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Middlewood Hospital


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Guest Essix Blue

More information on Walter.

My wife nursed him for years before she retired.

Walter's birthday is in April and he doesn't smoke. He breaks the cigars up and gives them to friends for "roll ups".

saw him in Hillsborough on Friday - hasn't changed

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Guest louise2395

Hi,

I actually live in Kingswood Hall and just wanted to clarify that the "Admin Block" and Kingswood Hall are in fact 2 separate buildings as this seems to be getting a bit confused. What is now generally thought of as the Admin Block is the one with the clock tower that you have many pictures of above. This is currently under development and when complete will comprise of 38 luxury apartments. Kingswood Hall is a much bigger building comprising of almost 100 luxury apartments and this has been completed and inhabited for nearly 3 years now. I think Kingswood Hall was also used for administration but I can't find much information on it.

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FACTS FOUND SO FAR..

The Kingswood block has been converted into luxury apartments,and called Kingswood Hall

One of the buildings was called 'Fairlawns' ?

There was a hospital magazine called 'Jigsaw'

1,189 staffed beds (date of count - 31.12.1975)

Thought to be the home of Sheffield ghosts and reported to be very haunted !

Fairlawns was on the right hand side & set back going up the drive. I understand it is now a pharmacy with possibly a doctors surgery.

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Guest nosy nellie

:P nosy nellie

THE ADMINISTRATION BLOCK

i worked at middlewood hospital for thirty years and loved every minute.what a shame it was sold.

the patients and staff had a beautifull enviroment to work and live in.

the patients had their own social club,so did the staff.and even had a large entertainment hall and had pantos at christmas.well known entertainers appearing sometimes taking time out from working in the town centre theatres, also the gardens and grounds were well maintained by the gardening staff and the patients, who also worked on the concrete unit and the car wash.not to mention the church and shop.also football pitch, and cricket pitch.

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Guest nosy nellie

:P nosy nellie

Fairlawns was on the right hand side & set back going up the drive. I understand it is now a pharmacy with possibly a doctors surgery.

list of wards middlewood hospital.

administration block.

kingswood.

queenswood.

northwood.

southwood.

hillside.

chalet.

bungalow.

northfield clinic.

woodside.

fairlawns.

ward 23 and 24.

plus all the other departments like

the laundry.and the works yard.

the church.

chapel of rest.

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Really enjoyed looking at the photo's, My best freinds parents both worked at middlewood so I spent a lot of time on the wards or kicking about the grounds. They also lived in one of the large cottages on Worral Rd, The thing that amazed me the most was the speed the buildings seemed to fall apart after the closure of the hospital, Almost like they just gave up and fell down. It was spooky walking around there when the place was up and running but going back when it was empty was twice as bad. I have heard some scary storys about that place and often wonder if the oppressive atmosphere still hang's around the new estate

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When we went up to take the pictures of the place - right bang in the middle of the new estate - it was fine, although the imposing sight of the clock tower at the end of a brand newly built road of houses was bizarre to see.

You turn into a drive, brand new road, brand new houses either side of you, then at the end of the drive a large fence and behind it, leering over the top, the clocktower staring down at you.

I was terrified of the place as a kid and still wouldn't want to play around there at night !

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Yes I dont think I would be too keen to live there, staying overnight in the cottage my best friend lived in was spooky enough, it used to belong to the hospital may years ago. Most of the old stone built cottages lining the tops of the ground's belonged to the hospital at some point. They demolished a lovely one that stood at the entrance to the grounds on worral road

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Guest J R Wrigley

This photo by that great photographer Furniss who took so many fine photos of the Hillsborough area shows the building when it was known as Wadsley Asylum. A favourite saying of my mother's was "You'll put me in Wadsley before you've finished". During WW1 it was a war hospital but even as late as the 1950s & 1960s was a psychiatric hospital.

A useful book is "A History of Middlewood Psychiatric Hospital. 1872 - 1972 Centenary" by F.T. Thorpe.

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Such grand and imposing buildings - well worth the effort of building structures like that.

Todays buildings seem to be bland and erected in no time at all

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Guest tsavo

Not only bland and quickly erected, but also short lived and rapidly becoming eyesores. Think of all the buildings built after 1960, and how many have been demolished already.

Broomhall Flats

Kelvin Flats

Registry Office

Town Hall extension (Egg Box)

Norfolk Park Tower Blocks

You must be able to name others, these are just off the top of my head.

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Once whilst installing equipment in the X-Ray department the hospital electrician asked me if I would like to see the theatre. He had to check that the evenings film was ready, he being the projectionist. What a great theatre, cinema and dance hall it was. When leaving I saw a condom machine and when I asked why, he said that the patients had the normal urges, good on them.

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A theatre !?

Cool !!

That sounds kinda cool - would be great to see a pic of that somehow..

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Guest jossman

STAFF

A cleaner there was called Kitty Turner

Joseph Robinson - http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlere...i?artid=1121568

Bob Swann

Julie Trigg (Bob Swann's) first wife

Anne Swann was nurse escort

Jack Sherrat

Ian franklin

Lynne Staniforth (now in Australia)

The daughter of Ron Staniforth the Sheffield Wednesday player

Bob Chiglow

Ron French - Administrator

Sir Arthur Jenkins

Horace Buttons

John Wilkin (office in clock tower building)

KNOWN PATIENTS

Clement Douglas Hobbs - http://www.chrishobbs.com/cdh.htm

Machel Serenna - http://www.aldous.net/thomas_aldous.htm

My name is Peter Swann and of the people mentioned above :-

Anne Swann Nurse Escort, is my mother now 88 years old.

