Searching for information about the death and burial of my great grandmother who died in Hellingly in 1949 after some 30 years, I received the following helpful reply from East Sussex Archives dept. This might help others.
We hold a substantial archive of the records of Hellingly Hospital (ref HE series) at this office. A copy of the detailed list is available on the Access to Archives’ website (
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/); it may seem a bit intimidating at first glance but there is useful advice and guidance available on the site.
On admission to Hellingly Hospital patients were given a case-number in two series, one for men and one for women. There are indexes to female patients, 1903-1980s (HE 169/1-16) and female patient case-books, 1903-1918 (HE 28/1-11). In addition to these records, there were papers on each patient, which were kept in files. These included the ‘reception documents' completed on admission, case summaries, card recording visits, death notices and coroner's reports and any correspondence. From about 1930 non-current files were removed from the filing system and arranged in chronological order of the patients' deaths. This series was too bulky to keep in toto and a start was made on selecting a sample which included all cases whose numbers ended in 1. Unfortunately the sampling exercise had not been completed when the remainder of the series was destroyed on the closure of the hospital (HE 142-143 series). I am afraid that the series HE 143 (females) does not include a file for Kate Honneysett.
This means that you are unlikely to be able to discover any medical information about Kate Honneysett unless she was admitted before 1918. Access to medical records less than 100 years old is restricted and, in the case of the NHS Trust responsible for Hellingly Hospital, they have taken the decision not to allow any access to closed medical records except ‘if there were a genetic family reason for disclosure at an earlier date’. You should contact Kim Young, Health Records Manager, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Woodside, The Drive, Hailsham BN27 4ER (kim.young@sussexpartnership.nhs.uk; 01323 444184) to discuss your request.
However, if you can supply a copy of her death certificate (and provided that she died over 50 years ago) then I will extract any non-medical details for you from the indexes to female patients, 1903-1980s (HE 169/1-16). If this shows that she was admitted before 1918, then there should be some surviving medical information for her.
Secondly, the PCC of St Peter's & St Paul's at Hellingly are raising money for a memorial commemorating the many petients who died at Hellingly and were buried in unmarked graves in the council (Hailsham) cemetary at North Street, Hellingly. I can supply details of where donations should be sent if anyione is interested.
