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highcroft hall hospital

geri8tric

proper brummie kid
My grandmother was a nurse at Highcroft in the 1960's. She came from Belgium to birmingham in 1918 and married an English chartered accountant and they lived in Four Oaks.
I am trying to find out where she came from and thought that there may be access to records of staff working for the NHS. Is this possible?
Also would she have had to register with the local police during the war years and if so can I get access to these records?

Geri8tric:)
 
There are some Highcroft records in the Central Library - I don't know if these include staff records. Most of them have a 100 year closure! I wanted to look up about my husband's grandmother but the patient records are closed.
 
From what date are the records closed. I want to look up someone born 1870 died in Highcroft 1935. Per his death certificate he was in Highcroft and at a guess it appears he was probably an inpatient from 1924. Would I be able to access his records. I do have the death certificate
 
The only details retained in the archives would be dates of admission and dates of discharge/death, all medical records for mental patients would have been destroyed after 20 years from date of last contact (in the case of discharge) or 10 years after patients death, other medical records would have been destroyed 8 years after patients death, with the exception of maternity/obstetric records which are retained for 25 years after the birth of the last child.
Details of staff don't usually include much more than dates of employment and sometimes qualifications, for some hospitals there are minutes of management meetings which will often include names of staff.

Colin
 
Thank you for the excellent info Colin. It is a sort of shame that we can never know why he was admitted in the first place. We are hoping that it was not merely because he went blind. On the other hand perhaps there are things we should not know. No one in the family ever spoke of it. I do know at least some family members never spoke to his wife for years but we do not know why. The death cert just said pneumonia.

I am really upset about the maternity records though. I have been waiting for 2016 so I can check my father in laws birth records at Queen Charlotte hospital, Holborn as I thought they became available after 100 years. Now I discover I will never know why I cannot find the birth certificate or why he was born in London. I did try emailing the LMA to ask for access to the records but I only got responses from national archives telling me to contact LMA. Sigh.
 
What a shame...., but at least I know that it will never be possible to find the records of my Grandmother Lillian (Harris) Smith - the 2nd wife of the Birmingham Boxer , Len Tiger Smith (Leonard Horace Smith).

At least, after searching for Lillian Smith all our lives, we have managed to find her having been admitted to Highcroft Hall for post-natal depression in 1937 when her daughter was only 2 and half year old and my Grandfather Len Smith removing my Mother from Lillian and starting a new life with his mistress Mona Medins Primrose Jones in South Africa.

Len and Mona had a son (Graham Jones Smith) born in 1939 and lived in South Africa till Mona's death in 1972 as well as their son Graham's death - also in 1972, never to inform my mother Mary Elizabeth Smith (Betty Volschenk) about Lillian's whereabouts. Len returned to the UK after their deaths and he died in Erdington in 1978 without making contact with his daughter Betty and his 6 grandchildren in South Africa ever again....

It was quite obvious that none of Len's family members, whom we made contact with since internet, refused to inform us - "nobody ever new nor heard anything!!!", but with the help of Wendy Horn and her family, we tracked her to Highcroft Hall Hopital where she was left to spend the rest of her life from 1937, after being moved to Kingfisher when Highcroft was sold - until she turned 81 years old where she died.

Lillian has 5 grandchildren in South Africa (my brother Jacobus died in 1987) and 14 Great Grandchildren as well as 14 Great-Great grandchildren - HAD WE KNOWN WHERE SHE WAS WHILE SHE WAS STILL ALIVE, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SUCH AN HONOUR FOR US TO HAVE FETCHED HER AND GIVEN HER THE LIFE SHE DESERVED WITH US - PITY THE FAMILY IN THE UK FELT EMBARRASSED TO TELL US WHERE TO FIND HER, NOTWITHSTANDING OUR DESPARATE BEGGING FOR INFORMATION!!!

During 1951 my Mother (Mary Elizabeth Smith - Volschenk, travelled all the way from SA to the UK to try and find her Mother, with Mona Jones and Graham by her side, but the family still maintained that they had "NO CLUE" of her whereabouts - Mom returned to SA, SHATTERED, and spent all these years wondering what could have happened to her dear Mother....


Well, my Mom Mary Elizabeth Smith-Volschenk is now nearly 79 years old - and only now found out what the true story was - that Len's Lady was put away in order that Len could live with his mistress in South Africa without having any trouble of a wife giving him a hard time..... at least Mona Medins Primrose was a good mother to my Mom but she knew Len was a married man with a child.... what a way to start a new life - easy way to get the wife out of the way - just have her admitted.???.

