West Riding Mental Hospital, Airborough U.D.

[LauraMurg]

I've been lurking here a while but this is my first post, so hi, I'm a bit of a rookie!

I've had a record pop up for my 2nd Great Grandfather listing him as a patient at West Riding Mental Hospital in 1939.

I'm trying to do some background reading on the hospital but I don't want to start down the wrong path. When I search for 'West Riding Mental Hospital, Airborough' (all the information on the record) the hospital that repeatedly comes up is High Royds Hospital in, I think, Menston. Has anyone else had this place appear on a record with just "Borough, U.D. or R.D.: Airborough U.D." and "West Riding Mental Hospital" under the "Address" column? There are just a couple of things I've read that make me a little uncertain if High Royds is definitely the place he was a patient.

Thanks in advance!

[dave the tyke]

Hi LauraMurg, welcome to RootsChat.
I am pretty certain that High Royds was the only mental hospital in Airborough in 1939. I think what I would do, to be certain, would be to check the addresses on pages adjacent to your grandfather's in the census. It depends where the info came from as to how easy that would be. Good luck.

Dave

[cath151]

Hi ,
Welcome to Rootschat

Newspapers are a good source of info
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 2nd Nov 1939
"National registration figures made available  yesterday have revealed the population of Aireborough is 24224.Included in this is 2225 inmates at the West Riding Mental Hospital at Menston."

Also applications invited for various tenders...
West Riding Mental Hospitals, Menston nr Leeds, Storthes Hall Kirkburton nr Huddersfieldand and Wadsley Bridge nr Wakefield.

A 1936 entry has High Royds Hospital , Menston Road, Menston.
So still not quite sure if the same hospital but I m sure someone else might know.

Cathy

[dave the tyke]

Hi again,
I have found someone who died at High Royds in 1967 and was also there at the West Riding Mental Hospital  in 1939 so I can now confirm that they were one and the same.
Dave

[LauraMurg]

Hi again,
I have found someone who died at High Royds in 1967 and was also there at the West Riding Mental Hospital  in 1939 so I can now confirm that they were one and the same.
Dave

Thank you so much!

[arthurk]

Having grown up near there, I can confirm that this will be High Royds. It was known informally as 'Menston', and it appears from this 1934 map that this used to be its official name:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/100946072

You'll see that it was then in the parish of Menston, in Wharfedale Rural District, the boundary being shown as a black dotted line round the south side of the site.

By 1938 it appears the boundary had been changed, and it was then in Aireborough Urban District:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/100946069

On this later map the boundary is seen as a red-brown dotted line along Bingley Road, the road which marks the northern edge of the hospital site.

[Bookbox]

A useful resource for answering this sort of query is the Hospital Records Database, which gives all the names and the dates when in use ...

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=2272&hospital=west+riding&town=&searchdatabase.x=93&searchdatabase.y=13

[cir]

Hello Laura,

As you have now found 'Menston' as most people knew it, was High Royds, one of the three ? mental hospitals for West Yorks.


You may be interested in the site which provides much background information. The hospital and grounds have now been redeveloped for housing.

http://www.highroydshospital.com/

regards CIR