Storthes Hall Lunatic Asylum

[karen wade]

Hi tony thanks for the information you have shared with me, you seem to be doing well with your researching.i tired to get in to view the family tree but dont know how to get it up.i am learning at the moment so it is all a bit new to me.edmund was married to eleanor my grandma on the 12th of june 1916 at the parish church of westown.edmunds sons were called clifford and arthur and is daughter was called ethel.arthur as 2 daughters ,clifford had 3 sons and 1 daughter.and ethel as 1 son and 1 daughter.i will see if i can help you with information on the 1800s hope to hear from you .

[tonybee]

It's been a long time since I was here and much has happened in between with the Newsome tree being expanded into those of the Hooleys, Brettons, Wrays, Gates, Britt and my own Berry tree. The end result has been the very recent publication of my book From Paupers To iPads - a Journey Across Seven Generations.
Yet that is not the end; the explorations continue - and so do the questions.
Today I received a death certificate for grand-uncle Harold Newsome who died in North Spring House, Kirkburton, in 1975. Was the old Stothes Hall Asylum still being used as "recently" as this? Or had it been modernised by then?

[MichaelH]

I looked up this thread because my aunt, Elsie Traves, worked as a nurse at Storthes Hall from about 1940 to the late 1960s. I can remember as a small child being taken to a Christmas party there in the early 50s. For a while I lived in Highburton and met a few patients but it was not until I came across this that I realised what a huge institution it was.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/conten..._feature.shtml

[BayHorse]

Today I received a death certificate for grand-uncle Harold Newsome who died in North Spring House, Kirkburton, in 1975. Was the old Stothes Hall Asylum still being used as "recently" as this? Or had it been modernised by then?

I think it closed in the early '90s, off the top of my head. Then sold to the University of Huddersfield for student accomodation.

...Apparently, Storthes Hall is now a residential building for Student's ...... I wouldn't like to live there, not with the 'ghosts' of poor, unhappy inmates *in the atmosphere*.

Diane, it wasn't just the one building. Most of it was completely demolished (see Google images for an aerial shot of the grounds, before the new flats were built). Only the old admin building remains, and that is behind chain-link fencing and guarded by a dog patrol. The new student accomodation covers quite a big area - my daughter went to live there in 2007 when she went away to uni; the flats are bright and comfortable. She loved living there - her flat was in the 'North Spring' block. There was, however, no denying the 'atmosphere' in certain parts of the grounds.

Imagine our shock when we discovered only recently that my 'missing' great-grandmother had actually ended her days in Storthes Hall.

We've been back to visit the burial ground at Thurstonland to pay our respects. Such a sad place - the asylum graves are in a square of field behind the village church, and a fitting memorial was put up this summer, at the gateway to the field.