About the Project
‘A Case for the Ordinary: The Patient Experience of Mental Health Care in Staffordshire’ is a Wellcome funded project aimed at shedding light on Staffordshire’s 3 former County Asylums, later renamed St George’s (Stafford), St Matthew’s (Burntwood) and St Edward’s (Cheddleton). The project was conceived in 2018, the 200th anniversary of St. George’s, which coincidentally also marked the 70th anniversary of the NHS. Follow the project blog at: Staffordshire's Asylums | A Case for the Ordinary – Asylum records in an English County (wordpress.com).
The project produced a database of information covering patient admissions for the period 1818-1948. This database includes over 40,000 entries drawn from admission registers and case notes. It is primarily a snapshot of patient information on admission to an asylum and provides a valuable resource for medical and social history research. This index is to records greater than 100 years old. Access to medical records less than 100 years old is restricted and not normally accessible for consultation by the general public. The post-1920 material in redacted form may be made available for academic research on application. For further information please contact Staffordshire Record Office at staffordshire.record.office@staffordshire.gov.uk.
Project Methodology
Funding from The Wellcome Trust (now Wellcome) enabled records from original volumes of registers and case books to be entered into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The spreadsheet template was developed by the Project Team based on the Staffordshire records and advice from the project’s academic advisors: Prof. Jonathan Reinarz, Dr Leonard Smith; Prof Alannah Tomkins; Dr Rebecca Wynter; and others in the field. We are particularly grateful for the help and support of Dr Paul Tobia and Lucy Smith. (See OUR PARTNERS AND FRIENDS | Staffordshire's Asylums (wordpress.com). We also learnt a great deal from other projects including The Historic Hospital Admission Registers Project; The Patients of Powick Hospital Database; and London Metropolitan Archives’ project on the Portman and Tavistock collections.
Fields recorded on the spreadsheet include: Surname, First name; Institution; Admission number; Admission date; Age on admission; Status; Gender; Marital status; Number of children; Occupation; Abode (seldom recorded); Union of residence; Religion; Education; Previous institution/s; Previous admissions; Previous attacks; Duration of current illness; Illnesses and accidents; Whether any relative insane; Epileptic; Suicidal; Violent/dangerous; Symptoms or manifestations (stated or inferred); Physical state on admission (stated); Diagnosis (stated); Principal cause (stated); Contributory cause (stated); Additional contributory causes (inferred); Treatments; Discharges and readmissions; Discharge/transfer date; Death date; Post-mortem noted; Additional items (photographs, notice of death, letters, etc); Medical superintendent; Continuing notes (reference to whether notes are in a previous, or subsequent volume). Document references and record titles are also given.
The Records
Records used in the collection of data included:
Registers
Covering admissions for the period 1864-1949 for all 3 asylums. It should be noted, however, that records were not continuous and there are several gaps, which were at least partially covered by other records, including case books, a register of discharges, removals and deaths for Stafford Asylum and medical registers for both Burntwood and Cheddleton Asylums.
Content of registers varies between asylums and the type of register (admission, medical, alphabetical). The content may also vary over time. As a general overview, registers may include the following: patient’s name; admission number; admission date; age on admission; marital status; occupation; place of residence or union to which chargeable; date of discharge/death. Additional information found in medical registers includes medical condition and cause of illness, while alphabetical registers give names of friends and religion.
Case Books
Case books were used for Stafford and Burntwood Asylums, 1818-1918. Dates given refer to the date of admission. It should be noted however, that entries continue beyond admission for the duration of a patient’s treatment, or until an entry is transferred to a later volume.
Information found in case books generally includes details of physical and mental condition, previous history, daily record of the case, details of discharge/death. Some case books are indexed and those from the late 19th century may include a photograph of the patient, notice of death and/or newspaper cutting.