Criminal Lunatic Hatton Lunatic Asylum 1900

[gizzerdynile]

This is a message to Singingsnail......ive just read that you used to work at hatton asylum and would have known the patients, well im on a family history course and have just found out that my great great nan was a patient who was admitted about 1935, not sure how long she was there, i think it might have been the rest of her life, id really like the opportunity to speak with you as you may have known her.

Many thanks
Mrs.Johnson

[Singingsnail]

Hello Mrs Johnson
Ask away - if I didn't know your gg - nan I'll see if others did. It would help if you have a ward name or number but not to worry if not. It would also help me to describe what her life would have been like if you know what her diagnosis was. I hope I'll be able to tell you what you'd like to know.
Well done on finding her - she sounds as though her life story needs telling.
Debbie

[gizzerdynile]

thanks for getting back to me debbie, is there any way from this site to email you privately i dont really want to put all my details on a public forum lol i have an email address but how would i give it to you without it going to everyone.

[cath151]

 Hi,
Just to let you both know when you have made 3 posts each you can send personal messages via Rootschat, just click on users name , scroll down and click on send this person a personal message.
I lived near Hatton Central Hospital  for about 30 years. There were always stories of people sent there for petty crimes who should nt have been there especially in earlier days ( stealing sixpence off a mantlepiece) but did have a large variety of residents with differing problems. My grandmother passed away there in the late fifties after she developed dementia.

Cathy

[Singingsnail]

Cathy - Thanks so much - I'm new to this site....... obviously!
Yes, I was wondering what we were going to do about that, since I wouldn't discuss individuals here, obviously.
The stories you heard were true, but acceptable in the times when they happened. I knew people who spent most of their lives there after stealing a bottle of milk or the old, old chestnut, being sexually expoloited when young and then being labelled 'degenerate' for having been so. Sad stuff, but my own persepective is that the place had its value and gave a sense of belonging and self-worth to many who lived there. People carried on their trades or professions for rewards - (not financial, since it was a cashless economy - but people always have substitutes in cashless economies) and were valued both for that and just for themselves, despite their personal oddities - which in those days of no treatments being invented were certainly quite florid a lot of the time.
To be honest, the dividing line between staff and patients in this respect was sometimes a bit blurred too...... and I would say that Mental Health nursing still attracts slightly unusual people and is much the richer for it.
MRS J - I'll leave you to contact me as carol suggests here and hope I can be of help. Cheers - Debbie

[shyster2008]

Hi Carol Ann A.

Greetings to my Colonial Cousin.

I read your Posting on the way back from work today and, now I am Home, I thought I would contact you.

I live in Warwick...1 Mile away from where Hatton "Hospital" used to be...I say "used to be"  because they Re-developed the Site of the hospital and it is now a Residential Site...All that remains is the Gatehouse..

Even the Agricultural Land that the Hospital used for growing their own Produce is due to be built on.

But to get back to your Question....If you wish me to get any Information from the Warwick Records Office for you then it will be no Problem.

If you wish to keep Information Private, then Email me....I think cath told you how to do it.

I`ll have a look in the Library on Saturday and see if they have anything more that you might be interested in.

Take Care...

Regards

Brian

[dabs0]

I was a Pupil Nurse there in 1980. On my first ward, the tour consisted of the segregation rooms or the padded cells as they are more commonly known and I was informed that straight jackets were commonly used up till the mid 70's. Also a lot of patients had scars on there foreheads which meant that they had had frontal lobectomies, thankfully a practice that has no ceased. It means destrying a part of the frontal lobe as a means of controlling behaviour.

Even in the early 80's sedation of what was perceived to be troublesome patients was routine and electroconvulsive therapy was also routine. ECT is still used today but not as widely. There was also something called abreaction which was a combination of drugs given to make the patient more willing to talk, something along the lines of a truth drug. This was used on patients with deep seated trauma who found it difficult to deal with this memories.

As Cathy says there were a lot of people there that should not have been. I can recall one gentleman that had been there since he was 12 years old for stealing 6pence off the mantlepiece, wonder if we are thinking of the same chap Cathy?! There were also polish prisoners of war who did not want to go home when the war ended and as clearly we did not know what to do with them they were put into Hatton on the Hill to give it its full title.

There were long stay patients that had also been put in there for being disobedient as a child and eldery patients with dementia. The wards were the old open plan wards with no privacy for inpatients at all.

[Singingsnail]

HELLO DABS

I started as a student nurse in 1980 too..... a load of what you said was very familiar..... wonder if we remember each other? I was Debbie Richards. My first ward was George Elliot ward. I was horrified! I'd just never imagined the like.....As soon as I could after I qualified i went and worked in Orchard House, the therapeutic community; it was human and humane and a forerunner for the client centred approach that's thankfully common today. I'm still in touch with several people from there - we were all very close and I loved the place - felt we did real good there. What did you do later?

[Lisajj]

Your comments and stories are really interesting.  If you find out anything pre-1900 then I'd be interested in hearing about it.  My 4 x great grandfather died in Hatton in 1880.  I viewed his records at Warwick Records Office.  I also went to the two cemeteries on the site - which have been grassed over!  When the builders were developing the new build, aparently they tore up the grave markers and used them as land fill, then just grassed over the land. It wasn't until someone realised that local children were playing football on the cemeteries that something was done.  There are now memorial stones at each of the cemeteries.  All I know from reading is that my 4 x GGF was just an old man, these days he would have been in a care home for the elderly.  But it reads as if he was looked after well.  From the information I found I would say that Hatton was very forward thinking for its time.
Lisa