Also since the 1960's if not earlier these were called hospitals. So if you think you are liberal posting this and think these hospitals archiac. What is with your use of the word asylum? Hmmm it has not been used for decaded by the mental health system. Just drama is'nt it. You did not live or work in these institutions you now bugger all about the residents or us the staff.
@DeeDee1957 a hanful of asylums( now called state hospitals) are still in operation... such as the one in chattahoochee FL. but they treat residents better now then they used to. I fear ending up in chattahoochee just becuz I am near crippled with Lupus and can no longer care for myself( I live with my mother who cares for me)
I worked in the old institutions in the 1970's and 1980's. For some, community care means being abused by nasty feral so called neighbours in the community. You were at least safe from that in the institutions of old.
Care in the community certainly hasnt been the answer to these poor peoples problems and in a lot of cases they seem to be worse off, ridiculed, lonely and lacking in the most basic care. Thatcher didnt close the asylums for the benefit of the patient's thats for sure !
I used to hear what went on in those places,and I would also hear the word "institute" alot,as a result it fills me with dread!I heard alot of "nasty stuff"horrible things,like lobotomies,happening-I'm all too glad that I wasn't committed to one those places,whew!
...when the Royd was laying empty after closure, and before redevelopment, my mate went in and had a look around. He found some artwork - paintings - that had been 'hidden' - definately hidden, he said. Why were they hidden? Will have to speak further with him on this.
@xXchelsearoxXx god no. I'm just stating. there's nothing really bad about this video. I'm not agreeing that they were treated right in these asylums. Because i know they weren't
These places had a bad reputation but I've spoken to some old patients who wish they still lived in the old asylums as they believe compared to 'Care in the Community' it was the lesser of the two evils.
@alextilson Amazing, thanks for letting me know! I knew at least some of the buildings were still the originals but not all! I had a friend who lived in one of the flats, they showed me the basement, scary stuff!
I wonder what classed someone as clinically insane during the 60's ? The treatments where quite scary during that time !! This reminds me of the advancements we've made in Medicine ! And a thankful advancement for that !
@Serielle - I wouldnt be to sure - Advances are made 4 sure - but to who's benefit - Stanley Royd existed as a means of social control (by and large) - I worked there in the 80's when a lot of the patients had been institutionalised for so long they wouldnt have been able to cope without that "social structure" - it was their life all they knew and we did the best for them we could - When change comes to long term institutionalised people it sadly may come 4 the wrong reasons - Money usually!!
I work at Fieldhead Hospital and have visited the museum there which has loads of interesting artefacts from Stanley Royd. I'd encourage anyone with an interest to go. Can't remember opening times (once a week I think) so ring Fieldhead first to check.
Brilliant video. I work at Pinderfields and often go for a walk around the old Stanley Royd site on a lunch time. I'm not sure i'd want to live in flats/apartments that were once part of an asylum. Every time I walk round, I think of what happened there, fantastic local history, whatever happened.
My heart breaks for these people. This is a wonderful video for anyone that questions the need for proper care for the mentally unrested. Thx @stealthpicasso! PLEASE if anyone figures out what this song is, tell us! (How can we see the selection of music YouTube provides?)
My heart breaks for these people. This is a wonderful video for anyone that questions the need for proper care for the mentally unrested. Thx @stealthpicasso! PLEASE if anyone figures out what this song is, tell us! (How can we see the selection of music YouTube provides?)
@idiannapod These poor people are human beings and proper care for any human being is love and understanding and they get neither in these institutions.They get taken care of,there human rights removed and comfort of those also locked away from freedom.Often many are experimented on,cut open and used like lab rats without anyone's care or consent because there sick anyway and it's society looking the other way to allow Nazi torture to continue
i was scared the whole time whyle watching this because of the backround and the music shit i thought something was gonna pop up and whair is this in europe because i saw you put the euroes sighn up
they started turning ppl into lab rats do ur history befor you suport the nazi colt that started the shit and the fda for funding them in the USA do your research las vegas still continues labotimies so they can rought in hell
very touching :) thanks for the footage, although it looks like footage from the late 40s early 50s. im guessing late 40's you can tell its from around then by the look and style of the nurse's uniforms. so i would say around 1948 based off of i few medical books i own from the 40s with pictures of nurses in uniforms.