Bob Swann is my brother, retired and living in Spain. He divorced Julie Trigg some years ago.

Lynne Staniforth now lives in Australia.

Ron French was a personal friend of my family and his parents lived next door to us on Shenstone Rd, Hillsborough.

Hope this helps.

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Hi Peter and welcome to the site !

Thanks for posting and helping us with the information

We would love to hear of your memories both on this subject and anything else on the site you can contribute to !

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Guest tsavo

Corrections to the Middlewood Staff list. Sir Authur Jenkins & Horrace Buttons were patients, not staff. Sir Authur patrolled the drive when I was young.

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Guest jossman

Hi Peter and welcome to the site !

Thanks for posting and helping us with the information

We would love to hear of your memories both on this subject and anything else on the site you can contribute to !

I was serving in the Royal Navy during my families work time in the early '70s at Middlewood and my 1st wife, another Julie Swann worked as an occy therapist in the small stone cottage down near the petrol station just up from the bottom gate. I have had many good nights up the club in the company of Jack Sherrat (who married Christine) Ian Franklyn of the Cheadles Fracks fame and Big Bob Chidlow. Jack and I played guitar and sang. Sir Arthur Jenkins who had tertiary syphillis was an ex Sgt. Major during the war and often wrote me letters to my ship asking for a delivery of fags and signing VC. OBE. Knight of the Garter. Horace Button was always fiddling with his nether regions and screaming "Don't Hit Me". As if anybody would. I once went onto the locked ward to see Jack S. and was confronted by Ada Marie, stark naked and informing everybody that she had a belly full of cobras and was going to kill me.

The first person of my family to work at Middlewood was my Grandfather Mr. Robert Hibbert who was i/c of stores from before the war up until Mr. Wilson took over. Many happy memories of the place. My brother Bob became Director of Clinical Services at Preston Health Services and retired to the Mar Menor, Spain in spring of 2005. Julie Trigg is still in Community Psychiatric Care Services in the Barnsley region.

Thanks for bringing the memories back.

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Having a belly full of cobras must have been a distressing prospect for Ada Marie.

I sometimes wonder what makes a person have such a specific ailment - and how it comes to be that they settle on something like that to worry about..

The hospital and grounds must have been absolutely MASSIVE that's for sure

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NOTES

Orignally Middlewood hospital was known as South Yorkshire Asylum (1872-1890) It then became West Riding Asylum, Wadsley (1890-1930) apart from a couple of years from 1915 onwards when the hospital was evacuated by the military to be used as Wharncliffe War Hospital.From 1930 the hospital became Wadsley Mental hospital and remained so until 1939 when 2,200 patients were evacuated so that the hospital could once again be used as a war hospital.

After the military had finished with it, the hospital again became Wadsley mental hospital until 1948 when it became Middlewood hospital.

Not all the original inmates of the hospital were lunatics, some were paupers from the workhouses who were no longer able to work, some were women suffering from post-natal depression and some were suffering from things like epilepsy.

Insulin shock treatment was introduced into the hospital in 1935 for the treatment of schizophrenia. The hospital also had a mortuary and post mortem room.

the hospital had a working farm (pigs/dairy)

Some were also there because they had been born there.Also some of the women were there because they had children out of wedlock

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That's just incredible isn't it !

Have a baby out of wedlock and off you go to Middlewood Hospital

Almost impossible to believe..

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That's just incredible isn't it !

Have a baby out of wedlock and off you go to Middlewood Hospital

Almost impossible to believe..

Pretty sure it was a result of the Mental Deficiencies Act which was only repealed somewhere around 1953.

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In 1962, the new villa block (wards 32 & 33) was officially opened by the lord mayor of Sheffield Alderman P.C.J.T Kirkman, J.P. on September 19th. The villa cost £63,000 and with accomodation for 60 patients in 2 wards it was initially used to empty adjacent wards for modernisation and upgrading.

In 1965, a car washing unit was established in the old farm premises manned by male patients who provided an excellant service cleaning and polishing cars belonging to hospital staff and visitors in return for a moderate fee.

In 1966 a domestic training unit for rehabilitation in house keeping was set up in the vacent lodge on Middlewood Rd. The female patients were able to practise and relearn their traditional role in family life prior to discharge.

In 1967 the new Nurse Training unit was completed at the cost of £37,000 and provided Middlewood with an education centre worthy of its importance and size. In the same year, a new block for resident nurses was built in the site adjacent to the staff sports ground. Plans were also in progress for the building of a new staff sports and social centre which opened in 1969.

(The Middlewood Hospital Sheffield. One Hundred Years - 1872 - 1972)

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That was very interesting......................an old mate of mine used to be a porter there in the late 60's and 70's..........he told me, at the time

There were a lot of "in character" patients there at the time. These ranged from patients who thought that they were and dressed as, among others, Florence Nightingale and Napoleon

Imposters!

I'M Florence Nightingale!

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