Reasons for a Cardiff resident being sent to an Asylum in Exeter

[Talacharn]

Cardiff Archives may hold information about the placement of patients in Exeter. It could be cost, Cardiff being full, or too disruptive. Not so long ago I worked in the care profession. There were many from London and the South East being accommodated in rural Wales. That continues today, as it is much cheaper than London.

[Special Needs Girl]

I like the newspaper article Talacharm. It was obviously an arrangement between Cardiff and Exeter.

I know it goes on now but I didn’t think it would have happened at the beginning of the 20th century.

Thank you too AlanBoyd.

I have been in correspondence with friends of Heavitree and they do not believe there were burials in the hospital grounds.

I found the entry and death dates on ancestry Talacharm so it might be worth you checking that.
I don’t know how I found it but one of the search possibilities is a general register of people being admitted into an asylum. I found Thomas on that.
We had his death date from the Grant of Probate and date the Will was made from the Will itself.
We had no idea a Will had been made until a week or so ago.

[Talacharn]

There are more articles about the Gloucester Asylum accommodating Monmouthshire residents and one each from Swansea and Pontypool. One article talks of overcrowding in Gloucester so ‘no more pauper lunatics could be received there’ and provision was made in Abergavenny. It would seem, there was overcrowding and when space was required, patients were placed elsewhere. One article talks of a man’s condition deterioration and he was sent to Gloucester from Carmarthen and having improved he returned home to Carmarthen.

[janan]

Interesting piece here
https://www.countyasylums.co.uk/whitchurch-hospital-whitchurch/

[Special Needs Girl]

Thank you janan, very interesting.

My husband found records (after receiving their death certificates when he first started researching his family many years ago) of another set of great great grandparents who had been in the Pontypridd workhouse (later to become the Graig Hospital for the chronic sick). Today they would have been described as having dementia however the great x2 grandfather committed suicide there so his mind must have been unstable.

Because there was somewhere in Pontypridd we assumed there would be somewhere in Cardiff.

We are awaiting Thomas’s death certificate (hopefully arriving on Saturday) so will know what the cause of death was. He was only 56 so quite young really especially when his father was 74 years old, mother 80 years old and paternal grandfather 80 years old.
It was quite a shock to read that Thomas died in the Asylum in Heavitree.
After finding the date he made his Will then the date when he was admitted in the Asylum made us wonder if he had cancer but surely that would not need an Asylum I would have thought.

After reading all the articles you have all kindly suggested there was obviously a need for more places for people suffering with mental issues.

Thank you everyone.