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Jaffrays/ Highcroft hospital/ lunatic asylum, Erdington

  • Thread starter Thread starter yamahapaul
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yamahapaul

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Can anybody offer me any information, thoughts etc on either of the above places as they have both been mentioned on my forum, are they one and the same place or two totally seperate issues... any comments/ info would be much appreciated :)
 
Thanks Jenny, so basically they are 2 different places and Jaffrays has gone??
 
Yes basically they have both gone.. There are houses being built on Highcroft
Hospital and flats also. Jaffray Hospital closed in the l960`s and was razed to the ground and subsequently built on.
 
From what I was told last year when I was in Brum. Highcroft Hospital it's self has been turned into High priced flats. Just as The Birmingham Eye Hospital was turned into The Hotel De Vin.

My Mom had spent many a free night at Highcroft and myself, I spent many a free night in The Eye Hospital over the years I was in Brum.

Eye Hospital Treatment here: As was :) and as is...
View attachment 19813 View attachment 19814
... somewhere in Brum? Can't remember where. They may even have been moved again by now.
(Maybe they thought if you can't see, it won't matter what the building looks like that they treat you in):(

One for old times sake August 2007 :)
View attachment 19816

Thought I had one of the old Highcroft, but can't find it now. Couldn't get near enough last year to take an up to date one of the Highcroft complex sorry.

Here's the old Jaffray Hospital.
View attachment 19815
 
My Mother was in Jaffray hospital in 1960 following Heart attack. First taken to the General Steelhouse Lane then after week or two moved to the Jaffray, then to convalesce at home in worcester (blackwell or something like that), how times change. One of the coachbuilders i worked with in the middle sixties used to go to Highcroft for a few weeks most years, told us that it was for a rest (now called stress).
 
Thanks guys, very interesting! :)

These are some pics of Highcroft now (I believe) that were sent to me via mobile phone a couple of weeks ago-
highcroft.jpg


highcroft2.jpg


Will try and get there myself sometime.....

With the admins permission I'd like to post a link to this thread if thats ok?? :)
 
The Main building at Highcroft with the tower that we are all familiar with is being developed into dwellings...I suppose you could call them flats as opposed to condos. Parts of the "tower" are being renovated so as to keep the original interior in the oldest parts. These will, of course, sell at a higher price. There might be some others building involved in renovation for selling on as dwellings. Skyscraper City has some very recent photos and also some description of the three bedroom penthouse in the tower. https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=364145

Last year I found some photos of the interiors of the flats and they
were very contemporary indeed. The views, of course, would be
wonderful being so high up. The prices per unit are also very high!
 
When we went to visit Mom in 1963/4 we went in the main entrance gate. We then turned to the right to a modern building (Well it was in the 60's). She did say that the staff took the patients from this modern building every other day to the main (Old) building for 'Shock Treatment'. It seems the treatment was painful . The patients would cry out or scream, so it took place in soundproof rooms (Cells) and they were strapped to the trolley.
Even though I was about 16/17 at the time, I was always a little scared when walking through that main gate and seeing the barred windows. I would always run to the building my Mom was in and would never go if it was, or close to getting dark.

Now I think, even though it was a great looking building, those poor people being locked in such an imposing place some for life. When in some cases for illnesses that can now be cured or maintained at a 'Normal' level.

By the way the 'Shock Treatment' never worked for very long, before she had to sign herself in again and have more.

Pom
 
There was nothing wrong with a lot of ladies in there, apart from bringing shame on their families for getting pregnant. I remember meeting a lady in the 1980's that had spent most of her adult life in there, who found it very difficult to adjust once she 'got out' some 40 odd years after having her child, the child was adopted but she was kept in. Very sad.
 
Pom: Thanks for posting your memories of Highcroft Hall. Because I was very local to this place and what went on there, was very rarely discussed in front of children. We could all see the tower from all over the place and most of us knew someone who had a relative or a friend as a patient. I came to know Highcroft much better when I began 2nd year at Fentham Girls School. I alighted the bus at Highcroft Road and cut through to Fentham Road
and passed by Highcroft which on the one side took up the whole street. The Main Building entrance and wards to left and right were on that side.

