Long Grove Hospital, Epsom

Long Grove Hospital opened in 1907 on land in Epsom acquired by the London County Council. It accommodated 2,149 patients. Between 1907 and 1948 it was administered by the Asylums Committee, later Mental Hospitals Committee, of the London County Council. During the second world war the hospital received patients from Horton hospital which was used for treating military personnel. Files relating to some of these patients will be found under the reference SHC 6251/4/128 (see below for a link to this catalogue list).

Long Grove also received large numbers of Polish patients, of whom three hundred remained in 1951 (see SHC 6251/1/1; see below for a link to this catalogue list). On 5 July 1948 the hospital passed under the administrative charge of a Hospital Management Committee of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. It closed in 1992 and was replaced by a smaller unit at Tolworth Hospital managed by the Kingston and District Community NHS Trust.

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.

The main accession numbers to find records for Long Grove Hospital at Surrey History Centre are 6251, 6275, 6276, 6289, 6423, 6718 and 7422. Click on the links to see the individual catalogues of these accessions which provide item descriptions.

The principal series of records held at Surrey History Centre relating to individual patients are as follows, although there are gaps in some series.

Medical Registers, 1907-1948
Details include date of admission, civil register number, date of discharge, transfer or death, patient's name and whether private or pauper, marital status, occupation, age on admission, type of attacks, duration of attacks, aetiological factors, bodily state on admission, form of mental disorder and observations.

Civil Registers, 1907-1958
These were compiled in accordance with Rule 4 of the Rules of the Commissioners in Lunacy dated 31 Oct 1906 which required the Clerk of every asylum to make an entry in a Civil Register of Patients immediately upon the reception of a person as a lunatic. Details include the date of any previous admission, general reference number, admission date, date of reception order, date of continuation of the reception order, whether the patient was directly admitted to the asylum or transferred, patient's name, private or pauper status, address, previous institution, sex, marital status, religion, county or borough to which chargeable, date of discharge, transfer or death and name of institution they may have been transferred to.

General Registers, 1948-1961
These were compiled under the Medical Treatment Rules, 1948. Details include admission date, general reference number, name, sex, age, whether voluntary, temporary or certified, whether a private, NHS or criminal patient, mode of admission, whether previously dealt with under the Lunacy Act, date of departure, discharge, removal or death and observations.

Patients’ Registers, 1951-1961
These registers of female patients were compiled during the 1950s and list those present at Long Grove hospital at a given date (the first date given for each register). They were subsequently added to until a new register was drawn up. Patients are grouped alphabetically but arranged by date of admission (the earliest year of admission being 1907). Some patients are listed more than once in each volume, indicating their re- admission to the hospital. The wards in which the patient was treated are shown by codes (E1, G2, HBH, F1 etc). Annotations in red ink provide details of the patients' discharge or death and the voluntary or temporary status of patients is indicated by the letters VP and TP respectively. Reference numbers of each patient are also given, allowing the user to cross refer to the relevant admission register for further information.

Service Patients, 1916-1944
Details given include the general reference number, patient's name, type of admission order, admission date, age on admission, parish of residence, regimental particulars, date classified as Service, date of receipt of medical card, Ministry of Pension number and remarks.

Informal Patients, 1960-1961
Details include whether the patient was previously under care for mental illness and date of last discharge, date of admission, general reference number, age on admission and date of birth, patient's name, mental category, nature of treatment, date of departure, regrading or death and address on departure or cause of death.

Reception Orders, 1907-1960
These include the date of admission, date of reception order, general reference number, name of patient, dates upon which the order was renewed and remarks. Each page relates to orders issued on one particular date over a period of years

Case Files, 1907-1943
Only 16 case files of patients at Long Grove Hospital survive.

Medical Journals, 1907-1926
These are daily summaries of the number of patients in the hospital. They list those in seclusion, describing the period of and reason for the treatment. They also list those undergoing medical treatment and describe the nature of their bodily disorder. Deaths, injuries and violence among the patients are also recorded.

Discharge and Transfer Registers, 1907-1958
The details included in each register comprise the date of discharge or transfer, date of last admission and the name of patient, stating whether private or pauper. If the patient was discharged the new address was given. If the patient was transferred to another asylum the name of that institution was noted. Medical details were only provided of those patients who were discharged 'recovered'.

Registers of Deaths, 1907-1938
These provide details of the date of death, the date of last admission, the number of the patient in the civil register, the name of the patient and whether they were private or pauper, their sex, age, the duration of their last attack of mental illness, the forms of their disorder on admission and at death, the principal and contributory causes of death and whether these were confirmed by a post-mortem. For Long Grove we also hold a register of deaths and burials, 1942-1954 and the hospital undertaker’s notebook, 1949-1957. For registers of the Horton Cemetery that served all of the Epsom Cluster hospitals between c.1902 and 1955, see 6376. An index to these registers has been prepared by our volunteers, Mike and Gill Couper.

Post Mortem Registers, 1907-1969

Patients’ property registers, 1936-1955

Matron's Journals, 1953-1968
These detailed daily summaries provide much information about daily life in Long Grove Hospital and continue the practice of the Medical Journals, for which see above. Details are included of patient numbers, admissions, deaths, discharges, seclusion, casualties, operations, patients' employment, reasons for unemployment, recreational activities, incontinent patients, infectious cases, suicidal cautions, epileptics and open air treatment. Dietary information is also given. The journals include staffing information.

Staff records, 1905-1960

Contributor:Surrey Heritage