The Hill End Hospital Cemetery

Google Satellite view 2017

It is some years since I visited it and posted details on the Genealogy Web Site and a recent query to this blog reminded me that I should bring the information up to date. The original web page related to the cemetery in 2009, at a time when work was being done to get it in order and make it respectable. I visited it again two or there year later and took photographs which are somewhere among some 25,000 waited to be sorted!  While I have added a future visit to my "to do" list I have decided to use the services of Google to see the current position.

It would seem that a small garden of rest area has been laid out adjoining the path but the area where most of the graves is much as it was in 2007 - in effect a hay meadow with many young trees (I suspect mainly oak). As such the Garden should be a pleasant place to sit and rest and contemplate nature - which was one of the things my daughter Lucy did when she was a patient there.

For more information on the Hertfordshire Asylums see ASYLUM

In updating the page I came across a problem that might affect other pages on the web site. I had included a direct link to Google showing a satellite view before any changes (circa 2007) and of course this had automatically updated to a different 2017 view.

Behind the Scenes Activity (Early May 2014)

In addition to the changes announced in the Newsletter there is always a lot going on behind the scenes. The following refer to the first two weeks in May.

Post Cards

New or improved images

unless otherwise stated a high resolution image is provided

• St Leonards, Bengeo: New coloured Picture of church - (separate page set up for church)
• Tallow Works Fire, Bernards Heath:  Greatly improved image added and linked to publisher
• Street View, Buckland: New picture including school children
• River Colne: Coloured picture of Five Arches Railway Bridge replaces monochrome version
• James Dickson, St Albans:  2014 photograph of his memorial vault in St Peter's Churchyard
• Hill End Hospital, St Albans: 1905 picture of Nurses taken by Montiville Evans from St Albans museum collection.
• Grimston Grave, Tewin: Another image (no larger image available) of the collection of different views of this interesting grave.

Places

Minor Place Page updates

• Bayford House, Bayford: additional information on occupiers.
• Bedwell Park, Essendon: additional information on occupiers.
• Rye House, Hoddesdon: Link to history of the Rye House Tavern
• Hill End Hospital, St Albans: New dating information on post card

New Publisher Link Pages:

• John Bishop of Royston (Father & Son) John senior's father was an artist in a travelling theatre)
• Knight Brothers
• Mitchell & Watkins
• Montiville Evans of St Albans - including extensive biography

Help Desk

Minor Queries and other emails

• Advised Carol about the start of civil registration and suggested she would find details of the 1837 birth/baptism on familysearch.org.
• Advised Julie about a possible home for some old school magazines and a family bible
• The census (especially if mis-transcribed) can cause problems and I suggested reasons why Kathy was confused.
• Ev, a distant cousin, contacted me about an exchange of information about common ancestors. Unfortunately I did the research over 30 years ago on a computer which no longer exists. Part of the information is somewhere in boxes of computer listings buried in boxes at the back of the garage. ... ...
• I don't have time to give a full answer to every enquiry and where appropriate I give preference to people who live a long way from Hertfordshire. As Lesley lived only a few miles from an excellent Hertfordshire Library with more relevant resources than I have, I suggested that a visit to the library would be more appropriate.
• Contacted Dianne about the exhibition 'Bushey during the Great War' in August [Full details will be posted later]
• Ian has provided a new link to the online account The Railway comes to Tring

A number of the above involve new or updated links to/from related pages. In addition there are some other "draft updates" already online which will be notified later this month.

Hill End Asylum, St Albans & Wikimedia Commons

Hill End Asylum, St Albans, circa 1904

I have just added the above post card image of Hill End Hospital, which shows the entrance block and the chapel, to the Hill End page of the main site.

And what has Wikimedia Commons to do with it? I hear you ask.