Haunting, a pretty tragic place that always gave me the shivers when i had to walk through it to get to Pinderfields hospital. Born and brought up in Wakefield i for one was glad when it was closed down, can't imagine how patients were treated in such a sad desolate place like that.
why did they shut down alot of the insane asylums today? was there a change in state law that said no more :"asylums" and just replaced it with mental hospitals? thanks for anything
why did they shut down alot of the insane asylums today? was there a change in state law that said no more :"asylums" and just replaced it with mental hospitals? thanks for anything
why did they shut down alot of the insane asylums today? was there a change in state law that said no more :"asylums" and just replaced it with mental hospitals? thanks for anything
This video brought tears to my eyes. To think that the mentally ill had to be 'put away' in this place is totally heartbreaking, altho it looks like a very well kept environment. Thank God we are more tolerant today of these poor people, and more can be done for their mental health. I pass this old building on my way to work most days, and tho it is now converted into apartments, I shall view it with very different eyes. Thank you stealthpiccasso for posting this.
it is so spooky watching this footage knowing that my friend lives in one of the flats that is has been converted too now. much respect for posting this video. do you have any other footage of wakefield cos i would like to see? iv never seen footage of my home city this rare before. thanks.
it is so spooky watching this footage knowing that my friend lives in one of the flats that is has been converted too now. much respect for posting this video. do you have any other footage of wakefield cos i would like to see? iv never seen footage of my home city this rare before. thanks.
I used to work at Stanley Royd. I would read old records (100's of years old). All the clinicians would ever report is 'melancholic'. Which you would be, if you lived there. Now it's new housing estate.
@jonmaxell Ah yes, a favourite phrase for the psychiatrists of the day. I worked at Prestwich Hospital in Manchester, and many case notes mentioned melancholia.
for once wakefield council didn't enforce demolition on an old building, most of Stanley Royd is now apartments. thanks for posting this, being a wakefield lass its a building i have gone past many many times but have never had cause to even venture onto the grounds.
I currently work at a psychiatric hospital in Stafford. The original hospital closed around 1996,it was a totally gorgeous building,not unlike Stanley Royd,possibly built around the same time? Sadly time,vandals and total neglect have left the once majestic building a tatty wrecked shell of what it once was,shame. Ty Stealth v.good video
Nice footage and great music choice. That pic of the dining hall at the beginning was amazing - what a grand room. In the states (Michigan) close to where my parents grew up was a Kirkbride building asylum - my grandmother worked there for a time. They tore it down (people did try to protest) in the 90s....a shame, it was a gorgeous building. Now all that's there is condos...wonder if those people know they may be living on the bones of the 'inmates' buried there?
never thought the former stanley royd asylum would ever appear on youtube. My grandmother worked at the asylum from 1930 to 1987 and if she was still alive now she would have loved to have watched this video, (she was called Phillis Darker and started working there as a nurse in the 30's and worked her way up to been a matron before she retired) She used to talk about it in depth the good side and bad side of it, in the early days and she loved it more when the refurbishment
@leewmajor Hi i worked at Stanley Royd on a ward named Tuke. named after a Psychiatrist like many of the wards were ie Bevan Lewis. He was a Psychiatrist from the 19th Century at the retreat in York
i worked at Stanley Royd for a number of years during the 70's. I saw some of the highest standards of Nursing care that i ever witnessed during my 32 years in Nursing
Lord, what a forbidding place on the outside. The 'insane poor' what a horrific label to be landed with - you wouldn't get many visitors that's for sure. And no privacy, like 'insane' people don't matter, imagine sleeping with XX amount of people in the same room for the rest of your life - that's enough to do your head in. If you weren't 'insane' when you went in you'd be off your rocker when you got out (if you ever got out that is or maybe they just buried you alive in there).
what music is this? I love it...it sounds like a ... in reremberance for those who suffered. Stealth what's the music? and it's ok if you don't want to share it. But thanks for posting this.
Originally the music was removed by You Tube for copyright issues, I replaced it with free music supplied by You Tube and I cannot for the life of me remember what it was..
That was very interesting. How could one care for patients in beds so close together? Imagine the smell! Also, I doubt very much that the little dining room with those sharp-edged tables and GLASS vases with FLOWERS was a regular patient dining room. You would have glass all over the floor and every flower eaten by some old dear within a matter of days.
i live next to this place for the past 20 years or so obviously not in working order anymore, but i remember walking through the grounds at night when i was a kid with my mates n often frightend ourselves silly. was a great video to watch that
The main part of the hospital still stands but is now surrounded with purpose built apartments. The main part of the hospital as now been renovated into apartments but still still looks like the footage which is shown. Very strange place and remember going to see my great grandma there and finding the whole experience disturbing.
where is this place? i mean less sepcifically than wakefield. i'm from Boston Massachusetts and there's a town named wakefield not far from here, but i saw mention of "parliment" in the video, so i'm guessing it's not this wakefield
This was very good!! Professional quality in my opinion. The music is right for this footage. The footage was very good as it captured a slice of time and this place.
Many thanks for this. As a schoolboy I'd often have to pass the hospital and would see in-patients in the grounds; a little scary in the ignorance of a boy.
My Grandmother worked there as an assistant carer (in modern parlance) in the 40s.
The footage doesn't seem to be from the early 60's as it is described. It appears to be from much earlier than that... I would say it is either from the mid 40's or early 50's at the most.
