The Four Hospitals of the West Riding General Asylums Committee, later known as the Mental Hospitals Board
1818 Stanley Royd
1872 Wadsley
1888 High Royds
1904 Storthes Hall
THE SOUTH YORKSHIRE ASYLUM,
WADSLEY, WHARNCLIFFE, MIDDLEWOOD
Date founded: 1869
Date opened: 1872
Date closed: 1998
Long before the County Asylums Act of 1808, the Justices of the Peace had played an important role in
arranging for the care of the insane poor. Under the Poor Law Act of 1601, they organised, with the help of parish officers,
a system of poor relief including the care of those insane persons unable to work and a danger to themselves and others. It
naturally fell to the county magistrates to manage, as well as to establish public asylums, with supervision from the Commissioners
in Lunacy who made regular visits of inspection.
Many public asylums were constucted during the middle of the nineteenth century and considerable improvements
were made in their design and facilities. The use of mechanicalrestraints for the violent patients, and loose straw
beds for the incontinent, had gradually been abolished.
In the summer of 1869, building operations for the construction of the South Yorkshire Asylum at Wadsley
began, and Lord Wharncliffe announced that the plans had been approved by the Secretary of State, the number of beds to be
750. Work progressed steadily until it was completed at the end of 1871.
Building plans followed the approved design for the
accommodation of patients at that time, with two large three-storey blocks, males in the north wing and
females in the south wing. The central administrative block contained senior staff quarters, the main dining hall for patients,
the kitchens and administrative offices. The bakery and brewery were nearby.
Wards were large and connecting corridors reduced to a minimum. Sick and infirm patients were to be housed
on the ground floor, the middle floors were arranged as day rooms for the ambulant and the top floor as dormitories. Additional
facilities in separate buildings included the laundry and workshops for upholstery, carpentry, plumbing, book-binding etc.
A storage reservoir holding 800.000 gallons of water was constructed on the highest part of the estate,
and after completing a mortuary and post-mortem rioom, the hospital was ready for use. Total cost incurred in the provision
of the site, building and furnishing was £150,774.
In August 1872 the South Yorkshire Lunatic Asylum was declared open for the reception of patients and a
small group of seven were admitted - the first to be transferred from Wakefield Asylum. The Asylum was described in
the Press as one of the most imposing structures near Sheffield, half-way between Wadsley and Oughtibridge. Middlewood
was then little more than a country village beyond Hillsborough, the main road towards the asylum passing through farms and
open fields, with a few cottages here and there. Visiting patients was not easy; Wadsley Bridge railway station was some distance
away, and the alternative was horse drawn omnibus to Owlerton, and then pony and trap. Patients could only be visited once
a month.
The new building was felt to be vastly superior to any asylums that had previously been built. Dr (later
Sir fames) Crichton Browne, the Medical Superintendent of the Wakefield Asylum made suggestions as to the technical details.
Dr Browne gathered a galaxy of research talent at Wakefield and many investigations were made to discover a cerebral pathology
of mental disease. The results were published in six volumes from1871-75 and a continuation of the work established Wakefield
as one of the most active research centres of the 19th Century.
The firstMedical Superintendent of the new asylum was Dr Samuel Mitchell who transferred from Wakefield.
Orignally the hospital was known as South Yorkshire Asylum (1872-1890) It then became West Riding Asylum,
Wadsley (1890-1930) apart from a couple of years from 1915 onwards when the hospital was evacuated by the military to be used
as Wharncliffe War Hospital.From 1930 the hospital became Wadsley Mental hospital and remained so until 1939 when 2,200 patients
were evacuated so that the hospital could once again be used as a war hospital.
After the military had finished with it, the hospital again became Wadsley mental hospital until 1948 when
it became Middlewood hospital.
Not all the original inmates of the hospital were lunatics, some were paupers from the workhouses who were
no longer able to work, some were women suffering from post-natal depression and some were suffering from things like epilepsy.
list of wards middlewood hospital.
administration block.
kingswood.
queenswood.
northwood.
southwood.
hillside.
chalet.
bungalow.
northfield
clinic.
woodside.
fairlawns.
ward 23 and 24.
plus all the other departments like
the laundry.and the works
yard.
the church.
chapel of rest
mortuary and post mortem room
This tremendous building boasts many ghost stories, a famous one being the 'Old Lady' who is known to
wander around the old ward eight, where she would disappear through walls. There are also numerous accounts of disembodied
footsteps on stairways.
There are many, many other stories such as general hauntings on Ward 12, Ward 8, sightings of an old woman
in a night cap and no face, and the Hillside ward suffering from knockings at night time. Prior to the renovation of the wards
they were said to be excorcised and various students through the years have reported the hospital being excorcised by the
onsite priest.
