Surrey had more mental hospitals than most English counties and, at Surrey History Centre, we are justly proud of the quantity and quality of surviving records we hold. These range from the early private asylums of the late eighteenth century through to the county asylums of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Many of these records were rescued by our archivists when the institutions were closed down in the 1990s, and they include the records of some of the 'Epsom Cluster' of hospitals. In 1896 the newly created London County Council, faced with the need to provide for huge numbers of the mentally ill, purchased the Horton Manor estate at Epsom and built five large hospitals. The Manor opened in 1899; Horton in 1902; Ewell Epileptic Colony, later St Ebba's, in 1904; Long Grove in 1907; and West Park in 1924.
Among the extensive archive of The Manor hospital at Surrey History Centre is a wonderful collection of glass plate negatives of individual male and female patients dating back to 1899. The patients were photographed on admission to the hospital and many who recovered after treatment were often photographed again on discharge, showing a marked improvement in their demeanour.
These glass plates had been languishing in our strong rooms so, earlier this year, we started creating digital positive copies of some of the plates that are over one hundred years old. Once digitised, the images were identified by matching them to the photographic prints in the Manor Hospital patient case books (reference 6282/14/-). Sadly a few of the case books had not survived, so a number of images remained unidentified, but more of this later. Thanks to our volunteer, Brenda, we have now successfully digitised over 500 images which can be viewed by researchers in our searchroom. The names of the patients whose photographs have been identified are also available on our online catalogue.
This digitisation project was actually prompted by the work of the Friends of Horton Cemetery. Their Out of Sight, Out of Mind project explores and commemorates the lives of some of the 9,000 Epsom Cluster patients buried in unmarked graves in the disused cemetery. More information about this fascinating project can be found on the Horton Cemetery website.
This has truly been a collaborative undertaking. Also working in partnership with Surrey History Centre and the Friends of Horton Cemetery is multimedia artist and medic, Dr Eric Fong. His work spans film, photography, sculpture, and installation, often exploring themes of the body, identity, and vulnerability. His moving and haunting Cyanotype Apparitions exhibition, using some of the Manor Hospital patient glass slides, won the London Independent Film Awards' Best Experimental Short October 2024 award.
Another project supported by Surrey History Centre and using the Manor Hospital patient photographs, is the Freewheelers Theatre and Media Company's Us and Them project. The theatre company brings together disabled and non-disabled actors, dancers, animators and film makers to explore issues associated with disability. In the Us and Them project, photographs of patients with specific physical and learning disabilities were selected. Eight disabled artists from the Freewheelers (with the same conditions) then worked with a tintype photographer and an oral historian to co-create portraits of themselves which could be paired with the original hospital images. You can see a report of the project on the King's College London website.
And here's a fitting postscript: last month saw the recovery of one of the long-lost Manor Hospital patient case books, filling an important gap in the hospital's record collection at Surrey History Centre. Discovered in an attic, this remarkable volume, spanning May 1900 to July 1901, records the medical histories of 250 women, complete with their personal details and poignant photographic portraits. And importantly, it has allowed us to identify some more of the unnamed glass plate images. Read more about this remarkable find.
Images
Select image to view a larger version.
- Exterior view of The Manor hospital, Epsom (6417/1/1)
- Digital image from glass plate negative of William Smith, patient at The Manor hospital, 1900 (6317/3/box13/118)
- Cyanotype print by Eric Fong of glass plate negative of Caroline Appleton, patient at The Manor hospital
- Digital image from glass plate negative of Frederick Tarrant, patient at The Manor hospital, 1904 (6317/3/Box14/232)
