Jaffrays/ Highcroft hospital/ lunatic asylum, Erdington

[jennyann]

Hi Donapr: There were two Miss Vaughan's at Fentahm Road School in the mid l950's. One, the headmistress, was known as Miss Vaughan and the other,
Miss L.A. Vaughan, was a very popular teacher. The school held a reunion in Sutton Coldfield in April 2004 with 375 ex students in attendance.

 

[BobMorgan]

I worked as a student nurse at Highcroft Hospital and qualified in 1965 left the same year and moved to Burntwood. Bit sad that everyone remembers the bad old wards at Highcroft, there certainly were some, but amongst them and out in the grounds were three pretty new wards called George, Elizabeth and Margaret Wards always felt sad that such good units closed. For all the bad things about psychiatric hospitals I still remember some marvellous times.

 

[OtherHalf]

If you havent already done it check out John Houghtons link posted earlier re Rossbret institutions Warwickshire Workhouses

 

[philbee]

good evening all
i see the post relates to jaffray hospital our mom went in for a throat operation in the sixties and dad with my sister and me used to catch the 160 bus from kingshurst to the beaufort then the 11 to erdington to visit mom no cars in them days! it was around christmas time and we were looking forward to her coming home for christmas and did the house up for her homcoming but she wasnt allowed home we were all disappointed but we visited her on christmas day where mom gave us her sherry trifle that she had been given for tea ,must admit it wasnt very nice! anyway a small memory that has stuck with me all this time that i thought i would share with you.
any ideas why she would have been sent there for her operation! as it was a long way from kingshurst.
phil

 

[Alberta]

Hi Phil.

Most of the patients at Jaffray hospital had their operations elsewhere mainly the General in Birmingham and then were sent to the Jaffray if they had been in the hospital a while but were not well enough to go home ,this may have been the case with your Mom.

 

[maz_beth]

I worked as a student nurse at Highcroft Hospital and qualified in 1965 left the same year and moved to Burntwood. Bit sad that everyone remembers the bad old wards at Highcroft, there certainly were some, but amongst them and out in the grounds were three pretty new wards called George, Elizabeth and Margaret Wards always felt sad that such good units closed. For all the bad things about psychiatric hospitals I still remember some marvellous times.

I know you posted this a while ago, but I wondered if, by any chance, you might remember my grandad, Martin Brislin, who was there up until his death, which was actually in 1965.

He had not been right since being in the battle of the Somme in WW1
invalided out with trench foot and ''shell-shock'' I believe

just doing some more research for my mom's 80th birthday next week [his daughter], which I will be presenting in an album to her.

I trained at All Saints, by the way, from 1987, as an R.M.N. - but didn't complete my training because of a rotten 'Sister' when they put me for my 3 months General nurse training at the adjacent Dudley Road.
But I got a job immediately with M.I.N.D. in a rehab. Hostel.
We all hated having to assist at E.C.T. [shock treatment] sessions [at All Saints]

 

[maz_beth]

good evening all
i see the post relates to jaffray hospital our mom went in for a throat operation in the sixties ....
any ideas why she would have been sent there for her operation! as it was a long way from kingshurst.
phil

I wonder if she had overactive thyroid* [hyperthyroidism] - as someone who has the opposite [hypothyroidism] I know a fair bit about thyroid disease, and I know some who were overactive thyroid in the past could be classed as a bit manic [as they weren't treated right...as, also, those with underactive weren't, but it gave different behaviour symptoms].

*the op, would be to remove goitre [which comes with overactive thyroid, and sometimes, even, underactive...but symptoms could have been classed as 'mental' - sadly]

 

[Elizabeth Redmond]

good evening all
i see the post relates to jaffray hospital our mom went in for a throat operation in the sixties and dad with my sister and me used to catch the 160 bus from kingshurst to the beaufort then the 11 to erdington to visit mom no cars in them days! it was around christmas time and we were looking forward to her coming home for christmas and did the house up for her homcoming but she wasnt allowed home we were all disappointed but we visited her on christmas day where mom gave us her sherry trifle that she had been given for tea ,must admit it wasnt very nice! anyway a small memory that has stuck with me all this time that i thought i would share with you.
any ideas why she would have been sent there for her operation! as it was a long way from kingshurst.
phil

My mom was in Jaffray in the 60s to recuperate after heart surgery,which she had at Dudley Rd, and it was a distance from where we lived.It was classed as a convalescent then.It had nothing to do with Highcroft which was a psychiatric hospital in Erdington,

 

[Pedrocut]

The Jaffray Suburban Hospital, Erdington was intended for the reception of chronic cases and was a branch of the Birmingham hospital General Hospital.

In 1879 at the centenary of the General Hospital the question of establishing a hospital for chronic diseases was first considered. At the time the matter was delayed due to cost and eventually dropped. In 1883 John Jaffray offered the sum of £15,000 pounds to build a hospital and asked that others endow the hospital. £2,000 a year would be required, and in June1894, around £24,000 had been given and £400 a year in annual subscriptions promised....towards the £24,000 no fewer than 12 or 13 persons, 3 of them ladies gave £1,000 apiece, and one gentleman £2,000.

It was thought that the chronic cases could be cured with time and rest, but should not be mixed up with other cases, allowing the General to provide for accidents and urgent cases.

(Info from Birmingham Daily Post)