Hospital photo from around 1900

 

 

Before the hospital was built there was very little in the way of treatment for mental illness, sufferers were sent to prisons and workhouses where they were kept in appalling conditions. Often they were chained up for long periods and were kept in total isolation. The hospital changed they way these people were cared for by introducing a strict work environment that was at the time believed to be adequate treatment of a mental illness. Duties included cleaning and working in the laundry as well as the asylum kitchens.

 

 

Photo of the kitchens from around 1905

 

 

Women were also involved in making soft toys and woollen items. By 1900 the hospital had over 1400 patients and by 1960 this had risen to 2000. The hospital was greatly improved in the 1960s, when the gloomy look of the hospital with its Victorian décor and furniture gave way to more open plan areas. Even the windows were replaced allowing more light into the building, all this at a cost of £500 per patient.

 

 

Photo from 1960s

 

 

By the 1970s many wards that had previously been locked down were opened giving patients a new found freedom. The open door policy again improved the quality of life for patients, from then on the hospital continued to improve and mental illness became more acceptable in society. The hospital eventually closed on 25 of September 1995 after more than 170 years of improvement and change. Its lasting legacy is a better understanding of people with mental illness and a more open approach to helping people in the community.

 

 

Hospital in 1995

 

 

 

 

Originally the hall was was like most such rooms in asylums, built as a multi-purpose room.  Built in 1859 as a male patients’ dining room and was first used, in an incomplete state, for the Christmas party in 1859 and was finally completed in 1861. In 1893 the end bay of the room was demolished and the theatre stage added. Large halls, adaptable for dining, meetings, dances, theatricals and concerts were not uncommon in these kind of institutions, but the one at Stanley Royd was much grander and unusual than most. The theatre was a small part of a large complex of asylum buildings that date back to 1818. The room is flat-floored and is 90 feet by 50 feet. There were no fewer than six fireplaces originally that stayed in use untill central heating was installed. The end balcony had a capacity of over 700 in its hey day. Sadly these theatres are very rare these days, only a few survive in their original state.

 

 

 

 

Postcard of the hospital

From the collection of John Williams

 

 

 

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In 1818 the Stanley Royd Hospital was in use and the Corpse Way passed through the hospital grounds. In 1819 it was reported to the visiting magistrates that the use of this road was considered to be causing problems to the efficiency of the hospital. In an endeavor to remove the nuisance of the Corpse Way users, a committee was set up to consider a means of diverting this road to some other fields which would be clear of the hospital grounds. It would appear that they failed to solve the problem, and the road continued to be used as it had for many years. In 1827 the hospital authorities decided to take action to control the use of this road as a roadway except for the use of carrying corpses for it had been established that there was no right of way. A notice was posted as follows:-  'TAKE NOTICE, BY ORDER OF THE MAGISTRATES, THIS ROAD IS STOPPED EXCEPT AS A FOOTPATH AND A CORPSE ROAD. THE KEY TO THE GATES TO BE HAD AT THE ASYLUM. APRIL 20TH 1827.'  As gates had been erected, in effect the road was closed. The keys to open the gates had to be collected and returned to the asylum. The Stanley villagers were not pleased with this action by the asylum authorities so they broke down the gates in order to take though a corpse.  Now it was the asylum authorities who were annoyed so they had a deep trench dug across the roadway. When the Stanley inhabitants next needed to use this road to carry a corpse, they broke down the gates and filled in the trench. There were several attempts by the asylum authorities over the next two years to close the road but on each occasion the Stanley inhabitants took the law into their own hands. In a final effort to enforce their rights, the asylum authorities decided to use the weight of the law and the Chief Constable of the Division was asked to take the necessary action to do so.  On the 25th of September 1831, Mr. Ledger, Chief Constable of the Division along with his officers faced a mob of approximately 2,000 angry Stanley villagers, many of whom were armed with shovels and pickaxes.  The police officers could not prevent the mob from once again breaking down the gates. The Chief Constable took action by taking note of the ringleaders of this mob who were Joseph Ellis, George Hartley, Joseph Hartley, Thomas Crossland, John Brooke, Henry Taylor, John Ball, George Firth, James Woofindale and Benjamin Heald. They were charged with 'creating a riot and disturbance and breaking down fences on the 25 September 1831.'  The court hearing, on the 27th September 1831, was disorder and, to some extent, riotous. However, the bench were a little sympathetic as they were told of a dying man in Stanley who had expressed a wish that his body be carried to the cemetery through the Corpse Way . The defendants were bound over to appear at the Leeds Assizes.  At the Assizes the defendants expressed their regret and they were discharged. The Corpse Way was then closed and there was no further incident. In 1849 a new part of the hospital was built which covered some part of the Corpse way, but within this building there is a subway which still exists which follows the route of the old, ancient Corpse Way .  Copy of the Accusation : The trial  The magistrates - His Majesty's Justices of Peace - were;-

 

John Pemberton Heywood and John Armitage on the 27th September 1831.

Who saith, in the presence and hearing of Joseph Ellis, George Hartley, Joseph Hartley, Thomas Crossland, John Brook the elder, Henry Taylor, John Ball, George Firth, James Woofindale and Benjamin Heald, the parties accused by this Deposition, as follows:-

'I was at the Asylum In Stanley cum Wrenthorpe between three and four of the clock in the afternoon of last Sunday. There was a funeral. I saw the several persons above named at the top of the road leading to the north side Of the Asylum. They were all active in pulling down the fence. There was a great concuss of people and when the fence was down the crowd and funeral went down the road in the highway leading from the East Moor to Saint John's spurn before us.'

Signed; J. P. Heywood, J. Armitage, J. F. Ledger.

 

 

Part of the corpse way today

 

 

 

 

 

The Stained glass window at the east end of the chapel

 

 

Interior of the chapel before it closed

 

 

Interior of the chapel before it closed

 

 

The interior of the chapel today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1945 visit to the hospital by the Princess Royal

 

 

 

 

Pinderfields in 2010

Photo by Shaun Parkin

 

 

 

 

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