| AdminHistory | Please note this sub-series of records contains discriminatory, inaccurate and outdated language which may cause offence.
Prior to 1845, the general provision for those suffering from what would today be termed psychiatric or mental health conditions was found in the workhouse, or simply in gaols. There had been an Act of Parliament passed in 1808 allowing the collection of rates to pay for local asylums but few had been built. Then, in 1845, in the reign of Queen Victoria, parliament passed the 'Act to Amend the Laws for the Regulation and Provision of Lunatic Asylums for Counties and Boroughs, and for the Maintenance and Care of Pauper Lunatics in England'. This Act forced the boroughs and counties to provide adequate asylums at public expense for pauper 'lunatics'. This led to a rapid building programme and within a generation most of Britain's mental hospitals were built.
Birmingham was committed to building an asylum for 200 'lunatic paupers' and in 1847 the Corporation purchased 20 acres for this purpose. By 1850, the Council had built an 'asylum', farm, wharf and lodges at Winson Green, next to the new borough gaol. This institution housed 300 patients, mainly from Birmingham, but also from Aston and Kings Norton. The initial committee minutes (also called the Committee of Visitors) were all regarding the construction of the asylum, later, they revolve around the appointment of staff, patient welfare and the running of the institution and farm.
The asylum soon became so overcrowded that incurable patients from outside Birmingham were excluded, and a report of November 1859 clearly states that there was need for additional space. In 1861 there was the first addition, taking the capacity to around 500. Later there were to be several others, providing space for 625 patients. The farm was used to help the asylum and the prison to be more self-sufficient, by providing meat through the nurture of cows, pigs and sheep, and also the production of milk, so helping to keep costs down. By 1870, the asylum was taking private patients and patients from as far a field as London, Ludlow, Leicester, Derby and Birkenhead.
In July 1876, a second hospital was ordered to be built. Possible sites at Witton, Longbridge, Kings Norton and Oscott were examined before the Board's choice fell on 151 acres of land at Rubery Hill, Northfield. The hospital was to cater for 625, later 812, patients who were considered to be of 'epileptic and imbecile' nature. The hospital opened in January 1882, allowing the transfer of patients from Winson Green in order to carry out much needed renovation work there. In February 1887 the committee reported that Winson Green was 'brighter and [more] comfortable' after recent renovation and that the patients were well cared for and exercised. At Rubery, as the condition of the patients was less acute, they could attend church and were treated to dances and free pantomimes at the Royal and Prince of Wales theatres. In 1889, the Warwick Asylums Committee signed an agreement to transfer patients to Birmingham.
In 1892, the committee were again reporting overcrowding. In 1897, the committee opened Sandwell Hall, as a branch of Winson Green, for 'quiet and dependable' convalescent patients that allowed some freedom. Further, the committee began investigating Hollymoor Farm, which adjoined the Rubery Estate and the 120 acre site was acquired in 1900. In August 1900, The Leverettes was opened for the reception of around 45 female convalescent patients from Winson Green and in August 1902, Glenthorne House followed, for a similar number and purpose. In May 1905, Hollymoor was opened. In 1911, with the City Extension Act, the hospitals were beginning to struggle with the population demands and The Leveretts was now considered unsuitable. In September, 1911, Stechford Hall was leased, with its opening the following November, and the Leveretts was closed.
In 1913, the Mental Deficiency Act established four classes of 'mental deficiency' ('idiots', who were unable to guard themselves against common physical dangers such as fire, water or traffic; 'imbeciles', who could guard against physical dangers but were incapable of managing themselves or their affairs; the 'feeble-minded', who required care or control for protection of self or others; and 'moral defectives', who had vicious or criminal propensities (use of this category was shortly applied to unmarried women with babies). The Act placed on local government responsibility for the supervision and protection of such people both in institutions and in the community. In response to this, the name of the committee was changed in March, 1914 to the 'Lunatic Asylums Committee and Committee for the Care of the Mentally Defective'. During the First World War both Rubery Hill and Hollymoor were converted into military hospitals (see BCC/1/BS War Hospital Committee minutes).
In November 1921, the two functions were split into the 'Asylums Committee' and the 'Mental Deficiency Act Committee' (see BCC/1/BY). By 1925, the Council were contracting asylum space in Worcestershire, at Powick and Barnsley Hall. In November 1930, the name of the committee was changed to the 'Mental Hospitals Committee'. This was an act of nomenclature, as the word 'asylum' had become unfashionable after the Mental Treatment Act of that year, which had allowed voluntary treatment for the first time. The committee purchased the Winterdyne Estate in Tamworth in 1946, as a site for a new hospital; however the committee was disestablished in June 1948, after the National Health Service Act came into force, and the function was transferred to the new National Health Service. |