Brookwood Hospital was opened on 17 June 1867 under the title Brookwood Asylum.  It was sited on 150 acres of land which lay between the Basingstoke canal and the village of Knaphill, four miles west of Woking.  It was the county’s second County Asylum to complement the county’s first asylum, Springfield in Tooting, which had reached capacity.  Brookwood could hold 650 pauper lunatics, whose maintenance was mostly paid by poor law unions, and patients were received from across the county. The hospital was governed by a succession of different authorities.  Initially annual and quarterly reports were presented to Surrey Quarter Sessions by a visiting committee that was directly responsible for the running of the hospital.  In 1889 authority passed from Surrey Quarter Sessions to the new Surrey County Council. In 1948 the Brookwood Hospital Management Committee was formed, which reported to the new South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.  The hospital was referred to as Brookwood Asylum or Surrey County Lunatic Asylum interchangeably until 1919, when it was officially renamed Brookwood Hospital.  

During the 127 years of its operation, the hospital developed considerably in fabric and infrastructure.  Major openings included that of Florence House in 1875, a new chapel seating 800 in 1903, a reception hospital in 1930 and a library and conference centre in 1967.  Following opening of the sick hospital in 1938, patient capacity peaked at 1,753.  The hospital closed in 1994 and the rich collections of surviving records were catalogued in 2002-3 with the aid of a grant from the Wellcome Trust's Research Resources in Medical History grant scheme.

The main accession numbers to find records for Brookwood Hospital at Surrey History Centre are 3043, 6906, 7173 and 8056.

Important: please note that any patient records less than 100 years old and staff records less than 75 years old are likely to have access restrictions. Individual records are not available to view through this website. For details on viewing records please see the Access To Mental Hospital Records page.

Click on the following links to see the individual catalogues of these accessions which provide item descriptions.

6906 - Brookwood Hospital, Woking, and Netherne Hospital, Coulsdon: Additional Records, 1872 - 1986.
7173 - Brookwood Hospital, Woking: Patient Case Files, c.1893-1980s.
8056 - Brookwood Hospital, Woking: Additional Records, 1867-2000.

Catalogue 3043 - Brookwood Hospital, Woking (1867-1994): Records, 1815-1994, is available as a series of searchable pdf documents. Click on the underlined links to download the files:

Readers searching for an individual patient whose date of admission is not precisely known are recommended to use either the alphabetical registers (3043/5/2/1-8 ), which were created as indexes to the admission registers, or the general indexes to case books (3043/5/10/1/1-5 ). The most complete information on a patient’s medical progress is usually contained in the case books, 1867-1921; in the Medical Superintendent’s private record of patients, 1921-1961; and in the admission registers, 1961-1987, although more complete details for some patients may be contained in case files in list 7173.  For patients for whom a date of death or discharge is known the registers of discharges and deaths will be useful.  Volunteers at Surrey History Centre are currently preparing an index to Brookwood case books over 100 years old.
 
The principal series of records held at Surrey History Centre relating to individual patients are as follows, although there are gaps in some series.

Admission Registers, 1867-1906 and 1961-1987
Information for each patient includes: patient admission number; date of admission; date of any previous admission; occupation and place of abode; by whose authority the patient was sent; date of medical certificate; union chargeable; bodily condition and form of mental disorder; supposed cause of insanity; date of discharge, removal or death.

Civil registers, 1907-1930
Created under the 1906 Rules of the Commissioners in Lunacy, and succeeding the admission registers. Information for each patient includes: patient admission number; date of admission; date of any previous admission; occupation and place of abode; by whose authority the patient was sent; date of medical certificate; date of last continuation of reception order; union chargeable; date of discharge, removal or death. Medical information on admission was entered in the Medical Registers (3043/5/1/8/1-10 ).

Civil registers of certified, voluntary or temporary patients, 1931-1949
Subsequent to the 1930 Mental Treatment Act, separate registers were established for certified, voluntary and temporary patients. However, patients admitted as temporary or voluntary patients are also entered in the registers of certified patients in pencil, in order of date of admission but without information on mode of admission. Information for each patient includes: general reference number, being a continuation of the Patient admission numbers; date of admission; date of any previous admission; county chargeable; mode of admission, meaning whether admitted directly, by transfer, or by regrading of status. General reference numbers apply to patients.

