Herefordshire Through Time
Herefordshire Through Time
At the beginning of the 20th century, the asylum at Burghill was enlarged due to overcrowding and verandahs were added for patients with tuberculosis. The name was changed to St. Mary's Hospital. A small isolation hospital was built in the grounds in 1911. In 1994 the hospital was closed.
In 1995, Herefordshire MIND and Logaston Press published a book of the memories of ex-patients and staff, entitled "Boots on! Out!" Reflections on life at St. Mary's Hospital. The interviews cover a period of more than 40 years, and it is very moving to read about the range of experiences and the daily routine. Ex-patients expressed relief at being in a safe place, a place where they sometimes felt understood even if they had painful memories of their time there.
The account of the senior nurse was particularly illuminating as he/she explained some of the tremendous changes which the treatment and care of mentally-ill patients had undergone in the second half of the 20th century. If these large asylums had been degrading and dehumanising places in the 20th century, then how much worse must it have been a hundred years earlier?
One of the positive things that emerges from many of the stories is that patients were, if able, involved in the work of the hospital. They were given jobs to do and felt that they were part of a community. One patient, Trevor, recounts:
" ...after a while I started working on the working party. I used to push the dinner trolleys to the wards. The morning staff would come on at 5 or 6 in the morning. I used to watch them cooking the egg and bacon for breakfast and help them out. You could have cornflakes, bacon and egg for breakfast. You got jelly and blancmange. The food was good. If I was on the ward at tea-time I would lay the tables and then clear away afterwards" (p. 75). Trevor also worked in the carpenter's shop and did gardening. The £4 a week he was allowed to earn he spent in the canteen or on sweets, cigarettes and newspapers.
One of the problems of these large mental hospitals was that long-term patients became institutionalised and had trouble coping with the outside world when they were discharged or when the hospital closed. One nurse remembers seeing a female patient trying to kill herself when she found out she would have to leave:
"As I walked into the back door I saw an elderly lady standing over the sink with a piece of glass, busy running it across her throat. She was pretty determined that she didn't want to leave the hospital" (p.68).
Compared to the forms of treatment in the 19th century, the ones applied in the 20th century were relatively humane. Nonetheless, the patients dreaded ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) and frequently did not like taking their medication because of the side effects. A patient named Winnie said:
"I didn't like taking medication, I used to spit 'em out sometimes. Then they would give me some more and make sure I took them. I had ECT. I used to go and hide in the toilets and lock the door, but the nurses used to fetch me. Sometimes they had to struggle to get me down to ECT. It was very frightening. After treatment I used to feel very tired and wanted to stay in bed. They used to lock me up sometimes because I used to scream" (p.63).
Not everyone stayed at St. Mary's for a long time. Bill, for example, was a short-term patient who had a positive experience:
"I slept on a mixed ward with eight people. We got up at 7.30, had a cup of tea and our tablets. Then we went to O.T. (occupational therapy). The food was good; it was like a hotel. I had a bath every day. I was better after five weeks and they chucked me out. I was sad because it was a smashing hospital "(p.35).
In fact, Bill liked it so much he thought that some patients were faking their condition to be taken into the hospital: "I think some of the patients swing the bloody lead; cracking up just to get four meals a day"(p.35).
[Original author: Toria Forsyth-Moser, 2004]