Long Grove & Horton Asylums, Epsom

[lesleyhannah]

Does anyone know how I could find more information about staff at the two above asylums please?

The 1911 census has thrown a light on a solid brick wall - and very surprising it is. I have found two ancestors who married in 1912, but who seemed to spring from nowhere before then. In 1911 one was working as an 'attendant' in Horton Asylum, and the other as a 'servant' in Long Grove.

I must say this completely goes against the family belief that they were born and married in India. If the two members of staff in the asylums are the couple I'm looking for then they also did some creative storytelling on their marriage certificate!

Unfortunately, people working in institutions just show up as names and birthdates etc - I really need some verification of their family backgrounds, and wonder if records are available that I could search, or purchase.

Hope someone can help - I'd like to know if staff details are available for these institutions, and if so how I could access them. If I get to the bottom of this it will make the cost of the 1911 searching worth every penny, so I'm keeping my fingers crosse.

Thank you.

[ShaunJ]

Long Grove staff registers are at the Surrey History Centre in Woking
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=O61278.

Not sure about Horton.

[lesleyhannah]

Thanks Shaun, That's very useful because I can travel to Woking. Lesley

[KatieL]

Thanks for the link Shaun. I'm also interested as today I found out one of my relatives died of Typhoid in Long Grove Asylum.

If you put Long Grove Asylum into Google there are some interesting news articles.

[clark1]

There's an article on the website   

www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk

about the Epsom Hospital cluster.

Lin

[Valda]

Horton Hospital staffing records appear to be held at the London Metropolitan Archives

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=71&hospital=horton&town=epsom&searchdatabase.x=94&searchdatabase.y=7

Regards

Valda

[ShaunJ]

Thanks for that Valda - one of the volunteers at Epsom and Ewell Local and Family History Centre also told me that the Horton Hospital records are at LMA.

 

[lesleyhannah]

Thank you both for your help - I'll email LMA and see if they keep staff lists (and if they're accessible). This could well open a can of worms - the couple concerned are remembered by family members, who all tell the same story of the grandfather being born in India to a military family - whereas it seems like he was probably abandoned to the workhouse as a small child. The names are unusual enough for me to be 90% sure this is my couple, but I'd like just a bit of verification,

[jlavery]

I worked in Long Grove 85 to 91. Who else worked here at the time?


Moderator comment: Edited for content, names removed. Rootschat has a clearly defined 'no living people' policy