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Rubery Hill Asylum Hospital

My wife's grandmother spent most of her adult life as a patient at Ruberry Hill Asylum having contracted sleeping sickness while working at cadburys in early 1920's. She died in the hospital in 1965. How do I find records of her and is it possible that she was buried in the hospital cemetry if there was one?
 
Hi Tim:)
I live just down the road from Rubery Hill Hospital (as was) I know that some of the people who died there were buried in the hospital grounds.couldn't say where the records would be but i am sure someone on the forum will be able to help you..good luck
Maggie
 
Someone I'm researching was resident at '1959A Bristol Road South, Rubery' at the time of their death - can anyone confirm that this address was Rubery Hill Hospital please? - he did have dementia, it was one of the causes of death.
 
Tim

I think Birmingham Archives may hold the records for the hospital, but due to the 100 year closure ruling you would have to get special dispensation from the Area Health Authority to view them.

If you contact the Archives - if they do hold the records then I am sure you will find the staff most helpful and will more than likely advise which records to view and also help you fill out the paperwork.

Regards
 
In 1964 1897 is the last listed no, and then there is the telephone exchange and then rubery hill hospital (unnumbered). so I think your assumption is correct
Mike
 
Update: I have now found out that my wife's grandmother, Phyllis Jones, died at 283 Lodge Road, Winson Green and not at Rubery Hill as I previously thought. She had been a patient at Rubery Hill but was transfered at some time before her death. I think Winson Green was a hospital or home for people with mental problems. Can anyone confirm the name of the institution and any other information please?
 
Hi There Changinman
Just read your thread about your gg grandfather my grandfather was also in that hospital it was a mental hospital and was later intergrated to hollymoor hospital my grandfather died there and i am having great difficulty getting hold of his medical records i think it was an experimental hospital and the information i need for my family tree is under a 100 years seclusion order i have to apply in writing to the birmingham archives in birmingham and they will ask the the powers that be if they can give me the info i need,that is the process i am going through at the moment sorry cant be of more assistance but anything else you need to know give me a shout i will try to answer
take care
regards
 
Barry, it takes ages to get any info, both my nan and my aunt were in-patients at Hollymoor and I had great problems getting info even though I had birth and death certs for them both and my dad is their only remaining next of kin that we know of, buthave eventually been told that the info will be transcripted soon and passed on to us.
Also,in the latter years, All Saints was a centre for drug rehabilitation, very sad place to work at times, but on the whole clients were good, just a few violent episodes.
Sue
 
Hi all,
Am new to this site so not sure if this has been asked before. I have a relative who died in the above asylum in 1926 aged 23 and was wondering if any records where available to check. I live about 150 miles away from there so no chance of visiting unfortunately.
Thanks in advance
Dawn
 
Hello all - I hope at least some of you are still active on this thread even though I am evidently years late in my response. I have recently posted about Rubery Hill Asylum as I am doing my MA dissertation on it - please see my recent post.
I am actually active in the archives currently and am spending a lot of time looking through medical casebooks, admission records, discharge notes etc. etc. What I hope to do is construct patient narratives from these records. If there is anyone who you would like information on I am sure I can help you and do some research for you. I am looking at Rubery Hill from when it opened 1882 until 1914 due to the 100 year closure of information act so anything you want about a friend or relative in that time period i would certainly be happy to help you - perhaps you have some old letters or family photos of that particular relative which you wouldn't mind giving me copies of - I can then include them in the narrative I construct.
Hope this helps and someone sees it - sorry it is so late.
Jess
 
Hello all! Apologies for cross posting here - but I am a new user and have a query which relates to this Victorian Asylum which also falls under research. I have therefore copied and pasted my post, as follows:

Hello everyone, I am a new member and would massively appreciate your help and guidance. I am a ‘mature’ student and am currently doing a MA degree on the Victorian period. My dissertation is going to focus on Rubery Hill Hospital; a Victorian Lunatic Asylum which was based just outside central Birmingham and opened on the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] January 1882. It opened because the Birmingham Asylum was suffering from overcrowding and required another site. By the time this asylum was opened, asylums were more regulated and a certain level of care was expected. The asylum could accommodate 600 plus patients and its facilities included outdoor facilities so that patients could take exercise, farm, and garden. In addition, patients were able to go to Church and to the theatre.

Having not researched archives before I am finding things a tad tricky. I aim to create a number of ‘patient narratives’ which present medical history from ‘below’ and give the patient’s side of the story. Also interested in looking at medical history from ‘above’ so staff accounts etc. The archives are certainly plentiful for this asylum, but lacking in things like photographs etc. which I feel bring this sort of work to life!

I would be interested in any advice and guidance from you. I would certainly be interested in hearing from you if you have
- Done any asylum based archival research before and can offer guidance
- Have any information or can sign-post for the Rubery hospital
- Have any relatives (or rather, had) who were either confined in this asylum or worked for this asylum. It would be awesome if anyone had photos or letters of a relative who used to be a patient and would be prepared to let me use the information they have. I would include relevant documents in my dissertation (which I would love to turn into a chapter in a book at some stage). I would track your friend/relative in the archives and create a narrative for them, which I would of course provide you with afterwards.

