Catalogue description Policy

See also: List of appointments to the Visitors of Lunatic Asylum Committee (1872): QA/1/1/3

See also: Minute and Report Books for the Asylum Visiting Justices Committee (1838-1878): QA/7/1-4

See also deeds, agreements, correspondence and other documents relating to the Salop Mental Hospital and County Asylum (1830-1926): QA/7/5 and QA/7/6

Copthorne House - See also: deeds from 1907-1920: 3196/505-544

Copthorne Estate - See also: Conveyance to Committee of Visiting Justices of Asylum (1854-1882): 1309/4-9

Administrative Records are closed for at least 30 years with more sensitive one being closed for up to 100 years

The hierarchy of the Asylum system set up by the Act for the Regulation of the Care and Treatment of Lunatics 1845, which made it a statutory obligation to care for the mentally ill, includes:

1). The Board of Commissioners in Lunacy or Commissioners of the Board of Control (Central Government: a Board set up to regulate the running of Asylums)

2). The Committee of Visitors, otherwise Visiting Committee or Visitors : Independent overseers of standards and practices (an official monitoring body for the Asylum, who monitored care and conditions, even when patients were boarded out (when patients were sent to other Asylums because of lack of accommodation). They were usually Justices of the Peace, who were not paid so as to keep them completely independent).

3). The Medical Superintendant (Doctor in charge and the Manager of the Asylum)

From 1851 to 1863 the Boroughs of Shrewsbury and Oswestry were added to the Asylum's title. The county asylum, was a joint institution of which the Counties of Shropshire and Montgomeryshire and the Borough of Wenlock were owners and formed the management committee, while Shrewsbury and Oswestry had the use of it on payment of a capitation rent.

In 1864 the Asylum's title reverted back to the 'Lunatic Asylum for the Counties of Salop and Montgomery, and for the Borough of Much Wenlock'

For a map of the site see: Ordnance Survey Map of Shrewsbury: Surveyed 1879-81, Revised in 1900-01: XXIV