Archives show horror of Victorian asylums

As part of the national Archive Awareness Campaign, archivists in the East Riding have catalogued men's and women's case books from the former Broadgate Hospital archive in Beverley and put them online at www.eastriding.gov.uk.

They feature the records of people admitted to the hospital 1871 and 1906 – and paint a harrowing picture of life for the mentally ill more than a century ago.

Patient details include name, age, marital status as well as cause of insanity such as "suicidal" and "depression".

Also listed are notes on countenance, pulse rates, "bowels" and dated comments on the condition and progress of the patient.

Ian Mason, archives and local studies manager at East Riding Council, said: "Sadly, despite our modern preconceptions of mental hospitals, some of the patients admitted to Broadgate in its early days would not be diagnosed insane today.

"Cases such as epilepsy and depression, which we can treat relatively easily today, were not as well understood and were considered a form of 'idiocy' or 'stupidity'."

William George Marsden, 56, a gardener from Pocklington, was admitted to Broadgate on November 23, 1905, suffering from what would now be diagnosed as clinical depression.

His case notes describe him as "dull, stupid, and lain in bed".

It also states that "he is suffering from Melancholia", adding: "He is depressed and morbidly emotional, becomes anxious at trifling circumstances and at times becomes greatly agitated and threatens suicide".

The hospital was on a site outside Walkington that is now a housing development. It opened in 1871 and closed in 1989.