At the present time I am looking to upgrade my computer, tidy up my office and get my files in order. I am also looking into ways of ensuring long term access to some of the more valuable areas of the site. One area where this is possible is to "outsource" higher resolution images of old (out of copyright) post cards to Wikimedia Common. There will be no change to appearance of my web site until you click on a blue-framed image where there is a higher resolution image. The proposed new arrangement will show the larger image in a Wikimedia Common page - fully documented and with various sized images for download. In addition the images handled in this way will be permanently available to anyone. 

I have used the Hill End example to assess how well the approach works and you can see two Wikimedia images via the Hill End page or by clicking the following links.

Hill End - North side with reception building and chapel

Hill End - South side with ward buildings

Let me know, by a comment below, what you think of the change - and if the reaction is favourable I will start loading more higher resolution pictures onto the site where appropriate and copyright laws allow.

Mental Heath and Lunatic Asylums in Hertfordshire

Issue 18 of Herts Part and Present includes an article Unfit for General Society: a history of mental health care in Hertfordshire by Gary Moyle. The abstract reads:

As Gary Moyle remarks, Hertfordshire is notable for the many mental hospitals within its borders. Here he offers an overview of the care of mentally ill from the fourteenth century to the present, showing how responsibility has passed from the Crown to the community, via the parish and private asylums. Along the way he notes those humanitarians, such as William Tuke, whose efforts improved conditions for the afflicted.

This site already has several pages relating to mental health including Early Mad Houses in St Albans and Harpenden,  The Long Stay Hospitals of the St Albans Area, and Hill End Asylum.  Some of you will already have made a donation to the Herts Mind Network, read what happened to Lucy and Belinda, and understand my personal interest in the subject.

Hill End Patient, 1902

So on to the article - Gary works at HALS and has been actively involved in sorting out the information on Hill End and has produced a very useful summary of the sort of information available at HALS.  It would seem that until about 200 years ago all but the most unmanageable mental cases would have been looked after in the community, although licensed asylums were available for those who could afford to pay. The County Asylum Act of 1808 lead to Bedfordshire opening an asylum for pauper lunatics and Hertfordshire joined in in 1828. The Three County Asylum was built in 1860 and Hill End opened from Hertfordshire patients in 1899. Perhaps the main lesson from the paper is that if you have a Hertfordshire ancestor who ended up in an Hertfordshire asylum the place to start is at HALS. 

However I should add a rider - as there were also a number of asylums built in Hertfordshire for Middlesex/London patients and their records are not in Hertfordshire - See The Long Stay Hospitals of the St Albans Area

Mental Health Records in Hertfordshire

Yesterday I attended the "Herts and Minds" evening at HALS and was impressed by the range of original documents relating to mental heath in the Hertfordshire county archives. I was interested to see the case notes of early Hill End Asylum patients and the deaths register. I noted the burial details of Emily Evans, whose tombstone I had recorded on the page about old asylum cemetery - and it appears that the first few patients who died in the asylum had grave stones - but later patients had more economic burials. However, despite the wealth of material on display the message I left with the impression that for many of the mentally ill of the past very few records remain.

In addition to the documents on display there was a very informative series of display panels on the history of mental illness in Hertfordshire over the centuries. They will remain at HALS until the end of next week, but it is planned to make them available on the Out of Sight, Out of Mind web site. (this site has greatly improved since I last visited it.) There was also a very informative booklet .about the Out of Sight, Out of Mind project - and the map showing the five St Albans Asylums is taken from this booklet. The booklet is interesting for its honesty in that it looks at the various events in the history of the project and for each identifies "What worked", "What could have gone better" and "Special moment". 

There were also two stands. The Hitchin Historical Society is adding to their list of publications by bringing out a new book Cold Baths don't Work - A History of Mental Health Care in the Hitchin Area, by Mike Clarke. It is being launched at 10.30 on 29th October at Centenary House, Grammar School Walk, Hitchin, SG5 1JN. 

The mental health charity Viewpoint was also there and I had a long talk as I was in regular contact with the charity about five years ago - when I ran the blog Hertfordshire Mental Health Crisis. (Since running this I have retired from all the committees I was on - so I am not involved in the current more serious cut backs.)