Gittins, Dr Diana: Severalls Hospital, Essex

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0120 GC/244
Held at	: Wellcome Library   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://wellcomelibrary.org/ ›
Full title	: Gittins, Dr Diana: Severalls Hospital, Essex
Date(s)	: 1905-1998
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 4 boxes 1 oversize item
Name of creator(s)	: Gittins | Diana | fl 1995-1997 | lecturer
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

As a result of severe overcrowding at the Essex County Asylum, Brentwood, suggestions for building a new asylum in the Colchester area were being made from 1902; the Severalls Estate was sold for the purpose by Colchester Corporation in 1903. The foundation stone for the New Asylum/Second Essex County Asylum was laid in June 1910, and the asylum was opened for patients in 1913. Substantial additional building works took place during the 1930s. Patient numbers started to decline from the 1940s and there were also staffing problems. The decision to close the hospital was made in 1994 and in 1997 patients were moved from the core asylum buildings to to other facilities in the area, although some services continue to be provided from peripheral units on the site.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Research papers of Diana Gittins, 1905-1998, for her book Madness in its Place: Narratives of Severalls Hospital, 1913-1997, (London: Routledge, 1998), including tapes and transcripts of interviews with staff, ex-patients and patients, and background information on the hospital.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Arranged in sections as follows: List of summary sheets; Interview transcripts; Tapes of interviews; Contextual materials.

Conditions governing access:

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

The interviews collected here were undertaken by Dr Diana Gittins of the Department of Sociology, University of Essex, between 1995 and 1997.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Received in October 1998 from Qualidata, ESRC Qualitative Data Archival Resource Centre, University of Essex Colchester, where the material had been deposited by Dr Gittings in May 1998

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Entry compiled by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Jun 2008