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Highcroft Hall Highcroft Hospital Aston Union Workhouse Erdington House

  • Thread starter Thread starter elizabeth
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elizabeth

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Is this part of the Aston Workhouse setup ?

My grandfather died in there of TB in 1911.
Would like to know a bitmore about how it was used.
 
Elizabeth,it looks like it

try          users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/Aston

Modified  seem to be unable to post link  try cut and paste

Colin
 
I bought a book yesterday called "Highcroft; from workhouse to modern mental health service" wrote by Highcroft History Group, edited by Mike Hinson. It covers background to the history of Highcroft, Aston Union Workhouse 1836-1871, The New Workhouse at Gravelly Hill 1871-1912, Erdington House 1912-1942, Highcroft Hall 1942-1948. Looks to be a good read after just flicking through it. :) :)
 
Aston Union Infirmary, Erdington.

I have written this before but for any new members, I think that I could be right in believing that people of low or no income were sent to Aston Union
Infirmary, Erdington.
 
I Stand Corrected.

ColinB. Its nice to know that I am caught out sometimes and the true facts really emerge, it does no good if something is not correct and is believe by many. Thank you Colin for putting things in order.
 
elizabeth said:
Is this part of the Aston Workhouse setup ?

My grandfather died in there of TB in 1911.

Would like to know a bitmore about how it was used.
Click to expand...
yes it was part of the aston union workhouse, during ww2 it was used as an operating thatre for wounded soldiers
 
You have to remember that the workhouse was also treated as the old peoples home in its day the poor and elderly especially the sick elderly invariably died in the work house as there was no where else for them, although the extended family was was more apparrent in these times if you had no family or were so poor that there was not space for the elderly sick then it was the work houses that provided through the alms house and parish system of a sort of care to these elderly people.
 
Long time no post - I wonder if anyone can help me find the location of Erdington Hospital presumably in Erdington. My grandmother died here in 1920 but I cannot find where it was. I had presumed that it was the old name for Highcroft Hospital but really have no idea. Can anyone out there help? Jayceevee
 
Thank you Colin for your information. I have been wondering where the hospital was for over a year. I should have just put a message on this site! Many thanks. jayceevee
 
Thank you Colin for the information on Erdington House. The book I am writing covers the war years in that area, which is why I previously asked for information on the Plaza cinema, and I would have got this wrong because I never heard of Highcroft Hospital being called anything different. Was it a General Hospital then I wonder, I bet someone knows.
 
There is a very good book, Highcroft: from Workhouse to Modern Mental Health Service by Mike Hinson available from the Highcroft History group, it includes a small piece on the war period. I have IM'd you with contact telephone no. for the group.
There are a number of threads on the forum already regarding Highcroft, try the search facility top right hand side

Colin
 
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No, it was a mental hospital. Unfortunately, in the early years it also had a lot of patients who were not even mentally sick. My gt grandfather used to beat his children, especially around the head it appears. His one daughter (he had 13 children) suffered as a result with epilepsy. My gt grandmother died in 1911, when this girl was about 16. Her father obviously got fed up with a daughter who could not work, he wanted go to London to live, so he dumped her in Erdington House and went off to London - this was about 1913. She never saw him again. She used to visit my grandfather on occasions, she used to sit there silently, doing the most beautiful embroidery. This poor lady lost contact with most of the family except her one niece, and did not die until 1976/77. Very sad. if we all had known the truth, I feel her life in later years may have been much better, but none of us knew much if anything at all. She obviously became mentally ill later, being surrounded by ill people, but she was not at the time of her incarceration.

Shortie
 
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.
 
hi was this the high croft hospital and not a house? just received death certificate for back in 1953 of my great great nan.
it states 18 Highcroft Road U.D
:)
 
Yes it was Highcroft Hospital. I also have a death certificate with that address, from 1976. This particular lady in my family went into what was then Erdington House in about 1913, never to leave.
 
sounds like a sad story shortie :(

im doing some googling and im gathering it was an asylum? or was it also used as a hopital?
do you think my great great nan was in the asylum?
 
My Uncle was a nurse there for some years. Not sure why but he moved to Essex and started work on the Track at Fords - less stress maybe?
 
Bernie D'Boult said:
My Uncle was a nurse there for some years. Not sure why but he moved to Essex and started work on the Track at Fords - less stress maybe?
Click to expand...
when did he work there? wonder what it was like in 1953? ive also got a birth certificate stating the same great great nan gave birth in 1910 same place who dies at birth :( but when im googling it comes up saying its an asylum or was it used as a public hosiptal? can u access medical records?
 
It is a sad story indeed. It was a mental institution firstly Erdington House, then Highcroft Hall, then hospital, over the years. It was not used as a normal medical hospita (but it may have been during the war, I don't know for surel.

I would not get worried about it if I was you, in days gone by people used to be put away for all sorts of reasons. Epilepsy, for one. Depression for another. In my particular case, this was my grandfather's sister. She became pregnant apparently by her brother (but which one we don't know), and was put in the home by her father, who I understand was a bit of a brute. I am in touch with a member of the family who used to have her visit them. She was picked up in the car, taken for a day to join the family (her neice's home) but she spoke little, and when she was driven back, she just used to get out of the car and run into the building without looking back. She was not mentally unstable initially, but I think it must have 'rubbed off' on her. The nurses in there used to treat her very well, she used to help with the other patients, and apparently used to do the most beautiful embroidery. She was happy in a limited kind of way. I don't know what happened to her child, but I believe it was a boy.

I suspect your great nan would have been in the asylum, but don't go thinking too much into it, it may have not been much at all. What was the cause of death?
 
I was brought up almost across the road from Highcroft hospital, my exhusbands mother worked there in the 1950/60s.

It was in different sections one of which was what used to be called a Geriatric hospital, elderly people not able to care for themselves were admitted and stayed until they passed away.
Many elderly people in Highcroft had been there since it was a workhouse called the Aston Union (Aston union opened in 1869 later to become Erdington house in 1911.and Highcroft hospital in 1942.)
In 1911 the children from Highcroft were transferred to the Cottage homes across the road.

Another hospital area was for patients with mental problems.
I had a friend who was admitted after suffered a 'nervous breakdown in 1969.

It is now housing development, houses and apartments but approached through the original Archway.
 
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My grandmother died there in 1938. I requested access at the Birmingham library Archives searchroom on a readers ticket for the records and viewed them. They were very interesting. They explain when she was admitted,what for and also what treatment she was given.
regards John
 
Taht's very interesting John. I also requested access and was told I would have to write a letter, which I did, then a reply told me I would have to contact something to do with the mental heath people. Can't remember exactly. Highcroft was Erdington House initially and Erdington House is where my gt aunt was admitted, but she died in 1976 when the name was Highcroft. I suspect from the tone of my reply the person I who read my letter had not got a clue about the establishment at all. This was a while ago, but when the library moves, I shall ask again.
 
Hi!
sorry for the reply she died from AURICULAR FIBRILLATION / MITRAL STENOSIS.

i have recently been looking up where her grave location is i have drawn a blank so far. most of my relatives are in witton cem including her husband she isnt :( my grandad is the informant on both of their certificates so i would of thought he would of buried her in same place as his dad? witton have no emaily jane steeles 1953 in their records. so the hunt is still on.

what i would like to know is if being a patient from highcroft they were buried somewhere else??

im also going to book to go to bham library as i live in birmingham to try see if they have any patient records on her? or is there an address you write to?
 
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