General registers, 1949-1961
Succeeding civil registers of certified, voluntary and temporary patients. Information for each patient includes: general reference number; date of admission; date of any previous admission; whether admitted as temporary, voluntary or certified patient; county chargeable; mode of admission, meaning whether admitted directly, by transfer, or by regrading of status; date of departure, discharge or death; address to which discharged if appropriate; date of death if appropriate. Some patients are re-entered in a later register in red ink, using their original general reference number, to denote a regrading of status of the patient.

Medical registers, 1907-1949
Created under the 1906 Rules of the Commissioners in Lunacy and consisting mostly of medical information formerly contained within the admission registers. Information for each patient includes: date of admission; patient admission number or general reference number; date of discharge, transfer or death; age at admission; duration of present attack; 'aetiological factors', meaning principal and contributory causes of illness; bodily state on admission; form of mental disorder. Not all patients admitted to the asylum have entries. The registers form two discrete series separately covering male and female patients.
 
Registers of admission and transfer, 1915-1958
Register of patients received from Napsbury asylum, Hertfordshire, and Littlemore asylum, Oxfordshire. Patients received from Napsbury between 8 April 1915 and 28 Aug 1918; from Littlemore between 24 April 1918 and 24 Aug 1918. Information for each patient includes: patient admission number, beginning at 1 for each asylum; date of admission to vacated asylum; date of admission to Brookwood; date of any previous admission; occupation and place of abode; union chargeable; date of last continuation of reception order; date of discharge, transfer or death. Indexed under initial letter in order of date of admission.

Alphabetical registers, 1867-1959
The alphabetical registers were created as indexes to the admission registers, and more generally to patients at the asylum. Patient information is arranged under initial letter in order of date of admission. At the time of creation of a new register the full details of patients currently at the asylum were entered again in the new register. Patient information includes: date of admission; patient admission number or general reference number; union chargeable; whether discharged or died; date of discharge or death.

Registers of removal, discharge and death, 1894-1988
Information for each patient includes: date of last admission; date of removal, discharge or death; number in register of patients; if removed or discharged, whether recovered, relieved or not improved; if died, assigned cause of death and age at death; observations occasionally include place of burial.  Death registers usually give the patient admission number; duration and age at last attack; form of mental disorder; causes of death and the aetiological factors contributory to their illness.

Records of patients discharged, 1894-1960
Information for each patient includes: date of admission; date of actual discharge; name of union relieving officer if applicable; signature, relationship and address of person into whose care discharged; property handed to patient on discharge. No medical details are included.

Registers of forms of notices of deaths, 1909-1961
Bound volumes of individual patient forms, one page per patient. Volumes are not numbered after 1927. Information for each patient includes: place of abode prior to admission; form of mental disease; causes of death; time and any unusual circumstances attending the death; descriptions of any injuries; duration of disease.

Post Mortem Registers, 1867-1962
Patient information includes description of anatomical health, cause of death, and in some instances weights of body parts. In some volumes the number and page of patient’s case book entry is included.

Registers of return of patients’ property, 1867-1959
Information for each patient includes: admission number; date of receipt and return of property; articles and coin returned; signature of person to whom property returned and relationship to patient; witness; remarks, usually consisting of date of death if applicable.

Medical Superintendent’s reports on admission, 1880-1963
Information for each patient includes: progressive number, meaning consecutive number in admission for that year; date of admission; age on admission; remarks, consisting of two or three line description of cause and symptoms of mental illness.

Medical Superintendent’s case books, 1941-1957
Information for each patient includes: patient notes and case history, diagnosis, family health background, home address, practice and name of referring doctor.

Case books, 1867-1921
Books consist of case notes recording cause, symptoms and progress of patients from admission until discharge or death. Usually two pages are devoted to each patient. Additional information in table form for each patient includes: date of admission; previous place of abode; weight and height; occupation; number of attacks; address of relative; from Apr 1880, form of mental disease. A very few entries include loose notices of death or correspondence.  Volunteers at Surrey History Centre are currently preparing an index to Brookwood case books over 100 years old.

Case books relating to chronic patients, 1867-1901
Patients recorded as chronic cases also appear in main series of case books. The volume and folio number in the main series of case books for each patient is entered underneath patient’s name. Patient information included is in the same format as the main series of case books.

General indexes to case books, 1867-1921
At the time of creation of a new index volume details of patients currently at the asylum were entered again in the new volume. Patient information includes: date of discharge or death; whether discharged or died, and manner of discharge if applicable; volume and folio number in main series of case books or, for some patients, volume and folio number in case books of chronic patients described as C or CC.

