Browse by Records Creators

Hill End Hospital, St Albans

This page summarises records created by this Organisation

The summary includes a brief description of the collection(s) (usually including the covering dates of the collection), the name of the archive where they are held, and reference information to help you find the collection.

Alternative name(s):
  • Hertfordshire County Asylum (Formerly known as)
  • Hertfordshire County Mental Hospital (Formerly known as)
  • Hill End Hospital for the Prevention and Treatment of Mental and Nervous Disorders (Formerly known as)
Date: 1738-1995
History: From 1860 mental patients from Hertfordshire were accommodated at the Three Counties Asylum (shared by Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Huntingdonshire). In the early 1890's Hertfordshire County Council decided that new accommodation was required and 185 acres of farmland at Hill End on the outskirts of St Albans was purchased with a view to building an asylum for Hertfordshire patients. A visiting committee was later appointed to oversee the construction of the asylum and run it when it was built. The first patients were admitted to the asylum in April 1899, when it had a nominal capacity of 820 beds for inmates.

In 1931 the hospital had a nominal capacity of 952 beds. Private patients were charged between £1 5s and £3 3s per week, and there was a separate country house for paying women patients. During World War II it served as a military hospital run by St Bartholomews, and after the War St Bartholmews continued to control about one quarter of the beds (for acute patients), the rest of the hospital being devoted to mental patients.

Following the creation of the National Health Service in 1948, control passed from Hertfordshire County Council to the Mid Hertfordshire Group No. 7 Hospital Management Committee, part of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. In 1974 it passed to the North West Hertfordshire District Health Authority in the North West Thames Regional Health Authority. In the 1950s it had accommodation for about 800 patients, and in the 1980s for about 500 patients. In 1992 it became part of the Dacorum and St Albans Community NHS Trust, later known as the West Herts Community Health NHS Trust. With the implementation, however, of the government's policy of care in the community, the decision was made to close the hospital on 29 November 1995.
Places:
  • St Albans, Hertfordshire
Functions, occupations and activities: Health and social care > Hospitals
History Links: introduction to catalogue
References: Hosprec database
Name authority reference: GB/NNAF/C65820 (Former ISAAR ref: GB/NNAF/O61989 )
Collections
Number Description Held by Reference Further information
1
1893-1992: Visiting Committee minutes, casebooks, deaths and discharges registers, requirements books, plans and photographs
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Acc 1025
See Annual Return 1994; Annual Report 1994
2
1913-1938: further minutes and annual reports
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Off Acc 1428
See Annual Return 2005
3
records
St Albans Museum
SABMS
4
1904-1987: misc records
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Acc 4487
See Annual Return 2008
5
1894-1914: ledgers
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
HM1/A3/1, HM1/A3/9
See Annual Return 2009
6
1879-1995: records, including minutes, patient and staff registers and records, accounts, photographs, plans, printed material and other records
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
HM1
7
1894-1900: letter books (incl Three Counties Asylum)
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Off Acc 80
8
1738-1949: deeds and other documents on hospital estate, contracts for work and reception of patients
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Off Acc 79
9
1738-1949: deeds and other documents on hospital estate, contracts for work and reception of patients
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Off Acc 79
10
1912-1994: Art Therapy Department: photographs and papers
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Off Acc 1833
Related record creators
  Record creator Description of relationship Dates Category of relationship
1
Hertfordshire County Council
Hill End Hospital was run by Hertfordshire County Council
1930-1948
Hierarchical
2
Hill End Hospital Management Committee
Hill End Hospital was managed by Hill End Hospital Management Committee
1948-1974
Hierarchical