DONCASTER, ST CATHERINE'S HOSPITAL RECORDS

Scope and Content

Comprising: (copy) minutes, 1928-1948 and staff committee, signed, 1951; annual reports 1931-1948; log book 1933-1935; patients 1928-1970s

Administrative / Biographical History

The South-West Yorkshire Joint Board for the Mentally Defective was established under the provisions of the Mental Deficiency Acts of 1913 and 1927. Its members were the county boroughs of Dewsbury, Doncaster, Halifax, Huddersfield and Rotherham. At its first meeting in October 1928 it decided to purchase St Catherine's Hall and its estate of some 115 acres on the south-west outskirts of Doncaster and in the parish of Loversall for use as a 'colony for mental defectives'. This was known as the St Catherine's Institution. The institution was vested in the National Health Service in 1948.

Access Information

Closed

Public Records

Some of the records in this collection, for example those containing sensitive and personal data relating to living individuals, are closed for 100 years under the Data Protection Act (1988). As such, public access to them is restricted.

Related Material

The signed minutes of the board are held at Rotherham Archives (reference 272/C). Other records relating to the board are to be found amongst the records of Doncaster Health.