NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Board Archives

[JackyHSF]

Hi

Just to say that I followed up on information I found in Poor Relief Application documents for a couple of ancestors who had been committed for insanity. I submitted enquiry forms to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Board Archives, giving names and dates of entry. I was just checking that the records still existed and whether I could go and look at them some time in the future.

That was 29th April and yesterday I got back e-mails giving an outline of their records for Gartnavel Royal Asylum and Leverndale Hospital and:

We have also located case notes and her admission documents for her stay in the asylum, which we will photocopy and send to you. These give more details on the circumstances of her admission, observations made during her stay and details of treatment she received.

I thought this might be encouraging to anyone who might have similar queries to follow up and is too far away to get to Glasgow easily (or at all!).

Thanks to Alistair Tough at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Board Archives for such a great response.

Jacky

[joette]

Yes it is a great resource & I have had similiar luck with Mr Tough & his confederates.
It helps to put the meat on the bones & give us more insight to our ancestors lives.
In my case it helped to solve a "disparity" around accounts of my GGreat-Grandparents lives & led me onto other paths to search.

[Rab]

I've a couple of ancestors that I might enquire about so thanks for the post as I never thought of this line of enquiry. Does this cover only admissions for insanity do you know?

I have one ancestor who was admitted to Hawkhead in 1914 and one who died in the Govan Poorhouse in 1918. The Hawkhead one is Renfrewshire so I'll probably have to look elsewhere for tht but I might try enquiring about the Govan one.

Cheers

Rab

[Russell]

Hi Rab

The Hawkhead one is NOT in Renfrewshire. The original name given to the Govan Lunatic Asylum in Crookston Road was Hawkhead Asylum and it most definitely is in Lanarkshire.
You are probably thinking of the Hawkhead Infectious diseases Hospital in Paisley so called because it was on Hawkhead Road, Paisley.
The two hospitals lie almost back to back with one another across the fields of the original estates on which they were built.

Ask in the Glasgow archives about Leverndale Hospital which is the current name for the old Asylum.
Merryflats was the Govan Poor law institution (now the Southern General Hospital) The Poor law records for there are in the Mitchell. It was part Hospital , part Poor law residential and the third part was mental illness. The records for all three may still be along with all the other Govan Parish Board records.

Russell

[Rab]

Hi Russell,

I will say first I am easily confused.

What you said fits with my ancestor. He lived in Govan at the time he was admitted to Hawkhead and I would have thought it would have been Merryflats he would have been admitted to, like his brother 4 years later who also stayed in Govan.

On his his death entry though the place of death, as for all on the page, is recorded as Hawkhead Asylum, Paisley and the death is recorded in Renfrew. Nelmit kindly looked up the poorhouse records a while back and there was record there which read:

Application date - 12/8/14
Wife died 2 years ago.
His nephew David Reekie applies for his removal to asylum.
12/8 - Removed to Hawkhead Asylum by James Mackay.
Died 15/8/14.

The death was registered in Paisley and the informant was the assistant storekeeper.

Rab

[Russell]

Hi Rab

In 1914 Hawkhead Asylum stood on its own in rolling estate lands miles from anywhere. It was bounded on one side by the White Cart Water and half a mile over the Howford bridge was Crookston railway station with a direct line into Paisley. It was probably easier to register a death in Paisley than travel miles into Glasgow to register there. Govan was a fair distance away too.
Hillington, Crookston and Ralston are all post WWl developments and thePollok housing estate which eventually lapped right up to the hospital gates was a post WWll scheme.
The only buildings of note around it were Ross Hall (now a private hospital) Crookston house (now merely a memory) and the Poor Law Institution for Lanarkshire half a mile away along at the other end of Crookston Road.
My hospital badge from Hawkhead has the eagles head on a five point yellow star with the hospital tower in the background.
Even by 1939 the hospital was still remarkably isolated.
The Paisley mental hospital was Riccartsbar, off Craw Road so an unlikely place for him to be sent.
The Paisley Hawkhead hospital never admitted folk with mental illness. A Thoracic/respiratory unit was developed there and part of the grounds were used to build an auxiliary midwifery/maternity hospital which was used for Glasgow pregnant mums. so there must have been problems with babies being from Glasgow possibly being registered in Paisley. I don't know how that worked though.

I would suggest you stick to the Govan links initially since Parish records are more accessible anyway.

Russell

[nelmit]

Many years ago when I was a wee girl Leverndale Hospital was called Hawkhead Asylum as Russell said.

A word of caution.
It can be very distressing to delve into these records. I received my Great Grandmother's records about 18 months ago and still haven't read through the whole thing.

viewtopic.php?t=2567&highlight
Kind regards,
Annette M

[garibaldired]

Hi,

As a matter of interest did you have to pay anything for these hospital records?
I enquired about some in an English city archives and was told that there was a 100 year closure on them and to see them before I would have to apply to the Health Authority responsible. If permission is granted the archives would be required to carry out the research and the charge is £18.00 an hour. They estimate between 1 and 3 hours and would require 2 cheques for £18 each before they start.
Do you think this is a reasonable charge?

I'd be interested to know other people's experiences and whether there is a significant difference between England and Scotland in this.

Regards,
Meg

[nelmit]

Hello Meg,

I paid nothing - not even postage - for the 6 pages of records I received including an enlargement of the photograph.

That was about 18 months ago, don't know if things have changed.

Kind regards,
Annette M

[Rab]

@Russell- Thanks for the information. That's alot clearer to me now. I'll give them a bash to see if anything turns up.

@Annette- Thanks for the advice as I can imagine reading those records is very different to reading a DC. People become more than just a name.

You mentioned a photograph. Was this a photograph of your great grandmother?

Cheers

Rab