Storthes Hall Hospital was a mental health facility at Storthes Hall,

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. Founded in 1904, it expanded to over 3,000 patients during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After the introduction of

Care in the Community Care in the Community (also called "Community Care" or "Domiciliary Care") is a British policy of deinstitutionalisation, treating and caring for physically and mentally disabled people in their homes rather than in an institution. Institutional ca ...

in the early 1980s, the hospital went into a period of decline and closed in 1992.

History

An area to the west of Storthes Hall Mansion, closer to

Farnley Tyas Farnley Tyas is a small village in West Yorkshire, England south east of Huddersfield. It is located on a hilltop between Almondbury, Castle Hill, Thurstonland and Honley. It is mostly rural and farmland with private housing and some local a ...

, was chosen as a site for a

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...

in the early 20th century. The facility, which was designed by J. Vickers-Edwards using a compact arrow layout, opened as the Fourth West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum in 1904. The facility became known as the Storthes Hall Mental Hospital in 1929 and as the West Riding Mental Hospital in 1939. During the

the patient population swelled to over 3,000 people as the hospital struggled to cope with patients being transferred from hospitals elsewhere as the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

requisitioned hospitals for to treat injured soldiers. The facility joined the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

as Storthes Hall Hospital in 1948. Storthes Hall Hospital was one of several hospitals investigated in 1967 as a result of the publication of

Barbara Robb Barbara Robb (née Anne, 15 April 1912 – 21 June 1976) was a British Empire, British campaigner for the well-being of older people, best known for founding and leading the pressure group Aid for the Elderly in Government Institutions, AEGIS (Aid ...

's book "Sans Everything". Accusations covered a thirty-two-week period of serious violent assaults with fists or weapons against male patients of all ages, committed by four named male nurses. It was also alleged that it was like

Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...

because it was a “brutal, bestial, beastly place”—it was a “hell-hole”. However, the same report found none of the allegations against any named or unnamed member of the hospital staff to have been proved. After the introduction of

in the early 1980s, the hospital went into a period of decline and closed in 1992. In 2003, Anne Littlewood, a former nurse at the hospital published a book, ''Storthes Hall Remembered'', about her experiences at the hospital. Much of the area previously occupied by the hospital was developed as a student

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

, the Storthes Hall Park Student Village, for the

University of Huddersfield , mottoeng = Thus not for you alone , established = 1825 – Huddersfield Science and Mechanics' Institute1992 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £2.47 million (2015) , chancellor = George W. Buckley , vice_chancel ...

in the mid-1990s. A former hospital building, previously known as "The Arboretum" and now known as "The Venue", was extended for use by the students as a social club in 2010.

Gallery

File:StorthesHall2.JPG, Most of the outbuildings have been demolished but the administrative block of Storthes Hall Hospital survives File:StorthesHall3.JPG, The road leading to the administrative block of Storthes Hall Hospital File:St Thomas Thurstonland 022.jpg, Graveyard memorial at Church of St Thomas, Thurstonland, where around 2,000 patients are buried

History

Gallery

References

Further reading