@stealthpiccasso uhm.. no. This footage is from earlier in the 20th century! Look at other films shot in the 60's and its totally more advanced. Also, look at the clothes people are wearing! Certainly not from the 60's!
just been looking at this video as I work with adults with learning disabillities up in Scotland but used to live near wakefield my sister was a nurse on Oak/Pine ward and used to take me to work with her also to the christmas parties
my sister now works in the community with men/women who were in this establishment from childhood.thank god mental health chiefs have more compassion and understanding these day
@sazdaz my grandmother was a matron at the stanley royd hospital, and loves this video (she is 94) and she has mentioned that there was no such thing as MSRA in the hospitals at that time, as the wards were always cleaned with bleach and water by the hospital orderly's and there work was daily checked by the ward sisters, Stanley Royd may look austeer but is was a living community untill the day it closed and the wards were bright and clean with lovley garden's outdoors, and its own chapple
@alextilson maybe a long shot but worth a go..... my grandmother (who I only found out existed 3 years ago) was in stanley royd hospital 1950-1986 and died there. i went to wakefield this week as i am desperate to find someone who may have known her. i appreciate that your grandmother is very elderly and that she would have known many hundreds of patients, but would you be willing to ask her for me whether she remembers my grandmother? my email medwaygirl@hotmail.co.uk
i am trying to trace my grandmother who was a patient at stanley royd 1950-1986 when she died. please would you will be willing to ask you grandmother whether she remembers mine? a long shot i know but i am desperate. Her name - Ida Cuff. my email medwaygirl@hotmail.co.uk i would be very gratefull if you or your grandmother could help
never thought i would ever see the real thing in action. they sure knew how to keep hospitals spit spot clean in those days hey! and thats in black n white!! took my breath wen i saw it 1st time around. like going back in a time macine, and yes, iv heard sum dstrbin stories too.
I can't understand why some people become very nostalgic at the closure of these type of establishments. It's good to see that there are some people who understand the badness by which these places treated 'patients'. It is all definately not sweetness and light. Many of the Dr's & Nurses probably thought they were doing a good job, but I doubet there was any empathy involved. I realy hope we wake up to mans inhumane treatment to man. We can be a an evil race at times!
its so horible and sad they made these places claming to help but all they did was couse more pain and sufering apon people. when they got out if they got out they were in worse shape than before they enterd the asylem =( so sad
My friend just told me that they staff and builders of stanley royd built tunnels underneath the plantation and roads next to stanley royd and leading to wakefield cathedral. I was just wondering if anyone knows if this is true?
i did just read about corpse way. But i wondered whether they did build a road underneath where they couldcarry the dead for their blessings?
if anyone could help that would be ace i have just been sat in the grounds of stanley royd at 2:00am scared out of my mind :S
Yeah, it's true, my mum told me many a time that her and her mates used to live near their and they used to mess around in them after the closure of the hospital, but they were apparently creepy. The also lead to pinderfields.
This is a fantastic video, one that haunted me for days after I'd first seen it - I went to the museum at Stanley Royd before it closed down and was locked in a padded cell... not pleasant!
But has the music for this changed? I've had this in my Favourites for ages now but when I first viewed it didn't it have "Hello Again" by Neil Diamond as the soundtrack? Or have I completely imagined it???
It's still one of the most haunting vids I've ever seen on youtube - are you allowed to tell people what the original soundtrack was? Also not sure if I imagine this but didn't it have James Blunts's I Can't Hear the Music too...? Apologies if it didn't, I seem to remember half the video being this and the rest Hello Again, but perhaps not. You inspired me to make two videos of my own - not of anything nearly so interersting though!!
Night shifts on Fern or Netherfields were pretty scarey!!! But I loved my years there. Worked with some dam hardworking people, 40 patients on the sick wards and 3 staff!!!
I, too, am attracted to these kinds of places. Although, I would not want to visit one alone or at night. Maybe I went insane in my former life, if there is such a thing.
I am from Cincinnati, Ohio in the States. Our grand City Music Hall were concerts are heal was built in 1878. It was built on the remains of the old Cincinnati Insane Hospital (circa 1820). There were pits of bones from former patients of this facility - it was like a "potter's field". These remains were found in the 1980s and were quickly reburied. Who knows how many hundreds of souls were lost to this failed institution.
So my point is that conditions for the insanse were no better over here
Society, their values and morals over the 170 years of history attached to the former "West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Wakefield" were to blame for sending people into a liftime of institutional care, in some cases without foundation in todays terms.
The staff At Stanley Royd recieved these people and gave them care and compassion as much as the resources and hospital management would allow.
I believe that the vast majority of people employed within these large victorian institutions were caring people drawn to the service of others, there is always a bad apple but they would have been expelled within a short space of time.
I worked there (as a general nurse student on a placement) back in 1980 - it looked pretty much still like that, very institutionalised and regimented. Thank God mental health care has progressed.
I do not know what it is, but I am attracted to these places, I do not know if it is my paranormal instinct, or my study of psychology, or just wanting to learn more, thank you for posting it is amazing.
