Worcestershire County Lunatic Asylum records

[Marchesgirl]

Several years ago I was trying to find the younger brother of my great great grandmother in the 1871 census. I eventually found him, aged 30, residing as a patient in the Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Powick, Worcestershire.

The Worcester County Pauper & Lunatic Asylum was situated in Powick, a small village between Malvern and Worcester. It opened in 1852 and closed in 1989. It was originally intended for 200 patients but expanded significantly during the course of it’s history. Worcester Record Office holds some documents relating to the asylum (these used to held at the old County Hall branch but I presume are now held at The Hive?). However, some records are also available online at http://www.medicalmuseum.org.uk/archive.aspx - just enter the surname in the search box. There doesn't seem to be a wildcard facility so it's worth trying variants of the name.

The admission records are often quite detailed, giving: address, occupation, age, marital status, religion, level of education, complexion and colour of hair and eyes, as well as information about their state of mind and whether they were epileptic, suicidal or dangerous. The case notes provide information about the inmate’s treatment whilst in the asylum and, personally, I found some of them quite harrowing to read. Also, not all the records appear to have been digitised so you may find that there are gaps in people's records.

A couple of things that surprised me were how long individuals spent at the Asylum – anywhere between 12 and 30 years in the individuals I looked at - yet their case notes appear to have been updated quite infrequently (sometimes once a year or even less). Most people seem to have remained at the Asylum until their death.

Often, the census return for the Asylum refers to inmates by their initials although it is sometimes possible to identify individuals by cross-referencing to their age, occupation and the Poor Law Union that funds their treatment on their case notes.

I hope other people find this resource useful in their research - at least it may explain what happened to a relative that's gone missing.

[linell]

Thanks very much for that link Claire, will have a good search, by coincidence I am also researching Stafford Asylum, have even found Autopsy Books which are Harrowing to read. The Stafford Asylum is now a new Housing Estate, the Victorian Building, although Derelict is being restored into Apartments, there are stories of the Inmates throwing themselves down the Stairs, a cage was built housing the Staircase to prevent the Inmates from harming themselves. I also read how some Inmates were held in Chains. They were all given powerful drugs to make them compliant, on a happier note they had there own Farm where some of them were put to work. The old pictures show the Asylum to be a beautiful building set in magnificant gardens, a lot of the trees are still there, and a stream runs through the grounds. The Records are patchy a lot of them are sadly missing.

Linell.

[Northern Lass]

Thanks MG and Linell moving to the History section