First annual report on the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum / Buckinghamshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

  • St. John's Hospital (Stone, Buckinghamshire, England)
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First annual report on the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum / Buckinghamshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    instructed to continue their inquiries for the purpose of procuring further information. At the Michaelmas Session 1848, the Court perceiving the impracti¬ cability of entering with advantage into union with an adjoining County, finally determined that a separate Asylum for the Pauper Lunatics of this County should be provided. Your Committee are now enabled to state, that experience has proved to them the good policy of this arrangement, notwithstanding that the cost of the building and the rate of Maintenance of the Patients, are somewhat increased by it. A great difficulty presented itself at the commencement of the undertaking in procuring a suitable site; it was necessary not only to comply with the principle which had been laid down, that the Asylum should be placed in a situation central to the whole County as far as practicable, and therefore within easy distance of the County Town ; but also that the site should possess the requisites prescribed by the Commissioners in Lunacy, namely, a space equal to one acre at least for every ten Patients, a dry soil, an aspect to the south, and an abundant supply of water. It must be remembered, too, that in this instance the Law confers no compulsory power of taking land, as is the case with many public bodies, and that a great difficulty arose from the reluctance of individuals to sell Land for the purposes of a Lunatic Asylum ; for, after repeated applications by public Advertisements, your Committee obtained only seven offers of sites in various parts of the County, many of which were not eligible ac¬ cording to the principle before adverted to, and the exigencies of the Com¬ missioners in Lunacy. They then accepted the offer of the present site, being a portion of the Glebe belonging to the Vicarage of Stone, at the price of £150. per acre, which appeared to combine within itself all the re¬ quisite qualifications. The land thus purchased consists of twenty acres; a Plan of the site together with a full explanation and particulars of the nature thereof, were laid before the Commissioners in Lunacy, who, having expressed themselves satisfied therewith in a most unqualified manner, the Court at the Epiphany Session, 1849, directed the treaty for the purchase to be proceeded with, and the sanction of the Secretary of State to be obtained. Your Committee having had reason to believe that the number of Pauper Lunatics of both sexes confined at this period in various private Asylums and other Establishments was upwards of 150, and that many others were kept in Union Houses, or suffered to remain in their parishes, or with friends, not under proper care, determined ultimately to provide an Asylum capable of holding 200 Patients, namely, 100 Males and 100 Females, and they selected seven Architects of well known reputation, whom they invited to enter into competition for furnishing Plans of the Building; of these four only were ultimately found willing to engage in the competition.