Case files c.1893-1980s
These patient case files represent a 10% sample of the files existent on the closure of Brookwood in 1995, less the small quantity of files under 21 years old.  The files were at that stage sorted into the main sequences 'live' and 'dead' (the latter relating to patients recorded to be deceased at that date) before transfer to commercial storage.  On transfer of the selected sample to Surrey History Centre in 2002, the remaining unselected files over 21 years old were destroyed by the NHS Trust.

Registers Of Medical Treatment, 1893-1973
These include registers of mechanical restraint, 1893-1944; medical journals, 1910-1925; operations registers, 1925-1965, insulin coma register, 1950-1958.

Staff And Appointments: Registers, 1866-1949

The full 3043 catalogue is available to download as pdf documents using the following  underlined, clickable links:

Introduction and Summary List

Catalogue Part 1

• 3043/1/        Management Under Surrey Quarter Sessions and Surrey County Council (1867-1948), 1854-1960
• 3043/1/1/    Annual Reports, 1867-1947
• 3043/1/2/    Hospital Committees, 1867-1948
• 3043/1/3/    Rules of the Hospital, 1867-1945
• 3043/1/4/    Inspection: Commissioners in Lunacy, Later Board of Control, 1854-1960
• 3043/1/5/    Inspection: Board of Guardians and Magistrates, 1867-1945
• 3043/1/6/    Administrative Records of the Medical Superintendent, 1866-1939
• 3043/1/7/    Financial Affairs, 1867-1948
• 3043/1/8/    Staff and Appointments: Registers, 1866-1949
• 3043/        Staff and Appointments: Papers, 1866-1949

Catalogue Part 2

• 3043/    Staff and Appointments: Papers, 1866-1949
• 3043/    Patient Maintenance, 1894-1947
• 3043/    Patient Employment and Affairs, 1867-1935
• 3043/    Farm Affairs, 1867-1948
• 3043/    Buildings and Fittings, 1862-1947
• 3043/    Supplies and Provisions, 1868-1940
• 3043/    Registers of the Clerk and Steward, 1898-1938

Catalogue Part 3

• 3043/    Files of M. Hallam, Clerk and Steward, 1895-1925       
• 3043/    Papers Mostly Consisting of Bills, Receipts and Correspondence, 1865-1877
• 3043/    Records Relating to the Hospital in World War II, 1938-1944       
• 3043/    Papers of Robert Lloyd, First Head Gardener, 1862-1912
• 3043/    Papers of Dr. T.N. Brushfield, First Medical Superintendent, and Family, 1861-1959
• 3043/    Miscellaneous, Including Plans, 1861-1953
• 3043/2/    Management Under Brookwood Hospital Management Committee (1948-1972) and Farnham and Brookwood Hospital Management Committee (1972-1974), 1935-1975   
• 3043/2/1/    Annual Reports, 1948-1960
• 3043/2/2/    South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board: Committees and Working Groups, 1949-1971
• 3043/2/3/    Brookwood Hospital Management Committee: Committees and Working Groups, 1948-1975

Catalogue Part 4

• 3043/2/4/    Farnham and Brookwood Hospital Management Committee: Committees and Working Groups, 1969-1974
• 3043/2/5/    Rules of the Hospital, 1946-1953
• 3043/2/6/    Inspection: Hospital Advisory Service, 1970-1973
• 3043/2/7/    Administrative Records of the Physician Superintendent, 1939-1972
• 3043/2/8/    Financial Affairs, 1948-1974
• 3043/2/9/    Staff and Appointments: Registers, 1936-1965
• 3043/    Staff and Appointments: Papers, 1939-1974
• 3043/    Staff Survey Returns, 1949-1972
• 3043/    Medical and Patient Therapy Functions, 1935-1974   
• 3043/    Ward Administration, 1951-1959
• 3043/    Patient Maintenance, 1947-1955
• 3043/    Patient Affairs, 1949-1966
• 3043/    Farm and Estate Affairs, 1938-1972
• 3043/    Fabric and Fittings: Inventories and Internal Papers, 1948-1974
• 3043/    Fabric and Fittings: Engineering and Architectural Plans, 1947-1971

