Report of the Brookwood Hospital Management Committee and copy of audited accounts : 1948-1949.

  • Brookwood Hospital Management Committee.
Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Brookwood Hospital Management Committee and copy of audited accounts : 1948-1949. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/48 (page 8)
    Wells were sunk at the gardener’s house, the bailiff’s house and the Superintendent’s house and four large reservoirs capable of holding 400,000 gallons of water were constructed on a portion of the lower ground on the site of some old sand and gravel pits and were fed by the stream and water course on the estate. Water, from all the sources of supply was analysed and found to be of very good quality. By the end of 1865 the buildings were approaching completion, and Dr. T. N. Brushfield was appointed to be the first Medical Superintendent and he commenced his duties on 1st March, 1866. The Asylum was opened for the reception of patients on 17th June, 1867, and the buildings had cost just under £105,000 or approximately £161 per bed. There were 307 patients in the Asylum by the end of the year. Owing to the large accumulation of cases of long standing, waiting for admission, not more than 5 per cent, of the admissions were deemed to have any reasonable prospect of recovery and it was feared that the wards would soon be fully occupied by patients of this class to the exclusion of those whose illness was of more recent origin and who had better prospects of recovery. .The maintenance rate was 12s. per week. Occupation and recreation for the patients was considered as important then as it is now and as many as two-thirds of the patients were employed in some way or another. The male patients were occupied in clearing and cultivating the land and helping in the wards and workshops and the female patients were employed in the kitchen, laundry and needleroom. A brass band was formed and the first general entertainment, a Concert and Ball, was given for the patients on 19th September, 1867. Following that, concerts, balls and conjuring performances were given almost every week. These entertainments took place in a large room formed by the removal of partitions in the workshop block. Regular services in the Chapel commenced on the first Sunday in August, 1867, and it is interesting to note that for some months before the Asylum was opened an evening service was held in the Chapel for the benefit of the workmen engaged on the buildings and the people living around Knaphill. In 1868, the abundant supply of water which was anticipated did not materialise and other sources of supply were investigated. During the summer weather the brook was entirely dry and the well water was quite inadequate. The brook water was stored in ponds and a horse pump supplied about 3,500 gallons per day. It was suggested that the canal authorities should be approached on the question of drawing 35,000 gallons of water from the canal daily and, if this failed, to sink a deep well in the lowest part of the estate, near the canal. Sufficient steam power machinery was to be installed to pump the water into an elevated tank and