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High Royds, Psychiatric Hospital
Opened on the 8th October 1888, the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum Menston 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.
The Local Govement Act of 1888 brought about a major change in the goverment of the County Asylums, and with the creation of Countyand County Borough Councils the new West Riding County Council took over from the Justices the duties of administering the three West Riding Asylums. The County Magistrrated thus made a honourable exit from the affairs of Asylum Management.
Menston Asylum
A truly magnificent example of Vickers Edwards architecture, it is arguably the finest example of the broad arrow layout. At one time the site included a library, surgery, dispensary, ballroom, butchers, dairies, bakers and even it's own railway. By the 1930s a sweetshop, cobblers, upholsterer and tailor were added making it in effect a self contained village.
Destined for housing redevelopment which is already partly underway this magnificent edifice has been allowed to deteriorate. Lead has been stripped from the roofs, water damage to the ornate carvings, tiles and mosaic floors of the admin building are beginning to look beyond repair.
This beautiful, haunting location is the holy grail of explores for me and the place I am most compelled to reveal. The atmosphere is thick with residual energy of the past inhabitants.
Revered by many, the location has been used for media productions such as the film 'Asylum', and TV series, Bodies and No Angels, amongst others. David Dimbleby deemed the structure of such merit to feature in his BBC documentary series How We Built Britain.
I hope that my images reveal the faded grandeur, and reflects the elegance still perceptible amongst the decay but also that they inform those who care, of the present predicament this grand old lady finds herself in.
THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE
A HIGH ROYDS TIMELINE
1801 Census – population West Riding 576,000
1845 Act of Parliament required the construction of
County Asylums
1875 Railway comes to Menston, increasing
the local Population
1885 Construction began on the Pauper Lunatic
Asylum, railway entered site to carry building
materials.
1888 The hospital opened on October 8th
1889 900 patients rise to 1500
1892 Average cost per patient per week – 9 shillings
and 3 pence
1893 No chapel on site
1895 Two new blocks built
1897 Electric traction shed built
1898 1,526 patients
1901 Census – population risen to 2.5 million
1901 Working hours reduced from 87 to 79 per week!
1905 The hospital had it's own graveyard adjacent to
the railway
1905 Fire in Litton Ward put out by own fire engine
1909 New block built for 120 male patients
1911 Still no chapel
1913 333 pigs slaughtered – swine fever
1914 Outbreak of the Great War – the hospital treated
many shell shocked men
1915 2,601 patients
1918 War over – flu epidemic – 89 patients and one
nurse died
1919 48 hour week
1924 Wireless (radio) for patients and silent cinema
1927 Surgical theatre, x-ray room and weekly visit
from dentist started
1930 Electric light installed and talking cinema
1935 First patient shop opened
1936 Occupational therapy introduced
1939 Built six huts for emergency hospital – severe
overcrowding duing World War 2 and reduction
of staff. By end of war 2,420 patients, ratio
3 staff per 75
1945 Victory Day – patients sports and fancy dress – modern furniture introduced
1948 Many beneficial changes as a result of the
National Health Service
1963 Title of High Royds Hospital established and
wards given names
1966 First pre-fabricated church built, but destroyed
by fire 1980
1969 Last burial in graveyard, 2,858 in unmarked
graves
1983 New church built on the site of the old one and
a multi faith room in 1999
2003 The end of an era - High Royds Hospital finally
closes.
2008 Building of new homes and conversion of this
Grade 11 listed building is underway at the
hands of Gladedale, and David Wilson Homes
An Introduction To The Site By Tom Booth, 41yrs service
When contemplating the life time/history of High Royds Hospital and it’s contribution to the care of the mentally ill it is well to remember that ‘success is a journey not a destination’. Though the search for knowledge and guidance in the provision of care continues, those involved in High Royds history can look back with pride and forward with hope.
highroydshospital@gmail.com
Website Launch Jan 5th 2008
all material in this archive is copyright to www.highroydshospital.co.uk
please do not copy either text or images without written permission from us. you can contact us at highroydshospital@gmail.com
Many Thanks. |
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This Poem Has Been Kindly Donated by A keen Subscriber To The Website.
