Whilst the below lists which records exist today, you should be aware that some patients passed through more than one asylum. I.e. they may have died at Long Grove, but may have first been admitted to Manor and thus a record/photo exists.
Manor Asylum
The Manor Asylum records are the best kept records and are available in the thousands.
Most of the patients in the Manor case books have one and sometimes two photos fixed to the case book page. They appear to be showing them on admission and discharge.
Patient Address Books
The most valuable resource we have found are the patient address books. These list a patients known friends and relatives. It also lists their patient number, and has been able to fill gaps where some case books have been lost to history. We may not have the case note, but we can still research the person.
Glass Plate Negatives
The Surrey History Centre also holds many thousands of glass plate negatives, but these are not easy to handle as some are broken and all are very fragile. No names are given on the plates but you generally have a number scratched onto the emulsion which appears to match a patient number in the case books. Most of the plates are the negs from which the positives in the case book were made – but not all. There are some plates for which there are no prints in the case book, as over time some photos may have been lost or ruined. There are two sizes of plate; the larger (older) ones seems to be early 20th century and match up with the case books, the smaller ones are mid 20th century when they had given up case books and were using individual case files. Although none of the individual files survive, SHC do have copies on microfilm and the photos are included. We suspect that the case numbers will match up in the same way.
Horton Asylum
All surviving case books and records are held at LMA (London Metropolitan Archives). We have not had much time to investigate what exists, but the main archive looks very promising and full.
Caser books are in admission date order and so make sure you go armed with this information to make your search easier.
- Patient Case Books (These are the ones of most interest that are available for public view)
- H22/HT/B/26/001 Case book (Female) (ref. 0001-3238), Mar 1902-Dec 1912
- H22/HT/B/26/002 Case book (Female) (ref. 3160-3358), Jul 1912-Aug 1913
- H22/HT/B/26/003 Case book (Female) (ref. 3559-3687) Jun 1914-Feb 1915
- H22/HT/B/26/004 Case book (Female) (ref. 4269-4700) Feb 1921-Feb 1922
- The Female collection consists of 13 files but most are locked due to data protection.
- H22/HT/B/26/013 Case book (male) (ref. 0002 to 0565), Mar 1902-May 1902
- H22/HT/B/26/014 Case book (male) (ref. 0566 to 1366), 1902 May-1904 Feb
- H22/HT/B/26/014 Unfit for consultation Not available for general access
- H22/HT/B/26/015 Case book (male) (ref. 2091 to 2288), 1907 Aug-1909 Jan
- H22/HT/B/26/016 Case book (male) (ref. 2688 to 2887), 1911 Jul-1912 Jul
- H22/HT/B/26/017 Case book (male) (ref. 2888 to 3087), 1912 Jul-1913 Jul
- H22/HT/B/26/018 Case book (male) (ref. 3287 to 3366), 1914 Dec-1915 Jan
- Visitor Books (usually good for confirming relatives)
Long Grove
No records of Long Grove exist. They were destroyed as part of the developer taking over the site. Actually this is not entirely true as we have found 1 single individual record lurking amongst the archives.
We also have a Clerks Book of Hospital Report Book No.4, which appears to simply list patients date of death and funeral arrangements, including coffin size.
Ewell Epileptic Colony (St. Ebbas)
Some but not all files exist.
We have not checked all of them, but most of the patients on the case books have at least one photo and sometimes two, although these differ to The Manor as the second photo appears to be taken at the same time as the first, but from another angle.
SHC hold some loose case files for St Ebba’s patients as well but we don’t believe there are any photos in them.
West Park
No case books or case files survive from West Park, but we have found that if a patient was transferred to St. Ebba’s from West Park, their case notes went with them and are often preserved in the St Ebba’s case books. We may be able to source a few photos of West Park patients.