I'm quite like that, I love old hospitals and their history, I trained as a nurse at Pinderfields in the late 90's, my interview for Uni was on one of the old Royd buildings. I loved the buildings where the university library was, such a shame it couldn't go on as a working hospital. I feel the same about Pinderfields will be a shame when the new hospital is finalised. I spent many nights working in that hospital and was spooked on many occasion
it is my honest opinion that there weren't that many 'real' insane people back then. i believe that medication, incompetent doctors, and time made the brain into mash and insanity resulted...but that's just my opinion.
Brilliant video, such a shame it had to be pulled down, I would of loved to take some photography there, a rare treat.
I spoke to a guy who used to work there, and towards the end of it's days as a working hospital it had a chamber of underground rooms, apparantley they found various items within Stanley Royd and donated most of them to the Wakefield museum.
Great Footage, black and white always gives a mood to the film also the music choice is excellent.
Also since the 1960's if not earlier these were called hospitals. So if you think you are liberal posting this and think these hospitals archiac. What is with your use of the word asylum? Hmmm it has not been used for decaded by the mental health system. Just drama is'nt it. You did not live or work in these institutions you now bugger all about the residents or us the staff.
DeeDee1957 2 months ago
@DeeDee1957 a hanful of asylums( now called state hospitals) are still in operation... such as the one in chattahoochee FL. but they treat residents better now then they used to. I fear ending up in chattahoochee just becuz I am near crippled with Lupus and can no longer care for myself( I live with my mother who cares for me)
grettagrids 1 month ago
I worked in the old institutions in the 1970's and 1980's. For some, community care means being abused by nasty feral so called neighbours in the community. You were at least safe from that in the institutions of old.
DeeDee1957 2 months ago
Care in the community certainly hasnt been the answer to these poor peoples problems and in a lot of cases they seem to be worse off, ridiculed, lonely and lacking in the most basic care. Thatcher didnt close the asylums for the benefit of the patient's thats for sure !
mashamorgan 4 months ago
I used to hear what went on in those places,and I would also hear the word "institute" alot,as a result it fills me with dread!I heard alot of "nasty stuff"horrible things,like lobotomies,happening-I'm all too glad that I wasn't committed to one those places,whew!
BudgieFace1 4 months ago
:'(
I hope they're ok...and yes I'm aware that all of these people are dead.
goremi123 5 months ago
How spotlessly clean everything is.
eohinyorks 7 months ago
may god have mercy on their souls
MUJAHIDEEN7860 8 months ago
all that pain and misery, my god.
angie4josh 8 months ago
looks alright
boxchamp4114 8 months ago
...when the Royd was laying empty after closure, and before redevelopment, my mate went in and had a look around. He found some artwork - paintings - that had been 'hidden' - definately hidden, he said. Why were they hidden? Will have to speak further with him on this.
mestevieboy 9 months ago
This asylum looks far more organised and cleaner than any hospital I have been in recently
louisewhomackable 9 months ago 2
@xXchelsearoxXx god no. I'm just stating. there's nothing really bad about this video. I'm not agreeing that they were treated right in these asylums. Because i know they weren't
dlantz95 9 months ago
@xXchelsearoxXx i don't seeanything bad about this footage?
dlantz95 9 months ago
These places had a bad reputation but I've spoken to some old patients who wish they still lived in the old asylums as they believe compared to 'Care in the Community' it was the lesser of the two evils.
mashamorgan 10 months ago 2
this place is huge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TheStarlit26 11 months ago
So, those flats by the park is where it used to be? I knew I recognised that clock tower. How much of what is currently there is original?
jbdtaylor 11 months ago
@jbdtaylor Hi all thoes flats by the park is the origional stanley royd its a listed building so it cannot be demolised !!
alextilson 8 months ago
@alextilson Amazing, thanks for letting me know! I knew at least some of the buildings were still the originals but not all! I had a friend who lived in one of the flats, they showed me the basement, scary stuff!
jbdtaylor 8 months ago
Jump to 1:51 to skip all the gayness
stupidjunk978 11 months ago
I wonder what classed someone as clinically insane during the 60's ? The treatments where quite scary during that time !! This reminds me of the advancements we've made in Medicine ! And a thankful advancement for that !
Serielle 1 year ago
@Serielle - I wouldnt be to sure - Advances are made 4 sure - but to who's benefit - Stanley Royd existed as a means of social control (by and large) - I worked there in the 80's when a lot of the patients had been institutionalised for so long they wouldnt have been able to cope without that "social structure" - it was their life all they knew and we did the best for them we could - When change comes to long term institutionalised people it sadly may come 4 the wrong reasons - Money usually!!
jon3m2007 10 months ago 3
@jon3m2007 my mum worked here in the 80's aswell, when i was young
spiderpunk100 4 months ago
Very Powerful and haunting.
ethelsmum 1 year ago
my nana was in here for a bit god rest her
yncrewe 1 year ago
I work at Fieldhead Hospital and have visited the museum there which has loads of interesting artefacts from Stanley Royd. I'd encourage anyone with an interest to go. Can't remember opening times (once a week I think) so ring Fieldhead first to check.
mrslorrainemorgan 1 year ago 2
Brilliant video. I work at Pinderfields and often go for a walk around the old Stanley Royd site on a lunch time. I'm not sure i'd want to live in flats/apartments that were once part of an asylum. Every time I walk round, I think of what happened there, fantastic local history, whatever happened.