Lillian, may your soul rest in peace - we may never have met you, but we lived our lives with you in our hearts and will love you ALWAYS xxxxxxxxx ,
 
Just noticed I did two washes instead of a was and a wash!
Highcroft Hospital was originally the local workhouse I believe and changed to a hospital for mental illnesses. I'm sure someone will confirm this. Older folks around there remembered it as a workhouse and didn't want to go in although things had much improved. It is now apartments but luckily they left it as a landmark.
 
The grounds of Highcroft extended down to Slade road, with high railings all around. Often there would be a patient on the other side of the railings pleading with passers by to nip over to the newsagents shop opposite & get him some baccy. I did it for him once, but i wonder how many just took the money & ran.
 
It was, as Mike correctly says. Aston Union Workhouse. There was also Aston Union Cottage homes on the other side of Highcroft Road. It was an incredibly large complex and that at some stage became a mental hospital with a geriatric ward too.


There was quite a lot of land with this hospital, which I understand some of the inmates would farm and grow vegetables etc. The lower part of the complex adjacent to Slade Road, behind the prefabs was called North Croft Hospital. I have a feeling that this hospital also treated people with mental health problems.


I was told that there were padded cells at Highcroft and that people were interned there for violent crime. In the early eighties, I was given a job to develop a couple of rolls of film taken at the hospital. The subject of the photos was an exhibition held at the hospital showing the various methods of restraint for severely disturbed people. Most certainly, the pictures did show straight jackets, shackles and chains.


There are stories of people being interned at the hospital and becoming institutionalised, teenage girls who had become pregnant, syphilis cases and people with cerebral palsy.
 
It was, as Mike correctly says. Aston Union Workhouse. There was also Aston Union Cottage homes on the other side of Highcroft Road. It was an incredibly large complex and that at some stage became a mental hospital with a geriatric ward too.


There was quite a lot of land with this hospital, which I understand some of the inmates would farm and grow vegetables etc. The lower part of the complex adjacent to Slade Road, behind the prefabs was called North Croft Hospital. I have a feeling that this hospital also treated people with mental health problems.


I was told that there were padded cells at Highcroft and that people were interned there for violent crime. In the early eighties, I was given a job to develop a couple of rolls of film taken at the hospital. The subject of the photos was an exhibition held at the hospital showing the various methods of restraint for severely disturbed people. Most certainly, the pictures did show straight jackets, shackles and chains.


There are stories of people being interned at the hospital and becoming institutionalised, teenage girls who had become pregnant, syphilis cases and people with cerebral palsy.

Having had a relative involved for many years in Highcroft Hospital I believe the padded cells were used for mentally ill patients that were at high risk of doing themselves harm, and to a lesser extent if they were a danger to others.
 
Agreed, I was trying to say that there were padded cells and it also housed people convicted of violent crime (allegedly).


There was a lot of stigma attached to mental institutions like Highcroft that ultimately leads to the generation of local stories, collective and reconstructed memory.


Most certainly there was a local story (my dad told me, who grew up on Hermitage Road) of an inmate escaping and killing a young school boy.


My mom was always saying the “you lot are going to have in in Highcroft Hall, the way you’re going”
 
Agreed, I was trying to say that there were padded cells and it also housed people convicted of violent crime (allegedly).


There was a lot of stigma attached to mental institutions like Highcroft that ultimately leads to the generation of local stories, collective and reconstructed memory.


Most certainly there was a local story (my dad told me, who grew up on Hermitage Road) of an inmate escaping and killing a young school boy.


My mom was always saying the “you lot are going to have in in Highcroft Hall, the way you’re going”
In the forties and early fifties that was a threat that a lot of misbehaving children heard, the other one was to girls who brought home poor reports and that was 'you'll be lucky to be able to get a job in Woolworths if you go on like this'. My poor sister suffered this regularly. What a change now if they still existed Wooworths would demand University degrees I have no doubt.

Bob
 
Not sure if you will pick this up but we could never find a birth certificate for my grandma in London took 40 years to work it out with help and suggestions. I looked under Annie Mary Whitbread nothing her Uncle George had a middle name Morley he adopted (who knows why!) however it was randomly suggested I look under Annie Mary Morley bingo there she was the daughter of Elizabeth Morley nee whitbread the "spinster" Aunt who bought her up with her sister Mary. Never in this wide world would I have found it with out help I still dont know how this person knew to advise me to check this. I know Elizabeth did not marry so the certificate was a fabrication to cover my grandmothers illegitimacy.
 
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