593-595) article by W.V. Wadsworth, R.F. Scott, and B.W.P. Wells "Employability of long-stay schizophrenic patients". B.W.P. Wells, B.A. Bristol was "Research psychologist" at Cheadle.
    "Crown Lodge" in Jones and Sidebotham 1962. See June 1958 to June 1959
    1967 Cheadle Royal Hospital A Bicentenary History by Nesta Roberts published by John Sherratt and Son Ltd of Altrincham. Ten introductory pages, 189 pages and 24 plates, including 4 in colour.
    External link to Affinity Healthcare website - archive

    December 2004 Duke Street acquired Affinity. "Affinity operated 248 beds in two hospitals: Cheadle Royal Hospital in Cheadle, Cheshire, and Middleton St George Hospital in Darlington, County Durham. Affinity also operated a community home based in Darlington. With 3% of the independent psychiatric care beds in the market, the company was particularly strong in the North of England."
    "There were 32,000 psychiatric care beds in the UK, 7,600 of them provided by the independent sector. In 2005 the independent sector market was worth about £800 million. Continued growth was expected, because the need for more specialised services and the NHS's focus on community services meant services being increasingly contracted out to the independent sector."
    January 2010 Duke Street sold its stake in Affinity to the Priory Group
    The Priory Hospital Cheadle Royal
    [Nigel Roberts' photograph see "Northern Asylums" on Gordon Tozer's site]. English Heritage: Cheadle Royal, Manchester, built 1847-1849 as a private asylum for the middle and upper classes

    Manchester Workhouse History on Peter Higginbotham's site
    14.2.1793 Bridge Street Workhouse opened
    1843 Bridge Street Workhouse enlarged
    1844: A Workhouse Asylum
    "Wards exclusively appropriated to lunatics" (1844 Report p.10)
    1848 map on Peter Higginbotham's site shows "Lunatic asylum" as part of the New Bridge Street workhouse
    1848 John Sutton, age 49, was Master of Manchester Workhouse.
    1852 John Sutton became the owner of the Haydock Lodge private asylum

    Peter Higginbotham says: "As well as Bridge Street, the former parish workhouse on Moston Lane at Harpurhey seems to have continued in use as shown on the OS map of 1848.... A small lunatic asylum was located to its west."

    "By 1930 the Manchester Union Workhouse had become known as Crumpsall. It was renamed Park House Hospital in 1939. When the National Health Service came into existence it was again renamed. This time it was known as Springfield Hospital. The Infirmary later became known as Crumpsall Hospital.

    In 1972 the Springfield Hospital, Crumpsall Hospital and the Delaunay's Hospital amalgamated to form Manchester General Hospital." source

    "The first meeting of the Getting To Know You 'core' group was held in December 1982. It consisted of Judith Gray, Nigel Rose and Neill Simpson, a senior registrar in psychiatry, but was soon expanded to include two more psychologists, a drama therapist and a senior hospital social worker. Their tasks at this stage were twofold: to pilot the first stage of Getting to Know You by carrying out some initial assessments and to begin to sell the project to other staff members. In addition Neill Simpson undertook a survey of all hospital patients to ensure that the eventual sample would be representative. The aim from the beginning was to involve as many staff as possible. Meetings designed too inform and enthuse' were held across the hospital".

    February 1983 Staff meetings held re Getting to Know You

    April 1983 Getting to Know You assessments started

    September 1983 First service design session

    September 1984 Final report of "Getting to Know You" project put out for consultation. (Harrington, 2009, p.669

    1985 Alan Hartman moved from London to Manchester

    April 1985 Powell Street Community Mental Health Centre (1985 - 1994) opened. See Newbigging, Cadman and Westley 1989 and Valerie Harrington 2009c . See Ruth Madden

    Death of Judith Gray.

    September 1985 Appointment of first members of core resettlement team. [Harpurhey Resettlement Team]. Neil Harris was nurse therapist with the team from 1985. He stayed with the team until it was disbanded in 1998.

    March 1986 All members of core resettlement team in post. Douglas Inchbold (a Manchester social worker) was as appointed as community mental health worker on the core resettlement team in 1986 and went on to become Team Leader of the Harpurhey Team in the early 1990s. He stayed with the team until it was disbanded in 1998

    September 1986 Edna Robinson starts as Sub Unit General manager for Rehabilitation and Resettlement

    29.9.1986 Alan Hartman to Andrew Roberts: "The latest cuts down here is they are closing North Manchester Hospital (psychiatric department). 300 patients being kicked out after 20, 30 years of hospitalisation. £150 for cooker, £65 bed, £75 for everything also! Day Centres are very good down here."


    The Patients Association was a group run by service users, particularly Vinnie [Vincent] Gillespie and John Banks. It was chiefly run as a social centre for the, then, large inpatient population. Vinnie went on to be employed by the Harpurhey Resettlement Team, staying with it in its CMHT form until 1989. John continued working with the user groups.


    Norman Howard, MindWaves 5/6. Autumn/Winter 1989/1990, p.10:
    November 1986 Meeting of patients and ex-patients from North Manchester General Hospital hosted by the Patients Association, at the request of Harpurhey Resettlement Team. Met regularly on Wednesdays in M Block in the Social Therapy Department from 1.30p to 3pm. Usually attended by at least a dozen people and often invites good guest speakers. Representatives from other organsations who have attended include Mind, Unit Management, the police, Welfare Rights, and the Community Health Council.

    There are several themes which pervade the group meetings such as 1. Stigma; 2. Finances; 3. The things needed in hospital; 4. The legal rights of a patient; 5. Moving out of hospital; Services and treatment; 7. The relations between the police and the mentally ill; 8. Work and trying to get it; 9. problems in general; 10. Support; 11. Accommodation; 12. Crime and the law.

    One new concept that has arisen during the formulation of the User's Group is 'advocacy'.

    Summarised views in a booklet The Patients' Case".

    Valerie Harrington says that Douglas Inchbold was "responsible for setting up a Users Forum. From November 1986, patients and ex-patients met regularly, initially to discuss issues around the resettlement programme, though the agenda broadened over time to cover many aspects of service use. In 1987 they gave a presentation to the MIND conference, followed by the publication of a booklet, The Patient's Case which described their experiences as service users both inside and outside the hospital... This eventually developed into the North Manchester Users Group, which is still thriving to the present day."

    Organised Having a Voice conferences in 1989


    Social Services Inspectorate, 1986. Inspection of services for mentally ill- Manchester. Draft report for circulation within the authority, Mental Health Services Archive, CHSTM, University of Manchester. On page 34 described Springfield as "one of the worst hospital sites they had visited in the country" (Harrington, 2009, p.668

    1987 First group of community support workers started [would have included Mark Greenwood - trip to Trieste. Quotes from Interview 5 (Mark Greenwood?)

    "... for the first week of the new team... we all went off to Trieste. So we were a new resettlement team, newly sort of enthused, went over to Trieste, spent an incredible week... having our minds blown... and came back with ... an emotional reaction against the things that we had witnessed and experienced in the hospital institution with a much ... more robust kind of ideological understanding of the process of deinstitutionalisatio... There was an element of evangelising.."

    "... we were very intrigued by it and basically wanted to keep up te link and continue the set up. We actually set up a Trieste fund. I was thinking it out, and we got a little logo and we set up [name], which was, the purpose was to set up educational exchanges in effect."

    From memory, the following people went to Trieste: Mark Greenwood, Steve Hamer, Tracey Lackner, Mark Holland, Phil ?, Neil Harris, (all nurses) Doug Inchbold, Helen Potts, Julie Gask (occupational therapists) Anne Marie Hinde (social worker). There were no patients who went that time.

    June 1987 First patients move out of Springfield - Users Group established.

    We set up a small group that met every Wednesday - just the initial first group of patients to be resettled into the community in Harpurhey. We invited them to come for a supper at our offices (Harpurhey Health Centre); Tony Riley was asked to facilitate this regular meeting with them. It lasted a few months before fizzling out.


    21.4.1988 The Patients' Case Views from experience; Living inside and out of a psychiatric hospital Editors Neil Harris and Doug Inchbold.

    List of Contributors: John Dockney - Beryl Bostock - Jack Denman -Maura Grogan - Alan Hartman - Alan Shatsman - Bill Wilson Smith - Joe Ellin - Brian Young - Stan Pickard - Vincent Gillespie - Colin Wallis - Shanti Hutchinson - John Bridgewater - Roy Smith - Cath Kovacs - Helena Davies.


    August 1988 First MindWaves Advocacy address list includes Powell Street Users Group, 2 Powell Street, Manchester. Contact Liz Mullen

    October 1988 First group of social services support workers appointed with Nigel Rose as manager.

    "This group included Vinnie Gillespie, above. This stage of recruitment was significant in that it allowed us to recruit local people with a wide range of local contacts, varied experience and an understanding of how best to help people moving out of hospital make best use of local informal support networks" Douglas Inchbold

    15.11.1988 Mike Bishop (Director of Social Services in Manchester) visited the users group.

    1989 Manchester Users' Support Group

    March/April 1989 Having a Voice Conference

    April 1989 Alan Hartman Vice-chair, Group Advocate, Manchester Users' Support Group wrote about "Advocacy by a user" in Asylum

    "I was helping and representing patients long before I understood the word 'advocacy'. No-one asked me or told me to do it. It was entirely spontaneous"

    "When socialising in hospital or out in the community, with other users, people just talk about their problems... In general, I've gone with them, and spoken for them and sorted out the problems, if they asked me to."

    "I felt more nervous than when I took my driving test when I was taken into ward rounds. It affects others in different ways. Self-advocacy can be produced by self-help group meetings on a ward. It seems to help communication and motivation to help yourself."

    "I got involved with advocacy through the hospital user group, now called the manchester Users' Support Group (MUSG). I was unanimously voted in as a group advocate. We were then near the stage where I would be meeting nurses, therapists, social workers, psychiatrists, head-on. It was strongly urged by the group to drop advocacy except on welfare rights and general advice, until I become recognised by all concerned, and get organised and protected against prejudices which will obviously occur. I do, however, make regular appointments with the Unit General manager, where I advocate on behalf of individual users, and about group problems.

    "We have discussed the needs of a hospital advocate at our meetings. A phone and an office were most people's first request. In fact we were offered to share with The Patient's Association. But this would have been inadequate.

    "The payment of advocates was discussed at this early stage - at least therapeutic earnings, or money one is allowed to earn on top of benefits. We feel this should be encouraged by professionals. Whether user or professional, no-one can be expected to work continuously for nothing."

    June 1989 Harpurhey Resettlement Team Report 1989 The final day of the Having a Voice conference "has yet to be planned". "Recently the group learned that funding is to be made available to appoint two paid workers. Their job will be to facilitate and support initiatives in North Manchester's Mental Health Services". [The two workers appointed were Altaf Ramtoola and Tony Riley]

    Altaf Ramtoola spent a lot of time working with people from South Asian communities. He formed an organsiation in North Manchester called Awaaz and this developed into an employment project with a shop premisis. To some extent this was a way to provide non stigmatised access to South Asian people who needed help with mental health problems. It is still going, http://www.manchesterdirectory.co.uk/info/2308/ (Douglas Inchbold 3.9.2012)

    July 1989 Mark Greenwood, Harpurhey Health Centre, Rochdale Road, Manchester 8 a new member of the Asylum editorial team, along with Paul Baker of Manchester Mind.

    1990 Last 'dowry scheme' patient moved out of Springfield

    1990 Publication of Defining the Future and New Approaches; beginning of transition to Community Mental Health Team.

    1990 Springfield was replaced by Park House, "a purpose built acute unit, which complemented a range of community based services" (Harrington, 2008, p.48

    Autumn 1990 Asylum Directory: Manchester Users' Support Group, c/o Tony Riley, North Manchester General Hospital, Crumpsall, Manchester M8 [Tony was based at the hospital for about a year. He then moved out to the new Having a Voice office at the Abraham Moss Centre.

    The two staff, Tony Riley and Altaf Ramtoola, were initially accountable to the Users Group. When this was found not to work, they became accountable to a "steering group". They were employed by a VCS umbrella organisation for a period and moved base to East Manchester.

    About 1991 Ruth Madden first met Tony Riley. She was a service user at Powell Street. Tony (and Altaf?) would visit the Centre. Ruth worked with Andrew Hughes and Tony in DATA. She was involved in Having a Voice in a voluntary capacity and helped set up Having a Voice Limited (April 1995) and served on its Management, before becoming an administrative worker and later coordinator. 2002 -

    1992 Mark Greenwood left to take post as senior nurse manager supervising final closure of long stay wards.

    1994 Community Mental Health Team split in two: Harpurhey and East Manchester Community Mental Health Teams.

    1994 Closure of Community Mental Health Centre followed by the compensatory funding and appointment of Helen Spandler as a development worker with Having a Voice.

    1994 Awaaz users group set up

    1995 Last long-stay ward at Springfield closed.

    1996 Piloting of primary care/home treatment teams

    1998 Harpurhey, East Manchester and Cheetham and Crumpsall Community Mental Health Teams disbanded.

    Harpurhey, the worst place in England (Manchester Evening News headline)

    18.10.2005 Valerie Harrington's interview with Mark Greenwood:

    "Speaking personally, I felt that there were three currents, three strands that were going. One was the 'Survivors Speak Out' stuff, so it's actually service users' autonomous voice work that was coming. The second one was very much our strand, which was the resettlement programme, because it wasn't just us, it was happening across the UK. And then the third one is the legacy of people like Laing and so on, Cooper, so people who had set up alternative, counter-therapy type .. therapeutic communities. And it was that melange of the three that I felt ...heady days." (Harrington, 2009, pp 201-202


    Gaskell House - Withington Hospital

    "Manchester psychiatry was dominated by the University Department of Psychiatry and its relatively new academic units at Gaskell House in Central Manchester and Withington Hospital in South. These espoused a model of acute, district general psychiatry within a fiercely competitive and academic environment (Kessel,1973; Harrington,2008)- a far cry from the back-wards of Springfield. (Harrington, 2009, p.667)"

    Gaskell House opened mid 1960s. A 21-bedded unit in an old house at the back of Manchester Royal Informary, "which had been extended to provide an out-patient department. For a number of years Gaskell provided the University Department of Psychiatry's main clinical facilities and continued to function as a teaching unit until the building was condemned in 1991". (Harrington, 2008, p.)"

    31.12.1975 18 resident patients. 21 beds. 136 admissions in 1975, including 62 first admissions. 12 day patients attending on a particular day. 2,800 outpatient attendances in 1975.

    Withington Hospital

    1971 Day hospital and out-patients department opened
    "Known as 'The Maudsley of the North', Withington Hospital Psychiatric Unit, which opened in 1971, was attached to a large district general hospital (DGH). It had a dual role: to provide a local service for the people of South Manchester and to provide teaching facilities for doctors, nurses and social workers" (Val Harrington)

    November 1991 HAS report published

    2001 Closure

    "Rowan ward was part of the Healey House unit on the Withington Hospital site. Since the transfer of most clinical services to Wythenshawe Hospital in 2001, Rowan Ward had been the only remaining psychiatric in-patient unit on the Withington site (co-managed with the Brian Hore Unit, a day treatment facility for alcohol dependence), and Rowan Day Hospital, also based in Healey House. - A commissioning decision was made in 1999 to re-provide the unit through Anchor Housing in a new-build facility called Monet Lodge. This unit is now open and the residents of Rowan ward were transferred there in July 2003 following a period of interim care on Cavendish ward, Laureate House, Wythenshawe Hospital."


    Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust

    "Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust was formed in April 2002 as one of only five mental health and social care NHS organisations in the country." (source)

    8.5.2015 Letter to voluntary organisations from the Trust asking them to return Trust identification badges and, in future, seek approval of activities from Patrick Cahoon, Head of Patient Experience. Letter headed "Themes and lessons learnt from NHS Investigations into matters relating to Jimmy Savile


    Lancashire County Asylum (Lancaster)

    Opened 28.7.1816 - 4th County Asylum built in England. Accommodation for about 160 patients
    Architect: Thomas Standen
    Peter Cracknell classifies it as Corridor form, although the logic of his analysis might suggest Early form, later adapted to corridor.
    Simon Cornwall: says 1840 Architect unknown: which suggests some re-building or new building.
    Superintendent 1844: Samuel Gaskell. Surgeon (Became a Lunacy Commissioner).
    1.1.1844: 611 patients. All pauper.   1844? 10.3% of patients epileptic
    Weekly charge for paupers:: 6/- including clothes. Sometimes received Welsh paupers. The charge for them was 10/6 a week (1844 Welsh Report pp 5-6).
    House Surgeon from about 1850: John Davies Cleaton
    1858 Report 181 patients had been refused for want of room
    1881 Census: County Lunatic Asylum Lancaster, Lancaster Moor, Lancaster, Lancashire. Assistant medical officers (both physicians): James Cunningham Russell, aged 37, and Alexander Hanbrison, aged 32. Matron: Charlotte Stacey, aged 37 and Assistant Matron: Ann Smith, aged 48 (all unmarried).
    Picture of County Asylum Lancaster (no date) on Rossbret site (archive)
    Peter Cracknell: Extended 1882 by A.V. Kershaw (architect). Peter Cracknell:
    1889 D. M. Cassidy, M.D., Lancaster, Superintendent of the County Lunatic Asylum.
    Peter Dutton, Lancaster, Clerk and Steward of the County Lunatic Asylum.
    25.10.1904 Postcard from Lancaster of the County Asylum Annexe Lancaster
    Ridge Lea annexe opened in the 1920s.
    Lancaster County Mental Hospital by 1929. Then (from 1948?):
    Lancaster Moor Hospital, Quernmore Road, Lancaster, LA1 3JR
    (map, showing closeness to prison)
    Autumn 2002: reported closed and due for development in spring 2003. "A very well preserved site. Neo Gothic style architecture" (Nigel Roberts 1.12.2002) [Nigel Roberts' photograph see "Northern Asylums" on Gordon Tozer's site].

    "half the site is now executive housing/flats, although the large neo-gothic buildings across the road remain standing, and are in good condition. Ridge Lea Hospital, which is just across a road behind the main buildings of Lancaster Moor... is essentially a small asylum as it was built around 1920's as an annexe for the Moor Hospital." (Nigel Roberts 28.11.2002)

    Moor Hospital site in Gregson's Photo Gallery of Lancaster has pictures of what is going and what is staying dated Summer 2000
    See British Academy aerial photograph with part demolition Lucy says this is "of the buildings which were adapted the main building is still there in the top right corner of the picture"
    Lancaster Moor Hospital, UK, 17 June, 2004 "The hospital closed in about 2000. Whilst the premises to the south-west of Quernmore Road have been partially demolished and redeveloped as a housing estate, the main building, built as a psychiatric hospital in 1882, remains"
    2.1.2005 email from Louise Wade in Rootsweb archives

    "I was wondering whether you were aware that Lancaster had two asylums, though of rather different types. The Moor Hospital was the county asylum for the mentally ill, but on the other side of town, the Royal Albert Hospital opened in 1870 as the 'Royal Albert Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles of the Northern Counties'". (Email from Neil Thomason 26.6.2006)

    Haydock Lodge, Winwick, near Warrington
    Licensed House
    A mansion and outhouses asylum
    Grid reference: SJ580980 (358027,398076). To the west of Lodge Lane, just south of what became Haydock Race Course. (1849 map)   (modern map)   (multi-map)

    Situated at a junction of the new railway system that allowed patients to be sent from most parts of the country. A speculation of Charles Mott (ex-poor law officer) and George Coode (Assistant Secretary to the Poor Law Commissioners). George Coode's relationship with the project was a secret.

    mental health
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    mental health
history
timeline

    Licensed 17.1.1844
    Table of patients in Haydock Lodge, from January 1844
    Summer 1848: 380 patients. Proprietor C.F. Jenkins (surgeon)
    1.1.1851: 402 patients (359 pauper). Proprietor "Miss Coode and Eli Lawrence Sup."
    closed in late 1851?
    re-opened in 1852 by Mr John Sutton, formerly master of the Manchester Workhouse.
    1.1.1853: 32 patients, all private
    1.1.1855: 89 patients (53 pauper)
    1870: 250 patients (170 pauper)
    In 1872 it was burnt down but rebuilt immediately afterwards.
    1881: 215 patients (122 pauper)
    1891
    1901
    Records exist to 1969. It closed about 1970

    Tuesday 10.2.1846: A special meeting of the Lunacy Commission to receive a deputation, headed by Brotherton, the Salford MP, putting the case for two new asylums: one near Manchester and the other near Liverpool.
    Two new Lancashire County Asylums (the 2nd and 3rd) opened at Rainhill and Prestwich on 1.1.1851.

    Rainhill is between Liverpool and Warrington. It served Liverpool.
    Before 1847: Designed by
    Harvey Lonsdale Elmes
    1.1.1851 Opened: "built to accommodate 300 patients and opened with approximately 220" (Liverpool Record Office)
    Known as County Lunatic Asylum, Rainhill,
    Corridor form
    "By 1852, the committee was having to admit 400 patients and from then onwards was constantly reporting that the asylum was overcrowded."
    About 1853 to April 1858: Superintendent John Davies Cleaton
    It had 400 patients in 1856.
    1856 Report: " the asylum has been full throughout the year, and patients have only been received as vacancies occured by death and discharges." - The preponderating cause of death was general paralysis. Of 42 deaths, 16 were general paralytics. [The proportion was higher at Prestwich]. The other main cause was pulmonary consumption.
    It had 400 patients in 1858.
    1859? Temporary (?) removal of some chronic patients to Liverpool Workhouse
    "In 1859, additional wards were built to house another 228 patients and 32 single rooms were added to existing wards, along with a recreation hall and new workshops. In 1860 it was decided that the hospital should purchase the farm on the opposite side of the road, for £2100." (Liverpool Record Office)
    "In 1877, the Medical Superintendent, Dr Rogers, started a crusade for a new asylum. He decided that if land were available, it would be an advantage to expand Rainhill Asylum, rather than build a separate establishment, and to split the site between chronic and acute cases." (Liverpool Record Office)
    "In 1878, the county authorities purchased land for the building of the annexe. It was designed by G E Grayson to house around 1000 patients and was opened in April 1887; it was used for patients whose conditions had seriously deteriorated."
    1881 Census: Physician head: Thomas Lawes Rogers
    Annexe (Asylum Annexe, Eccleston, Prescot?) built 1881 to 1887 (opened). Enlarged to take 200 patients in 1898. Annexe demolished 1900.
    1889 Thomas Lawes Rogers, Rainhill, Superintendent of the County Lunatic Asylum at Rainhill.
    1900 Total patients: 2,029
    December 1911 Total patients: 1,990. 975 men and 1015 women
    1913 Joseph Wiglesworth, Medical Superintendent
    Became County Mental Hospital, Rainhill.
    1936 Total patients: 3,000
    1946 Benedict Finkleman (1906-1966) appointed deputy medical superintendent, having previously (from 1936) been on the staff at Winwick.
    1948? Became Rainhill Hospital
    Benedict Finkleman appointed superintendent.
    See June 1958 to June 1959
    1962 (Hospital Plan) 2,750 staffed beds on 31.12.1960. 1,240 expected in 1975
    9.10.1966 Death of Benedict Finkleman
    Address Rainhill Road, Prescot, L35 4PQ.
    1979 Total patients: 1,768
    1984 Scott Clinic, "one of the first purpose-built medium secure units" opened.
    1986 BBC Domesday "Rainhill Hospital was built as a lunatic asylum for long-term patients. The building is in two parts: Avon wing and Sherdley wing. The latter has newly built Scott Clinic, a secure building for dangerous patients such as murderers. The Benedict Clinic is for the cure of alcoholics. Once a patient shows signs of recovery they are allowed to re-enter the community. They can live in flats near the hospital and return each day for special medication. Their part of the hospital is called Elton Vale. There, Occupational Therapy is attempted by providing instruction in life-skills such as cooking, shopping and handicrafts. On occasions, depressed patients kill themselves in the area. Some disturbed patients wander into the village where they sometimes frighten children.
    1991 closed
    1993 Psychiatric Bulletin article
    replaced by a Business Park
    2014 Scott Clinic to close (source)
    See The Colonnade which is all about Rainhill. There are many interesting photographs on this site, including a selection by Nigel Roberts

    Prestwich is just north of Manchester. Prestwich Asylum - see above
    "The land chosen for the Hospital is in an area first known as Prestwich Wood in 1652. The land was owned by Thomas Compton until his death in 1776, when Nathaniel Milne bought the land, which then came into the possession of his son, Oswald in 1847. The Hospital was opened in 1851 to accomodate 500 patients, and originally built to face West with the main entrance on Clifton Road".
    It had 500 patients in 1856.
    1856 Report: " Each year the difficulties of receiving patients have increased, and numerous applications for admission have consequently been refused." Out of 58 deaths, 31 were general paralytics. [See Rainhill]
    It had 510 patients in 1858.
    "In 1863 it was extended to accommodate afurther 560 patients"
    1881 Census: Medical officers were Herbert Rd Octavius Sankey, Henry George Murray and Benjamin Russell Baker (all surgeons)
    1884 "the Annex was built. The Annex was built to house 1,100 patients and was served by bus due to it's distance from the main Hospital Site."
    1889
    Henry Rooke Ley, Prestwich, Superintendent of the County Lunatic Asylum at Prestwich.
    "By 1903 the site could handle 3,135 patients from Salford,Manchester and South Lancashire, of which 50 per cent recovered and 6.57 per cent died."
    1917-1919 Montagu Lomax assistant medical officer. Published The experiences of an asylum doctor in 1921. "He stated that the patients were poorly fed and poorly clad; that they were closely confined...that the nurses were mostly unqualified, unsuited to the nature of their work". He instanced specific cases of open cruelty to patients. (Jones, K. 1960 p.100)
    by 1929 Lancashire County Mental Hopital
    1949 Prestwich Hospital
    See June 1958 to June 1959
    1962 (Hospital Plan) 2,837 staffed beds on 31.12.1960. 1,000 expected in 1975
    early 1975 Manchester Mental Patients Union and Prestwich Hospital
    20.11.1977 Minutes record aproach from Manchester Mental Patients Union about access.
    6.12.1977 Manchester Mental Patients Union show film
    5.4.1978 minutes record some continuing concern about Mental Patients Union access.
    1986 BBC Domesday: "PRESTWICH HOSPITAL The present area covered by the Hospital on its two sites is 58.54 hectares, and it employs 1421 people, making it one of the biggest hospitals of its type in Europe. The main Hospital is divided into four main groups ACUTE SERVICES- short term assessment, treatment and rehabilitation. REHABILITATION- support for domestic and social skills. ELDERLY SERVICES- care and assessment REGIONAL SPECIALITIES- secure unit Special units are Adolescent Secure Unit a unique service for 20 referred young people. McGuiness Unit- Full time education with a staff of five teachers. Alcohol Treatment Unit. Kenyon House- Regional drug dependence Unit. Industrial Therapy Unit which produces items for sale.
    Since 1994: It is now the Mental Health Services of Salford, Bury New Road, Prestwich, M25 7BL. (map)

    1996 The final long stay ward closed. Part of the site remained, with regional specialist services, expanded to include a unit for mentally distressed deaf people and a high dependency unit, and the administrative headquarters of the Mental Health Services Salford NHS Trust. "A new superstore dominated the remainder of the land". (Harrington, 2004, p.


    Prestwich "Clifton Lodge Entrance" photograph (undated) from Prestwich Asylum link (archive) - Current site.

    PRESTWICH HOSPITAL "ASYLUM" By Terry Wilson says that "The back of the hospital was once known as the "annex", it then became "Clifton House". It is now known as The Edenfield center." (link)

    Northtown in Jones and Sidebotham 1962 is either Rainhill or Prestwich

    "buildings of red brick and grey stone"... There are two main blocks, each with its own grounds and bounded by a high stone wall... the massive iron gates are always open". (p.55) [The photograph below of part of Rainhill was taken by Nigel Roberts]

    Rainhill

    "The medical superintendent at Northtown said in conversation, 'I'm running five hospitals - the male and female sides of the main building and the Annexe, and the neurosis unit" (p.64)

    There are 2,750 beds (p.56) - There are 2,750 patients in the hospital (p.63)

    Rainhill

    Above, part of the Rainhill corridor from the video Rainhill hospital 1992 The Empty Wards

    The Annexe "block, which is devoted exclusively to the care of long-stay patients, is the biggest in the hospital. It houses 1,700 patients, male and female. in wards which stem off from a rigidly straight main corridor. A visitor may stand at one end, and look down successive receding arches to the door at the other end, exactly a quarter of a mile away. Every bed is occupied and there are very few discharges except by death, so that the population is very nearly static" (pp 59-60)

    After 1932 plans for special units for voluntary patients (all of the County) were put in hand. "At Northtown, two small modern villas were constructed, and a separate neurosis unit was planned, though this was not completed before the outbreak of war in 1939" (p.56)

    Although the neurosis unit has between 40 and 50 patients, it could easily house twice that number (p.62)

    "the total number of patients in the two villas and the neurosis unit does not exceed 250" (p.63)

    nearly 80% of patients in Northtown were "certified". "This may reflect... the types of patient admitted. Many come from the dock areas of a large port, and some are immigrants" (p.109)


    A fourth Lancashire asylum, at Preston, was opened in 1873. This became Whittingham Hospital, Preston, PR3 2JH. (map)
    Too large for Conolly's ideal
    April 1872 J. Holland, FRCS.E. appointed Medical Superintendent of the Lancashire Lunatic Asylum, Whittingham near Preston
    1881 Census: Lancaster County Lunatic Asylum, Whittingham, Near Preston, Lancashire. Physician: John Augustus Wallis aged 35
    1889 John A. Wallis, M.D., Whittingham, Preston, Superintendent of the County Lunatic Asylum at Whittingham.
    See 1972 Whittingham Hospital Report - Bopcris
    18.6.1973 The inaugural meeting of Mid Lancashire Association for Mental Health was held to coincide with the centenary of the hospital. Christopher Mayhew, Chair of Mind, described it as "a phoenix rising from the ashes of the Whittingham Report". "It aims to dispel Whittingham's image of being a blot on the horizon and prepare the public for accepting its patients back into the community" (Mind Out Autumn 1973 page 15)
    Autumn 2002:

    "it is half and half of a site. The St Mary's site has been demolished, although the St Luke's site is still standing and empty. Estates buildings are still in use, as well as a single storey unit for Huntingdon's patients. Market garden also on site. A new multi million pound 150 bed MSU is also on site. A few cottages in the grounds are also being upgraded for move on accommodation for the MSU. Superb church in the grounds, and the social club - the heart of any asylum - is still going strong." (Nigel Roberts 1.12.2002)
    Urbex (Simon Cornwall) photographs
    The new Whittingham Hospital Website

    Lancashire Asylums Board

    "The Lancashire Asylums Board was established in 1891, by the county council and all fifteen of the county boroughs. Ten years later the Lancashire Inebriates Acts Board was established, but the County Borough of Oldham did not participate. The Inebriates Acts Board built a reformatory at Brockhall (in the Ribble Valley, but its function gradually changed and by 1920 it was a certified institution for mental defectives. 1925 saw the dissolution of the Inebriates Acts Board and the Asylums Board became the Lancashire Mental Hospitals Board." (Bob Hayes 20.12.2003 Bob has now added a page to his website with fuller details).

