This Severalls Hospital Timeline provdes an idea of important dates in the hospital’s history and also how changes in law and society influenced what occurred at the hospital. Much of the information come from my own research and, more recently, thanks to a document provided to me by Hugh Doherty.
The Severalls Hospital timeline is packed full of information, from it’s initial plan for construction in 1845 until demolition in 2016. This timeline (which is ever expanding) provides a history of key events.
1845
It becomes compulsory for justices of the peace to build county ‘lunatic asylums’ due to the Lunacy Act 1845 championed by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury.
1890
The 1980 Lunacy Act gives asylums a wider role, and patients “with means” begin to be admitted.
1904
300 acres in North Colchester purchased by Essex County Council with plans to build a mental asylum at a cost of £10,000.
1909
Work commences on the building of the first part of Severalls.
June 2010
Sir Thomas Barrett Lennard lays the foundation stone of the new asylum.
1913
The Mental Deficiency Act is introduced. Essex County Asylum Severalls Hospital opens. It is the second such asylum for the county of Essex.
1914
122 beds are now in position in Main Building and there is now accommodation for 564 men and 672 women. However, concerns are raised about a lack of female staff being available to service the patients.
1915
A problem with rats, reported the year before, has become a menace in some of the wards in the asylum. There are reports of them “causing considerable destruction of women’s clothing”.
1919
The Ministry of Health is created.
1925
Dr Alexander Duncan joins Severalls Hospital. His initial role is unclear but he would later become Physician Superintendent at Severalls.
1928
Severalls Asylum now renamed ‘Severalls Hospital’.
1932
There are now 1922 patients at Severalls. The hospital has become a community in it’s own right.
1933
Insulin coma therapy was first used to attempt to treat patients suffering with schizophrenia.
August 1942
A German air raid blows up part of Severalls, killing 38 patients. Most were women. Many saved by nurse and war Hero Muriel May Jackson.
1948
A BOC report observes that “A rather high proportion of women were in bed… owing either to their mental state or senility. This is due… to the severe shortage ofstaff. Other consequences ofthis shortage are a rather high seclusion rate, and a high consumption of sedatives (paraldehyde) on the female side.”
1950
Windows are fitted to the corridors connecting wards. A total of 234 would eventually be constructed.
1959
Physician Superintendent Dr Alexander Duncan retires from his roll after 34 years at Severalls Asylum.
1960
Dr Russell Barton joins Severalls Hospital in the roll of Physician Superintendent. Years before becoming a psychiatrist Barton gave evidence in reports of the Holocaust and visited Belsen concentration camp on May 2, 1945.
1961
34 year old Rose Vera Baker appears before magistrates charged with strangling another patient, Martha McGee, because was “annoyed with her singing”. She was detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure.
April 1962
The final bomb damaged building at Severalls. remaining from WW2, was cleared away.
June 1962
A £90,000 laundry facility opens at Severalls to provide services for the hospital and nearby local Colchester hospitals. At the time of writing (2016), allowing for inflation, the laundry facility would cost £1.7million in today’s money.
February 1963
Severalls Hospital opens it’s operating theatre and wards for general patients and routine operations such as appendectomy.
October 1963
Dr Richard Fox of West Mersea – a consultant psychiatrist at Severalls Hospital, warns the Royal Institute of Public Health that society would have to “prepare people for marriage at an earlier age”.
June 1966
Severalls Hospital was chosen as the site for the first emergency helicopter (air ambulance) landing pad in Colchester. The role of Severalls has begun to change from asylum to general hospital.
September 1966
Communal Wards are trialed as an experiment for “…day rooms, dining rooms and social activities…”. Dormitories would remain single sex, as would some areas for patients requiring more serious care.
June 1968
Dr Richard Fox announces that there are empty beds are Severalls as less need is required for the Asylum, presumably caused by a better understanding of mental health and changes in society’s acceptance of people suffering with mental health issues.
In the same year, Dr Fox announces that a new ward is needed for “chronic drifters”. A chronic drifter was someone who could no longer take asylum from stresses in a lifetime of hospitalisation and drifted from one place to another, or from one living situation to another.
1971
Dr Russell Barton leaves Severalls Hospital after is role Physician Superintendent is would up.
1972
Stories begin to emerge from former staff and history books of Severalls gruesome past. Many people are shocked to discover some of the evil acts which have occurred at Severalls. In June 1972 an exhibition of equipment used at the hospital would be held.
In the same year, stories are also published in newspapers pointing to a “beleaguered health service”. Some things never change!
March 1973
A former Physician Superintendent, Dr Alexander Duncan passes away. He retired from the role in 1959.
October 1973
The final steps are taking to provide central heating to every ward of Severalls.
Dr Richard Fox takes over as Chair of the phychiatrist division of Severals and Colchester district.
February 1974
A female patient is in court charged with deliberately starting a fire in a bedroom in Myland Court East ward at Severalls. The court was held in secret. 31 year old Anne McEwan was given an 8 week custodial sentence for the crime.
1976
Dangerous levels of asbestos are found in areas of the hospital. Hardly surprising as the hospital was originally constructed around a time when asbestos was being used in all manner of materials.
1977
Two nurses announce plans to commence a hospital radio for Severalls.
1997
Severalls closes permanently in March 1997 and demolition of many building commences almost immediately.
September 2016
The final stage of demolition commenced at Severalls to make way for thousands of new homes
Businessman, camping enthusiast, Formula One fan and Real Ale drinker.
I was a patient of Dr. Richard Fox in 1971. He was a prominent Samaritan and my father knew him through this. I had chronic anorexia nervosa at the time and my father sent me to him. I remember waiting for my appointments in a corridor and witnessing a lot of the ‘inmates’, mainly women being taken along the corridor to the dining room for their tea. What happened to Dr. Fox?
Dr Richard Fox died, aged 82. Richard Fox is survived by his wife Doreen, also a former member of Council, five children, twelve grandchildren and three great grandchildren. We send them all our condolences for their loss and our appreciation for Richard’s contribution to British Epilepsy Association.
Philip Lee,
Chief Executive, Epilepsy Action
August 2010