My dissertation will be available publically on the universities website, so please bear this in mind if you do have anything you would consider passing to me. I will take copies and send you originals back, or you could email me copies? I am a student so cannot offer you a financial incentive for your help, but I will be eternally grateful and would give you a copy of my dissertation afterwards (or at least the relevant part) so that you had a piece of your family history to keep.

Thanks in advance and look forward to hearing from you all

Jess
 
Hello all - I hope at least some of you are still active on this thread even though I am evidently years late in my response. I have recently posted about Rubery Hill Asylum as I am doing my MA dissertation on it - please see my recent post.
I am actually active in the archives currently and am spending a lot of time looking through medical casebooks, admission records, discharge notes etc. etc. What I hope to do is construct patient narratives from these records. If there is anyone who you would like information on I am sure I can help you and do some research for you. I am looking at Rubery Hill from when it opened 1882 until 1914 due to the 100 year closure of information act so anything you want about a friend or relative in that time period i would certainly be happy to help you - perhaps you have some old letters or family photos of that particular relative which you wouldn't mind giving me copies of - I can then include them in the narrative I construct.
Hope this helps and someone sees it - sorry it is so late.
Jess



Hi Jess.......this is a surprise ...id love to know more..........this is what I originally posted ....... below
My gt gt grandad Joseph Field I have just found out this week on getting his cert of death back from the records office in brum died young ......he was 48 when he died in 1890 leaving a young family behind . But the question to anyone that might know this is .

He was a skilled man , a Gun Finisher , and he died in the registration district of Kings Norton in 1890 even though according to the census of 1880 and ones prior to that that he lived and worked in the gun quarter of the city , but he died according to the death cert in Rubery hill asylum. The first thing that sprung to mind for me was asylum.....is that not for people that were mentally ill ? . None of my family have any info on him at all . So considering that his death cert states cause of death as ACUTE BRONCHITIS .....why was he in that asylum ?????.

I have actually found the admissions book a few years ago in bham library but cant remember what it said but the book was the original from 1890 which was pretty amazing as I saw his signature.....I would love to know more about him........I have spoken to a historian thereafter and tehy told me that a lot of people that worked in the gun quarter in Birmingham in these little back street gun workshops were so unregulated and this meant that they were extremely noisy and apparently the constant noise of the manufacturing and quite often the guns actually deploying meant that this sent guys mental and kind of shell shocked and were therefore sent to Rubery hill mental asylum. I would love to get to the bottom of this one. Thanks Karl, please feel free to contact me
 
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hi changinman...it is not a good idea to post either your email address or private telephone number on open forum..leaves you open to emails being hacked or crank callers...you can of course do this but its a risk...you can always edit out your tel number and send it to jess via our private message system which is just that...private between the sender and the recipient...

all the best

lyn
 
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According to the Lunacy Patients Admission Register on Ancestry as Joseph Field was admitted (to Birmingham asylum) on 2nd July 1883 and discharged 7 April 1887 but there had been no improvement. The cause of death may not be related to why he was in the asylum. I understand that some chemicals involved in many trades (before Health and safety) ould cause forms of insanity. There is also a Joseph Field admitted on 14 March 1889 and died 5 April 1890 (this says Worcester asylum - I assume Rubery). No other details are given on the record.

Janice
 
Hi Jess.......this is a surprise ...id love to know more..........this is what I originally posted ....... below
My gt gt grandad Joseph Field I have just found out this week on getting his cert of death back from the records office in brum died young ......he was 48 when he died in 1890 leaving a young family behind . But the question to anyone that might know this is .

He was a skilled man , a Gun Finisher , and he died in the registration district of Kings Norton in 1890 even though according to the census of 1880 and ones prior to that that he lived and worked in the gun quarter of the city , but he died according to the death cert in Rubery hill asylum. The first thing that sprung to mind for me was asylum.....is that not for people that were mentally ill ? . None of my family have any info on him at all . So considering that his death cert states cause of death as ACUTE BRONCHITIS .....why was he in that asylum ?????.

I have actually found the admissions book a few years ago in bham library but cant remember what it said but the book was the original from 1890 which was pretty amazing as I saw his signature.....I would love to know more about him........I have spoken to a historian thereafter and tehy told me that a lot of people that worked in the gun quarter in Birmingham in these little back street gun workshops were so unregulated and this meant that they were extremely noisy and apparently the constant noise of the manufacturing and quite often the guns actually deploying meant that this sent guys mental and kind of shell shocked and were therefore sent to Rubery hill mental asylum. I would love to get to the bottom of this one. Thanks Karl, please feel free to call me ...07881260240


Greetings Karl and many thanks for your response. I will certainly look into this for you and give you a call/drop you an email with the findings. I note from other posts he was in the admissions book which is great, what I will try and do is track him in the medical case books as they contain much more detail, although the Birmingham library do not have the full set but fingers crossed they have your relative. They are often very hard to understand due to the hand writing - I have been using two magnifine glasses and exercising every ounce of patience I have with them.

Just for clarity can you confirm for me his full name and dob, date of admission and death (aware below but in case the other poster has got mixed up - as they state he was discharged but you stated he died there...wanted you to confirm that). Do you have any photographs of him or old family letters from or about him?

Many thanks
 
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