The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum1. Introduction The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum was located near the village of Stanley on the outskirts of Wakefield, West Yorkshire. It later became known as Stanley Royd Psychiatric Hospital and treated people who were mentally ill. Victorians were concerned with the problem of mental illness and asylums were built to try and regulate the care of patients. In the 19th century parishes paid a few shillings a week for each person to be fed, clothed and treated by doctors and nurses. Prior to this poor people with a mental illness would have been left in the workhouse, house of correction or lived in squalor. The West Riding Asylum opened on 23 November 1818 and looked after the "insane-poor". The building was H shaped and cost a total of £36,448.4.9.1/4d to construct. It was the sixth asylum to open in the whole of the country and Dr Ellis was the first Superintendent with his wife acting as matron. Initially built for 150 patients by 1900 there were 1469 patients from all over West Yorkshire. |
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