    Winwick Hospital, Winwick, near Warrington (postcode was WA2 8RN) appears to have become a County Lunatic Asylum in 1897. Comparing information from Rossbret and the Hospital Database:
    Winwick Hall was a boys school in the 18th century, and became an Asylum in 1897. It was known as Winwick Hall from 1897 to 1915.
    Dual Pavilion?
    In 1910: Attendants formed National Union of Asylum Workers.
    Used as the Lord Derby War Hospital from 1915 to 1920.
    for the care and treatment of soldiers and pensioners suffering from neurasthenia or loss of mental balance (Hansard 12.4.1920) - C.S. Read lists this as, by far, the largest of the War Mental Hospitals, with 1,000 beds in 1918.
    Known at some time as Winwick Asylum. Became Lancashire County Mental Hospital, Winwick.
    In 1921 Alexander Simpson, C.B.E., M.A., M.D., CM.Aberd., was Medical Superintendent of the County Asylum, Winwick and Frederick Millar Rodgers M.D., Ch.B.Vict., D.P.H., was Senior Medical Officer. In 1922 A. McM. W. Segerdal was Assistant Medical Officer
    Several patients admitted between January 1923 and September 1926, mostly with general paralysis, received malarial therapy and were studied over a ten year period by John Ernest Nicole (1894-1963) and others. In 1927 Nicole (L.M.S.S.A. London) was Senior Assistant Medical Officer to the hospital and John P. Steel, M.D. Edinburgh was Assistant Medical Officer.
    1930 First edition Psychopathology. A survey of modern approaches London, 1930 by John Ernest Nicole.
    F.M. Rodgers was Medical Superintendent in 1936
    1936 Benedict Finkleman (1906-1966) joined the staff of Winwick. He moved to Rainhill in 1946, so it is not clear if he was at Winwick when Gwyn and Kathleen Jones arrived.
    Late 1940s to 1955 Gwyn Jones (ex-army) and Kathleen Jones (his wife, wanted to "do something useful in a mental hospital setting". He was appointed chaplain at Winwick. "It was a huge hospital of over 3000 beds, like a small town. It had its own fire-engine and its own farm. It was very hierarchical. The medical superintendent had the largest house, with a long corridor connecting it to his office, so that he need not talk to anyone on the way. We had the next largest house, because under the 1890 Lunacy Act, the chaplain was designated as the second officer of the hospital. The salary did not match the status - we could not even afford to curtain all the windows. Then came the Residences: for the deputy medical superintendent, the hospital secretary (who had not yet given himself a grander title) and the engineer. After that, the Villas came next in the pecking order, then the Houses; and the patients came last. That worried us"
    John Ernest Nicole was medical superintendent. Kathleen Jones said: "He was very progressive for the time. Everything was therapy. We had music therapy, sports therapy, education therapy, work therapy, social therapy... hymn singing therapy". Jones and Kennedy 1996
    1951 Kathleen Jones appointed a research assistant at the University of Manchester.
    1960 Kathleen Jones dedicated Mental Health and Social Policy 1845-1959 "for Nick and Mrs Nick, in affection"
    5.1.1963 John Ernest Nicole of 17 Buckingham Mansions, Bath Road, Bournemouth, died, leaving £7,203.14s. Probate to Ethel May Nicole widow.
    Winwick Hospital closed in March 1997 after celebrating its hundredth birthday. (external weblink archive). The hospital was demolished. Its "tower" was to have been preserved, but was also demolished. The Winwick Tower was a famous landmark, and could be seen from the Thelwall Viaduct coming north on the M6 (Nigel Roberts)
    Patients came from Liverpool, Southport and Formby, as well as the Warrington district. The 1986 Guiness Book of Records has it as the largest hospital of any kind in England, with 1,352 staffed beds. Previously it had been Europe's largest mental institution, with more than 2,000 patients.
    Records are held at both Cheshire and Lancashire record offices, with Cheshire holding details of plans of the building
    Winwick Hospital remembered



    Maghull, Liverpool

    "In 1780 a new Maghull Manor was built near the site of the original, this handsome building still stands preserved in the tranquil grounds of the epileptic colony" (external link)

    "When it was founded in 1888, the Home for Epileptics, Maghull was the first such specialist care centre in England... ParkHaven Trust is situated in extensive grounds... within walking distance of... Maghull, a bustling suburb of Liverpool" (external link)   (map)


    Some of the following based on Ashworth History (external link) archive - Some based on Barham, P. 2004) (map)

    Moss Side (Maghull, Liverpool)
    Built in the 1830's by the Merchant Harrison family. Sold in 1872 (when Thomas Harrison died) to the Liverpool Select Vestry
    First used as a convalescent home for children from the Liverpool workhouses
    1878 plans being prepared to turn it into accommodation for 60 men and 120 women of "the epileptic harmless lunatic type", but these were not finalised until about 1908
    About 1908 , plans for a new 300-patient hospital. Building began in 1911 [Peter Barham says that Moss Side was "built upon the villa pattern"
    July 1914 the whole estate (a large country house, two farms and a large unfinished hospital) sold to the Board of Control, which intended to use the hospital as a State Institution
    December 1914 Board of Control handed over to the military authorities. (Barham p.44)
    Used as a Military Hospital: the Military Red Cross Hospital, Moss Side, treating shell shock. Also known as Maghull Military War Hospital
    7.12.1914 "received 20 shell-shocked patients - the first of 3,500 to be treated there during and after the war."
    "Major Ronald Rows and his team at Maghull Hospital" (Barham p.85)
    "All nurses were members of the Red Cross and wore that organisation's uniform but in July 1915 all the male staff were enlisted into the Royal Army Medical Corps. As the war continued more men were urgently needed at the front so in 1918 the hospital was urged to use women to the fullest possible extent to release men for the war effort. To ease the staff crisis, and for its therapeutic value, some patients were allowed to work on the hospital farm and were paid 2d per hour." (Ashworth history
    February 1915 Ernest Mantle transferred from Netley. Considered fit to return to light duties after a few weeks (Barham p.54)
    1920 closed as a military hospital, but requisitioned by the Ministry of Pensions, it continued to treat soldiers.

    Not clear Moss Side became a high security hospital for mentally deficiency, but the Butler Report paragraph 2.2 suggests "provided in 1930s ", and the 1934 Report of the Board of Control has Moss Side State Institution listed (see Bob Hayes site
    1946 National Health Service Act section 49(4) moved the ownership of Rampton and Moss Side to the Ministry of Health but left their management with the Board of Control.
    Ashworth History (above): "Moss Side, along with its sister institutions of Broadmoor, Rampton and Carstairs [Scotland], became hospitals in July 1948 with the creation of the National Health Service" [This is not correct respecting "Broadmoor Institution"]
    about 1954 Several Rampton patients, including Noele Arden, moved to Moss Side. "It is much smaller than Rampton, having only three wards for women. Also it has no high walls around it, and no bars on windows, and no dreaded isolation block... I... was soon in trouble and put in a room and drugged. However, not a hand was laid on me, and all the time I was there, I saw no ill-treatment in any form... they were a bit heavy-handed with the dope." (Noele Arden 1977 p. 64)
    1957: See Percy Report
    1959 Mental Health Act sections 97-98: Broadmoor, Rampton and Moss Side became Special Hospitals under the Ministry of Health.

    Park Lane Hospital
    Started in the 1970s because of overcrowding at Broadmoor. Therefore, mainly concerned with mental illness, not mental handicap. 1974 opened in two former Moss Side wards with the administration offices in portakabins.
    50 acres of farm land, part of the original Moss Hill estate, and to the north of the hospital, were used for building the new, Park Lane Hospital. Building began in 1976 and was fully completed in 1984

    November 1985 Ian Brady transferred from Gartree prison to Park Lane after being diagnosed a psychopath.

    Ashworth Hospital (Moss Side and Park Lane combined)
    Parkbourn, Liverpool, L31 1HW

    19.2.1990 Ashworth Hospital formed by administratively uniting the two hospitals on the site. The former Moss Side Hospital became known as Ashworth South and Ashworth East and Park Lane Hospital became Ashworth North

    freedom campaign prison list:

    HSH Ashworth East, School Lane, Parkbourn, Maghull, Liverpool L31 1HW. Formerly called Moss Side (opened about 1920). 9 wards. Catchment: North England, Wales, West Midlands and North West London.

    HSH Ashworth North, School Lane, Parkbourn, Maghull, Liverpool L31 1HW. Formerly called Park Lane. (opened in stages 1974AD-1984AD) 17 wards. Originally built to relieve overcrowding at Broadmoor. Catchment: North England, Wales, West Midlands and North West London.

    HSH Ashworth South (opened 1933, closed 1995) Formerly part of Moss Side, the original hospital at Ashworth, which comprised what is now Ashworth South and Ashworth East. Plans (1999) to build a prison there. HSH Moss Side and HSH Park Lane merged in 1990 as HSH Ashworth.


    1996 Purchaser-provider split was introduced into the Special Hospitals. The SHSA was disbanded; in its place appeared three Special Hospital Authorities and their purchaser, the High Security Psychiatric Services Commissioning Board (HSPSCB)

    The High Security Psychiatric Services Commissioning Board financed the "Service Users' Roadshow" between August 1997 and January 1998. Howard Davis of the HSPSCB co-ordinated events.

    The Service Users' Roadshow was "an opportunity for national service users groups to meet with individual service users in the high security hospitals, and is part of a number of initiatives to encourage the development of service user involvement" (official description). Groups that took part included the Hearing Voices Network, Manic Depression Fellowship, Mindlink, National Self-Harm Network, Survivors Speak Out, the United Kingdom Advocacy Network, The All-Wales User Network and Wish. The Patients Councils also had a stand. (See Advocate Christmas 1997

    See The Advocate

    Mental Handicap Hospitals in Lancashire

    Calderstones Hospital
    Mitton Road, Whalley, Clitheroe, BB7 9PE
    Opened 1915: by Lancashire Asylums Board, but used during world war one as Queen Mary's Military Hospital
    Dual Pavilion
    1921 Calderstones Certified Institution for Mental Defectives
    Or Whalley Asylum (Mental Defectives)
    Calderstones Hospital (by 1929 - 1993) In 1971 it had an average of 1,710 beds available and 1,631 resident patients.
    Calderstones Reunited puts people who have worked there, or have connections, in contact with one another. (Now back on line) - Not no (no archive)
    Calderstones NHS Trust
    Calderstone News (no date a pdf file) contains history and pictures. (Lost? no archive)

    Brockhall Hospital (See Lancashire Asylums Board) was approximately two miles from Calderstones Hospital in the Ribble Valley. It opened as The Lancashire Inebriate Reformatory in 1904. It became Brockhall Hospital for Mental Defectives in 1915, Brockhall Hospital for the Mentally Subnormal in 1959, and Brockhall Hospital for Mentally Handicapped People in 1974. In 1971 it had an average of 1,844 beds available and 1,800 resident patients. Steve Wright worked there as a nurse from 1981 until 1985. During that time there where still children at Brockhall and approximately 1000 people lived there in total. It became Brockhall Hospital for People with Learning Disabilities in 1991, but closed in 1992. The land was bought by Gerald Shimon Hitman of Newcastle upon Tyne who erected a stone in the patients' cemetery as a memorial. Jeff Jones, whose brother was a patient, has created a website about the hospital and its cemetery - (archive of text) - (other cemeteries)

    Northern Counties Asylum for Idiots at Lancaster
    Principal Architect: Edward Graham Paley
    Layout: Corridor plan
    Northern Counties Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles, instituted at Lancaster, Dec. 21 1864. Reports of public meetings at Liverpool and Leeds 1865
    Northern Counties' Asylum for Idiots : instituted at Lancaster, Dec. 21, 1864. Address of the committee, list of subscriptions, and reports of public meetings at Lancaster, Liverpool, and Leeds. Lancaster: [1865?]. xiii and 45 pages.
    Northern Counties' Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles, instituted at Lancaster, Dec. 21 1864. Reports of public meetings at Liverpool and Leeds. Lancaster: [1865] 16 pages
    Following the first 2 annual reports (January and December 1866), the Northern Counties' Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles was called the Royal Albert Asylum. (Wellcome Library catalogue)
    1868 opened
    See Rossbret website - archive
    Reports for 1866-7, 1867-8, 1868-9, 1869-70 and 1870-71 largely concern the construction of the hospital and its finance.
    Royal Albert Asylum from 1867 to 1909
    1869 Annual report for 1868 Royal Albert Asylum for the education and training of idiots and imbeciles belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland : fifth annual report. by the Royal Albert Asylum for Idiots & Imbeciles of the Northern Counties (Lancaster, England). 13 pages, 1 unnumbered leaf of plates
    December 1871 First admissions
    Annual report. 1874
    April 1876 Royal Albert Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles of the Northern Counties, Lancaster : supplementary report. 22 pages.
    Consists of a list of central committee members, a supplementary report of the central committee (E. D. de Vitreï, chairman), the report of the Commissioners in Lunacy (Greville Howard, James Wilkes), items from local newspapers about the asylum, statistical statements and a summary of contributions (James Diggens)
    1876 The Illustrated London News See Wicked Fish 2014
    1884 Annual report for 1883 Royal Albert Asylum for the care, education, and training of idiotic, imbecile, and weak-minded children and young persons, belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland : twentieth annual report.
    Royal Albert Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles of the Northern Counties (1896 reference)
    1900 Annual report for 1899. Dated October 1900. The Royal Albert Asylum, Lancaster : a training institution for the feeble-minded belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland, thirty-sixth annual report. 102 pages, 4 unnumbered leaves of plates.
    Royal Albert Institution 1909 to 1948
    1910 Annual report for 1909. Dated October 1910. The Royal Albert Institution, Lancaster : for the feeble-minded belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland, forty-sixth annual report. 72 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates.
    1923 The Royal Albert Institution, Lancaster: origin and present position by W.H Coupland. 7 pages
    18.7.1924 James Ollier and collective action
    1948 Annual report for 1947. Dated June 1948 The Royal Albert Institution, Lancaster : for the feeble-minded of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland, eighty-fourth annual report. 20 pages, 1 unnumbered leaf of plates. Consists of a list of presidents, officers and committee members, the report of the central committee (Sefton, chairman), the report of the medical superintendent (D. H. H. Thomas), a statistical statement and a view of the institution.
    Ceased being a voluntary institution in 1948 when it became part of the National Health Service.
    Royal Albert Hospital, Ashton Road, Lancaster LA1 5AJ
    Together with Deep Cutting Hostel, Ashton Road, the Royal Albert Hospital had 1001 beds on 31.12.1977
    Planned closure March 1996. Original building (listed) to be converted into a school for Moslem girls and other parts of the site to be used for private housing. (Lancashire Evening Telegraph, Thursday 8.2.1996 [not archived]
    Photograph and some information
    website of Jamea Al Kauthar
    2.5.2014 to 13.7.2014 "From There to Here - The hidden history of People with Learning Difficulties in Merseyside", an exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool by Wicked Fish.

