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Asylum For Pauper Lunatics October 21st, 1814
At the Sessions at Leeds yesterday, the Magistrates resolved that an""Asylum for the Lunatic Paupers" of the Riding should be built as speedily as possible in the neighbourhood of Wakefield.
Nov 11th., 1814
"land in Wakefield".
Wanted to purchase for building the projected Pauper Lunatic Asylum upon five to ten acres of land in an airy healthy situation, well supplied with good water and about a mile from the town of Wakefield - Any person or persons having a situation of the above description to dispose of, are requested to give particulars respecting it to Mr. Foljambe.
The Clerk of the Peace Office, Wakefield.
Dec. 23rd., 1814
"Advertisement" To Architects.
For the Plan approved and adopted "One Hundred Guineas" will be given. To be built of brick and sufficiently large for the reception of 150 patients of both sexes. J. Foljambe
March 9th, 1815.
Yesterday the various plans presented (in number 40) for the intended "Lunatic Asylum" for the West Riding, were laid before the Committee of Magistrates at the Court House, Wakefield.
The proposed prizes were adjudged as follows - The First, 100 Guineas, to Messrs Watson and Pritchett of York - The Second, ?0 guineas to Mr Bevans-of. London, and the third, 50 Guineas, to Messrs Lifliley, Woodhead and Hirst of Doncaster.
December 15th, 1815.
"Pauper Lunatic Asylum" West Riding of Yorkshire.
"Wanted Immediately" A Clerk of Works, to Superintend the Erection of the Pauper Lunatic Asylum at Wakefield. His Salary will be Two Guineas a Week. He is expected to possess a general knowledge of Building and to be capable of keeping regular accounts. No one will be accepted who cannot produce
respectable testimonials of his Integrity, Sobriety and Industry. Application to be made (if by letter post paid) to the Architects, Messrs. Watson and Pritchett of York.
J. Foljambe, Deputy Clerk of the Peace,
Peace Offices, Wakefield
December 15, 1815.
The site is of 23 acres. A small Spring of excellent water which the late very droughty season never totally exhausted entering the grounds at the West Corner, crosses diagonally, and will pass under the building. The building will be of Brick, of a Stone Colour, from Walling Fen. - This Institution is intended to receive 150 patients of the worst type.
February 23rd, 1816;
The following Certificate sent with a patient for admission into a Lunatic Asylum is actually copied from the minutes of the Committee of the House of Commons, upon the subject of Mad Houses.
"H. Broadway a Potcurry of Gillingham Certefy that Mr. James Burt Misfortin hopened by a Plow in the Hed which is the Ocaisin of his Ellness & by the Rising and Falling of the Blood And I think a Blister and Bleeding
and meddeson Will be a very Great thing but Mr. James Burt would not AGREE to be Don at Home. g Broadway"
Spelling as per original.
November 21st, 1817
"West Riding of Yorkshire Pauper Lunatic Asylum"
Wanted. A Director and Matron. The Director's Salary will be £200 per year with other advantages. The Matron's salary will be £50 per year and she must be responsible for the Care and Cleanliness of every Part of The House, and pay due attention to the Female patients.
April 10th 1818 "West Riding of Yorkshire"
To Upholsterers;- Persons willing to Contract for the Making of Seventy-Five Mattresses, for the Pauper Lunatic Asylum of Wakefield
The contract to stand good, if wished by the Visiting Magistrates for Seventy-Five more, if wanted in the course of Three Months.
W.C. Ellis. M.D. Director. April 9th, 1818.
October 16th 1818
'Asylum for Lunatic Paupers'.
West Riding of Yorkshire.
Notice is hereby given that the Asylum at Wakefield, built for the reception of Lunatic Paupers, will be ready to admit Patients on Monday next, the 23rd day of November 1818, between the hours of 9.0-clock and 4.0- clock in the Day, and on every succeeding Monday and Thursday, at the same hours.
J. Foljambe, Clerk to the Visiting Justices
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The Asylum was necessary to care for the treatment and care of the "Insane Poor", and work began in 1816.
just six months after the Battle of Waterloo.
The main builders were John Robson, John Billinton and William Pockrin - all from Wakefield. Work was completed and the hospital occupied by the 23rd of November 1818. The eventual cost of the building work was £23,000 being £7,000 more than the contracted price. The total cost was shown in the records as £36,448. 4s. 9¼d.
The Four Hospitals of the West Riding General Asylums Committee, later known as the Mental Hospitals Board:-
1818 Stanley Royd
1872 Wadsley
1888 Menston
1904 Storthes Hall
Website Launch 21st December 2008
Get In Touch - Email Us At..
highroyds.archive@gmail.com |
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48 comments in this gallery
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Welcome to the Stanley Royd Hospital Website.
As the age of the large institution fades, the memories of those who experienced life there first hand, become a valuable source of historical information.
The aim of this website is to collect those memories of the people who lived, worked and were associated with Stanley Royd Hospital and to produce a digital archive of recollections to provide a learning resource for future generations.
By the people, for the people.... all contributions are welcome.
Help create a living, breathing archive by contributing your story or recollections.
History is in your hands.
A knowledge of history is no mere diversion; without it, those fertile avenues of thought which have so often led to innovation and advance must be explored again, and without it the lesson of many a disastrous mistake which should have been learnt will be suffered once more..
To Leave a comment please do it via an individual Image. You can send a message from the front page but it will not be displayed, whereas your comments will be shared by all. Thanks. |
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Documents the introduction of the Community Care Act in April 1993 and the closure of many of Britain's older mental hospitals. This report reveals how thousands of people, who were locked away in institutions for long periods of their lives, were never mentally ill in the first place. They were incarcerated for being deaf or pregnant or simply unwanted, but, once committed they were automatically deemed insane, and had no way of escaping. Includes the personal testimonies of a number of victims of this cruel and outdated system.
This programme is in 6, ten minute segments and can be
viewed by hitting the links in the link box above.
Asylums like Stanley Royd in Wakefield, at the end of an era spanning two hundred years, an era when people were defined as mentally deficient and often locked away for lifetimes. Among them were many thousands who suffered no mental illness, but the system didn’t notice.
For John, for Ethel and Frances, for Geoffrey and for Jimmy, time slipped down the decades and took their lives away.
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* Our Other Digital Archives *
High Royds, Psychiatric Hospital
www.highroydshospital.co.uk
Opened on the 8th October 1888, the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum as it was then known, became High Royds in 1963. One of the last remaining psychiatric hospitals of it's kind to be still functioning when it closed in 2003.
Meanwood Park Colony
www.meanwoodpark.co.uk
The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 placed on town councils a duty to care for the ‘mentally defective’. In 1919 the Leeds City Council decided to found a ‘colony’ for the mentally defective. With this object in view the City Council rented Meanwood Park which comprised 74 acres of land on a short lease from the owner, Sir Hickman Beckett Bacon, Bart. After the lease was entered into the City Council was able to purchase not only Meanwood Park but also additional land and adjacent buildings, the whole comprising an area of 175 acres. The purchase price was £14,000. The Hall accommodated 35 male and 52 female cases.
Meanwood Park Colony was opened on 3rd June 1920 by Sir William Byrne, K.C.V.O., C.B., and Chairman of the Board of Control. The ceremony was reported in the Yorkshire Post 4th June 1920. The number of patients accommodated was later increased to 103. 87 patients resided in the Hall and 16 in a nearby block. Patient number 1 was Mr Frank Tottie, admitted on 25th August 1919. He lived in the hospital for over 60 years to his death on 17th November 1979.
Direct Links Can Be Found In The Links Section.
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