Little has changed in the 179 years since Earl Grey’s Whig Administration determined that they would compel County and County Borough Councils to establish pauper lunatic asylums to house insane paupers from their areas. The Lunacy Act of 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 100) and the County Asylums Act of the same year (8 & 9 Vict. c. 126) reformed the Mental Health Law in England and Wales from 1845 to 1890. However, both Worcestershire County Council, and the Worcester City Council were reticent to implement this new law. It took both over 5 years to even begin to respond to the demands of the new act.
In part this reticence was because both administrations were fortunate as William Ricketts had already created a private lunatic asylum in Droitwich in 1791 which accepted insane pauper lunatics from both the county and city of Worcester. This institution was extremely humane, in comparison with most lunatic asylums (or ‘Madhouses’ as these institutions were often called). The lunatic asylum scandals that afflicted much of England and Wales were unknown in the county and city of Worcester and when William Ricketts died in 1817 his son Martin took over the Droitwich Private Lunatic Asylum that continued to accept patients from Worcestershire Poor Law Unions until the Pauper Lunatic Asylum at Powick opened in August 1852.
In 1835 surgeon Thomas Lewis opened Duddeston Hall. Situated north of Birmingham and licensed to accept 30 private patients and 60 paupers, this institution was housed in a large mansion. It too was favourably regarded and, like the Droitwich asylum, was used by some Worcestershire Poor Law Unions. In 1822 the Fairford Retreat was created by Alexander Iles, another surgeon. It also accepted some pauper patients from the County and City of Worcester and was regarded with approval for the humanity of its treatment.
The County Asylums Act of 1808 (48 Geo. 3. c. 96) determined the Mental Health Law in England and Wales between 1808 and 1845. This Act determined that Public Mental Asylums in England and Wales could now be administered by County and County Borough Administrations. It permitted but did not compel councils to provide establishments for the care of pauper lunatics, which meant that they could be removed from workhouses and prisons. This Act was also known as Mr. Wynn's Act, because Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn, the Welsh MP for Montgomeryshire, was the original promoter.
However, the Act was unsuccessful in promoting the creation of many new County or County Borough Lunatic Asylums, and the failure led to the introduction of the County Asylums Act of 1828 (9 Geo. 4. C. 40), another attempt to address concerns about the slow creation of asylums in England and Wales. This legislation required Magistrates to send annual records of admissions, discharges, and deaths of insane paupers in a County or County Borough, to the Home Office annually.
Similarly, this minimal Legislation failed to encourage the creation of new Lunatic Asylums, so, in 1845 were passed both the Lunacy Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 100) and the County Asylums Act (8 & 9 Vict. c. 126). Together these created Mental Health Law in England and Wales between 1845 to 1890 which obliged County and County Borough Authorities to provide Asylum for the pauper lunatics in their area. This law was based on the work of John Connolly and Lord Shaftsbury which also led to the use of ‘Moral Treatment’ of pauper lunatics in County and County Borough asylums. This treatment was pioneered by William Tuke at the York Retreat and led to a change in status of pauper lunatics being treated as patients, not prisoners. Following this legislation, and until 1890, over 60 asylums were built and opened. However, they were soon overcrowded, meaning a further 40 were opened soon after.
Even though councils were now obliged to build new lunatic asylums, there was an almost 7-year delay before the opening of the new City and County Pauper Lunatic Asylum at Powick on 12 August 1852. Instead, the local authorities attempted to persuade neighbouring county authorities to build joint lunatic asylums that Worcester’s patients could share. Hereford, in many ways a logical partner to Worcester, had already agreed with several Welsh counties to set up a new pauper lunatic asylum at Abergavenny. Gloucestershire, Shropshire and Warwickshire were also approached, but refused to build shared asylums, claiming that their asylums were already too large to contemplate taking additional patients from Worcestershire.
So in 1849, almost 5 years after the 1845 acts demanded that Worcester County and City build a new pauper lunatic asylum, an asylum was planned. The City of Worcester demanded that the new institution be sighted close to the city, and Powick, less than two miles from the centre, was chosen. (1)
The writer believes that little has changed since 1845. Today legislation is often delayed due to the reticence of local authorities to accept decisions made by Central Government that are at variance from the opinions of local authorities.
Frank Crompton
Endnotes
(1) Powick was over 30 miles from Dudley and Shipston-on-Stour, then parts of the County of Worcester and patients from distant places could be transported by train to Worcester (there were reports that patients climbed out through windows on to the roofs of carriages). The new County Asylum Authorities refused to have a station next to the asylum, but the Worcester to Hereford Railway, built in the 1860s, was rerouted a couple of miles from the asylum.