Grandma Hannah Part 1 – The Asylums

Last year (2009) at Christmastime I visited Egham, in Surrey, England, the birthplace of Great Grandpa, Robert Sherwood. I also spent some time in the Surrey History Centre in Woking, learning about the tragic life of his mother, Hannah Hubbard. I hope to share some of the things I learned in this sequence of blogs.

Mom used to talk about her grandfather Robert Sherwood. I remember her telling us that he was a successful grocer in Salt Lake City, and very, very generous, especially to the widows in his neighbourhood. He immigrated to the US in 1873 from England with his father and brother at age 15, after converting to the LDS Church in 1869. Most of what Mom told us was of their lives after coming to Salt Lake City; I don’t ever remember her mentioning Robert’s mother Hannah, who was left behind in England.

Mom did include a little bit about Hannah in her genealogy that Grandma Taylor (Robert’s daughter) had written earlier. I will quote what she wrote here:

From the writings of Irene Sherwood Taylor

“His mother, Hannah, evidently did not enjoy good health and was confined to a rest home, Brookwood Asylum, where she passed away June 28, 1883, at the age of sixty-three. In the missionary diary of Robert Sherwood he mentions that on April 28, 1900, he went with his cousin, Polly Cornish, out to the city of Peckham, just outside of London, and there visited at Peckham House, another asylum where his mother had evidently been confined before her transfer to Brookwood Asylum, December 13, 1867.  Today, an asylum is referred to as a “rest home”. [It has been spoken of in the family that the cause of Hannah’s confinement was “consumption”, or tuberculosis.]”

“In his missionary journal, Father describes the situation at Peckham House when he says, ‘The interior of Peckham House and surroundings of house inside of the wall are very good and pleasant. The wall is quite high with the appearance of a penitentiary from the street.  It is situated on the corner of Lynsdale Road and the train highway leading from Vaurchall.’”

“Speaking of Brookwood Asylum, Father writes, ‘Brookwood Asylum is a very well-built place, quite large and spacious, and with extensive grounds and shrubberies.’”

“Father also noted that his Mother, Hannah, had been admitted to Peckham House on March 23, 1861. So she must have been forty-one years of age when she was admitted. Also, Father states that the order for his mother’s admittance to Brookwood Asylum was signed by C. W. Furse, Officiating Clergyman of the Parish of Egham.”

“Since Father was born in 1858, that would make him only three years of age when his mother was put in the rest home at Peckham. Two older brothers, Charles and John, and a sister, Elizabeth, were living at this time, and they were all older than Father. However, two of the children, John and Elizabeth, both passed away at this time, or a year or two later, leaving Father’s older brother, Charlie, to live with their father.”

“Since Charlie was seven or eight years of age at this time, and Father was only three, Grandfather Sherwood evidently could not care for Robert, and had him admitted to an orphanage. Being the youngest of the children, Father had no memory of his family whatever, but mentioned several times that Charlie and his father came to visit him at the orphanage occasionally. But they did not keep in touch with Father.”

Peckham House

According to the above, Hannah was committed to Peckham House on March 23, 1861, and remained there until December 13, 1867, when she was transferred to Brookwood Asylum.

Pekham is actually not far from where I currently live in London. In fact, I have ridden my bike down there a few times as there is a nice park (Burgess Park) I like to run in nearby that has a trail along an old canal that ends up in Pekham. However, Pekham House no longer exists; in fact, the street itself no longer exists. Here’s a map from 1862 (stolen from http://studymore.org.uk/mott.htm#PeckhamMap) that shows the location of Peckham House:

The fact that Hannah’s admittance to Peckham House was signed by the officiating clergyman is significant because it means Hannah was classified as a pauper and her confinement was funded by the government.

Another account of Peckham house (quoted from multiple sources online) is bleak: “Apart from the brutality, the patients diet was at the very best poor. The diet consisted of ‘meat, potatoes, bread’ and ‘soup and bread’. On Sunday it was ‘Irish stew with bread’. The soup was made up from bones, liqueur and some vegetables. The amount they were given was described as ‘meager’ and there were many complaints of poor quality, short measure, fraud and false accounting. The kitchen was described as ‘very dirty’.”

Here’s a photo of Peckham House that I stole from http://www.ennever.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=3646&medialinkID=4570:

Maybe Grandma Hannah is one of the women in this photo.

 

Brookwood Asylum

Hannah was transferred to Brookwood Asylum on December 13, 1867, and remained there until her death on 28 June, 1883. Brookwood was closed as a hospital in 1994, and has since been converted into luxury apartments. It was actually opened in 1867 on 17 June, just a few months before Hannah was transferred there.

My impressions are that Brookwood Asylum was much nicer than the one in Peckham.

There was a wonderful photo album at the Woking library that had been a gift to the head doctor at Brookwood in 1881, and I was able to take some photos of the album:

 

H. Brushfield [the doctor], Surrey, Brookwood Asylum, 1881

 

Asylum Chapel before altered:

Asylum Chapel Brookwood Surrey:

Brookwood Asylum before altered:

 

? Mersh:

Entrance before Hall was built:

South – east Front:

Detached Block:

? Dr. & Mrs. Barton:

Chapel after enlargement:

Chaplain’s House

Entrance to Superintendant’s House:

Garden Front to House:

Assistant’s & Steward’s House:

New block for Females:

Cottage Hospital:

Cottages at Gasworks:

 

 

Asylum Band:

Attendants:

Attendants:

 

Ward for Females:

 

 

 

The Woking Library also had a copy of the rulebook for the asylum. I include a sample here; if anyone would like to see photos of the entire booklet, let me know. It basically describes how the asylum was to have been managed and run, how often the patients could have visitors, how often they were supposed to have doctor checkups, etc.

 

I was happy to read in the above booklet that the patients were encouraged to engage in activities outdoors, and had particular callings or responsibilities to engage their time. A supply of books “of a cheerful nature” were kept on hand, in addition to Bibles and Prayer books, for the use of the patients.

 

Next: Egham