Lynxboy252 1 year ago
yea stealth where can we see the music selection youtube provides?????
ganthonyvr 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
My heart breaks for these people. This is a wonderful video for anyone that questions the need for proper care for the mentally unrested. Thx @stealthpicasso! PLEASE if anyone figures out what this song is, tell us! (How can we see the selection of music YouTube provides?)
idiannapod 1 year ago
My heart breaks for these people. This is a wonderful video for anyone that questions the need for proper care for the mentally unrested. Thx @stealthpicasso! PLEASE if anyone figures out what this song is, tell us! (How can we see the selection of music YouTube provides?)
idiannapod 1 year ago 6
@idiannapod place a song on youtube and have it removed by youtube lol
cavaliersfan08 1 year ago
@idiannapod
The song is Mr. Meeble - Forget This Ever Happened.
sebastianave 10 months ago
@idiannapod These poor people are human beings and proper care for any human being is love and understanding and they get neither in these institutions.They get taken care of,there human rights removed and comfort of those also locked away from freedom.Often many are experimented on,cut open and used like lab rats without anyone's care or consent because there sick anyway and it's society looking the other way to allow Nazi torture to continue
MizzCorbeau 10 months ago
i was scared the whole time whyle watching this because of the backround and the music shit i thought something was gonna pop up and whair is this in europe because i saw you put the euroes sighn up
zingzangbangdang 1 year ago
My great great grandfather was admitted to this hospital in 1898 and died 2 years later in 1900 of colitis. His name was Thomas Davis.
BigBoyCornwall 1 year ago
A very sobering video. I used to be a psychiatric nurse working in a place not too far removed from this place. I reckon it was taken around 1960/61.
sewitt60 1 year ago
Good Film. Bless you for posting this.
azerberjankey 1 year ago
they started turning ppl into lab rats do ur history befor you suport the nazi colt that started the shit and the fda for funding them in the USA do your research las vegas still continues labotimies so they can rought in hell
666999twisted 1 year ago
wow, not much has changed since then - except the hospital in this video looks a lot cleaner & less shabby than what we have today..
SuperRach101 1 year ago
very touching :) thanks for the footage, although it looks like footage from the late 40s early 50s. im guessing late 40's you can tell its from around then by the look and style of the nurse's uniforms. so i would say around 1948 based off of i few medical books i own from the 40s with pictures of nurses in uniforms.
thEannoyingE 1 year ago
Haunting, a pretty tragic place that always gave me the shivers when i had to walk through it to get to Pinderfields hospital. Born and brought up in Wakefield i for one was glad when it was closed down, can't imagine how patients were treated in such a sad desolate place like that.
DEMONHIIPER 1 year ago
Comment removed
alextilson 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
why did they shut down alot of the insane asylums today? was there a change in state law that said no more :"asylums" and just replaced it with mental hospitals? thanks for anything
anewunderstanding 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
why did they shut down alot of the insane asylums today? was there a change in state law that said no more :"asylums" and just replaced it with mental hospitals? thanks for anything
anewunderstanding 1 year ago
why did they shut down alot of the insane asylums today? was there a change in state law that said no more :"asylums" and just replaced it with mental hospitals? thanks for anything
anewunderstanding 1 year ago
I really wanna know the song name to this
woooyas 1 year ago
i really wanna know the name of this song
woooyas 1 year ago
This video brought tears to my eyes. To think that the mentally ill had to be 'put away' in this place is totally heartbreaking, altho it looks like a very well kept environment. Thank God we are more tolerant today of these poor people, and more can be done for their mental health. I pass this old building on my way to work most days, and tho it is now converted into apartments, I shall view it with very different eyes. Thank you stealthpiccasso for posting this.
compuqueen 1 year ago
@compuqueen I bet the apartments are haunted bad.
milzeh 1 year ago
These pictures are gorgous! And LOVE the music :)
ebrach121 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
it is so spooky watching this footage knowing that my friend lives in one of the flats that is has been converted too now. much respect for posting this video. do you have any other footage of wakefield cos i would like to see? iv never seen footage of my home city this rare before. thanks.
MegaSbrown123 1 year ago
it is so spooky watching this footage knowing that my friend lives in one of the flats that is has been converted too now. much respect for posting this video. do you have any other footage of wakefield cos i would like to see? iv never seen footage of my home city this rare before. thanks.