Catalogue Part 5

• 3043/    Papers Relating to South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, 1949-1973
• 3043/    Hospital Events, 1935-1973
• 3043/    Publications and Advertising, 1951-1967
• 3043/    Files of the Hospital Secretary, 1948-1974
• 3043/3/    Management Under West Surrey and North East Hampshire District Health Authority (1974-1987), 1948-1991
• 3043/3/1/    Annual Reports, 1982-1988
• 3043/3/2/    Area Health Authority Committees and Working Groups, 1976-1981
• 3043/3/3/    District Health Authority Committees and Working Groups, 1973-1988
• 3043/3/4/    Brookwood Hospital Committees and Working Groups, 1971-1986
• 3043/3/5/    Inspection: Hospital Advisory Service, 1985
• 3043/    Staff and Appointments, 1959-1987
• 3043/    Medical and Patient Therapy Functions, 1964-1989
• 3043/    Ward Administration, 1955-1990
• 3043/    Patient Affairs, 1968-1989

Catalogue Part 6

• 3043/    Estate Affairs, 1975-1989
• 3043/    Union Affairs, 1948-1984
• 3043/    Laundry Service, 1972-1988
• 3043/    Hospital Events, 1953-1990
• 3043/    Files of the Sector Administrator and Unit General Manager, 1976-1987
• 3043/    District Works Study Unit, 1971-1991
• 3043/    District Works Department, 1975-1978
• 3043/    Magazines and Press Cuttings, 1969-1986
• 3043/    Management Under South West Surrey District Health Authority (1987-1994), 1975-1994
• 3043/    Annual Reports, 1988-1989
• 3043/    Health Authority Committees and Working Groups, 1983-1991
• 3043/    Brookwood Hospital Committees and Working Groups, 1986-1994
• 3043/    Financial Affairs, 1986-1990
• 3043/    Files of the Sector Administrator and Unit General Manager, 1975-1991
• 3043/    Publications, 1986-1994

Catalogue Part 7

• 3043/5/    Patient Registers and Case Records, 1867-1988
• 3043/5/1/    Registers of Admission, 1867-1987
• 3043/5/2/    Alphabetical Registers, 1867-1959
• 3043/5/3/    Registers of Removal, Discharge and Death, 1894-1988
• 3043/5/4/    Orders and Notices of Removal, Discharge and Death, 1909-1961
• 3043/5/5/    Post-Mortem and Undertakers’ Registers, 1867-1962
• 3043/5/6/    Miscellaneous Patient Registers, 1867-C.1983
• 3043/5/7/    Registers of Numbers of Patients, 1916-1984

Catalogue Part 8

• 3043/5/8/    Registers and Case Books of the Medical Superintendent, 1880-1963
• 3043/5/9/    Case Books, 1867-1921
• 3043/5/10/    Case Notes and Indexes to Case Books, 1867-1922
• 3043/5/11/    Registers of Medical Treatment, 1893-1973
• 3043/6/    Patient Registers: Emergency Medical Service Hospital, 1939-1941
• 3043/    Hospital Support Bodies, 1889-1990
• 3043/    Benevolent Fund, 1889-1973
• 3043/    Friends of Brookwood Hospital, 1954-1990
• 3043/    Hospital Organisations, 1882-1992
• 3043/    Staff Social Club, 1911-1982
• 3043/    Hospital Performing Band, 1929-1967
• 3043/    Hospital Fire Brigade, 1937-1987
• 3043/    Hospital Chapel, 1882-1979
• 3043/    Hospital Museum, 1979-1992

Catalogue Part 9

• 3043/    Records of C.A. Ekins, Clerk and Steward, 1866-1965
• 3043/    Historical Papers and Files, 1866-1965
• 3043/    Personal Papers, 1867-1965
• 3043/    Photographs, 19th Cent-20th Cent
• 3043/    Entertainments and Events, Late 19th Cent-1971
• 3043/    Staff, 19th Cent-1968
• 3043/    Sports, 1884-1947
• 3043/    Site and Buildings, 1874-1988   
• 3043/    Miscellaneous Portraits, 19th Cent-20th Cent
• 3043/    Miscellaneous, 19th Cent-20th Cent
• 3043/    Independent Bodies, 1926-1988
• 3043/    Staff Associations, 1926-1982
• 3043/    Community Health Councils, 1975-1988
• 3043/    Other Hospitals and Health Authorities, 1842-1990
• 3043/    Surrey County Lunatic Asylum at Wandsworth, Later Springfield Asylum, 1842-1879
• 3043/    Three Counties Asylum, Arlesey, Bedfordshire, 1851-1879
• 3043/    Surrey Hospitals, 1932-1990
• 3043/    Other Hospitals, 18th Cent-1979
• 3043/    Miscellaneous, 1815-1838

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