My recollections were of shrieking and screaming coming from the windows which were only allowed to be opened three inches at the most. The patients would put their arms out and wave. It bothered me a lot at the time since the screaming, etc. went on every morning I passed by. I also remember waiting for the bus to go home from school on Reservoir Rd. and meeting two Irish nurses who quickly covered up their arms with their capes in order to hide the black and blue bruises on them. They were too late and I must have gawped because they said something like "Oh, they do look awful don't they". "We are used to getting them". Another moment in which I wondered what went on at Highcroft.

My Mother used to visit a couple of ladies who were patients in later years
but never said much about her visits especially when children were around. Our next door neighbour used to go there for Shock Treatment and Mom said whatever they did didn't help her. It was very sad for our neighbour.

The closest I got to Highcroft Hall was about four years ago when a friend,
who knew someone who used to dress hair for the patients, took me into the grounds from the Slade Road/Fentham Road entrance and drove me all
over the grounds. I was amazed how many buildings there were and the state they were in. It made me feel just awful if I remember as the
sad memories came back to me.
 
Just on a lighter note and not trying to steal this thread. Some years ago we had to take our 13 ish year old Daughter to the dental hospital in Maccelsfield. When we arrived we could find no one about so we followed the signs to the Dental unit, imagine our suprise when we found this room with a large chair with restraining straps fitted to the arms and legs. We all shot out of the room and made a hasty exit only to find that in fact we had mistaken the dental hospital for the local mental hospital. It frightened our Daughter for quite a while.
 
Not quite such a mistake as would be thought. When I had all my wisdom teeth taken out circa 1972 at the QE, the ward for dental operations was shared with the psychiatric department
Mike
 
In the corse of doing Family History my brother came across an uncle we had never heard of let alone known. He was found as an inmate in Highcroft Hall. He was my Father's brother. After several enquires my brother was able to visit him and learnt that this poor man had been there for 63yrs!! :shocked:

We went to see the dear uncle and gosh what a scary experience walking through the wards to the dayroom. The poor man had forgotten how to walk and could hardly talk but he seemed to recall our Father very clearly.

We learnt that he was put there after having meningitas at the age of 14 years.
My brother found a better place for him and he spent his last few years in comfort.

He lived in Belchers Lane at the time he was "put away" and his comfortable home for those last years was the Care Home at the top of Belchers Lane!!:) He was taken past his old home and he knew it right away. What a waste of a life.......he was quite an intelligent person and his great love was planes of which he could name most. Those wonderful people in the care home taught him to speak again and take a few steps.

So I say "God Bless you Uncle Harry and may you rest peacefully" and "Thank God for such wonderful people who help others"

We were lucky in the fact that we were able to get his records from Highcroft and it made sad reading I can tell you :cry:
 
HI Rowan: That is such a sad story and as you say such a waste of a life.
Thank goodness your Uncle was able to be discovered at Highcroft and removed to a place where he could be cared for in a proper manner to end his days.

I'm afraid that there must have been many cases such as your Uncle's in these institutions. People did want to disclose that they had relatives that were hospitalized in such institutions. Shamefully, it just wasn't "done".

Close to where I live is a very similar institution to Highcroft Hall only over twice the acreage. The old buildings are used for Hollywood movie making so it has been seen all over the world. Just a small part of it is in use. Most of it was closed many years ago. Some people say fortunately because governments in the Western world decided that they did not want to update these old fashioned workhouse/mental hospital places they simply let the patients to go their own way with disastrous results with most living on the streets or barely making it in life on their own. No happy endings these days either.

Developers are literally lining up to develop these ex mental hospital sites now, as to what is going to happen to people who need assisted living due to mental illness it is a very difficult situation.
 
Jennyann
What you say is true. I know someone who has been ill on and off for for at least 30 years. About 1980 she was diagnosed and medication became available which worked wonders and enabled her to happily live in the community. However she had relapses, often when she thought she didn't need the medication. Several times she stayed in those victorian monoliths for a period (and they were so depressing to visit), and later in the more modern units. But these modern units are only meant for short periods. The relapses increased and it had to be accepted that she would probably never be able to live outside on her own, and attempts to move to a "family"-type unit didn't work. There are now no places provided in east leeds for long term hospital psychiatric care. So now she is in a private hospital , funded by the NHS, but in the country 25 miles from where she feels is home, and no doubt being a nice little earner for the company that runs it. The staff are very nice,and during her life she was never chucked out on the streets as happens to people in some areas but I don't believe it is a satisfactory situation. The authorities sell off facilities but don't properly replace them for those that need them.
Mike
 
Rowan, how kind of you and your brother to visit your long lost uncle and then ensure that he was moved to a proper care home, you were definitely his saviours when he must have felt all hope was lost. God Bless.
 