    Epileptic Colony in Lancashire

    Old Langho which was literally signposted as the "epileptic colony". was approximately one mile from Brockhall Hospital and I think closed in about 1979. (Steve Wright). Langho Colony, near Blackburn, opened in 1905, was the first to be established by a local authority: Manchester. In 1962 it had 454 adult patients, 225 men and 229 women. (Jones and Tillotson pp 6-7)

    Cumberland and Westmoreland

    1846 Cumberland magistrates contracted for the care of all their pauper lunatics at Dunston Lodge
    1846 or 1847 Westmoreland magistrates entered into a similar contract.
    Such contracts (under section 29 of the 1845 County Asylums Act) had to be approved by the Home Secretary and could only last for five years.

    Cumberland and Westmoreland Asylum near Carlisle was being erected in 1858.
    1862 (Simon Cornwall: Built: Peter Cracknell: Opened)
    Architect: Thomas Worthington
    Corridor form - Close to Conolly's ideal?
    1868 map Cumberland and Westmoreland Lunatic Asylum is shown at coordinates 343369,553908, at "Garlands". [2000: Garlands Hospital, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA1 3SX at the same coordinates]
    1925: Nurse dismissed from "Garlands Mental Hospital"
    Garlands Hospital has now closed. For some reason it is not listed in the Hospital Database.
    Closed 1997, looks partially demolished (Simon Cornwall).

    Move north to Scotland

    map

    Yorkshire

    Yorkshire: near York

    map of York with arrow pointing to Bootham (York Asylum). The East and North Riding and York Yorkshire County Asylum was opened at nearby Clifton in 1847. Friends Retreat is at Fulford in south (though not as far south as Fulford on this map). Grove House was at Acomb. Dunnington and Gate Helmsley are to the east.

    York Asylum
    A Hospital.
    7.8.1772: Advertisement York Courant about "the deplorable situation of many poor lunatics in the county" was followed by an appeal for funds 27.8.1772
    Opened 1777
    Originally designed for fifty four patients
    Known as York Lunatic Asylum from 1777 to 1904
    Alexander Hunter (1729-1809), MD Edinburgh, FRS was instrumental in founding and its first physician. He was consulted about Leicester Asylum and Liverpool Lunatic Asylum.
    1790 Hannah Mills sent to the asylum. At the request of her relatives, Quakers in York attempted to visit her, but were refused. Hannah later died. The Quakers founded the Retreat
    1809? Dr Hunter succeeded by Dr Best
    1810 Benjamin Rush advised his son to visit Catherine Cape and Alexander Hunter.
    1813 Godfrey Higgins, magistrate, sent William Vickers to the asylum. Later, he visited Vickers at the request of Mrs Vickers and found him filthy, sick and verminous, with lash marks on his back. Unable to obtain a satisfactory explanation from Dr Best, Higgins published a statement, with extracts from the letters, in the York Herald on 27.11.1813. Higgins and local Quakers made themselves Governors of the asylum. A fire on 26.12.1814 killed four patients and prevented effective investigation of the asylum.
    10.1.1814 A letter in the York Herald, from Godfrey Higgins said he was satisfied with conditions at the asylum, but, in March, Higgins was again complaining and an acrimonious dispute followed in the paper.
    The House of Lords recorded a petition against the Madhouses Bill from the Governors of York Asylum on 18.7.1814, and one in favour from Godfrey Higgins on 26.7.1814
    August 1814 Dr Best resigned and the asylum staff were dismissed.

    Catherine Cappe (1743-1821), the wife of a York dissenting minister, organised teams of lady visitors for the female wards of York County Hospital and the York Asylum. The visiting began at the hospital in 1814 and at the asylum in 1815. The lady visitors were appointed by the Board of Governors for three month periods:

    "They have a book, in which they note down any abuses... shown from time to time to the gentlemen's committee. Their observations, in the lunatic Asylum, extend to the apparel and cleanliness of the female patients as well as to their humane treatment and the decorous demeanour of the nurses and keepers" (On the Desirableness and Utility of Ladies Visiting the Female Wards of Hospitals and Lunatic Asylums by Catherine Cappe. 15 pages. York 1817.

    1815: 103 patients
    1818 County Asylum opened, but this is not considered to have significantly reduced the number of pauper lunatics in York Asylum.
    1823 Matthew Allen was apothecary and superintendant of the Lunatic Asylum, Bootham
    1.1.1844: 157 patients. 52 pauper and 105 private.
    1847 Asylum for the North and East Riding opened. A contract between the county authorities and York Corporation provided that it should also serve York, and pauper patients were removed from York Asylum to the new asylum. For several years, York Asylum only served private patients.
    1858-1874 Frederick Needham was Medical Superintendent
    early 1860s Asylum for the North and East Riding full. Contract made by York Corporation with York Asylum to accomodate pauper lunatics in newly built separate wings. This arrangement continued until 1906.
    1881 Census York Lunatic Hospital, Bootham, York (York St Giles In Suburbs). Ella Amanda Gill, 36 year old wife of surgeon, was looking after her three children. Thomas Kirsopp, Surgeon M.R.C.S. L.S.A., aged 24, was a visitor.
    1904 Became Bootham Park Hospital, Bootham, York, YO3 7BY. Private and Voluntary hospital until 1948. Then NHS.
    1906 York City Asylum opened and paupers removed from Bootham Park.
    History in Anne Digby, From York Lunatic Asylum to Bootham Park Hospital (University of York, Borthwick Paper no 69, 1986), and another to be included in a guide to hospital records at Borthwick Institute by K Webb (in progress 1999)
    "a very attractive building (inside as well as out)" Now the administrative centre for York Health Services Trust, as well as providing in and out patient care for people with mental illness.
    Main archives are at York University, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research: Bootham Park Hospital . Use Access to Archives to find extensive records

    "Friend's", in Friend's Retreat relates to the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers mental health
history
timeline
    Friend's Retreat, York is listed as an asylum receiving paupers in 1844, but none are recorded:
    1.1.1844: 98 patients. All private.
    Its address (2002) is The Retreat, 107 Heslington Road, York, YO10 5BN (map)

    "Thee has had many wonderful children of thy brain dear William, but this one is surely like to be an idiot" Esther Tuke to her pig-headed husband who wanted to build a refuge for lunatic Quakers

    The Retreat, a project of William Tuke (born 24.3.1732, died 6.12.1822) a Quaker tea and coffee merchant, was approved by Quarterly Meeting in March 1792 and admitted its first patients in June 1796. Timothy Maude, a retired Quaker doctor with no psychiatric knowledge, was the fist superintendent, but he died within three months of appointment and William Tuke, himself, took over as superintendent until 1797, and continued as secretary, treasurer and general supervisor until he went blind in 1822.

    Katherine Allen (later Mrs Jepson) came from Cleve Hill as matron in charge of the female side and the following year George Jepson was appointed superintendent of the male side.

    1798 Visit of Delarive

    William Tuke's eldest son, Henry Tuke (born 24.11.1755, died York 11.8.1814) became a minister of the Society of Friends about 1780, and was concerned about the abolition of slavery, promoting the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the internal discipline of the Society of Friends, a concern continued by his son Samuel.

    Samuel Tuke (born York 31.7.1784, died York 14.10.1857) took his grandfather William's place as unofficial supervisor and general counsellor to The Retreat in 1822. In 1804 Samuel had corresponded with Dr Thomas Hancock on the influence of joy in mental disorder. In 1809 he resolved to collect all information possible on insanity and in 1811 articles by him On the State of the Insane Poor and On the Treatment of those labouring under Insanity, drawn from the Experience of the Retreat were published in William Allen's magazine the Philanthropist. At the same time he began work, at his father's request, on a book, the Description of the Retreat, which was published in 1813. William and Samuel Tuke both became involved with a magistrate, Godfrey Higgins, in a controversy over the government and methods of the York Asylum, and bought their way onto the Board of Governors of that asylum in December 1813. These controversies were amongst the issues before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Madhouses, appointed in April 1814.

    At the request of the Visiting Magistrates who were planning the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Samuel Tuke prepared in 1815: Practical Hints on the Construction and Economy of Pauper Lunatic Asylums: including instructions to the architects who offered plans for Wakefield Asylum, and a sketch of the most approved design.

    1817 Friend's Asylum, Philadelphia opened in imitation of the Retreat America

    1881 Census: The Friends Retreat Lunatic Asylum, Gate Fulford, York. William Banks, aged 65, assistant medical officer

    Gate Helmsley, near York, North Riding (Helmsley is sometimes spelt Helmsey in the 1844 Report)
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844 71 patients. 41 pauper and 30 private
    Proprietor 1844: James Martin
    "in its interior, commodious and well adapted for an asylum, having been built expressly for the purpose. The yards, however, are extremely gloomy and confined" (1844 Report p.43)
    Gate Helmsley Retreat
    1859 55 patients. 28 pauper
    1859 national comparisons

    Dunnington, near York, East Riding (spelt Hunington at one point in the 1844 Report)
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844 35 patients. 28 pauper and 7 private.
    1859 44 patients. 19 pauper
    1859 national comparisons
    1870 Dunnington House, near York Licensed to R H Hornby

    Grove House, Acomb, near York, West Riding
    Sometimes called Grove Hall
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844 26 patients. 14 pauper and 12 private.
    1859 23 patients. 7 pauper
    1859 national comparisons
    1870 Grove House, Acomb, nr York licensed to Mr Robert Pearson
    1881 Census: Grove House, Acomb, York. Private Asylum (Hospital). Proprietor: Jane E. Cooney, unmarried aged 44, born Bulmer, York, her widowed aunt, Mary Pearson, aged 70, born Sigston, York "Retired Private Asylum" in the household. Patients name in full. (male and female. probably none paupers)

    Heworth, near York, West Riding
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844 26 patients. 13 pauper and 13 private.
    (map)

    York City Asylum opened 1906,
    Architect: A Creer
    Became York City Mental Hospital in 1927. Naburn Emergency Medical Services Hospital (1940-1948) was built in huts in its grounds. After being a military hospital it was a prisoner of war hospital. The City Mental Hospital became Naburn Hospital in 1948. Fulford Hospital and the Maternity Hospital evolved from the military hospital. The Maternity Hospital succeeded Acomb Maternity Hospital. Fulford had a mixed use, including geriatric, and temporary psychiatric from 1976 to 1983. Naburn Hospital was closed 1988. Address was Naburn Lane, York, YO1 4RJ "A short history of the hospital to be included in forthcoming guide to hospital records at the Borthwick Institute (in progress 1999) by K Webb"
    Closed 1988, demolished 1988 (Simon Cornwall)

    West Riding of Yorkshire

    Wakefield Union Workouse
    external link

    West Riding County Asylum (Wakefield) (see maps)

    There are Minutes and Reports of the Visiting Justices of the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum from 1814 to 1889 in West Yorkshire Archives, Wakefield.

    Opened 23.11.1818
    Architect: Watson & Pritchett of York. Early form, later adapted to corridor?. Described as H Form at the time
    Superintendent and matron 1818 to 1831: William and Mrs Ellis - Previously at Hull, afterwards went to Hanwell.
    Superintendent and matron 1831 to 1853: Dr C.C. Corsellis and Mrs Corsellis
    1834: The Hanwell Lunatic Asylum by Harriet Martineua describes the Ellis regime
    1.1.1844 433 patients. All pauper.   1844? 9% of patients epileptic
    Director 1853 to 1858: Dr John Septimus Alderson MD, previously Medical Superintendent of York Asylum.
    Matron 1853 to 1867: Mrs Zillah Paige
    Temporary assistant 1857: Mr Henry Maudsley (born 1835, died 1918). This was Maudsley's first asylum post. He moved on to Brentwood and Cheadle and later took over Lawn House.
    Director 1858 to 1866 John Davies Cleaton, previously superintendent of Rainhill, Lancashire, afterwards a Lunacy Commissioner.
    Director 1866 to 1876: Dr James Crichton-Browne MD (born 1840, died 1938), who once wrote "Education is no doubt essential, but feeding comes before education and breeding before that". Previously assistant medical officer at the Devon, Derby and Warwick county asylums and superintendent of Newcastle City. He lectured at the Leeds School of Medicine and founded and edited the annual West Riding Lunatic Asylum Medical Reports. "These reports, which were the first of their kind in this country", contain contributions from J.Hughlings Jackson, T.C.Allbutt and T.L.Brunton. He was co-editor of Brain from 1878 to 1885. (external link about his period at Wakefield) - (archive) In 1876 he was appointed a Lord Chancellor's Lunacy Visitor
    1872 South Yorkshire Asylum opened
    1872 Plans for the establishment of a lower middle-class hospital that, thirty years later, materialised as Scalebor Park.
    Director 1876 to 1884: Dr Herbert C. Major MD, previously Assistant Medical Officer since 1872. Developed histological research.
    1881 Census: "West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum" Stanley Cum Wrenthorpe, York, England. Herbert C. Major, Medical Director (Physician), unmarried aged 31, living with E. E. Major, his sister (unmarried) aged 40. Both born St. Helens, Jersey, Channel Islands
    Director 1884 to 1910: Dr William Bevan Lewis LRCP, MRCS, previously Assistant Medical Officer since 1876. Devoted to histological research.
    1888 Menston opened
    1891 Census: staff list
    1904: Murrays Handbook Yorkshire p.502:

    "The Prison at the bottom of Westgate, is one of the largest in the kingdom. It is conducted on the radiating principle, the wards converging to a common centre; 2000 prisoners can be accommodated. The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, on the Stanley-road, is a vast building, with large grounds and a good modern church. The Cattle Market in the Ings, first held in 1765, has weekly a larger show of beasts and sheep than any other market out of London." [map showing prison and asylum (hospitals)]

    2.6.1904 Storthes Hall opened

    Director 1910 to 1933: Professor Joseph Shaw Bolton DSC, MD, FRCP, author (1928) of The Evolution of a Mental Hospital - Wakefield 1818-1928
    1925 Became West Riding Mental Hospital
    1948: Became Stanley Royd Hospital
    About 1948 a report on Wakefield was made by a medical officer to the new Leeds Regional Hospital Board. It describes conditions which C. Ham says were confined mainly to Stanley Royd, Menston and Storthes Hall, the three hospitals controlled (before 1948) by the "powerful" West Riding Mental Hospitals Board:

    "The old gaol-like buildings at Wakefield are gloomy and depressing and the galleries where many patients aimlessly spend so much of their time are deficient in natural lighting. The accommodation can best be described as austerely pre-Dickensian, falling far short of usually acceptable standards, and ... there is still created in the mind of the observer an undeniable impression of miserable discomfort and overcrowding which cannot long be tolerated under enlightened administration"

    A. Lawrence Ashworth AHA was Secretary to the hospital from 1961 to 1973 (although, I believe he worked there from about 1953). In 1975 he published Stanley Royd Hospital, Wakefield, One Hundred and Fifty Years, A History. In 1979 (and 1991) he was curator of the Stephen G. Beaumont Museum, at the hospital, which included a scale model of the original asylum, made by Mr Ashworth using the original plans and drawings, a padded cell, and much archival material.