MegaSbrown123 1 year ago
Wow! This is indeed, very rare footage and I found it so interesting. Thanks so much for sharing.
kvanas 1 year ago
I used to work at Stanley Royd. I would read old records (100's of years old). All the clinicians would ever report is 'melancholic'. Which you would be, if you lived there. Now it's new housing estate.
jonmaxell 1 year ago
@jonmaxell Ah yes, a favourite phrase for the psychiatrists of the day. I worked at Prestwich Hospital in Manchester, and many case notes mentioned melancholia.
sewitt60 1 year ago
for once wakefield council didn't enforce demolition on an old building, most of Stanley Royd is now apartments. thanks for posting this, being a wakefield lass its a building i have gone past many many times but have never had cause to even venture onto the grounds.
fearlessmudfan 1 year ago
I currently work at a psychiatric hospital in Stafford. The original hospital closed around 1996,it was a totally gorgeous building,not unlike Stanley Royd,possibly built around the same time? Sadly time,vandals and total neglect have left the once majestic building a tatty wrecked shell of what it once was,shame. Ty Stealth v.good video
Glamrockqueen 1 year ago
Nice footage and great music choice. That pic of the dining hall at the beginning was amazing - what a grand room. In the states (Michigan) close to where my parents grew up was a Kirkbride building asylum - my grandmother worked there for a time. They tore it down (people did try to protest) in the 90s....a shame, it was a gorgeous building. Now all that's there is condos...wonder if those people know they may be living on the bones of the 'inmates' buried there?
vgoth100 1 year ago
never thought the former stanley royd asylum would ever appear on youtube. My grandmother worked at the asylum from 1930 to 1987 and if she was still alive now she would have loved to have watched this video, (she was called Phillis Darker and started working there as a nurse in the 30's and worked her way up to been a matron before she retired) She used to talk about it in depth the good side and bad side of it, in the early days and she loved it more when the refurbishment
alextilson 1 year ago
@alextilson tell me more that's interesting
leahzep 1 year ago
iam moving just near here on tuke grove in wakefield really interesting great vid
leewmajor 1 year ago
@leewmajor Hi i worked at Stanley Royd on a ward named Tuke. He was a Psychiatrist from the 19th Century at the retreat in York
davidwlc 1 year ago
@leewmajor Hi i worked at Stanley Royd on a ward named Tuke. named after a Psychiatrist like many of the wards were ie Bevan Lewis. He was a Psychiatrist from the 19th Century at the retreat in York
davidwlc 1 year ago
Isnt it West ryder pauper lunatic asylum? Kasabian have their new album named after it.
camperluver 1 year ago
@camperluver Never mind im wrong :S
camperluver 1 year ago
i knew a guy who was sent to these he was old and went insane from being in vietnam poor guy...
zachiswack444 1 year ago
My mom was sent to one of these... its where I was born...
PR2glitcher 1 year ago
scarey
roodllib 1 year ago
i worked there and the nursing care given to the patients was of the highest std that i saw in my 32 years as a nurse
davidwlc 1 year ago
i worked at Stanley Royd for a number of years during the 70's. I saw some of the highest standards of Nursing care that i ever witnessed during my 32 years in Nursing
davidwlc 1 year ago
Very haunting, but beautiful & relaxing at the same time.
xJustJohnny 1 year ago
this fits the vid better then what ever music you had before
HewieOfHG 1 year ago
Lord, what a forbidding place on the outside. The 'insane poor' what a horrific label to be landed with - you wouldn't get many visitors that's for sure. And no privacy, like 'insane' people don't matter, imagine sleeping with XX amount of people in the same room for the rest of your life - that's enough to do your head in. If you weren't 'insane' when you went in you'd be off your rocker when you got out (if you ever got out that is or maybe they just buried you alive in there).
sheilamaclean 1 year ago
what music is this? I love it...it sounds like a ... in reremberance for those who suffered. Stealth what's the music? and it's ok if you don't want to share it. But thanks for posting this.
anewunderstanding 2 years ago 2
Originally the music was removed by You Tube for copyright issues, I replaced it with free music supplied by You Tube and I cannot for the life of me remember what it was..
stealthpiccasso 2 years ago
@anewunderstanding
coldplay i think. It's quite famous, so if you type Coldplay in youtube it should come up after a bit of searching :)
tomodude6542 1 year ago
@anewunderstanding James Blunt - I Can't Hear the Music
ken6x 1 year ago
@anewunderstanding use shazam on the iphone
homefry360 1 year ago
@anewunderstanding
The song is Mr. Meeble - Forget This Ever Happened.
sebastianave 10 months ago
@anewunderstanding Mr. Meeble - Forget This Ever Happened
vTempaaah 5 months ago
Life is but a walking shadow, out, out brief candle.
GG74K 2 years ago
Now apartments. Pass by every day on the way to work.
1980Grafik 2 years ago
That was very interesting. How could one care for patients in beds so close together? Imagine the smell! Also, I doubt very much that the little dining room with those sharp-edged tables and GLASS vases with FLOWERS was a regular patient dining room. You would have glass all over the floor and every flower eaten by some old dear within a matter of days.
nokomarie1963 2 years ago
i live next to this place for the past 20 years or so obviously not in working order anymore, but i remember walking through the grounds at night when i was a kid with my mates n often frightend ourselves silly. was a great video to watch that
8Morgan8webcat 2 years ago
Wonderful upload....I do however wish we could see what it would have looked like in the 19th century........