We came for we were frightened
We came, we could not cope
We came filled with aggression
We came here with our hope.
Treatment here would cure us
Pills would mute our pain
But soon us madmen paupers
Knew hope had been in vain.
Soon we were conditioned
Doubts and fear cement
This majestic High Royds
Would feed on our lament.
Sterile needles stabbed us
Electric fried our brains
Nurses and their box of pills
Made us forget our names.
They took us to the ballroom
Our annual delight
My fellow patients, inmates
Not Paupers for a night.
Dance our masquerade away
The madmen or the sane?
Who am I? And who is he?
In this asylum game?
Memories danced in corners
of normal somewhere far
Families, children, workmates, life
Have left us in this jar.
Doctors in their starched white coats
Intelligent and respected
Had placed a cross next to our names
Lunacy detected.
They lead me to the padded cell
The bolt behind me, CLANG
Shrieking, wailing, rocking, flailing
Not a wall to bang.
Prisoner in my padded cell
Prisoner's brain no good
Pray quickly come release me now
With sycthe and blackest hood.
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Buckle Lane, Memorial Garden Project
We have recently put together a video/ slideshow dedicated to the memory of the former patients buried in the Pauper Cemetery, Buckle Lane, Menston.
The Footage includes haunting images of people buried there without even a headstone.
To view this video please go to the links collection below and select the 5th link down "Buckle Lane Cemetery"
The Group Dedicated Creating A Lasting Memorial Will Be Meeting At The High Royds Social Club Thursday The 23rd April 2009, All People Interested In The Project Are Welcome
......................................
We Are Pleased To Announce Our Latest Additions To The Ongoing Historical Archive.
www.stanleyroydhospital.co.uk
STANLEY ROYD
The building was necessary to care for the treatment and care of the insane poor, and work began on it in 1816. 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 building stood in an area of 25 acres. For privacy the grounds were surrounded by plantation in either Wakefield or Stanley to be quiet, peaceful and secluded. It was a much needed hospital for in the early part of the 19th century very little was available by way of treatment for mental illness. Before the opening of this asylum, sufferers were incarcerated in prisons, workhouses or in their own homes at none of which treatment was available except for purging, bleeding or mechanical restraint.
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 Below In The Links Section.
EXHIBITION - ON NOW
HIGH ROYDS SOCIAL CLUB
OPEN NIGHTLY FROM 7PM
FREE ADMISSION
A huge thank you to all who have attended the exhibition at High Royds Social Club. The support has been tremendous with lots of new information being donated which will be added here shortly. Thank you to Derek Hutchinson, for speaking about his experiences and we all appreciate the great work that he and John Steel are doing to secure a respectful resting place for the 2,858 patients buried in unmarked graves.
Don’t forget that YOU CAN STILL SEE THE EXHIBITION which is remaining on site at The High Royds Social Club in the evocative atmosphere of the old ward 10. Complete with original Victorian features such as confinement cells, heavy window shutters, spy hole doors and gothic architecture, the club is open nightly from 7pm and admission is free.
Please email us with any queries you have, memories you can share or indeed, details regarding the Memorial Garden Project. highroydshospital@gmail.com
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One by one these vast structures, still cloaked in mystery, are disappearing behind security fencing to the hands of developers. In the case of many Victorian asylums, we were too late to record their passing into suburban luxury and an opportunity has certainly been missed. Time passes, memories fade, related paraphernalia is discarded and experiences become the stuff of folklore.
This grand old building is still standing, and in watching over her last days as she watched over those of countless others, the connection is kept alive and history has the chance to be written by the very people who lived it.
We have been humbled by the interest shown, and the contributions thus far received, which have made this collection such a unique archive for future reference.
Please email any information or pictures you would like to share with us, to:- Highroydshospital@gmail.com
There is a story to tell, in some cases perhaps, one that is yet too recent to countenance, but whatever the truth, be it tragedy or sanctuary, only good can come of it’s sharing.
Time to dispel the myths....... or elevate them to fact.
Liz Davis - Site Researcher
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