Genealogy Chat

just for info
The County Lunatic Asylum, on Lancaster Moor, opened in 1816, within eight years, with a great demand for its services, extensions were built and by 1940 Lancaster Moor could hold 3,200 patients.
As demand for mental care declined, the Hospital took in patients from the local infirmary which was running out of beds.
The asylum closed in 2000, the main part is grade II listed and the whole building itself is in excellent condition
The owners English Partnerships are currently deciding on what to do with the building.
A known entrance we had hoped to use to gain entry has been sealed, thankfully we soon found a new one and were inside.
We knew the ground floor was alarmed, so kept to the first floor.
Although the buildings are in great condition, there is nothing left inside. All traces of it being an asylum are long gone.

so it didnt close till 2000 so unlikely you can get any details for a patient BUT they may interpret the 100 year rule differently

You wont be able to access any of these type of records online. If they are available they would be at the local Records Office.
You could try googling for the Hospital and see if they have any link to where records may be held BUT most records would be subject to the 100 year closure rule and this is an overall ban not just for the individual patient so as Aunt didnt die til the 1960,s then think the records will still be closed, No harm in enquiring though.

I am trying to find if I can access the records for the above hospital in Lancaster.

My Aunt, Mary Connor was a patient there for most of her life, and died there in the mid 1960's.

Lancaster Moor was a Mental Institution.


Mary was shown on the 1911 Census as living with her family in Hulme Manchester when she was aged 5

My maternal grandmother (also Mary) had a further child in 1914, but no father was named on the birth certificate.

My mother was born in 1917 and again no father was named on the birth certificate although my mother later used the surname Rooke, as did her brother who was born three years later.

I feel that the placement of Mary in the hospital may have led to the split between my grandmother and her husband

My grandmother never married Mr Rooke, although when she died in 1961 she was described as a widow.

My grandmother and her husband were catholics.

I am particularly interested in the date of admission to the hospital for my Aunt as well as her diagnosis on entry.

All people connected with this event are now deceased.

Any help or hints would be very much appreciated

I live in Westren Australia, so any personal visits to records offices are not possible.

Allan