Portis1Luv 2 years ago
The main part of the hospital still stands but is now surrounded with purpose built apartments. The main part of the hospital as now been renovated into apartments but still still looks like the footage which is shown. Very strange place and remember going to see my great grandma there and finding the whole experience disturbing.
davlongo 2 years ago
im from wakefield (unfortunately)
and this is really interesting to see :)
glitterNsnow 2 years ago
where is this place? i mean less sepcifically than wakefield. i'm from Boston Massachusetts and there's a town named wakefield not far from here, but i saw mention of "parliment" in the video, so i'm guessing it's not this wakefield
megabadass30 2 years ago
well this is the wakefield in yorkshire its near to stanley, crofton and walton so i dont think its the one near you megadabass30 :)
glitterNsnow 2 years ago
@glitterNsnow If you are from Crofton you may know my nephew "Chris" I used to live there but live in Havercroft now
SH4R9Y 2 years ago
@megabadass30 Its near leeds West Yorkshire
SH4R9Y 2 years ago
@SH4R9Y its on Aberford rd wakefield i worked there and had to walk it!!
davidwlc 1 year ago
@glitterNsnow Its not that bad Wakey well some parts arent but if you are from Lupset, Portabella, or Eastmoor good luck 2 u! lol
SH4R9Y 2 years ago
This was very good!! Professional quality in my opinion. The music is right for this footage. The footage was very good as it captured a slice of time and this place.
4SCARECROWS 2 years ago
Many thanks for this. As a schoolboy I'd often have to pass the hospital and would see in-patients in the grounds; a little scary in the ignorance of a boy.
My Grandmother worked there as an assistant carer (in modern parlance) in the 40s.
Thank you for posting.
dalesman4 2 years ago
Amazing! Thanks for posting!
chazfensk 2 years ago
All closed? Replaced by what?
Funny how bathplugs seem to disappear all on their own.
The wallpaper at 5:00 would send me crazy too.
I sang christmas carols in their chapel full of patients in around 1962.
The 1960s footage seems quite up to date.
Prison-factory architecture though (without the bars on the windows).
1401JSC 2 years ago
great video, scary really
kasabian
salixfera7 2 years ago
All demolished now, and any part not demolished has been completely altered for new housing and apartment living...
10pinbowling 2 years ago
My grandmother died here in 1935, do you know what may have become of her remains or where inmates may have been buried; or more sadly cremated?
MrTopoftree 2 years ago
This has to be one of the most profound collections of video and images I have ever seen posted on youtube.....well done my friend.
ColBuzby 2 years ago
The dining hall looks amazing.
DrPoon 2 years ago
@DrPoon that became the staff dining room, i remember because i used to eat in there!!
davidwlc 1 year ago
these people were prophets. i wud consider that illness a gift of vision
TheKomedyKlub 2 years ago
i used to live near here and when we was kids (as kids do) we used to say if anyone was a bit daft...where ya from stanley royd
jaynies1 2 years ago
wow thats all i can say
kicxone 2 years ago
The footage doesn't seem to be from the early 60's as it is described. It appears to be from much earlier than that... I would say it is either from the mid 40's or early 50's at the most.
sweetboy81 2 years ago
It is definitely very early sixties, the modernisation only took place at that time.
stealthpiccasso 2 years ago
Where did you find this film?! i have some recently acquired from WWII
thEannoyingE 2 years ago
@stealthpiccasso uhm.. no. This footage is from earlier in the 20th century! Look at other films shot in the 60's and its totally more advanced. Also, look at the clothes people are wearing! Certainly not from the 60's!
emmabrkrshrp 11 months ago
some people call them insane....
i just think they know something that we don't
booly5 2 years ago 23
Thats the same way i see it
OmYoshal 2 years ago
i cudnt have put that better
TheKomedyKlub 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
my doctor says your gay :)
muffingman99 2 years ago
@booly5 so true!
7616853 1 year ago
wow this place looks nice but how they treated there patients is what really matters
joyangels4caylee 2 years ago
just been looking at this video as I work with adults with learning disabillities up in Scotland but used to live near wakefield my sister was a nurse on Oak/Pine ward and used to take me to work with her also to the christmas parties
dizzylizzy111 2 years ago
....... so peaceful at some of those places movies and ppl macke asylums out to be crazy
but they actualy are verry nice and well it feels like uv escaped the worled and the evil in it
demonlver13 2 years ago
i think this was one of the good ones man...there were some bad bad ones...bad....
Broodkill 2 years ago
Isn't there something similar on Batman? I knew Wakefield was no Featherstone but this is crazy!
givingbirthiseasy 2 years ago
whats the tune playing?
zemaks88 2 years ago
its really haunted now...
