Workhouses/Hospitals/Asylums And Sanitoriums

Boston Workhouse Gatehouse submitted by Jennie

Records of patients and their treatment are closed for 100 years. Similarly with Asylum and/or workhouse records, although entry and discharge dates may be available. Hospital and Asylums should appear on census records, with the names of the people that worked there. Patients or inmates are sometimes only listed by initials.

Records about people that worked in these places are available in some cases, as are administration and records in relation to committees and other involved groups/people.

Sources for finding specific hospital records can often be found on: National Archives Hospital Records Database where you will find towns searchable by name, and once having located the hospital, find information as to where records are held and the history of the particular establishment, its status (who ran it and when) and any former names.

Some hospitals - bigger ones - may have their own archives. The ARCHON Directory includes contact details for record repositories in the United Kingdom and also for institutions elsewhere in the world which have substantial collections of manuscripts noted under the indexes to the National Register of Archives.

To access closed records you need to contact a relevant NHS Trust - often a letter of permission is then needed, with very good reason, and someone from the records office will seek out the particular record you need rather than hand it over so as to protect the privacy of others mentioned in the record. This is due to data protection act 1998