Rainhill Hospital

[MaryA]

Last night Laura Rafferty, Chairman of the Liverpool & South West Lancashire Family History Society, gave a talk about Rainhill Hospital at the St Helens History Society Meeting. She had grown up there as the child of staff members and later worked there as a nurse herself and was able to give an informative talk about life on the inside. I felt was so sympathetically presented that it would make our forum members appreciate the life both patients and staff lived

Everything possible was done to protect patients and I noted some details that might assist anybody who has certificates.

If the address given was 1 Rainhill Road, this signified a patient. If it was for the birth of a child then the child would be taken into care and the mother looked after.

If the address was County Asylum, Rainhill, this meant that it was the birth of a child of a staff member.

Similarly this rule would apply for Whiston and Warrington Workhouses.

The hospital was a community, like a huge family, the patients were cared for and for that matter the patients cared for the staff, some acting as unofficial nannies to the children of staff members between the end of school and until the mothers finished their shift.

They had a number of churches – C of E, RC, Methodist and the Jewish community had a Rabbi holding a service once a month.

There was work to do, for over 3000 patients and staff, who worked hard as these were the days when there were no cleaners, the nursing staff did the cleaning, beds were to be changed before breakfast and with 149 patients to a ward of six staff this was no mean feat.

The hospital had it’s own dentists, eye doctors, orphopaedic staff, sick ward and theatres, so it was just like a self-sufficient village, although the medical staff may have gone to other larger hospitals to learn new techniques and returned to implement them at Rainhill. Working hours were long, 6.45 am to 7.10 pm for about £12 a month and live in. Male staff came from many places, not necessarily local as they were provided with uniform and shoes.

Work also for the patients included farming, cleaning of the offices, working in the bakery, there were cobblers, bookbinders, engineers, tinsmiths, upholsterers, all of who were paid each week by the “money woman” who brought out her huge ledger and each signed for their wages. The women learned to sew, worked in the laundry or the cleaning department.

Recreation wasn’t forgotten as there was a cinema once a week, after which the hall would be cleared of seating so that badminton could be played. There were football, athletics, bowling and rounders teams, and a weekly patient’s dance where the nursing staff always joined in – in their own time, not during normal working hours. Sports Day was a special event and they regularly took strolls in the gardens in the sunshine.

There were many concerts, Lita Rosa and her dressmaker took part in twice a year fundraising, Ken Dodd’s rehearsal for his show was always a concert at Rainhill and other artists who entertained both patients and staff were Cilla Black and the Spinners.

There was always a Christmas present for everybody, wrapped by the nursing staff.

Up until 1960 the gates were locked, and arrangements were made by Marks & Spencers, Tyrers and other shops to open up to kit out granny for a wedding or such other events that they were to attend, suitably accompanied by a member of the nursing staff who dressed to blend in rather than stand out from the crowd. Staff with a house outside the gates often loaned their front room to a bride to get ready on her wedding day, although they had to go back to their ward after the ceremony to show themselves off in their finery - and also their new husband of course! And when there was a baby born, photographs were always taken to show. Before 1947 ish, nurses needed permission to marry and then had to leave nursing.

It wasn’t just a pleasant life, although everything was done by the nurses to make it as happy as possible for the patients, some of whom never left the hospital. We have all heard of those ancestors who had milk fever after the birth of a child and after being admitted were never again seen by the family, this may have been because the husband was embarrassed about the situation and even told the children that their mother had died rather than admit to her incapacity.

“Wayward girls” as they were known before the 1900’s, who had a child by their master, often became institutionalised and forgotten about.

The MPU Building was built during the war to accommodate military personnel.

Sadly many WWI soldiers arrived not knowing their names, had no identification and often lived an anonymous life never knowing who they were.

Restraints and padded cells were used, not for disciplinary purposes but for the patients own protection and that of others around them so that nobody was hurt. The padded cells were finished around 1965-70.

Patients were moved out of their areas before the 1960’s, Liverpool patients being sent to Lancaster Moor so those in Rainhill may not have lived locally.

People did leave, sometimes having a stay as short as six months and returned to their families, however there were others who never left even after 50 years. It all depended on the individual, their illnesses, the new drugs etc. Often people didn’t want to leave as they had come to think of the hospital as home and a place of safety.

It seems sad that a woman may have divorced her soldier husband while he was in hospital, but if there were children who may have in later life applied for the military or required to put details of their parents on a job application, it was far easier for them to say that the parents were divorced than state that their father was in a mental home/lunatic asylum.

As recently as the middle of the 20th Century children whose intelligence was sub normal would be placed in homes such as Orchard Dean and Crow Wood and then moved on to Whiston and later Rainhill. Nowadays all have been moved out to housing in the community.