    Stanley Royd Hospital closed 1995. A housing development occupies the site, but preserves the buildings. The hospital address in 1991 was Stanley Royd Hospital, Aberford Road, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF1 4DQ

  • Frank Poskett's Stanley in Bygone Days is about the history of the village (including the asylum)
  • Asylum - Memories of a Local Institution, by Roger Grainger (1996), priced £6.99, published by Eastmoor Press, is available by writing to the author at 7 Park Grove, Horbury, Wakefield WF4 6EE. (external link)

    "The Stephen Beaumont Museum of Mental Health was in the Stanley Royd Hospital at Aberford Rd. When the hospital closed in 1995, the museum was moved to Fieldhead Hospital in Ouchthorpe Lane (external link to map). The museum depicts the story of the Asylum and contains restraining equipment, a padded cell, and medical and surgical equipment documents. (The treatment record books are in the County Record Office.) There is also a scale model of the original 1818 building and photographs dating from 1862."   other museums

    Stanley Royd History website

    Pinderfields General Hospital, Stanley Royd and Fieldhead (mental handicap) hospitals all appear to be part of the same complex of hospitals: (see map). Clicking on the addresses for each will link to its map:
    Fieldhead Hospital, Ouchthorpe Lane, Wakefield, WF1 3SP;
    Pinderfields Hospitals, Rowan House, Aberford Road, Wakefield, WF1 4EE;
    Stanley Royd Hospital, Aberford Road, Wakefield, WF1 4DQ

    Sheffield Workhouse
    A Workhouse Asylum
    "Wards exclusively appropriated to lunatics" (1844 Report p.10)

    South Yorkshire Asylum
    Built: 1869-1872 Opened 1872,
    Architect: Bernard Hartley
    Corridor form
    April 1872 S. Mitchell M.D. Medical Superintendent and formerly Assistant Medical Officer at the West Riding Asylum Wakefield has been appointed Medical Superintendent of the South Yorkshire Asylum Wadsley, Sheffield.
    Became West Riding Asylum, Wadsley from 1890, West Riding Mental Hospital, Wadsley from 1930, Middlewood Hospital, Middlewood Road, Sheffield (S6 ITP) from 1948. Possibly always known as Wadsley by local people. (map)
    1,189 staffed beds 31.12.1975
    Closed 1999
    Mostly demolished, some wards, chapel and clock tower remain. (Simon Cornwall)

    The Royal Hallamshire Hospital opened in Glossop Road, Sheffield in 1978 (external link). At one time, the University of Sheffield maintained a department of psychiatry here. (See "Asylum")

    Mental Health Services in Sheffield are now delivered by something called the Sheffield Care Trust . (Its website)


    Menston County Asylum, Ilkley (South Wharfdale) (LS29 6AU) (map)   (multi-map)
    Architect: Vickers Edwards
    Built: 1884-1888. Opened 8.10.1888 to provide for the northern end of the county.
    Peter Cracknell describes it as probably the best example of the Broad Arrow form.
    1888 plan published in Royal Institution of British Architects (Simon Cornwall's website)
    1893 Scalebor Park proposal
    11.2.1898 Lunacy Commission complain that the planned church has not been built. "Menston still remains in the miserable position of being the only asylum in England and Wales without a building set aside for the worship of God. The room in which a dance is held on Saturday, becomes the house of prayer on Sunday. The numerous patients here professing the Roman Catholic faith have no opportunity afforded them of attending Mass excepting two or three times a year at the highest festival of the Church" See 1912. A chapel was not provided until 1967.
    11.2.1898 "42 males and 38 females are private patients". If they were "sent away" "many would only have to return here as paupers".
    16.11.1900 "There are today on the books the names of 1594 patients of whom 746 are males and 848 females. The private patients number 75"
    1902 Scalebor Park opened
    1925: The Branch Secretary of the Nation Asylum Workers Union at Menston was Mr George Vernon, "West Riding Mental Hospital, Menston, near Leeds, Yorkshire"
    1.1.1927: 1,807 "insane" of whom all but 199 were Rate Aided. 873 were men, 934 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 34.7%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 9.5%.
    Became Highroyds Hospital in 1963.
    1963 Start of nurses story
    continued on Refractory Ward
    Derek Hutchinson's story (Part of Guardian article)
    1,152 staffed beds 31.12.1975
    Autumn 2002 reported due for closure
    Closing 2003. Maybe February. Site for sale. (Simon Cornwall)
    The final tour
    Patients from last five wards to be transferred to the Mount Hospital, Clarendon Road, Leeds, on 25.2.2003
    English Heritage: High Royds, West Yorkshire, built 1884-88 as the pauper asylum for the West Riding of Yorkshire
    Records in West Riding Archives.   Hospital Records Database
    Highroyds history website

    Linton House Adolescent Unit, LS29 6AG (operating in 1986/1987) and the Kanner Unit (for children), both at High Royds Hospital, have been replaced by Little Woodhouse Hall (CAMHS), 18 Clarendon Road, Leeds, LS2 9NT


    Storthes Hall Asylum, near Farnley Tyas, Huddersfield,
    Fourth West Riding Pauper Lunatic Aslum
    1900 Plans presented. Lunacy Commission insisted on a chapel
    11.1.1900 Resolution of West Riding County Council agreeing to provide a chapel.
    Opened
    2.6.1904 to cover the western end of the county. (map)
    Peter Cracknell: For Patients from Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Halifax and Saddleworth districts.
    Architect: J.Vickers-Edwards
    Compact Arrow design.
    1912 1,634 patient and 210 attendants
    ultimately contemplated to have about 2,250 patients.
    1912 No Asylum Chapel
    1923 to 1932 National Archives has, under Ministry of Pensions Hospitals and Convalescent Centres (WORK 12/72/73), "Kirkburton, Acute hospital and two convalescent villas, Storthes Hall: lease of portion of Storthes Hall Asylum; lease of land for agricultural and recreational purposes; surrender of premises"
    1924 Ministry of Pensions Mental Hospital at Kirkburton opened at Storthes Hall - There are now two Storthes Halls: The main asylum and the Ministry of Pensions hospital.
    1.1.1927: "Storthes Hall": 1,652 patients of whom all but 73 were Rate Aided. 771 were men, 881 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 23.4%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 9.5%
    1.1.1927: "Storthes Hall (MoP)": 268 "private" patients, all men. In 1926 the proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 0.4% - Recovery rate not stated.
    By 1929 Storthes Hall Mental Hospital
    1931 Ministry of Pensions Mental Hospital closed.
    1939 West Riding Mental Hospital
    1948 Storthes Hall Hospital
    1,416 staffed beds 31.12.1975
    Autumn 2002: due for closure
    Peter Cracknell: Now part converted to Halls of Residence for Huddersfield University.
    2003 Storthes Hall Remembered, 135 pages, by Ann Littlewood

    "Scalebor Park Hospital was built on the site of the old Scalebor Hall by West Riding County Council at a cost of £126,000 for 210 paying patients, 105 of each sex. The property covered 120 acres. It is currently being partly demolished and the remaining building and land will be re-developed for housing." (Burley History Trail - 2002 - original website - archives - new website)

    1893 National Archives MH83 "West Riding Asylum, Menston, near Leeds: purchase of site at Scalebor Park, Burley in Wharfdale for proposed new asylum for private class patients. Covering dates 1893-1897"

    Scalebor Park, Moor Lane Burley-In-Wharfedale LS29 7AJ.
    (Simon Cornwall says Built: 1895 Architect: Unknown)
    July? 1902 Formal opening. Sir James Crichton-Browne, Sir Frederick Needham, Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt, Dr Bedford Pierce, Dr Major and Mr Urmston present.

    Original size 210 beds. Rate of maintenance 30/- a week.

    "One initial disability was that, being classed as a county hospital, we were unable to admit voluntary patients. This point was frequently discussed and debated, but we had to await the passing of the 1930 Act for the remedy of this very obvious defect." (Gilmour 1938)

    1909 Commissioners in Lunacy published report for 1909 said that "since their last visit 155 people had been admitted; 110 discharged; 64 of them on recovery, the remainder had died. There were 176 patients (61 male and 115 female) with room for a further 118." At this time "the Medical Superintendent was (a) Dr Gilmour. During this period of review, no use of mechanical restraint or seclusion had been recorded. Attendance at the Sunday services in the chapel was low compared with 57% attending weekly entertainment's. Not more than 5% of patients able to walk were wholly confined to the wards and airing courts. The general health of the place was good and whilst the staff and attendants numbers continues to be maintained at adequate strength we should like to see a more lengthened record of service among the nurses". (source)

    1912 Claims that it did not have a chapel

    "The old hospital had lovely honey coloured stone and from various upstairs wards you looked out onto the moor... It had an insect room which had carvings in the wooden panels. When Scalebor first opened there was the idea of curing General Paralysis of the Insane by injecting patients with malaria and a small unit was built for this purpose". (Andrew Richardson)

    1.1.1927: 230 "insane", all of whom were private. 108 were men, 124 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 32.1%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 14.7% - the highest for any mental hospital in England and Wales. (Closest was 11.1% at Nottingham County. The national average was 7.3%)

    "Prior to 1927 we had a total of 164 deaths" [from general paralysis] in twenty-five years. The figures of the different lustra are so close that I have taken this as one period. This is equivalent to a yearly average of 3.25 deaths to each hundred resident." (Gilmour 1938)

    The name was Scalebor Park Mental Hospital (by 1929).

    "With the coming of the voluntary system," [in 1930] "70% of the patients are now their own petitioners." (Gilmour 1938)

    "In the past eleven years there have been only 4 deaths" [from general paralysis]... Syphilis is being recognized earlier and more efficaciously treated, and if general paralysis subsequently develops, its treatment by malaria or otherwise is being undertaken in the municipal or general hospitals. So far as the low rate patient is concerned, general paralysis is ceasing to be a mental hospital illness." (Gilmour 1938)

    1938 John Rutherford Gilmour, Scalebor Park, Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire was President of the The Royal Medico-psychological Association. (source)
    "The Low-Rate Private Patient and Some Changes" - The Presidential Address Delivered at the Ninety-Seventh Annual Meeting of the Royal Medico- Psychological Association, Held at Ilkley, 6.7.1938 (offline) - See Social Science History and Mental Health History.

    1939 James Valentine appointed medical superintendent. (source) [Previous superintendent Dr Gilmour (source)]

    It became part of the National Health Service in 1948.The name was Scalebor Park (by 1948) and Scalebor Park Hospital from about 1974 to 1995.

    "The hospital was situated in amazing countryside between Burley and Ilkley moors. It was at the top of the village on the road leading up to the moor just across the road from the railway station. High Royds was about three miles away or one stop on the train.

    There were originally eight wards, but a new building with four wards was added in the 1960s or 1970s. In the early 1980s two bungalow type units for older people (65+) were added. (Andrew Richardson)"


    "Moordale" in Jones and Sidebotham 1962. See June 1958 to June 1959

    Became Moor Lane Centre, Burley-In-Wharfedale.
    Closed 1995, currently being demolished. (Simon Cornwall)
    2001 Pictorial history of early re-development
    2005 Re-development commended

    Highlands Adolescent Unit was nearby in its own grounds. It probably opened in the 1970s. "Residents were normally 10 boys and 10 girls from ages 10 to 16 years old. A normal stay was around 6 months. The unit was run by a Dr Ian Berg and a staff of therapists with one head nurse, each resident had 2 therapists (shared between about 5 residents)." (Mike Holdron)


    Lynfield Mount Hospital Daisy Hill Lane, Bradford, BD9
    Built in 1910 as Daisy Hill Workhouse - a new Bradford workhouse.
    See Peter Higginbotham's site. Became a NHS Hospital in 1948.

    Meanwood Park Colony
    Tongue Lane Meanwood Park Leeds LS6 4QB

    25.8.1919 Frank Tottie, first resident, aged ten, admitted to Meanwood Hall. He lived there for over 60 years to his death on 17.11.1979.
    3.6.1920 Official opening by
    Sir William Byrne Chairman of the Board of Control.
    4.6.1920 Report of the ceremony in the Yorkshire Post
    Patients later increased to 103. 87 in the Hall and 16 in a nearby block.

    Monday 23.6.1941 New extension opened

    Meanwood Park Hospital website

    Yorkshire: Hull area

    William Ellis (1780-1839), a surgeon in general practice in Hull, published in 1815 A letter to Thomas Thompson Esq., MP; containing considerations on the necessity of proper places being provided by the Legislature for the reception of all insane persons (published Hull)

    Hull and East Riding Refuge, East Riding (Listed as Hull Retreat on page 212 of the 1844 Report.
    Licensed House
    Founded by Dr John Septimus Alderson in 1814. Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 pp 78-79) Known as Sculcoates Refuge from 1814-1840. Address: Cannon Street, Sculcoates near Ancaby Road, East Yorkshire.
    1842: Licensed for 99 patients. Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 (pp 40-43) suggests this was to avoid the requirement for a resident medical officer
    Proprietor (1844) Richard Casson (Surgeon)
    1.1.1844: 106 patients. 93 pauper and 13 private.
    Weekly charge for paupers: 8/- excluding clothes.
    ON 1844 LIST OF BEST CONDUCTED
    In 1847 the Hull JPs were negotiating to buy this as an asylum for the borough. They also proposed to buy more land. (1847 Report (B) p.44) It became Hull Borough Asylum on 1.6.1849. (Address Londesborough Street, Hull - This building closed 1882?
    1883: New building: Architect: Smith & Broderick Hull City and County Asylum, Hull City Mental Asylum, finally De La Pole Hospital, Willerby, Hull, HU10 6ED.
    Closed 1997, new road building current, looks intact. (Simon Cornwall)

    Hull Workhouse
    Made a "County Asylum" under a local Act in 1823 or 1824
    In 1844 the Commission had only just found out that this was an asylum. (1844 Report p.210) They give no other information about it.

