The report of the committee of visitors, superintendent and chaplain of the Cheshire Lunatic Asylum : made to the court of general quarter sessions of the peace, holden at Nether Knutsford, in and for the county of Chester, on Monday, April 8th, 1867.

  • Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The report of the committee of visitors, superintendent and chaplain of the Cheshire Lunatic Asylum : made to the court of general quarter sessions of the peace, holden at Nether Knutsford, in and for the county of Chester, on Monday, April 8th, 1867. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The establishment, during tlie year, has been quite free from any epidemic, and the number of deaths is rather below the average. The Asylum being capable of holding 240 males and 254 females, it will be seen that the male department is quite full, and that only a few vacancies remain for females. And notwithstanding the removal of some of the harmless and chronic cases to the Work- houses, several applications for admission of males have been refused. In anticipation of the Asylum being full, your Committee, in June last, made application to the authorities of the Denbigh, Stafford, Haydock Lodge, and other Asylums in the immediate neighbourhood, to ascertain if arrangements could be made with them for receiving a given number of patients, but without success. The Guardians of Workhouses being empowered, under certain circumstances, to contract for the reception of lunatics, application was also made to all the Unions in the County, but in no case was there the requisite accommodation. Taking 40 as the average in¬ crease of lunatics per annum remaining in the Asylum, and calcu¬ lating that it will take three years to erect and furnish the new building, there will be at that time about 120 patients ready to occupy it. Supposing no provision is made for these patients, they must either be detained in Workhouses, or, at a much larger cost than that for whidi they can be kept here, provided for in Asylums in different parts of the kingdom; and your Committee, after fully considering the matter, have come to the conclusion that, both in an economical and humane point of view, it would be much better to make pro¬ vision for them in this Asylum. This they propose doing by using some of the present day-rooms as Dormitories, and erecting tem¬ porary day-rooms at as cheap a cost as possible. They have, there¬ fore, ordered plans and estimates to he made for such buildings, the total cost of which will be about T800; and an application will be made to the Court for that sum to enable them to carry out the project.