All of us ,especially youngsters,were very ill informed about mental illness and what was happening in Highcroft in the 50s and 60s.

I remember when the fire alarm alarm went off many off us who lived nearby thought that' one of them has escaped'.Most of the poor souls were so drugged that they would not have been able to 'escape'.

There was a section for the criminally insane and in the 1950s,one of the inmates managed to get away,he broke into a gun shop in Aston.
He was challenged by a policeman and fired at him,hitting him in the stomach.Fortunately there were other constables in the area the man was detained and the policeman Tom Somerville recovered
I last saw him at my Dads funeral in 1995.

Although nowadays we are shocked by the shooting of a policeman in those days it was unbelievable.
 
You're so right Alberta and that is another sad story about the "escapee"
from Highcroft Hall and the unfortunate police incident, Our school (Fentham Girls) was very close to the railway line. One day the Headmistress, Miss Vaughan sent a message around the school that no one was to look out of any windows or walk around the side of the school close to the railway line. Why? Seems that there were two or three males who had somehow walked away from Highcroft and were walking on the embankment with no clothes on!

I think because very few of us had any inside knowledge about Highcroft Hall
or at least if people did it was not talked about especially in front of children,
then our minds would be filled with images of what we thought might be going on. Not good.
 
hi.all when i was a child i had to go to slade rd school clinic every other day,it made me sad to see the poor inmates standing behind the chainlink fence shouting,and asking for fags,it also was a bit frightening.terrible terrible place. pete
 
I worked there in 1985/6. The staff were mostly very caring. I remember being broke the whole time as we were rehabilitating and took the patients out 1-1 or 1-2 into Erdington Village or out in the evening for a meal or pub trip. I felt so sorry that they were so restricted by money that I and my fellow nurses would use our money. At that time the CARE IN THE COMMUNITY rubbish was happening at Highcroft and many were just put into any available home as the staff were being forced to look to the closure of the wards. I was very unhappy with it all, it was like an unfinished job. Some of the patients had been there years and Highcroft was their home where they could be PROTECTED from Communities that didnt want or understand them.
Lots of things have happened in the NHS that are not patient focused or in their best interest. The Mental Health Hospitals and Mental Handicap Hospitals are a case in point. The community nurse numbers were and are pretty poor, and their job is very difficult.
As for ECT, at that time they were no longer using it except where all else failed.
There is no Asylum now for such ill people.
A S Wood
 
Hi A.S Wood:
It's great that you were able to take some of patients out since they had
very little money of their own and many of them would not have been able to handle such field trips. We have had exactly the same downhill slide of care for the Mentally Handicapped among us. The "Community Care" idea really hasn't worked out if it had there would not be so many mentally challenged people wandering around uncared for.

Most official care workers are great people and really should be paid
accordingly in regard to caring for the mentally challenged. I keep on hearing that so many people are suffering with mental illness these days and I think the politicians are choosing to sweep that fact under the rug.
 
Last edited:
jennyann said:
You're so right Alberta and that is another sad story about the "escapee"
from Highcroft Hall and the unfortunate police incident, Our school (Fentham Girls) was very close to the railway line. One day the Headmistress, Miss Vaughan sent a message around the school that no one was to look out of any windows or walk around the side of the school close to the railway line. Why? Seems that there were two or three males who had somehow walked away from Highcroft and were walking on the embankment with no clothes on!

I think because very few of us had any inside knowledge about Highcroft Hall
or at least if people did it was not talked about especially in front of children,
then our minds would be filled with images of what we thought might be going on. Not good.
Click to expand...

Had an Auntie who went to this school, often spock about a misss Vaughan!
She (Aunt) grow up in Newnham grove and then move to Springfield across Rd from Highcroft.
 
Pomgolian, The replacement for The Eye Hospital is in Western Rd off Dudley Rd in the refurbished and rebuilt Dudley Rd Hospital which now called City Hospital. Len.
 
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