    Southcoates, Hull, East Riding (Sumercoates on page 242 of the 1844 Report)
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844 6 patients. 2 pauper and 4 private.

    Hessle, near Hull, East Riding (Sometimes spelt Heple in the 1844 Report)
    Licensed House
    1.1.1844 9 patients. 6 pauper and 3 private.

    Moor Cottage, Parish of Nunkeeling, near Brandsburton, (or near Beverley) East Riding
    Licensed House
    Proprietor (1844) Jos Beall. The 1844 Report on page 213 says it had 9 private and 1 pauper patient on 1.1.1844. In the Return of 3.2.1842 it is shown with 29 patients (pauper and private). In 1844 (p.242) it is shown as licensed for 20 paupers - so perhaps the 1 on p.213 in 1844 is a miss-print for 11 or 21.
    Weekly charge for paupers: not stated.
    SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT


    "if someone became insane before 1847, when the asylum for the North and East Riding (and York) was opened, where would the authorities have placed him or her, assuming he or she was a pauper?" (Janet Whitfield).

    North Riding pauper lunatics and idiots before 1847

    In August 1843, 153 lunatics and idiots were recorded.

    13 were in a county lunatic asylum - not stated which, but possibly Wakefield
    47 were in a licensed house/s. Most of these would have been in Gate Helmsley (north of York)
    35 in workhouses
    57 with their friends or elsewhere

    East Riding pauper lunatics and idiots before 1847

    In August 1843, 183 lunatics and idiots were recorded.

    33 were in a county lunatic asylum - not stated which, but presumably Hull Workhouse
    52 were in a licensed houses. Houses in East Riding were licensed for more than 52 paupers. (1844 Report p.212). With the number of paupers they were licensed for in 1842, they were: Nunkeeling (20), Hessle, near Hull (24); Hull Refuge (96); Southcoates, near Hull (3); Dunnington, near York (30)
    55 in workhouses
    43 with their friends or elsewhere

    East and North Riding and York Yorkshire County Asylum, opened on 7.4.1847. Located at Willerby.
    Architect: Scott & Moffatt. At some time extended by George Fowler-Jones
    Corridor form
    It had 472 patients in 1858. It became the North Riding County Asylum in 1865.
    1881 Census: North Riding of Yorkshire Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Clifton in York, York.
    From 1948: Clifton Hospital, Shipton Road, York, YO3 6RD. Closed 1994 sold to property developers 1995, looks partially demolished (Simon Cornwall). (map)

    East Riding Asylum opened in 1871.
    Architect: Charles Henry Howell
    1881 Census
    It became Broadgate Hospital, Walkington, Beverley, HU17 8RN
    Demolished 1991 (demolition website)

    Middlesbrough Borough Asylum
    [A Sarah Rutherford case study]
    National Grid Reference NZ 508 179
    Built 1893-1898
    Architects: Charles Henry Howell and A. J. Wood - Compact Arrow
    Landscape: Designer Robert Lloyd
    Nigel Roberts has plans of Middlesbrough Asylum that were produced as a supplement to a Commissioners in Lunacy report of July 1896. Plans for Winwick and Bexley were produced in the same supplement, which, given they opened shortly afterwards, suggests the same for Middlesbrough.
    Become St Luke's Hospital, Middlesbrough.
    Closed 2000?, new road being cleared to side of side, otherwise intact. (Simon Cornwall)

    Botton village: (external weblink) Danby Whitby North Yorkshire YO21 2NJ (Camphill Village Trust Limited) (map)

    Northumberland and Durham

    Durham licensed houses

    County Durham was the third largest centre of the trade in pauper lunacy after London and Wiltshire. In licensed houses in 1843 there were 103 pauper lunatics chargeable to parishes in Durham Unions, but there were 239 paupers in the County's five licensed houses - which were licensed to receive 297. (1844 Report Tables) Some, presumably, came from parishes not in Unions. Many must have been received from other counties and, possibly, from Scotland. All the Durham pauper houses apart from West Auckland were in or near Gateshead. The same five houses had been the Durham houses since at least 1836 (Return 3.12.1842).

    Bensham, near Gateshead, Durham
    Licensed House
    Open 1799 to 1868
    "Bensham Asylum.. was one of three private asylums in Gateshead to claim 'the benefits of the clean air and healthy situation of the suburbs'. Bensham Asylum expanded rapidly and the majority of pauper lunatic patients were sent there from 1836 in addition to private patients. The asylum appears to have closed between 1865 and 1868, when patients were transferred to Dunston Asylum. Part of the building still stands in Sidney Grove." (Gateshead Bensham Guide)
    Proprietors (1844) F. Glenton and P. Glenton (Surgeon)
    1.1.1844: 67 patients. 50 pauper and 17 private.
    Weekly charge for paupers: 8/- including clothes.
    ON 1844 LIST OF BEST CONDUCTED
    1854: 160 patients, of whom 139 were paupers
    1855 or later contract to receive Newcastle pauper lunatics.
    1857 Durham pauper patients removed to Bath Lane
    1859: 95 patients, of whom 73 were paupers
    1859 national comparisons
    1859 On the prevention and treatment of mental disorders published by George Robinson, MD (1821-1875) the owner of Bensham Asylum.
    1864: Newcastle's contracts with Bensham, Gateshead Fell and the Durham County Asylum expired. The "now disused" licensed house at Bensham was rented for Newcastle's pauper lunatics until the Newcastle Borough Asylum opened in 1869.
    (Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.62)
    1870 Newcastle-upon-Tyne (County Asylum) listed at Bensham near Gateshead. F. Sutton (surgeon) the medical superintendent.
    1870 Robinson's book in America
    1875 Death of George Robinson, aged 55

    Wreckenton, near Gateshead (in parish of), Durham
    Wrekenton Lunatic Asylum (1851 advertisement)
    Open 1825 to 1855
    1825: Established by "Mrs Gowland and her late husband"
    Licensed House
    Proprietor (1844) Jacob Gowland 1.1.1844 36 patients. 5 pauper and 41 private. Weekly charge for paupers 7/- to 8/- including clothes.
    SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT
    Gowlands' house at Wreckenton and the Eales' house at West Auckland seem to have been no more than fairly ordinary large houses. (See quotations from 1844 Report)
    1851: Proprietress: Mrs Gowland
    Superintendent of the male department: Mr John Gowland
    Superintendent of the female department: Mrs Fleck
    (advertisement reproduced Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.110)
    Closed by 1858

    Jonathan Martin was moved from West Auckland to a lunatic asylum in Gateshead sometime between 1817 and 1820. He escaped from Gateshead on 17.6.1820 and, again, on 1.7.1820. Remaining at large, he continued his mission as a Methodist preacher until 1.2.1829 when he set fire to York Minster. After trial (in York Castle) he was confined in St Luke's, London. (DNB)

    Gateshead Fell, in parish of Gateshead, Durham
    Licensed House
    Open 1817 to 1860
    About 1843? escaped epileptic killed wife and daughter
    Proprietor (1844) S. Kent.
    1.1.1844 86 patients. 80 pauper and 6 private. Weekly charge for paupers 8/- including clothes.
    1855 or later contract to receive Newcastle pauper lunatics.
    1859: 94 patients, of whom 88 were paupers
    1859 national comparisons
    1862 map shows Gateshead High Fell Lunatic Asylum on Sourmilk Hill, near Sheriff Hill House.

    Dunston Lodge, Whickham, Durham
    Also described as "near Gateshead"
    Shown on 1862 map as "Dunston Lodge (Lunatic Asylum), just to the west of the village of Dunston.
    Licensed House
    Opened 1831. Purpose built as an asylum
    Proprietor (1844) J.E. Wilkinson.
    (Probably John Etridge Wilkinson, whose son married Isabella Gustard Garbutt, daughter of Cornelius Garbutt and brother to another Cornelius Garbutt and a William Garbutt - see below)
    27.8.1839 Birth of William Garbutt (Christened Gateshead 9.10.1839) to Winifred and Cornelius Garbutt
    1.1.1844 100 patients. 77 pauper and 23 private. Weekly charge for paupers 8/- including clothes.
    ON 1844 LIST OF BEST CONDUCTED.
    Commended, along with Fiddington House and Belle Vue, in Wiltshire, and Fairford Asylum, in Gloucestershire, because it had a farm.
    September 1845 Charles Lockhart Robertson "Resident Medical Officer in the Cumberland County Lunatic Asylum at Dunston Lodge"
    September 1846 Charles Lockhart Robertson resigned as appointed to the Royal Military Lunatic Asylum at Yarmouth. (letter 5.5.1849)
    1846/1847 By contract with the Cumberland and Westmoreland magistrates, Dunston Lodge became, in effect, the temporary County Asylum for those counties.
    1847 Report of the Cumberland Lunatic Asylum at Dunston Lodge, Gateshead-on-Tyne, for ... 1847 Gateshead (England). Cumberland Lunatic Asylum Publisher: Edinburgh : Neill & Co., pr., 1847 24 pages; 21 cm. Copy in the rare books collection of Cambridge University Library. The only report of the asylum in the COPAC catalogue.
    In 1851, a male pauper bit the arm of J.E. Wilkinson. He was placed in a straight jacket, then flogged and secluded. Later, his two upper incisor teeth were removed by the medical attendant. An inquiry was held by the Visiting Magistrates of Cumberland and Westmoreland and then taken up by the Lunacy Commission. J.E. Wilkinson was found guilty "of the most flagrant cruelty" and the renewal of his license prohibited by the Commission.
    1853: License transferred to Mr Cornelius Garbutt (born 1806, died 1865)
    (Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 p.247)
    1858: 151 patients. 119 pauper and 32 private
    1859 national comparisons
    1865 Cornelius Garbutt's son, William, took over management of the asylum. William Garbutt was proprietor of Dunston Lodge Lunatic Asylum from 1865 to 1900. J.E. Wilkinson was his daughter's father-in-law
    16.5.1866 Jane Thornton Garbutt, daughter of Mary Elizabeth and William Garbutt, christened Whickham, Durham. Jane was the second of their eleven children (4 sons and 7 daughters). The three oldest daughters all married young doctors employed by William Garbutt as Medical Superintendents. One son and six grandchildren became doctors.
    1870 The licensee was "W. Garbutt", who had just become sole licensee (Rossbret site)
    About July 1871: T O Wood, LRCP.Edinburgh, MRCS.Edinburgh, the Medical Superintendent of Dunston Lodge Asylum, was appointed Lecturer on Psychological Medicine in the Newcastle College, Durham University, in place of Dr Hugh Grainger Stewart, the Medical Superintendent of the Newcastle Borough Asylum, who had died. (Rossbret site)
    June 1874: George C. Harrington, aged 50, hanged himself in Dunston Lodge Asylum. (Chester Ward Coroner)
    1881 Census: Dunston West Lodge and Lunatic Asylum, Dunston Lane, Whickham, Durham. William Garbutt, aged 41, born Gateshead "Insane Asylum Proprietor Forms Attached A/79 B/5 C/17" living with his wife, Mary Elizabeth Garbutt, aged 39, born Wooler, Northumberland, and daughter, Jane Thornton Garbutt, aged 14, born Dunston, Scholar. William Marshall Taylor Medical Superintendent: unmarried, aged 26, born Newcastle On Tyne, Surgeon M.D. Edinburgh - M.R.O. England
    1884 A Day in a Private Lunatic Asylum by George Herring, London/Newcastle. Originally published as a series of articles in the Tyneside Echo, this is a very favourable account by a journalist who got himself "admitted" as a "new inmate" for a day. There were 44 inmates at the time of his visit. The "chief male attendant" was John McDougall. The "matron" was Miss Mary Wilson, and the medical superintendent was still Dr Taylor. The medical visitors were Dr Hume and Dr Embleton of Newcastle. Geoffrey Allen's grandmother (see below) appears as a toddler.
    1894 Whellan's Directory of Durham, 1894, pages 1239-1240: "Dunston Lodge Private Asylum was established in 1830 and has been in the hands of the family of the present proprietor for many years. The grounds are extensive and a farm of 100 acres surrounds the house, which occupies a pleasant situation west of the village. The recoveries have been much above the average. Lord Ravensworth is chairman of the visiting committee"
    March quarter 1901 Death of William Garbutt aged 76 recorded in the Gateshead district. Dunston Lodge Asylum does not appear in the 1901 census.
    [Some family information on the Wilkinsons and Garbutts provided by Ann Adams. A substantial part of the history (not all entered yet) has been provided by Geoffrey Allen, whose grandmother (1882-1954) was the youngest daughter of William Garbutt]

    1817 Jonathan Martin (1783-1838), extremist Methodist preacher from Northumberland, attempted to shoot a Church of England Bishop in Durham Cathedral. "arrested and tried... he was reported to be insane, and was confined in lunatic asylums in West Auckland and Gateshead succesively." (DNB)

    West Auckland, Durham Licensed House
    Proprietors (1844) J. Eales and sister.
    1.1.1844 35 patients. 27 pauper and 8 private.
    Weekly charge for paupers: 6/- to 7/- excluding clothes.
    SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT
    The Eales' house at West Auckland and the Gowlands' house at Wreckenton seem to have been no more than fairly ordinary large houses. (See quotations from 1844 Report)
    Closed by 1847

    Durham County Asylum was built but "not yet open" in 1858.
    Foundation year: 1858
    Architect: Joseph Howison. Peter Cracknell classifies it as Corridor form.
    Became Winterton Hospital, Sedgefield, Stockton on Tees, TS21 3EJ map   multi-map
    External link on the organ
    Durham records include this:

    Dr Smith

    Photograph of Dr Smith from Jack Turton's collection

    "The first medical superintendent, Dr Smith, was appointed in June 1857, at first on a temporary basis. Some county patients were transferred from Bensham Asylum, Gateshead, to temporary accommodation in Bath Lane. By January 1858 Dr Smith had received 131 patients, of whom 19 had been discharged. In April 1858 he requested that some patients should be moved to the new asylum as soon as possible as the Bath Lane Asylum was overflowing. They could help, he thought, in putting in seeds and preparing the grounds. Between twelve and twenty could be accommodated in the steward's house which was then complete, and more patients could be transferred when other rooms were ready. Building work continued during the summer, while patients were being moved in, and was complete by the autumn. By October 1859 there were 237 patients (131 male and 120 female); 72 of these had been admitted since June, including 44 from Newcastle. The committee reported 'The admission of so many patients at once has caused a difficulty as to the furniture and clothes which are in great measure made in the asylum and which therefore are not at present supplied sufficiently'"

    1881 Census At No 3 Asylum Cottages, John Nichel and his family
    1889 Extended by William Crozier (Architect)
    3.11.1893 Death of Jack Nichol "for eighteen years chief attendant" - (external link to story)
    1925 Durham County Mental Hospital
    The Rossbret site has a history that appears to date from 1920, and includes staff in 1920. There is a link from there to Durham Record Office web site which has more history.
    1940 Winterton Emergency Hospital (to 1948)
    1949 Winterton Hospital (Mental Hospital)
    about 1955: Winterton Hospital
    1969 to 1972 Peter Barham's research group with Joseph, Arthur, Terrence, Eric, Henry (and others?)

