Index of English and Welsh Lunatic Asylums and Mental Hospitals
Based on a comprehensive survey in 1844, and extended to other
asylums.
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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Some hospitals will appear on the green and the
yellow, usually because they started as chronic asylums in the late
nineteenth century.
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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.
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The table is arranged geographically:
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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
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London
Middlesex Victoria County History Online includes a map
of north London parishes (not Surrey)
Thomas Moule's 1834 map of Middlesex on Alan Stanier's web
(click bottom right to enlarge)
South East London History has a
map index for
Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, Greenwich, Bexley and Bromley
Area links on this site:
Brentford,
Camberwell (Surrey),
Chelsea,
Fulham,
Hackney,
Hammersmith,
Hayes,
Hoxton,
Kensington
Until 1888, the Middlesex Quarter Sessions were held in The Sessions House
(opened 1782), Clerkenwell Green, north of Smithfield on the road to
Islington. In addition, General Sessions of the Peace were held twice a
year in Westminster, and occasional sessions at Finsbury, Holborn, Highgate
and Turnham Green
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.
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.
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)
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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)
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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.
Spring 1978 Springfield Words
Now
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.
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".
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
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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).
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Bethlem Hospital
1377: the Bishopsgate Bedlam (St
Mary of Bethlem)
1403: visited
1536 on: monasteries dissolved -
City
gets Bethlem
1559: Bethlem on oldest map of
London
(sketch
map)
1615 Oldest surviving written lyrics of the ballad
Mad Tom of Bedlam
1618 Helkiah Crooke (1576-1648), physician to James 1st, non-
resident "keeper"
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.
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
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
1704
Swift's Tale of a Tub
1708 Death of Dr Edward Tyson
2.10.1728 James Monro appointed physician
1730s: wings for incurables added.
These necessitated alteration to the airing courts.
1737 A General Committee of about 46 Governors appointed
to administer Bridewell and Bethlem on behalf of the (large) Court of
Governors
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)
John Monro's 1766 Case Book
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.
1787: Thomas
Monro appointed assistant to his father
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)
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."
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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.
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.
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".
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"]
Consultant physician
(with E.T. Monro) from 1835 to
1853:
Alexander Morison
1837 extensions to the building
|
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)"
|
|
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
1852:: Critical Report
William Charles Hood
became Resident Medical Superintendent
1862 W.C. Hood became a
Chancery Visitor. Succeeded as Resident
Medical Superintendent by
William Rhys Williams
1878 William Rhys Williams became a
Lunacy Commissioner. Succeeded as Resident
Medical Superintendent by George Henry Savage.
1863: criminal lunatics sent to
Broadmoor
|
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.
1896 extensions to the building
1930: Kent Bethlem Hospital
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.
1948 Bethlem Royal and
Maudsley Hospitals amalgamated as a single postgraduate teaching
hospital in the new
National Health Service.
1967 The Maudsley took over the management of the district catchment
area service for the mentally ill.
The Bethlem Museum was established in 1970, as a small exhibition space
in the new building which housed the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital archives
-
external link
1991 Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals become an NHS Trust.
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"
9.9.2007 to 8.12.2007 Art and Psychiatry Exhibition at
the Kuntsforum in Vienna "Art from the Bethlem Archives will be part of
this major international exhibition archive".
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.
Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum
Monks Orchard Road
Beckenham
Kent BR3 3BX
Royal Bethlem Hospital Museum
other museums
external link to map with arrow pointing to present
site Notice the sites of several other asylums in south London.
|
In the
1860s
Bethlem became a hospital for the "superior class". Criminals were sent to
Broadmoor and paupers to:
City of London Lunatic Asylum
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. At some stage it
ceased being a general workhouse and became 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."
I do not know at what stage it became a psychiatric hospital. It passed
from the City of London Poor Law Union to London County Council in 1930
and, about the same time (from about 1929), had, or was, a Mental
Observation Unit. It became part of the National Health Service in 1948.
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".
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.
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)
St Clement's Hospital (from 1936) was administratively absorbed by
The London Hospital in 1968 and became The London Hospital (St
Clement's), 2A Bow Road, London, E3 4LL.
There were psychiatric outpatients clinics in 1940 at: London
Hospital, Whitechapel, E1. - Mile End Hospital, Bancroft Road,
E.1. - St Bartholomew's Hospital, EC1
|
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
|
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.
|
|
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
|
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 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).
