Records of St. Andrew's Hospital, Thorpe St. Andrew

SAH

Records of St. Andrew's Hospital, Thorpe St. Andrew

1813 - 1998

<span class="wrapper"><p>For records of the League of Friends of St. Andrew's Hospital 1970-1998, see SO194</p> <p>A contract for works at the asylum, 1847 and returns of lunatics in the asylum, 1900-1908 can be found amongst the records of the Norfolk Quarter Sessions.</p></span>

English

787 files

SAH 162-315 and SAH 341-348 closed for up to 100 years. SAH 490 closed for 100 years.

Access conditions for files SAH 500-787 are listed within each file

The records of St. Andrew's Hospital are defined as public records within the meaning of the Public Records Act, 1958. No records less than 30 years old can be made available for public inspection without the written permission of the Unit Administrator and patients' records are closed for 100 years.

Received by Norfolk Record Office on 1 August 1977 (SAH 220-222); on 12 April 1978 (SAH 1-219, 223-239, 241-258, 273-277, 295-297, 300-305, 310, 315-348); on 23 February 1982 (SAH 240, 259-272, 278-294, 298-299, 306-309, 311-314); on 3 August 1982 (SAH 349-499); on 11 May 1993 (SAH 234); on 9 October 1997; 9, 13, 20, 26 January 1998; on 4, 9, 24 February 1998; on 6, 24 March 1998; on 3 April 1998: on 30 April 1998 and on 6 May 1998 (Acc. 1997/132; 1997/241; 1998/2; 1998/25/JD/IM (SAH 500-779), and on 4 July 2001 (Acc 2001/92) (SAH 780-787)

WATER DAMAGED DOCUMENTS; A SUPERFICIAL Slightly Scalded, Slight mould or water stains to covers or page edges; SAH 9-14; 10-14 Repaired 2002; SAH 19-20; 20 Repaired 2002; SAH 30-33; SAH 43-44; Repaired 2002; SAH 47; SAH 49; SAH 53; Repaired 2002; SAH 61; SAH 66; SAH 68; SAH 71; SAH 75; Repaired 2002; SAH 82; SAH 87; Repaired 2003; SAH 93; SAH 100; Repaired 2003; SAH 109; SAH 111-116; SAH 130; Repaired Jan.1999; SAH 134-135; SAH 137; SAH 139; SAH 141-144; SAH 152; SAH 168/19; SAH 175-176; SAH 178; SAH 181-185; 185 Repaired 2003; SAH 192-193; SAH 196-197; SAH 200-202; SAH 204; SAH 206-27; SAH 213; SAH 215-216; SAH 223; Repaired 2003; SAH 226-227; 229 Repaired 2003; SAH 229-231; Repaired 2003; SAH 235; Repaired 2003; SAH 241; Repaired 2003; SAH 249-251; SAH 259-260; 259 Repaired 2003; SAH 262; SAH 264; SAH 271-272; SAH 285; SAH 289; SAH 308; SAH 344-345; SAH 364-365; SAH 367; SAH 375-376; SAH 393; SAH 420-423; B MEDIUM More serious staining or scalding to cover: needs some extra care in handling. Pages water stained some partly stuck together. SAH 15-18; 15-17 Repaired 2002; SAH 37-38; 37-38 Repaired 2002; SAH 41; Repaired 2002; SAH 45; Repaired 2002; SAH 63-65; Repaired 2002; SAH 67; SAH 69-70; SAH 72-73; SAH 74; Repaired 2002; SAH 76; Repaired 2003; SAH 95; Repaired 2003; SAH 97-98; Repaired 2003; SAH 99; Repaired 2003; SAH 101; Repaired 2003; SAH 108; SAH 110; Repaired 2003; SAH 117-121; Repaired 2003; SAH 129; Repaired Jan. 1999; SAH 140; Repaired 2003; SAH 145-146; SAH 153; Repaired 2003; SAH 168/5, 13, 15, 17; SAH 180; Repaired 2003; SAH 186-191; Repaired 2003; SAH 194; Repaired 2003; SAH 222; Repaired 2003; SAH 228; Repaired 2003; SAH 228; Repaired 2003; SAH 232-233; 232 Repaired Sept. 1998; 233 Repaired 2003; SAH 240; Repaired 2003; SAH 242; Repaired 2003; SAH 246; SAH 248; SAH 252-258; 253, 254, 257 Repaired 2003; SAH 261; Repaired 2003; SAH 263; SAH 266; C SERIOUS Fragile - pages/parchments badly stuck together, inks, run, very badly damaged covers. Needs repair before it can be produced to the public; SAH 42; Repaired 2002; SAH 46; Repaired 2002; SAH 77; Repaired 2002; SAH 125; Repaired Jan. 1999; SAH 127; Repaired March 1999; SAH 128 Repaired April 1999

On 11th October 1808 it was resolved by the Norfolk Quarter Sessions that the next General Quarter Sessions of the Peace "take into consideration the expediency and propriety of providing a [County] Lunatic Asylum..." following provisions contained in An Act for the Better Care and Maintenance of Lunatics being Paupers or Criminals in England, 48 Geo. III c.96 (1808). Magistrates were requested to obtain and transmit to the Clerk of the Peace a list of all the lunatics and other insane persons in the county and in July 1809 a committee was appointed "for the purpose of making inquiry into the number of idiots and lunatic paupers...". The committee reported that there were 153 lunatics in the county and it was resolved to defer the consideration of "the expediency and propriety of providing a lunatic asylum". In October 1810 consideration for the provision of an asylum was resumed and a committee of nine was appointed "to make enquiry and to consider the best means for building, erecting and managing" such an asylum. The committee reported that the asylum "should be erected as near the City of Norwich as can be so as to be within the County..." and that the County Surveyor had prepared a plan for an asylum capable of receiving 180 lunatics which could be enlarged to hold 300. The estimated cost of the institution was £20,000. In April 1811 the Visiting Justices (as the Committee had been renamed) were able to report the purchase of five acres of freehold land at Thorpe at a cost of £600 and in October of that year they had taken possession of the site and that they were "exerting themselves to keep down the expence of the building by open contract for every branch of the work and by avoiding every species of ornament...". Building work commenced early in 1812 and in October 1813 the Visiting Justices were able to report that the asylum would be ready for the reception of patients at Christmas, however it was not until April 1814 that the asylum was ready to receive 40 male patients. By July the asylum was ready for female patients and in October rules and orders for the regulation and good government of the asylum were prepared. In 1815 the Visiting Justices declared the final cost of constructing the asylum to be £35,221. 2s. 7d.

The subsequent development of the County Asylum to the beginning of the present century is given briefly in Thomson, D. G. The Norfolk County Asylum, 1814-1903, 1903 (SAH 323). During World War 1 the hospital was used by the military authorities as a War Hospital. Details of this period in the hospital's history are to be found in the Annual Reports, 1915-1920. The Asylum became known as the Norfolk Mental Hospital in 1920 and the name was again changed to its present title, St. Andrew's Hospital, in 1923.

Following the National Health Service Act of 1946 the hospital passed from the county to central government control and became administered by the East Anglian Region, Group 7 Hospital Management Committee. Control passed to the Norfolk Area Health Authority in 1974 following the National Health Service Re-organisation Act of 1973.