Winterton hospital

[birdlucas]

Hi. It's my first time on here so I'm hoping someone might be able to help. I have been researching my Husbands birth family and have found that his birth Mother was in Winterton hospital asylum from at least 1939 until she died in 1992. The hospital has no records of why she was there and I can only assume after researching her other family members that they disowned her and sent her there after the baby was born. I read on some old posts on here that in 1962 these elderly patients were eventually housed in their only little village where they could live peacefully until their death and then, like this lady had a paupers funeral and was buried with someone else in a grave in Butterwick cemetery. It's a very sad story of this lady and the judgments made 80 years ago but I would dearly love to know more about the life of these residents from anyone who worked there and of course if someone actually knew Agnes Far(r)ish personally. I have the name of the lady who signed the death certificate who must have been a staff member but obviously that was 25 years ago so that would be difficult depending on her age. I hope someone may be able to help as I would really like to know more about this lady who is obviously a blood Grandmother to my children.  Than you for reading.
Angela

[stanmapstone]

There is a Facebook page for Winterton Hospital https://en-gb.facebook.com/groups/21161941584/
Also https://www.countyasylums.co.uk/winterton-sedgefield-durham/
Stan

[arthurk]

The hospital has no records of why she was there and I can only assume after researching her other family members that they disowned her and sent her there after the baby was born.

Have you checked for records elsewhere? According to the Hospital Records Database (at National Archives, but no longer kept up to date) they are now at Durham County Records Office. See http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=316&hospital=winterton&town=&searchdatabase.x=0&searchdatabase.y=0

The catalogue at the Durham County Records Office site has lots of items relating to Winterton Hospital - see http://www.durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/article/10924?SearchType=Param&Variations=N&AllWords=winterton%20hospital&ImagesOnly=N

From a quick glance through these, I think the records you'd be most interested in are likely to be in the 1st, 4th and 8th deposits. There are far too many to list here, but patient records might be found in things like medical records, admission records, day books, and discharge records. There are also numerous administrative records, though these are less likely to have details about individual patients.

There will almost certainly be a closure period on most or all of these records, though if you can prove the death and your relationship that should help you to negotiate access. It would be wise to consult the record office staff about this before making a long journey to look at them.

[birdlucas]

Thank you Stan I will certainly try that link.

Arthurk,  I had tried the hospital for records held there and as you advised, they keep all those records at the county record offices but I had contacted Durham council prior to this post and for a fee they searched all the records and found nothing so I assume the hospital records would have been researched at the time. I have come to a dead end which is a pity as there are no other family members alive to ask. Thank you for your reply anyway.

[arthurk]

... they keep all those records at the county record offices but I had contacted Durham council prior to this post and for a fee they searched all the records and found nothing so I assume the hospital records would have been researched at the time.

That's unfortunate - given the number of records they seem to have, it seems odd that she doesn't get a mention. But I'm not familiar with these records at all, I only looked at the catalogue.

[Jomot]

It does seem very odd that there are no records, especially as she is clearly an inmate in 1939 so at the very least I would expect to find her in the index of female admissions.

Although from an earlier period, I obtained 2-pages of records via Durham County Records Office for a family member who was only there for 2 years.   I think I'd be sending them a copy of the 1939 & asking them to re-check.

[birdlucas]

I tried the facebook page that Stanmapstone suggested but I was told by their moderator that it is a closed forum for staff only which is unfortunate.
Jomot.   I was told by the Durham records office that only a random 2% of all records were retained so you would have to be very lucky to find what you are looking for in that small percentage and unfortunately for me, my relative wasn't amongst those. The 1939 register states that she was a domestic servant rather than an unpaid one which many women were and that is all I have. She would have been in the hospital just a few years then. I'm going to try and get a book which was suggested to me so that might give me an insight to her life maybe.

[arthurk]

I think I'd be inclined to query that with the Record Office. The description of the records includes this:

The records, both administrative, committee minutes and medical case records, are a well-kept and complete series [my emphasis]. Unfortunately the early signed minutes of the committee (c.1857 - 1883) are now missing. Some of the case books were damaged by flooding, but most are in reasonable condition.

This can be found at http://www.rootschat.com/links/01m4i/ near the top of the page; there are also useful notes under Medical Records part way down the page. This page refers to the first deposit of records, and I couldn't see anything similar about the later deposits, but it would be strange if they hadn't been kept on a similar basis.

There are well over 500 items relating to the hospital under reference H/Wi, including large numbers of case records, admission and discharge books etc. On the face of it, it looks as though it could be a fairly complete set, and I didn't see any mention of it being only a 2% sample. Or, supposing say 200 of these references relate to medical-type record books, are they saying that there were originally 10,000 of them?

[Jomot]

I agree with arthurk.  It's possible that her full case notes haven't survived for whatever reason, but at the very least she should be mentioned in the admissions index, register of admissions, admissions day book and/or the general register of patients. 

I would definitely ask them to re-check, making it clear that if no case file survives you would still like anything relating to her admission & stay.