| Located At | Staffordshire Record Office |
| Level | Collection |
| Doc Ref No | D550, D4298, D4553, D4585, D4712, D5379/2, 5634, 5644, D5868, 6180, 6365, 6366, 6453, 6756, D7212, 7369, D7386, D7433, D7531/2, D7635/2, D7905 |
| Title | Records of Stafford Asylum or Stafford County Asylum, later called County Mental Hospital, later St George's Hospital, Stafford |
| Administrative History | Staffordshire General Lunatic Asylum opened on a 40-acre site to the north east of Stafford town centre in 1818. The original building was designed by the County Surveyor, Joseph Potter, with room for 120 patients. The asylum originally took in patients from several other counties: Derbyshire, Cheshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Leicestershire and Northampton. By the 1830s only Warwickshire and Leicestershire were sending patients.
The hospital was enlarged in 1849-1850. When Coton Hill Asylum opened in 1854 for private paying patients, the Stafford County Asylum then predominantly took in only working class and 'pauper lunatics'. Further enlargements to the buildings took place in the 1880s.
The hospital was transferred to the National Health Service in 1948 and later renamed St George's Hospital. Coton Hill was run in conjunction with St George's, sharing admission registers.
In 1999 The Foundation NHS Trust had the following buildings for adult care, some on the main St George's Hospital site at Corporation Street and others elsewhere in Stafford, or in the wider district: Brocton House, Chebsey House, Walton Ward, Norbury House, Hopton Ward, Stonefield House, Coton House, Chartley Centre [on the Stone Road], Springmeadow Day Hospital [Cannock], St David's Day Hospital, ARC Cannock, ARC Rugeley, Out-patients St David's House. Later-life care was offered at Baswich Ward, Milford Ward, Kingstone Ward, Grove Ward, Fairoak Ward, Kingswood Day Hospital, Out-patients St Chad's. Forensic Directorate was at Ashley House and Radford House. There was also a Child and Family Consultation Centre. |
| Date | 1812-2002 |
| Description | This collection consists of administrative records, and a smaller quantity of medical and other patient records, including complete admission records for more recent years. It is known that many records were left in the old building, and that some were destroyed by the health authority under retention of medical records acts or reasons of confidentiality. |
| Extent | 164 catalogue entries |
| AccessNote | Access Restricted |
| Access Conditions | Medical records less than 100 years old are not normally accessible for consultation by the public. Please contact Staffordshire Record Office for further information. |
| Copyright | Any questions concerning the publication of images of documents in this collection should be directed to the County Archivist, Staffordshire Record Office, Eastgate Street, Stafford ST16 2 LZ. |
| Related Material | Patient records up to 1920 have been indexed see: https://www.staffsnameindexes.org.uk
A dataset of information taken from patient records was completed in 2021. For further information see 'About the project' at: https://www.staffsnameindexes.org.uk/default.aspx?Index=U&About=1
A blog about the Staffordshire Asylums was produced as part of the project and is at: https://staffordshireasylumrecords.wordpress.com/
[Links accessed 9/2/2022]
For further information contact Staffordshire Record Office |
| See separate collection of management records of The Foundation NHS Trust, later the South Staffordshire & Shropshire NHS Foundation Trust. |