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
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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.
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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.
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%
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
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.
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.
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
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"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.
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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.
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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%
1941 Felix died
1959:
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association
formed. This provided links to
Hackney (on the other side of
London), where many patients came from.
1959
Richmond Fellowship founded.
1962 (Hospital Plan) 2,151 patients in 1960. 1,000
expected in 1975
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
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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.
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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, and then, 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
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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 London County Council Mental Hospital was opened in
1923.
1.1.1925 Accomodation for 146 uncertified patients.
Sometime: Maudsley Hospital Medical School officially recognised by the
University of London.
1936-1948 Clinical Director Dr Aubrey Lewis
1939?
Belmont and Mill
Hill
1948 Maudsley Hospital amalgamated with
The Bethlem Hospital.
Medical School renamed Institute of Psychiatry.
[external link]
Its Department of Psychiatry was under the chairmanship of Dr Aubrey Lewis
from 1945 to 1966
South London and Maudsley NHS Trust -
web archive
2.6.2001 to 2.7.2007
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
Bethlem 750th
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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.
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"The Maudsley Hospital: Design and Strategic Direction, 1923-1939"
by Edgar Jones, Shahina Rahman, and Robin Woolven. Medical
History 1.7.2007
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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
"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".
It
moved to Malet Place. Then moved to Beaumont Street (where it was in the
1960s). In 1967 it 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."
H.V. Dicks 1970 Fifty Years of the Tavistock Clinic
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
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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
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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.
(source)
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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.
31.3.1964 Valerie Argent admitted to Belmont Hospital
27.5.1964 Valerie Argent escaped from Belmont Hospital
A building next to
Belmont Hospital became the Henderson Hospital. Under its
medical director,
Dr Maxwell Jones, Henderson was one of the birth places of the
therapeutic
community, whilst 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
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
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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.
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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 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).
1918 Cane Hill Mental Hospital
1937? Cane Hill Hospital
1948 Under the South West Metropolitan Hospital Board
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.
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
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.
"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.
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
Closed May 1995 demolished 1996/1997
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.
|
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"
|
|
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
|
|
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]
|
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
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.
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
1957: See Percy
Report
1959 Mental Health Act
sections 97-98: Broadmoor,
Rampton
and
Moss Side
became Special Hospitals under the Ministry of Health.
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.
|
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
"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)
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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
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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".
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)
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
-
"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
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."
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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
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
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.
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 Geoge's Hospital, Suttons
Lane, Hornchurch, Essex, RM12 6RS
July 1951 Twenty bed Neurosis Unit set up in a building used
before the war as an Observation Ward (for
Brentwood Mental Hospital)?
1956 The Neurosis Unit became independent of Warley and was
renamed the Ingrebourne Centre.
Richard
Crocket (born 1914) Consultant in charge of the Ingrebourne
Centre in Hornchurch, Essex, from 1954 to 1979. "He saw an
acute general
hospital psychiatric unit evolve into a dynamic psychotherapeutic
community".
(external source)
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 accomodated two or
three patients. However, it was called "Ward G3" until Richard Crocket
changed the name to "The Ingrebourne Centre for Psychological Medicine". "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". The
therapeutic community was established by
a junior doctor, Hamish Anderson
December 1961
Incentive - early stages of the patient led community?
Valerie Argent a patient
28.5.1963
Ingrebourne Society
June 1963
Incentive
|
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.
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|
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
Opened early 1980s?
"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)
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)
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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
"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.
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.
A Proper House: Bedford Lunatic Asylum 1812 - 1860 by Bernard
Cashman, published by Bedfordshire Health Authority 1992.
A Place in the Country: Three Counties Asylum by Judith Pettigrew,
Rory W Reynolds and Sandra Rouse, published by South Bedfordshire Community
Health Care Trust 1998. The history of the hospital in one part, and the
rest interviews with patients and staff, just prior to closure.
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".
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
|
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)
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
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)
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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
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Royal Victoria (Military) Hospital:
Southampton SO3 5GZ
Opened
1863
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 -
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.
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Department of Psychiatry - Southampton
1970 Opened at the Royal South Hampshire Hospital
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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.
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
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."
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This account of the
Glenside Hospital Museum is copied from the
Wrington
World Day -
Saturday, 21st June 2003 website
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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
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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
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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
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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). See
part eight)
Asylum remained open until November 1947
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."
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Gloucester Public Asylums and Hospitals
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