    "One of the stately homes of England" - "We thought it was a college when we first got here. Next we thought it was a farm. Then we thought it was a hospital. Then we thought it was a farm again". It is a "rubbish tip, a dirty, scruffy rotten hole". "Surely to God we weren't put on earth to live on tablets all the time. Eventually we threw them away, and they locked us up." (Joseph)


    Listed as closed 1996, but (Autumn 2002) reported to be in very partial use.
    "The decision to close Winterton was made around 1990 and the vast majority of patients and staff were gone by 1998. Demolition started in 2000" But "a part of Winterton is still in operation today" (Jack Turton)
    1998 Behind the Wall: The life and times of Winterton Hospital by Adam Lamb and Jack Turton
    12.4.2003 Transcription of inscriptions in Winterton Asylum Cemetery
    July 2002. Sedgefield Community Hospital, Sedgefield, TS21 3EZ opened on part of the site.

    From the website of Redcar and Cleveland MIND (Good Mind Guide) you can download a pdf photo journal (holistic history) that includes this text: "The following is a photographic record of a journey taken during February 2004 in the North East of England. Cherry Knowle Hospital, on the outskirts of Sunderland, is still in use as a mental health facility with the old wards and church abandoned as a brooding backdrop. Winterton Hospital in Sedgefield Co. Durham is no more. All that remains is the church, the chapel and some of the original estate's housing. Set apart in the local cemetery is a memorial to remind us of of the many people who lived at the hospital and who were never given a funeral or grave."

    Winterton Hospital archives at Durham County Record Office

    External link to index of A Short History of Gateshead (1998)
    Gateshead became a County Borough in 1889
    Gateshead Borough Asylum
    At Stannington
    Built: 1912 Opened 1913
    Architect:
    George Thomas Hine & Carter Pegg
    Compact Arrow
    Became Gateshead County Borough Mental Hospital in 1920
    St Mary's Hospital from 1948
    Stannington, NE61 6AA
    Closed 1995. Planning submitted 1999, refused. Site still looks intact. (Simon Cornwall)
    English Heritage: St Mary's Stannington, Northumberland, built 1910-1914 as the pauper asylum for Gateshead

    From A Short History of Gateshead. (Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council 1998):

    "St Mary's Hospital at Stannington serves the town's present needs for a mental hospital. Previously, mentally ill patients were catered for at private asylums situated at Wrekenton (1825-55), Sheriff Hill (1817-60) and Bensham (1799-1868). Part of the latter building can still be seen on Sidney Grove.

    Gateshead Council sent patients to an asylum owned by Durham County Council from 1856 but this agreement was ended in 1912. An estate was bought at Stannington for £9,221 and the hospital was opened in 1914."

    Sunderland Borough History
    1888: Sunderland became a county borough
    Sunderland Borough Asylum
    At Ryhope
    Conceived about 1891? Architect:
    George Thomas Hine
    Compact Arrow
    Became Sunderland Mental Hospital?
    Became Cherry Knowle Hospital, Ryhope, Sunderland, SR2 0NB?
    January 2004 Photographic Journal
    (map)   (multimap)

    Middleton St George Hospital near Darlington.

    24.1.2001 "Affinity Healthcare is to invest £4 million in a new 20-bed private psychiatric unit at Trees Park Village near Darlington, with the creation of more than 100 jobs. 8.4.2002 creating 20 new jobs "due to an increase in the range of care services on offer".

    April 2001 Sycamore Unit A General Adult Psychiatric Admissions Unit opened

    September 2001 Rowan Unit: A Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit opened

    July 2002 Pine Unit: A High Dependency Unit opened

    "Hospital Services at Middleton St. George are lead by Consultant psychiatrist Dr Richard Cawthra and Dr Steve Barlow"

    13.5.2005 "seeking permission to build a new 72-bed psychiatric unit on the site of the Middleton St George Hospital in Darlington".

    20.2.2008 Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne admitted under a section. "Gazza 'out of mental hospital'" Daily Express 8.3.2008

    Mental Handicap Hospitals Newcastle (later Northern)

    Prudhoe and Monkton
    Dispersed form.
    1,559 beds on 31.12.1971 Prudhoe Hospital
    Prudhoe, Northumberland, NE42 5NT
    1330 beds in 1979 Monkton Hospital
    Jarrow-on-Tyne, NE32 5NN {Annexe of Prudhoe Hospital)
    74 beds in 1979

    Aycliffe
    680 beds on 31.12.1971
    533 beds in 1979
    Aycliffe Hospital, Heighton, near Darlington, DL5 6QA

    Northgate and District
    680 beds on 31.12.1971
    728 beds in 1979
    Northgate and District Hospital, Morpeth, Northumberland, NE61 3BP

    Dovenby Hall
    400 beds on 31.12.1971
    400 beds in 1979
    Dovenby Hall Hospital, Near Cockermouth, Cumbria, CA13 OPH

    Earles House
    370 beds on 31.12.1971
    340 beds in 1979
    Earles House Hospital, Durham City, DH1 3RE

    Northumberland

    Newcastle

    Newcastle Lunatic Asylum
    Proprietors (1844) N. Smith, M.D. and D. McIntosh M.D. 1.1.1844 80 patients. 59 pauper and 21 private.
    ON 1844 LIST OF BEST CONDUCTED LICENSED HOUSES.
    A LICENSED HOUSE/HOSPITAL.
    Opened 1767 as a Subscription Hospital for patients from Newcastle, Northumberland and Durham. It soon after became a private house in which Newcastle Corporation maintained a financial interest. When the proprietor died in 1824 the Corporation took possession, spent £4,390 on re-construction and installed a medical superintendent as proprietor. It accommodated the City's pauper lunatics until 1855. Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 pp 61-62)
    St John's Poor House, in Bath Lane, was "adjoining the Lunatic Asylum" in 1831.

    "in 1827. At the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Lunatic Asylum, which received up to eighty patients who were largely paupers, the staff comprised the superintendent, three male keepers and five 'matrons', who were assisted by convalescent women patients. However, at Belle Grove Retreat, Newcastle, which accommodated no more than eight or nine patients of each sex, the staff comprised three experienced male keepers, a matron, four female servants and a housekeeper" Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 pp 61-62)

    Belle Grove Retreat opened 18.10.1766 as St Luke's Asylum. It closed between 1855 and 1865. It was for private patients only. The house it occupied is now called "Whiteknights". (external link)

    In 1865, James Crichton Browne was appointed medical superintendent at Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Asylum, where he lectured on mental disease at the Newcastle College of Science. In 1866 he became medical director of the West Riding Asylum at Wakefield and gave a similar course of lectures at the Leeds School of Medicine.

    The archives for Newcastle Borough Asylum (opened 1869) include Administrative records including lists of visitors and their reports 1833-1845 and registers of insane persons 1829-1845 refs HO/SN, MD/NC

    Northumberland Asylum, at East Cottingwood, was being erected in 1858
    Built: 1853- 1859
    Architect: Henry Welch and T. Robson
    Landscape designer Unknown
    National Grid Reference NZ 202 870
    Classical-style building with airing court walls sunk as ha-has flanking the main entrance. (Sarah Rutherford)
    Records 1859-1994 of St George's Hospital (formerly Northumberland County Lunatic Asylum), Morpeth, Northumberland, in Northumberland Record Office.
    Closed 1999? (Simon Cornwall)

    Newcastle Borough Lunatic Asylum, Jubilee Road, Gosforth, [NE3 3XT] opened in 1869.
    Architects: WL Moffat (1864), JW Dyson (1892)
    Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Asylum
    Northumberland War Hospital
    It became St Nicholas Hospital in 1948.
    St Nicholas's, Coxlodge, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Tyne And Wear
    Closed 1996?, appears demolished. (Simon Cornwall)

    "In 1863 a Special Committee of the Justices of the Borough of Newcastle upon Tyne was set up under the provisions of the 1853 Pauper Lunatics Act to consider what provision should be made for the pauper lunatics of the Borough. The Committee decided that Newcastle should build a new asylum and a site was purchased at Coxlodge. The Newcastle Borough Lunatic Asylum, Jubilee Road, Gosforth opened in 1869. The Asylum was supervised by the magistrates until 1871 when Newcastle City Council took over this responsibility. From 1915 - 1920 the hospital was turned into a military hospital and the mental patients were dispersed to other institutions. In 1948 the hospital came under the control of the newly created National Health Service" (Hospital Database)

    Berwick on Tweed
    See Rootsweb

    Move north to Scotland

    map

    © Andrew Roberts and all the contributors 2001 - Click on the name to see all the things you can do with it.

    Amongst the many sources for the information on this page are the individuals who have sent me information over the internet. I have attempted to credit this where I use it. Credited or not, I am grateful for all the information users send. Thank you.

    1979: The Hospitals and Health Services Year Book and Directory of Equipment and Supplies 1979. The Institute of Health Service Administrators. Date of data probably "(B)" Total bed compliment at 31.12.1977 (p.43)

    Peter Cracknell Has recently (summer 2004) composed a comprehensive analysis of asylum forms and an interrelated database of asylums. I am devising ways of incorporating his work into the asylum index. The analysis was first pubished on the Asylums Forum. Peter sent me the database directly.

    Christine Lawes, of Leatherhead, Surrey, previously worked at The Manor, Horton and St Ebbas. She now (August 2005) works at Harperbury

    Dave Ogden has a special interest in Saxondale Hospital (Nottinghamshire) Bracebridge (Lincolnshire).

    Nigel Roberts (no relation, as far as we know) has an extensive collection of photographs, postcards and other material respecting asylums, and a broad personal knowledge of several as a psychiatric nurse for many years. He has shared this generously with me and with other asylum sites - We all owe him.

    Architects: I have taken the names of architects from Simon Cornwall's list, from Peter Cracknell's data and from Sarah Rutherford's thesis. Dates for architects often found in the Incorporated Church Building Society's database

    The Lunacy Commission employed consulting architects. To avoid embarrassment it employed more than one so that a consultant did not have to comment on the plans for an asylum for which he had unsuccessfully competed. Information below about the initial consulting architects is based mostly on Nicholas Hervey's 1987 thesis.

    William Alderson Quaker architect William Alderson (died about 1835). He designed Stoke Newington Quaker Meeting House and Hanwell Pauper Lunatic Asylum

    Isidore Canevale Architect of the Narrenturm in Vienna. Born in Vincennes, France, in 1730. In 1776 he became court architect under Emperor Joseph 2nd of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. He died in Vienna, 2.11.1786.

    Henry Duesbury Borough Architect of Derby from 1841 to about 1854. Designed the Derby Guildhall (1842) as well as the Derbyshire County Lunatic Asylum. (Wikipedia)

    Harvey Lonsdale Elmes 1814-1847 Asylums he designed include Rainhill. "The original building was designed by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes (the architect of St George's Hall in Liverpool) who died in 1847, 4 years before the hospital opened in 1851" (Liverpool Record Office)
    Mr Elmes was appointed consulting architect to the Lunacy Commission in 1846
    In 1841 Post Office Directory Architects:
    Marked thus + are surveyors:
    +Elmes, Harvey L. 11 Park Street, Westminster
    +Elmes, J. 9 St Brides Avenue, Fleet Street

    William C Clifford Smith London County Council chief engineer. Full name given by Simon Cornwall. Clifford Smith (David Cochrane's name) wrote Notes of a Visit to Continental and British Asylums

    John Giles (died) 1900 may have been part of John Giles and Biven who built Highgate Infirmary (1869). Asylums this firm designed include Leavesden and Caterham (Both opened October 1870). He became partner with Albert Edward Gough 1842/3 - 1908 in Giles and Gough [active 1879]. Asylums the firm designed include Chartham 1875 and Coney Hill (1884). The firm of Giles, Gough and Trollope designed Cheddleton (1893-1897), Tone Vale (1897), and an extension to Hereford County Asylum (1900). A firm of G. Gough and Trollope of Craven-street, Charing Cross designed the Bethnal Green Infirmary in 1900.

    Thomas Chambers Hine (1813-1899) Born London. Moved to Nottingham in 1848 where he designed the Nottingham Corn Exchange (1849-1850) and other private and public buildings, including The Coppice Hospital (1855?) - external links: papers (MS 575) - 1881 Census

    George Thomas Hine (1841-1916). Son of above. Born Nottingham. See Nottingham Heritage Newsletter 18.6.2003 and Simon Cornwall on asylum architects - In partnership with his father from 1867 to 1890, when his father retired. He then moved to London. In 1897 he was appointed Consulting Architect to the Commissioners in Lunacy. In 1901 he lived in the parish of St George, Hanover Square.

    "In 1887, after winning the competition for the enormous new LCC (London County Council) at Claybury, Essex, he established his practise in London. Hine specialized in asylum architecture, and his paper to the RIBA in 1901 still provides a valuable review of asylum design and planning. This was strengthened by his experience as Consulting Architect to the Commissioners in Lunacy - a post which he held from 1897. He was a frequent entrant for asylum competitions, winning his first, for Nottingham Asylum in 1875. During the 1880s and 1890s he entered ten asylum competitions - winning five - and was assessor for four others. He designed and saw completed four major LCC asylums housing over 2000 patients each (Claybury, Bexley, Horton and Long Grove), and his prolific output included new county asylums for Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Surrey, East Sussex and Worcestershire, as well as extensive additions to many others. His concentration on this one building type reflected his own perception of asylum architecture as an "almost distinct profession in itself"." (external link)
    The asylums he designed include Mapperley (1880) - Dorset (1890?) - Claybury (1893) - Horton (1894) - Bexley (1898) - Hill End (1899) - Rauceby (1899-1902) - Long Grove (1903-1907) - Hellingly (1901-1903) - Netherne (1909) - Park Prewett (1910- 1921) - Gateshead (1912- 1913) - Barnsley Hall, Bromsgrove - Isle of Wight ??) - Belfast -

    Charles Henry Howell (1824-1905). See Simon Cornwall on asylum architects - Based at Guildford, Surrey. The asylums he designed include Brookwood (1862-1867) (He was County Surveyor for Surrey) - East Riding at Beverley (1868-1871) - Moulsford, near Wallingford (1868-1870) and Cane Hill (Surrey) (1883: Simon Cornwall says that by this time "Howell was the principle asylum architect in England and an advisor for the Commission of Lunacy". At Cane Hill he used a radiating pattern for the pavillion blocks) - and Middlesbrough (1893-1898). He and his family lived at 39 Gloucester Place, London in 1881. "Between 1886 and 1897, Howell was assessor for no less than seven large asylum competitions, and there was some professional disquiet that Giles, Gough & Trollope or GT Hine always seemed to receive the first two premiums - with the result that any new ideas on asylum design were being stultified" (external link)

    Richard Ingleman 1777-1838 Active Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Believed to be the architect who assisted Rev John Becher in the design of Southwell Parish Workhouse. The son of Francis Ingleman. The asylums Richard designed include Nottingham 1810-1812 Lincoln (1819-1820) and Warneford (1821-1826)

    Henry Edward Kendall 1776-1875 external link Father of following. Great Grandfather of Charlotte Mew. I do not think he designed any asylums.

