Catalogue description CRUMPSALL HOSPITAL AND INSTITUTION

M326/1/1-3 REGISTRAR'S RECORDS

M326/1/1 Birth registers, 1934-1948

M326/1/2 Death registers, 1933-1945

M326/1/3 Death register indexes, 1929-1954

M326/2/1-6 HOSPITAL AND INSTITUTION REGISTERS

M326/2/1 Indexes to patients (male), 1907-1934 [RESTRICTED ISSUE]

M326/2/2 Indexes to patients (female), 1912-1944 [RESTRICTED ISSUE]

M326/2/3 Admission and discharge registers (hospital), 1937-1949.

M326/2/4 Admission and discharge registers (institution), 1933-1938

M326/2/5 Register of admissions to the receiving wards, 1944-1946.

M326/2/6 Mortuary particulars book, 1946-1948.

M326/3/1-5 MEDICAL REGISTERS [RESTRICTED ISSUE]

M326/3/1 Operation registers, 1927-1947

M326/3/2 Ward registers, 1926-1958

M326/3/3 Record of maternity cases (institution/auxiliary hospital, 1917-1952.

M326/3/4 Register of patients: Prisoner of War and Army, 1944-1959.

M326/3/5 Index to venereal disease register, 1920-1953.

M326/4/1-6 NURSES' RECORDS

M326/4/1 Nurses' registers, 1891-1944.

M326/4/2 Day Nurse report books, 1893-1909.

M326/4/3 Night Nurse report books, 1889-1914.

M326/4/4 Patient diet book, 1891-1892.

M326/4/5 Matron's letter book, 1917-1944.

M326/4/6 Matron's 'Board Order Book', 1925-1930.

M326/5/1-5 MISCELLANEOUS HOSPITAL RECORDS

M326/5/1 Medical Officer's report book, 1929-1933.

M326/5/2 Physiotherapy weekly statistics, 1936-1949.

M326/5/3 Pamphlets, 1916-1917.

M326/5/4 Inventory cards, 1923.

M326/5/5 Signs and notices, 1879-1910.

M326/6/1-5 PLANS

M326/6/1 Manchester New Workhouse (Mills and Murgatroyd, Architects and Co., Manchester), 1853-1892.

M326/6/2 Manchester Union Crumpsall Workhouse additions and alterations (A.J. Murgatroyd, architect), 1901-1911.

M326/6/3 Crumpsall Institution and Hospital additions and alterations (Superintendent of Works, Manchester Union), 1911-1930.

M326/6/4 Crumpsall Institution and Hospital additions and alterations (City of Manchester Architect's Department), 1937-1947.

M326/6/5 Miscellaneous plans, 1858-1948.

M326/7/1 BEECH MOUNT MATERNITY HOME

M326/7/1 Registers of patients, 1932-1948. [RESTRICTED ISSUE]

INFORMATION GIVEN IN THE REGISTERS

REGISTRAR'S RECORDS

M326/1/1/1-4 Birth registers:

Date of birth, particulars of mother or parent (name, age, occupation, date of admission, religion, address), particulars of child (name, sex, legitimate or illegitimate), date birth notice sent.

M326/1/2/1-3 Death registers:

Date of death, date of admission, name, age, address, religion, status, occupation, ward, certified cause of death, funeral arrangements made by, when and where buried.

M326/1/3/1-3 Death register indexes:

Name, age, date of death, date of admission [M326/1/3/3 also gives the ward].

HOSPITAL AND INSTITUTION REGISTERS

M326/2/1/1-8 Indexes to patients (male):

Date of admission, name, age, religion, status, ward, discharged when/how, remarks [M326/2/1/4,5 include patient diagnosis: RESTRICTED ISSUE].

M326/2/2/1-9 Indexes to patients (female):

Date of admission, name, age, religion, status, ward, discharge when/how, remarks [M326/2/2/1,2 include patient diagnosis: RESTRICTED ISSUE].

M326/2/3/1-2 Admission and discharge registers (hospital):

Date of admission, name, date of birth, ward, religion, date of discharge or dead.

M326/2/4/1 Admission and discharge register (institution):

Date of admission, name, year born, occupation, religious persuasion, class for diet, remarks, date of the order of admission, if born in the Institution name of parents, date of discharge, how discharged.

M326/2/5/1 Register of admissions to the receiving wards:

Date and time of admission, name, age, time of medical inspection, class or ward to which assigned, remarks.

M326/2/6/1 Mortuary particulars book:

Date and time received, name, age, religion, ward, slab number, viewed (name and relationship to be stated), size of coffin (when buried by the Corporation), date and time removed, date and place of burial, signature of undertaker.

MEDICAL REGISTERS [RESTRICTED ISSUE]

M326/3/1/1-12 Operation registers:

Date of admission, name, age, sex, clinical diagnosis, date of operation, ward, operation performed and condition found, surgeon, nature of anaesthetic, anaesthetist, remarks.

M326/3/2/1-25 Ward registers:

Date of admission, name, age, time admitted to ward, time of first examination by Medical Officer, diagnosis on discharge, date of discharge, condition of discharge.

M326/3/3/1 Maternity ward register (institution/auxiliary hospital):

Name of mother, married/single/widow, birth legitimate or illegitimate, occupation, address, date of admission, date of delivery, treatment given during delivery, result of delivery, date of discharge, mother's condition and destination on discharge, if death occurred state date and cause.

Name of child, sex, weight, date of discharge.

M326/3/4/1 Prisoner of War and Army Register:

Date of admission, date of discharge, name, religion, age, address, status, service particulars, regiment, rank, name and address of next of kin, diagnosis, ward.

