County Durham Asylums

County Durham Asylums

Asylums in County Durham

The County Lunatic Asylum
Located at Winterton, about one mile north from Sedgefield, was erected in 1858, and is a structure of red brick with white brick dressings, from designs by Mr. John Howison, architect of Durham. In 1879 it was much enlarged, and in 1889 a wing was built from the designs of Mr. William Crozier, architect. It now consists of two separate blocks, available for 1,620 inmates, and in the centre is a chapel, an edifice of brick, erected in 1884 at a cost of £3,800, and seating 700 persons. The building is supplied with water from works established in 1873 at Meggie's Well, in Bishop Middleham, and lighted with electric light and gas from works in the grounds. Attached are about 350 acres of land, on which the patients are employed, and there is a cemetery of two acres, formed in 1891 and consecrated, and having a mortuary Chapel.

Asylum Staff 1920

William St John Skeen	Medical Superintendent
Rev. Herbert George Croft	Chaplain
Rev. J. P. Sheehan	Catholic Chaplain
James Shield Thomson	Business Manager
Alfred Oxnard Smith	Clerk to Visitors
Richard Lowes	Clerk and Steward to Asylum
Miss Annie E. Jones	Matron

Gateshead Borough Asylum
Later called St Mary's Hospital, Stannington.

Records

Durham County Record Office
County Hall,
Durham,
DH1 5UL
Telephone: 0191 383 3253
http://www.durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/usp.nsf/web/pages/durham+record+office+homepage

Durham University Library
http://www.dur.ac.uk/Library/asc/

Gateshead Central Library
http://www.swinhope.demon.co.uk/genuki/DUR/GatesheadLib/

Tyne and Wear Archives Service
http://www.thenortheast.com/archives/9_Medicine.html