Patients lived and died in the hospital, funerals took place with dignity and pride, there were flowers placed on the grave and the service was always attended by some of the nursing staff. Burials may have taken place in St Helens, Widnes or Liverpool Cemeteries.

Records and Case Notes and some pictures that were housed in a cellar at the hospital, are in the Liverpool Record Office, Archive Section.

For any census entries you will find the patients listed only by their initials.

There is a book – not microfilmed so available only to read in the library – at St Helens Library, History Department, covering 1800’s to date of how the hospital was.

Rainhill Hospital, a magnificent building, opened in January 1851 and was one of the first after Bedlam. It closed it’s gates in 1991, but during it’s time the staff made it home for many patients as much as possible, they were treated as human beings, somebody’s family and everybody cared for each other and I know it would make me feel better about any of my ancestors who had been admitted to know how caring the staff were.

If you are looking for the grave of one of your ancestors who died in Rainhill, contact Laura who will give you as much assistance to find the burial place as she can.

[daggers]

Mary
Thanks very much for that sympathetic account which has made me think rather differently about Rainhill and similar places.
D

[Heli]

Hi Mary,

Thanks for taking the trouble and time to go into print. This was an eye opener for me.

Heli.

[Doedoe]

My mother died in the hospital in 1978 , while she was there ,she was treated with respect ,always clean, fed and dry for almost four years the staff were her family as she didnt know who I was or any of my family , the staff never knew when I was calling in to see my mother as I had to get 2 buses there and back not being a driver , and my children too young to drive ,I can not praise rainhill hospital enough ,they were there day and night for her and all the other ladies in the ward and believe me it would have been hard work , she was there because my dad had died 3 years earlier and she had lost the will to live
Doe 7631

[MaryA]

Just a bit of an update.

If you do decide to apply for any records at the Liverpool Record Office, you may first need a letter of permission from the Health Authority that covered the area. Write here for one.
Assistant Director of Operations
Sherdley Unit
Whiston Hospital
Prescot
Liverpool
L35 5DR

Margie has also posted some useful information about what might be available http://www.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk/p ... l+hospital

[Doreen Clapham]

I read MaryA letter on this hospital thankyou it so helped me i am trying to find out about my father who was there i have never met him and would like some info from the hospital i see that some have got it from the Sherdley Unit so i will try there it has taken me awhile to find this info thanks

[MaryA]

Welcome to our forum Doreen, I hope you have some luck with finding records.

[MaryA]

Update from Roger Hull yesterday evening on the records for Rainhill.

There are quite a lot of records for the patients at Rainhill, not only Admissions and Exit papers, but also Case Notes. These are part of the Closed Files, but because there would have been only adults they are much more likely to be available to researchers.

I advised above that you needed to contact Whiston Hospital for permission to view files, which you would then need to take to the Record Office, however this has now been lifted and an application can now be made direct to the Record Office. Your application should include proof of death of the person you are enquiring about.

As there are a lot of documents about an individual the cost will probably be for about an hour, currently I believe £20 for an hour but this may be under review shortly.

[Joanne72]

Thank you Mary for the informative information you have posted regarding Rainhill, I have been doing genealogy research on my family and just today found out that my great grandmother was transferred to Rainhill in 1943, from Oldham. The information was provided to me from Oldham Council - local studies and archives, this being my very first post I'd be grateful of any information and help furthering my research... Many thanks

[MaryA]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Well I've given all I've been told about above, the reason you can't do the research yourself is because the other entries which you would come across while searching, are confidential, so it has to be done by Roger for that date.

As I advised the cost per hour will be under review soon so if you are determined to follow this through, it may be a little cheaper to apply now.

One thing I forgot to mention is that if the case papers for your relative are there and found, they probably also include a photograph.

[valbenson]

This is a copy of the email that I received from Roger Hull last week, my enquiry is from 1917 don't know if that makes a difference
From Roger Hull,

Researcher,

Liverpool Record Office.



Yes you are allowed to see the files from Rainhill though we section off surrounding pages from those of the data subject.

You can either view these in person if you give notice of your visit to our temporary site at the Wellington employment Park unit 33 (see our website at http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/libraries-and-archives ) or we do offer a research service by which we can send the information to you on disc or hard copy for a fee of £20. If you would like the latter service, please send a cheque for £20 payable to Liverpool City Council with a copy of this e-mail to:

Research Service, Liverpool Libraries, William Brown Street, Liverpool

[Katie]

The research fee for the research officer is being increased as follows

30 mins £15.00
1 hour £25.00