Stanley Royd, Former Pauper Lunatic Asylum Wakefield
An incredible chance to see a working former lunatic asylum in the 1960’s. This is previously unseen footage having been stored for decades on 16mm film reel.
www.highroydshospital.co.uk
STANLEY ROYD
The building was necessary to care for the treatment and care of the insane poor, and work began on it in 1816. The main builders were John Robson, John Billinton and William Pockrin – all from Wakefield. Work was completed and the hospital occupied by the 23rd of November 1818. The eventual cost of the building work was £23,000 being £7,000 more than the contracted price. The total cost was shown in the records as £36,448. 4s. 9¼d.
The building stood in an area of 25 acres. For privacy the grounds were surrounded by plantation in either Wakefield or Stanley to be quiet, peaceful and secluded. It was a much needed hospital for in the early part of the 19th century very little was available by way of treatment for mental illness.
Before the opening of this asylum, sufferers were incarcerated in prisons, workhouses or in their own homes at none of which treatment was available except for purging, bleeding or mechanical restraint. Some of records of mechanical restraint make horrific reading. There was a case of a James Norris who, at Bethlem Hospital, London, was chained for several years to a vertical bar fixed to a wall, able only to slide in his chains from a sitting to a standing position. Records tell at Wakefield of a woman patient admitted from Barnsley Workhouse where she had been chained in a cell for no less than 36 years.
Duration : 0:7:45
[youtube 0Luut0g4Mmw]
whats the tune …
whats the tune playing?
its really haunted …
its really haunted now…
i really liked the …
i really liked the video
it was worth watching
what a fascinating …
what a fascinating film!
my sister now works …
my sister now works in the community with men/women who were in this establishment from childhood.thank god mental health chiefs have more compassion and understanding these day
never thought i …
never thought i would ever see the real thing in action. they sure knew how to keep hospitals spit spot clean in those days hey! and thats in black n white!! took my breath wen i saw it 1st time around. like going back in a time macine, and yes, iv heard sum dstrbin stories too.
Ye Gods… how this …
Ye Gods… how this touches my soul… you will never know. Thank you… dear friend.
damn we play …
we play football on this field now
I can’t understand …
I can’t understand why some people become very nostalgic at the closure of these type of establishments. It’s good to see that there are some people who understand the badness by which these places treated ‘patients’. It is all definately not sweetness and light. Many of the Dr’s & Nurses probably thought they were doing a good job, but I doubet there was any empathy involved. I realy hope we wake up to mans inhumane treatment to man. We can be a an evil race at times!
its so horible and …
its so horible and sad they made these places claming to help but all they did was couse more pain and sufering apon people. when they got out if they got out they were in worse shape than before they enterd the asylem =( so sad
Yeah, it’s true, my …
Yeah, it’s true, my mum told me many a time that her and her mates used to live near their and they used to mess around in them after the closure of the hospital, but they were apparently creepy. The also lead to pinderfields.
all hospitals were …
all hospitals were clean and tidy we need matron bought back and ward cleaners
Wow!! Is all I have …
Wow!! Is all I have to say, I really got to see how asylums really were back then! Its creepy. Best video on youtube
look how clean and …
look how clean and tidy it was the nhs should have all hospitals run on these lines
i used to stay …
i used to stay there at weekends wiv the other nuts
yea this was kind …
yea this was kind of creepy. and sad at the same time.
It’s still one of …
It’s still one of the most haunting vids I’ve ever seen on youtube – are you allowed to tell people what the original soundtrack was? Also not sure if I imagine this but didn’t it have James Blunts’s I Can’t Hear the Music too…? Apologies if it didn’t, I seem to remember half the video being this and the rest Hello Again, but perhaps not. You inspired me to make two videos of my own – not of anything nearly so interersting though!!
I worked there for …
I worked there for a number of years.
Many thanks for the footage.
i feel really pitty …
i feel really pitty for these people..
My friend just told …
My friend just told me that they staff and builders of stanley royd built tunnels underneath the plantation and roads next to stanley royd and leading to wakefield cathedral. I was just wondering if anyone knows if this is true?
i did just read about corpse way. But i wondered whether they did build a road underneath where they couldcarry the dead for their blessings?
if anyone could help that would be ace i have just been sat in the grounds of stanley royd at 2:00am scared out of my mind :S
You are right the …
You are right the music has changed, you tube decided to block the video due to copyright, so I had to pick one of their free tracks.. not happy…
This is a fantastic …
This is a fantastic video, one that haunted me for days after I’d first seen it – I went to the museum at Stanley Royd before it closed down and was locked in a padded cell… not pleasant!
But has the music for this changed? I’ve had this in my Favourites for ages now but when I first viewed it didn’t it have “Hello Again” by Neil Diamond as the soundtrack? Or have I completely imagined it???
kasabian
kasabian
tHESE HOSPITALS …
tHESE HOSPITALS WERE BIG!
awesome vid
creepy …
awesome vid
creepy though