    Henry Edward Kendall 1805-1885: See 1881 Census 34 Burlington Road. Another source says address Bloomsbury: 33 Brunswick Square. Architect of Essex County Asylum (Opened 1853) Sussex Asylum Haywards Heath (1850s) and the second Dorset County Asylum (1864)

    Edward Lapidge (son of Samuel Lapidge), born 1779, died 1860. London architect. Designed several churches. (An?) Architect of Surrey County Asylum. Nick Hervey says Mr Lapidge, "one of the designers of Surrey County Asylum", suggested the idea of a permanent architect to the Lunacy Commission in October 1845, through his friend Sir A Morison. (External links to: Twickenham museum - waterways engineers - Kingston Bridge - much more about - St Mary the Virgin, Wandsworth - same, a listed building

    William Moseley Born about 1799. Died 1880. Surveyor to the Middlesex Justices. He was succeeded by Frederick Hyde Pownall. William Moseley designed the 1837/1838 extensions to Hanwell and is said to have been an architect of Surrey County Asylum.
    Mr Moseley was appointed consulting architect to the Lunacy Commission in 1846
    In 1841 Post Office Directory Architects:
    Moseley Andrew 21 Lincolns Inn Fields
    Moseley Wm 53 Great Ormond Street

    Richard Makilwaine Phipson (born about 1827 - died 1884) Architect of the Norwich Borough Asylum 1868 and Norfolk County Asylum Annexe 1878 [Firm: Morgan (George) & Phipson (Richard Makilwaine), Architects, Strand, 3 Dane's Inn, London. Also at Ipswich] He was living in Surrey Street, Norwich St Stephen, in 1881

    Frederick Hyde Pownall 1832-1907. Active in London. (See biography on the web site of St Peters, London Docks. He succeeded William Moseley as Surveyor to the Middlesex Justices and became County Surveyor of Middlesex in 1888. He designed Banstead Asylum (1877). He also designed alterations and additions to Clerkenwell Sessions House in 1860 and a rebuilding of Coldbath Fields Prison.

    Scott (George Gilbert) & Moffatt (William B) Architects 20 Spring Gardens, Trafalgar Square, London

    George Gilbert Scott 1811-1878
    William Bonython Moffat 1812-1887
    Mr Moffat was appointed consulting architect to the Lunacy Commission in 1845
    Asylums the firm designed include Clifton 1847 and Somerset County Asylum 1848. William Moffat designed Royal Earlswood 1855

    Francis Stone 1770-1835. Norfolk county surveyor: Architect of Norfolk County Asylum (1811-1814)

    Wyatt (Thomas Henry) & Brandon (David) Architects
    77 Great Russell Street, Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London
    In 1841 Post Office Directory Architects:
    Wyatt and Brandon, 75 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury

    A.J. Wood

    Landscape: Landscape information from Sarah Rutherford





    Citation suggestion

    Referencing

    My referencing suggestion for any part of the Asylums Index is a bibliography entry:

    Asylums Index 2001 - Index of Lunatic Asylums and Mental Hospitals
    <http://studymore.org.uk/4_13_TA.htm>

    and references in your text to

    (Asylums Index 2001: name of place, asylum or hospital)
    For example:

    (Asylums Index 2001: Runwell)

    See ABC Referencing for general advice.

    Contents page

    The Asylums Index began as a table in a book about the 19th century Lunacy Commission - Click on the book icon to read the book.

    [Originally published on the Middlesex University web, London]

  • mental health
history
timeline Click for:

    Abergavenny

    Acomb

    Alpha Cottages

    Althorpe House

    All Saints Hospital, Birmingham

    Alton Street

    Anglesea

    Angleton

    Ashover

    Ashurst War Hospital

    asylums

    asylum architecture

    Ashworth

    Aston Hall

    Audley House

    Aylesbury

    Ayres'

    Bailbrook House

    Balderton Hospital

    Balmes House

    Banstead

    Barming Heath

    Barnsley Hall

    Barnwood House

    Bay Cottage

    Bath

    Bath Workhouse

    Baume's House

    Beaufort House

    Bedfordshire

    Bedford Observation Wards

    Bedlam

    Belle Vue, Devizes

    Belle Vue House, Ipswich

    Belmont

    Bensham

    Berkshire

    Besford Court

    Bethel Hospital, Norwich

    Bethlem

    Bethnal Green

    Bexley

    Bicton Heath

    Birmingham Workhouse

    Birmingham City Asylum

    Blacklands House

    Bodmin

    Bootham Park

    Borocourt

    Botley's Park Hospital

    Bowhill House

    Bracebridge

    Brandenburgh House

    Brecon

    Brentford

    Brentwood

    Bridgend

    Bristol

    Brislington House

    Broadmoor

    Brockhall

    Brookside

    Brookwood

    Brooke House

    Bryn-y-Neuadd

    Buckinghamshire

    Burghill

    Caenarvon

    Calderstones

    Camberwell

    Cambridgeshire

    Cane Hill

    Cardiff

    Carisbrooke

    Carlton Hayes

    Carmathen

    Cassel

    Caterham

    Cell Barnes

    Central Hospital

    chancery lunatics

    Chartham

    Chatham

    Cheadle

    Cheddleton

    Chelsea

    Chelsham Mental Hospital

    Cherry Knowle

    Cheshire

    Chiswick House

    Church Street, Chelsea

    City of London Asylum, Stone

    Clapham Retreat

    Clatterbridge

    Claybury

    Cleve Hill

    Colney Hatch

    Coney Hill

    Coppice Hospital

    Cornwall

    Coton Hill

    Countess of Chester

    county asylums

    Cowper House

    criminal lunatics

    Croydon Mental Hospital

    Cumberland

    Darenth Park

    Dartmouth House

    De La Pole Hospital

    Dean Hill Hospital

    Denbigh

    Denham Park

    Derby

    Derwentwater House

    Deva Hospital

    Devizes

    Devon

    Digby

    Dorset

    Droitwich Lunatic Asylum

    Duddeston Hall

    Dudley Villa, Brixton

    Dunnington

    Dunston Lodge

    Durham

    Earls Court House

    Eastgate House

    Eastern Hospital

    East Midlands

    East Riding

    Effra Hall, Brixton

    Egham

    Elm Grove House, Hanwell

    Ely

    Epsom

    Essex

    Essex Hall

    Ewell Epileptic Colony

    Ewell Neurological Hospital

    Exeter

    Exe Vale (three hospitals)

    Exminster

    Eye workhouse

    Fairfield Hospital

    Fairford Asylum

    Fair Mile

    Fairwater House

    Farleigh

    Farmfield

    Fenstanton House

    Fiddington House

    Finche's (West of England)

    Finche's (West London)

    Fisher House

    Fisherton House

    Fishponds

    Flint

    Fonthill Gifford

    Foulkes

    Friern

    Frimley Lodge

    Fulbourn

    Fulham

    Fulham Road Observation Ward

    Garlands

    Gate Helmsley

    Gateshead

    Gateshead Fell

    Glamorgan

    Glanrhyd

    Glenside Hospital Museum

    Gloucester

    Gloucester House

    Goodmayes

    Graylingwell

    Greatford

    Great Fosters

    Green Hill House

    Grove House, Acomb

    Grove House/Grove Hall, Bow

    Grove House, Stoke Newington

    Grove Park

    Grove Place

    Grove Road, Bristol

    Guildford

    Guy's Hospital Lunatic Ward

    Hackney 20th century

    Hackney madhouses 1815

    Hackney madhouses

    Hammersmith

    Hampshire

    Hanham

    Hanover Cottages

    Hanwell

    Harefield Park

    Harperbury

    Haslar

    Hatton Asylum

    Haugh House

    Haverfordwest

    Haydock Lodge

    Hayes

    Haywards Heath

    Hellingly

    Henderson

    Henderson's

    Hendon House

    Hereford Lunatic Asylum

    Hertfordshire

    Hessle

    Heworth

    Highcroft,

    Highroyds

    Hill End

    Hilsea Asylum

    Holloway Sanatorium

    Hollymoor

    Holly House

    Hollywood House

    Hook Norton

    Hope House, Brock Green

    Hope House, Hammersmith

    Horton Hospital

    Horton Road Hospital

    hospitals

    Hoxton

    Hoxton House

    Hull Borough Asylum

    Hull Refuge

    Hull Workhouse

    Huntingdonshire

    Ida Darwin

    Ilford

    Ingrebourne

    Inverness Lodge

    Ipswich

    Irish's, Surrey

    Isle of Wight

    Jane Holmes, Winchmore Hill

    John Connolly Hospital

    John Thompson Jackson

    Kensington Gore

    Kensington House

    Kent

    Kesteven

    Kingsdown House

    Kingsland Workhouse

    Kingsley Hall

    Kingsway Hospital

    Knowle Hosital

    Lainston House

    Lamb Cottage

    Lampton House

    Lancashire

    Lancashire Asylums Board

    Lancaster Moor

    Langho Colony

    Laverstock House

    Lawn, Lincoln

    Lawn House, Hanwell

    Lea Pale House

    Leavesden

    Leeds

    Leicestershire

    Leicester Workhouse

    licensed houses

    Lichfield

    Lincoln

    Lincolnshire

    Littlemore

    Liverpool Lunatic Asylum

    London

    London Clinics

    London County Council

    London House

    London Retreat

    London workhouse wards

    Long Grove

    Lord Derby War Hospital

    Lynfield Mount

    mad houses

    Mad House Farm

    Maghull (Liverpool)

    Maidstone

    Maldon Lane

    Malling Place

    Manchester Lunatic Asylum

    Manchester Workhouse

    Manor Cottage

    Manor House

    The Manor Epsom

    map of England and Wales - maps of the Hoxton madhouses - map of Wales

    Mapperley Hospital, Nottingham

    Market Lavington

    Martha Mugnall's, Hanwell

    Mary Bradbury's

    Mary Douglas, Ealing

    Mary Flemming, Fulham

    Maudsley

    Meanwood Park

    Melina Place

    Mendip

    Menston

    Merioneth

    Metropolitan Asylums Board

    Mickleover

    Middlesbrough

    Middlesex

    Middlesex 1889

    Middlesex 1939

    Middlewood Hospital

    Midlands

    Mid Wales

    Miles's

    Military

    Millard's

    Mill Hill

    Monmouth

    Montgomery

    Monyhull

    Moor Cottage

    Moor Croft House

    Moorhaven

    Moss Side

    Morgannwg

    Moston

    Moulsford

    Munster House, Fulham

    Napsbury

    Naval

    Netley

    Newcastle Lunatic Asylum

    Newport

    Netherne

    Norfolk

    Normand House

    Normansfield

    Northampton Lunatic Asylum

    North Riding

    Northumberland.

    Northumberland House, Stoke Newington

    North Wales

    Norvic Clinic

    Norwich Infirmary

    Nottinghamshire

    Nunkeeling

    Oakwood

    Otto House

    Oxfordshire

    Oxley's

    Oswestry Workhouse

    Parc (Parc Gwyllt)

    ParkHaven Trust

    Park Lane

    Park Prewett

    Parkside

    Pastures Hospital

    paupers

    pauper lunatics

    Peckham

    Pembroke

    Pembroke House

    Pembroke Square

    Pembrokeshire

    Penyfai

    Peterborough House

    Plaistow, Essex

    Plympton (near Plymouth

    Pope's - Hanwell

    Portsmouth

    Portsea

    Powick

    Preston

    Prestwich

    Princess Royal

    Priory

    Radnor

    Rainhill

    Rampton

    Ransom Hospital

    Rauceby

    Rebecca Law, Brompton

    Redruth Workhouse

    Red House

    The Retreat, Chelsea

    The Retreat, York

    Ringmer

    Robin Farquarson House

    Roundway

    Roffey Park

    Roehampton

    Ross on Wye

    Royal Albert

    Royal Bethlem

    Royal Earlswood

    Royal Shropshire

    Rubery Hill

    Runwell

    Salisbury

    Salford

    Sandfield

    Saxondale

    Scalebor Park

    Sculcoates Refuge

    Sedgefield

    Severalls

    Sheffield Workhouse

    Shelton

    Shenley

    Shillingthorpe

    Shrewsbury

    Shropshire (see also Wales)

    Shropshire Asylum

    Sidney House

    single lunatics

    Sleaford House

    Sneinton

    Somerset

    Southcoates

    South East England

    South West England

    South Yorkshire

    Southall Park

    Southampton

    Southampton Department of Psychiatry

    Springfield

    Springfield War Hospital

    Springfield Manchester

    Stafford

    Staffordshire

    Stallington

    Stanley Royd

    St Augustine's

    St Andrew's, Norfolk

    St Andrew's, Northampton

    St Bernard's

    St Cadoc's

    St Clement's, Bow

    St Clement's, Ipswich

    St Columba's, Sligo

    St Crispin, Northampton

    St David's

    St Ebbas

    St. Edward's

    St Francis

    St Lawrence's

    St Luke's, London

    St Marylebone

    St Mary's Gateshead

    St Mary's Hereford

    St Peter's, Bristol

    St Thomas's Hospital, Exeter

    St Thomas's Hospital, London

    Stilwell Houses

    Stoke Damerel Workhouse

    Stone House (Charing Cross)

    Stone House Hospital

    Stonehouse (naval)

    Storthes Hall

    Stoke near Guildford

    Stoke Park Colony

    Suffolk

    Sunderland

    Sundridge

    Surrey

    Surrey House

    Sussex

    Sussex House

    Sutherland's Houses

    Swansea

    Talfourd's

    Talgarth

    Taunton

    Tavistock

    Thorpe

    Ticehurst

    Tone Vale

    Tooting Bec

    Tower Street

    Trueman's

    Turlington's, Chelsea (1763)

    Turnham Green

    Twickenham House

    Twyver Unit

    Upton in Macclesfield

    Upton Mental Hospital

    Vernon House

    Wadsley

    Wakefield

    Walden's

    Wales

    Wandsworth

    Warburton's, Bethnal Green

    Warburton's, Hoxton

    Warley

    Warlingham Park Hospital

    Warneford

    Warrington

    Warwickshire

    Warwickshire County Asylum

    Warwick House

    Wenlock

    West Auckland

    West Cheshire

    West End Hospital....

    West Ham

    Western House

    West Malling

    West Midlands

    Westmoreland

    Weston

    Weston Hall

    West Park

    West Riding

    Whalley Asylum

    Whickham

    Whitecroft

    White House

    Whittingham

    Whitmore House

    William Moyes, Lower Tooting

    Willis houses

    Wiltshire

    Winchester

    Winslow

    Winterton

    Winson Green

    Winwick

    Withington

    Witney

    Wonford

    Wood End, Hayes

    workhouse asylums

    Worcestershire

    Wreckenton

    Wyke House

    Yarmouth

    York

    York Asylum

    Yorkshire

    Yorkshire: East Riding

    Yorkshire: North Riding








    Have you tried the ABC Study Guide? try the ABC Study Guide
    or ABC Study Links?
    Click the spider for general weblinks about asylums and hospitals Social history weblinks
    Some asylums and areas have their own websites:

    Some have museums





    Hospital Records

    I am adding links to archives. Patient records are closed for 100 years, but access for relatives may be possible under the 1990 Access to Health Records Act




     



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