M326/3/5/1 Index to venereal disease register:

Name, union (poor law), patient's number, date of admission, date of discharge, number in register.

M326/4/1/1-12 Nurses' registers:

Particulars (name, entry date, age, condition, circumstances, previous occupation, address of friends, referees, previous illnesses), training, illness, holiday.

BEECHMOUNT MATERNITY HOME

M326/7/1/1-3 Registers of patients: [RESTRICTED ISSUE]

Name and address, date of admission, history of previous pregnancies and confinements, date and hour of delivery, name and address of person who delivered the patient, puerperium, infants (number born, sex, dead or alive, method of feeding), result and date of discharge (mother and child), remarks, fees received.

Crumpsall Workshouse, 1855-1915

Crumpsall Infirmary, 1915-?

Crumpsall Hospital, ?-1975

Records containing personal, medical information about individuals are subject to one hundred years closure (ref: M326/2/1/4,5; M326/2/2/1,2; M326/3/1-5; M326/7/1).

The records were deposited in 1979 with the permission of R. Townsend, District Administrator, Manchester Area Health Authority (Teaching), North District.

• Crumpsall, Manchester
• Health services
• Maternal and child health

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 transferred responsibility for the provision of poor relief from the parishes to the newly-created poor law unions which were administered by boards of guardians. One of the tasks of the guardians was to provide workhouse accommodation or 'indoor relief' to those in need; typically the old, the sick, the handicapped, children and unmarried mothers. The workhouses had sick wards or sometimes separate infirmaries: conditions were often appalling, though by the end of the nineteenth century there had been some improvement in this respect and the workhouses became significant providers of medical care to the poor.

At the beginning of the twentieth century there were strong movements towards changing the poor law. In 1913 it was decreed that union workhouses should be referred to as 'poor law institutions', thus attempting to remove the stigma of the workhouse, but it was not until the Local Government Act of 1929 that the administrative structure of the Victorian poor law was dismantled. With effect from 31st March 1930, the boards of guardians were dissolved and their responsibilities transferred to the county and county borough councils. The poor law institutions were now known as 'public assistance institutions', and though some were converted for specialised purposes, most continued to function in much the same way.

The surviving remnants of the poor law were brought to an end by the National Assistance Act of 1948, one of the measures which inaugurated the welfare state. Many workhouse buildings were demolished or fell into disuse, but some were converted to serve other purposes, most commonly as hospitals.

In Manchester the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 created three unions: Manchester Union, Prestwich Union and Chorlton Union. The Manchester Union workhouse was originally situated in New Bridge Street, but when this building proved inadequate for its purpose a new, replacement workhouse was built in Crumpsall on a site adjacent to the Prestwich Union Workhouse just north of Crescent Road. The new workhouse, designed by Mills and Murgatroyd, Architects and Co. of Manchester, was opened in 1855 (for plans see M326/6/1/1-27). The workhouse infirmary in New Bridge Street continued in use until it too was replaced by a new building at Crumpsall in 1876.

In 1915 the three poor law unions were amalgamated into the single Manchester Union and at Crumpsall the dividing wall between Prestwich Union Workhouse and the workhouse and infirmary of the old Manchester Union was demolished. Although the workhouse continued to function as a poor law and later public assistance institution until around 1940, it was the infirmary and the provision of medical care that saw real development. Crumpsall benefited greatly from the amalgamation of 1915. The Prestwich Union Workhouse became Crumpsall Infirmary Annexe and was used mainly for incontinent and chronically-sick patients. In total Crumpsall had around two thousand hospital beds and a separate accommodation for mental cases. In 1923 a pathological laboratory was opened at Crumpsall which dealt with pathological work from all the poor law hospitals in Manchester, work previously done at the Public Health Laboratory. Crumpsall Infirmary was also a recognised centre for the treatment of venereal disease and accepted patients not only from the Manchester Union, but also from other poor law unions in Lancashire (ref: M326/3/5/1).

From 1922 an auxiliary hospital for paying patients was developed in the institution building which created the anomalous situation, reported on in the Manchester Guardian, 4th July 1935, in which private patients were sharing wards with those too poor to pay for treatment. The Auxiliary Hospital, Crescent Road, as it was known, had a separate maternity ward and there is a surviving register of patients which may refer directly to this ward (ref: M326/3/3/1). The collection also includes some registers from Beech Mount Maternity Home, formerly North Manchester Maternity Home (ref: M326/7/1/1-2). It was not part of the hospital, but was a typical municipal maternity home for non-paying and also paying patients set up to provide an alternative environment for childbirth to the hospital wards.

Like Withington Hospital, Crumpsall Hospital was recognised as a training school for nurses and midwives by the General Nursing Council and the Central Midwives Board and this is reflected in the nurses' registers that have been deposited (ref: M326/4/1/1-12).

Developments at Crumpsall continued after 1930 and the transfer of control from the Manchester Board of Guardians to the Corporation of the City of Manchester. It was not until 1948 and the creation of the National Health Service that there was a major reorganisation. The old Manchester workhouse or institution building, now known as Springfield Hospital, was united with Swinton Hospital under the Springfield and Swinton Hospital Management Committee. Crumpsall Hospital and its Annexe, otherwise known as Delauneys Hospital, joined, amongst others, Ancoats Hospital and Beech Mount Maternity Home under the North Manchester Hospital Management Committee. Crumpsall, Delauneys and Springfield were reunited as North Manchester General Hospital in 1975 as part of the NHS reorganisation.

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