Catalogue description THE MANOR HOSPITAL, EPSOM: RECORDS

A brief history of The Manor Hospital is included within the Mid-Surrey District Profile, 1974, held by Surrey History Service as 3376/2. Registers ofofficers, attendants and servants at The Manor Hospital, 1899-1925, are held as 2865/5/1-8, while a register of nursing and domestic staff at The Manor, 1933-1946, is held as 2865/5/9. For registers of staff at The Manor Hospital, c.1923-c.1965, see 6280/1/1-6. Copy burial registers of the Horton Estate Cemetery, Hook Road, Epsom, used by The Manor and other of the Epsom Cluster hospitals, 1907-1957, are held as 6275/-. A sale catalogue relating to an auction of furniture and equipment at The Manor on 14 Mar 1995 is held as 6299/-. For reports of the workshop manager at the Sherwood Training Unit of The Manor Hospital, c.1973-c.1979, see 6274/-.

Minutes of the London County Council Asylums Committee, later Mental Hospitals Committee, Manor Sub-Committee, 1899-1948, and presented papers for 1932-1948 are held by the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) as LCC/MIN/1197-1228. A Manor Hospital admission and discharge register for the period 1913-1927 is held by the LMA as PH/MENT/4/26. For records relating to the re-planning of the main kitchen at the Manor, Jan 1958, see LMA reference A/KE/716/147. A report by garden advisors relating to the Epsom Group Hospitals in 1959 is held by the LMA as A/KE/727/13. For Manor Hospital Management Committee papers and correspondence relating to the staff recreation centre see LMA reference A/KE/736/17. Visitors' reports of the Epsom Group Hospital Management Committee, Apr 1960-Oct 1963, are held by the LMA as A/KE/738/18/1-3.

The Manor Hospital, Epsom, 1899-1994

Records less than 30 years old are closed to public inspection. Records relating to individual patients are closed for 100 years.

Deposited by the Projects Manager, West Park Hospital, Epsom, in February 1995 under the Public Records Act, 1958.

• Health services

The Manor Hospital was opened by the London County Council in 1899 for the treatment of persons detained under the Lunacy Acts. It initially consisted of a series of huts erected close to the previously derelict Horton Manor, which was adapted to provide administrative and staff facilities. By 1909 ten permanent brick buildings had been added to the hospital. Between 12 August 1916 and 1 April 1919 The Manor was used to treat military casualties. It reverted to a mental hospital after the war before becoming a hospital for the mentally handicapped from 1922 until its closure in 1994. Unlike many other mental hospitals The Manor was primarily used to care for and rehabilitate improveable and trainable patients. Its staff, training facilities and accommodation were developed accordingly. From 1948 the hospital devoted itself to the training of moderately handicapped, disturbed adolescents and young adults and gained an international reputation in the field of industrial and behaviour therapy.

The Manor Hospital was managed by the LCC until the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948 when responsibility for it passed to its own Hospital Management Committee under the aegis of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. Under the National Health Service Reorganisation Act, 1973, the hospital became part of the Mid-Surrey Area Health Authority and was managed by the Mid-Surrey District Management Team.

The Manor Hospital also operated a sixty-bed unit called Aldingbourne House, near Chichester, West Sussex, to which groups of patients would be sent for seaside holidays.

On 1 April 1973 the former Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children at Banstead was added to the Manor Group and fifty-five patients working in the community, moved into a hostel called Elizabeth House which had been converted from former nurses' accommodation.

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