The Stanley Royd Hospital, earlier named the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, was a mental health facility in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

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 ...

. It was managed by the Wakefield and Pontefract Community Health NHS Trust.

History

The facility, which was designed by Watson and Pritchett using a corridor plan layout, was opened as the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum in 1818. William Ellis, who had a reputation for employing the principles of humane treatment, was appointed the first superintendent of the asylum.

James Crichton-Browne Sir James Crichton-Browne MD FRS FRSE (29 November 1840 – 31 January 1938) was a leading Scottish psychiatrist, neurologist and eugenicist. He is known for studies on the relationship of mental illness to brain injury and for the developmen ...

, who was appointed superintendent at the hospital in 1866, went on to carry out pioneering research on the neuropathology of insanity. After 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 " ...

in 1948, it became the Stanley Royd Hospital. In a serious incident at the hospital in August 1984, 355 patients and 106 members of staff were affected by

salmonella ''Salmonella'' is a genus of rod-shaped (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two species of ''Salmonella'' are ''Salmonella enterica'' and ''Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' is the type species and is fur ...

food poisoning Foodborne illness (also foodborne disease and food poisoning) is any illness resulting from the spoilage of contaminated food by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food, as well as prions (the agents of mad cow disease) ...

; the outbreak led to 19 patient deaths. 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 ...

, the hospital went into a period of decline and eventually closed in 1995. The hospital has since been converted for residential use and is now known as Parklands Manor.

Mental Health Museum

The Mental Health Museum (previously known as the Stephen Beaumont Museum of Mental Health), located at Fieldhead Hospital in

, contains artefacts from and exhibits on the history of the asylum. Artefacts include restraining equipment, a padded cell, photographs, medical and surgical equipment, and documents. There is also a scale model of Stanley Royd Hospital, which was the museum's original location until the hospital closed in 1995.

Notable inmates

* Mary Frances Heaton (1801-1878), who was convicted of insulting an Anglican vicar in 1837 and never released

References

External links

Portraits from a lunatic asylum

Official website for the Mental Health Museum

Stanley Royd Hospital Digital Archive
{{authority control History of Wakefield West Riding of Yorkshire Former psychiatric hospitals in England Defunct hospitals in England Listed buildings in Wakefield Hospitals in West Yorkshire

History

Mental Health Museum

Notable inmates

See also

References

Further reading

External links