Out Now… The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum – Through Time. Available at all good bookshops and online at Amazon and Waterstones.
An introduction, Tom Booth, 41 years service, 1954 – 1995.
When contemplating the lifetime/history of High Royds and its 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…
The increase in the knowledge of all staff involved in the treatment and care and the changes in practice over the last sixty years have seen the focus of care move from hospital to community; from a Medical Model (passive) to holistic care; from custodial care (passive) to a therapeutically active approach. These demonstrate that what we do about a problem is determined by how we view that problem.
Archive Images, Watch the birdie..!
This website would not the resource it is without the contributions from the people that quite literally made their own history.
Be it Service User, staff or visitor we welcome all input..
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SPEECH BY MR W. MOORHOUSE Chairman of the Wakefield Board of Guardians
He said – This is one of the most urgent and most difficult of the many social problems confronting us today.
It is, however, satisfactory to find that most earnest efforts are being made to grapple with it, and to realize that the elimination of degenerate stock is the way to preserve a high standard of racial vigour….
General Question of the Care and Control of the Feeble Minded
Delivered at a Meeting of the Finance and General Purposes Committee February 1, 1911
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EUGENIC CONGRESS
The first International Eugenic Congress is to be held at the University of London, July 24th to 30th, 1912 under the Presidency of Major Leonard Darwin, and organized by the Eugenics Education Society.
Consideration Of The Practical Applications of Eugenic Principles.
Prevention of the propagation of the unfit by segregation and sterilization. Voluntary restriction of the propagation of the unsound. The encouragement of the propagation of the fit. Promulgation of the Eugenic Ideal. The place of Eugenics in Educational Systems.
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“There they stand, isolated, majestic, imperious, brooded over by the gigantic water – tower and chimney combined, rising unmistakable and daunting out of the countryside”
Enoch Powell, health minister, Brighton 1961, his historic “water Tower” Speech.
Tracing Ancestors.
Tracing your Ancestors
Unfortunately I do not hold any Medical Records in reference to the hospital but I do have a complete list of all the people buried at the Buckle Lane Cemetery Menston and can check any names you provide. For this please email me at, mark.mdavis@gmail.com
However by contacting the West Yorkshire Archive Service Newstead Road,Wakefield information may be available, West Yorkshire Archive Service 
The public is permitted access to any records 100 years old or older; access to more recent records is restricted.
If you are requesting personal information about a relative who has died within the last 100 years you may be asked to provide proof of this relationship in the form of death and birth certificates and letters of permission from the personal representative of the deceased.
This situation is that basically, records between 30 – 100 years old are indeed restricted, but that access can be facilitated via application to the NHS Trusts via the West Yorkshire Archive Service at Wakefield.
When the West Yorkshire Archive Service at Wakefield have responded initially to say the request has been received, a formal response will be issued within 30 working days as permitted by the Freedom of Information (Time for Compliance with Request) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/3364). This allows time for the assessment of the request under the terms of FOIA, including consultation with the relevant NHS Trust, and the application of a public interest test where relevant.
Where access is permitted, West Yorkshire Archive Service needs to ensure that enquirers only have access to information to which no valid exemption applies. This may mean that it is not possible to grant access to the original physical record but that access to the information may be given by transcribing the relevant sections or by providing a photocopy with exempt information blanked out.
As far as hospital records go, there are many surviving, particularly admission and discharge registers, and the location and scope of such records can be traced via the Hospital Records Database.
National Archives Hospital Database
Do let me know how you get on.
Mark
Please use this link Wakefield Asylum Website to visit the website devoted to the former Wakefield Asylum (Stanley Royd Hospital)