Ashigoh 2 years ago
i really liked the video
it was worth watching :)
abercrombieluffer08 2 years ago
what a fascinating film!
PikeySlayer 2 years ago 2
my sister now works in the community with men/women who were in this establishment from childhood.thank god mental health chiefs have more compassion and understanding these day
sazdaz 2 years ago 6
@sazdaz my grandmother was a matron at the stanley royd hospital, and loves this video (she is 94) and she has mentioned that there was no such thing as MSRA in the hospitals at that time, as the wards were always cleaned with bleach and water by the hospital orderly's and there work was daily checked by the ward sisters, Stanley Royd may look austeer but is was a living community untill the day it closed and the wards were bright and clean with lovley garden's outdoors, and its own chapple
alextilson 1 year ago
@alextilson Like you my grandmother worked at stanley royd, and she too loved the place, and she said it was like a huge happy family working there
mycedartree 1 year ago
@alextilson maybe a long shot but worth a go..... my grandmother (who I only found out existed 3 years ago) was in stanley royd hospital 1950-1986 and died there. i went to wakefield this week as i am desperate to find someone who may have known her. i appreciate that your grandmother is very elderly and that she would have known many hundreds of patients, but would you be willing to ask her for me whether she remembers my grandmother? my email medwaygirl@hotmail.co.uk
medwaygirl1 1 year ago
@alextilson
i am trying to trace my grandmother who was a patient at stanley royd 1950-1986 when she died. please would you will be willing to ask you grandmother whether she remembers mine? a long shot i know but i am desperate. Her name - Ida Cuff. my email medwaygirl@hotmail.co.uk i would be very gratefull if you or your grandmother could help
medwaygirl1 1 year ago
never thought i would ever see the real thing in action. they sure knew how to keep hospitals spit spot clean in those days hey! and thats in black n white!! took my breath wen i saw it 1st time around. like going back in a time macine, and yes, iv heard sum dstrbin stories too.
lunarbaby3 2 years ago
Ye Gods... how this touches my soul... you will never know. Thank you... dear friend.
Laurisa718 2 years ago 2
damn we play football on this field now
nevereverdie4me 2 years ago
I can't understand why some people become very nostalgic at the closure of these type of establishments. It's good to see that there are some people who understand the badness by which these places treated 'patients'. It is all definately not sweetness and light. Many of the Dr's & Nurses probably thought they were doing a good job, but I doubet there was any empathy involved. I realy hope we wake up to mans inhumane treatment to man. We can be a an evil race at times!
alfons1972 2 years ago
its so horible and sad they made these places claming to help but all they did was couse more pain and sufering apon people. when they got out if they got out they were in worse shape than before they enterd the asylem =( so sad
mcrlover123098 2 years ago 2
Wow!! Is all I have to say, I really got to see how asylums really were back then! Its creepy. Best video on youtube
Decembererykah23 2 years ago
look how clean and tidy it was the nhs should have all hospitals run on these lines
kirkbyla 2 years ago
all hospitals were clean and tidy we need matron bought back and ward cleaners
sammipink 2 years ago
i used to stay there at weekends wiv the other nuts
trewsniff 2 years ago
yea this was kind of creepy. and sad at the same time.
isabellaannerose123 2 years ago
I worked there for a number of years.
Many thanks for the footage.
bossters 2 years ago
i feel really pitty for these people..
welshperson123 2 years ago
My friend just told me that they staff and builders of stanley royd built tunnels underneath the plantation and roads next to stanley royd and leading to wakefield cathedral. I was just wondering if anyone knows if this is true?
i did just read about corpse way. But i wondered whether they did build a road underneath where they couldcarry the dead for their blessings?
if anyone could help that would be ace i have just been sat in the grounds of stanley royd at 2:00am scared out of my mind :S
legistkrieg 2 years ago
Yeah, it's true, my mum told me many a time that her and her mates used to live near their and they used to mess around in them after the closure of the hospital, but they were apparently creepy. The also lead to pinderfields.
Pl0o00o0x80 2 years ago
This is a fantastic video, one that haunted me for days after I'd first seen it - I went to the museum at Stanley Royd before it closed down and was locked in a padded cell... not pleasant!
But has the music for this changed? I've had this in my Favourites for ages now but when I first viewed it didn't it have "Hello Again" by Neil Diamond as the soundtrack? Or have I completely imagined it???
maladicta987 2 years ago
You are right the music has changed, you tube decided to block the video due to copyright, so I had to pick one of their free tracks.. not happy...
stealthpiccasso 2 years ago
It's still one of the most haunting vids I've ever seen on youtube - are you allowed to tell people what the original soundtrack was? Also not sure if I imagine this but didn't it have James Blunts's I Can't Hear the Music too...? Apologies if it didn't, I seem to remember half the video being this and the rest Hello Again, but perhaps not. You inspired me to make two videos of my own - not of anything nearly so interersting though!!
maladicta987 2 years ago
kasabian
jake7071 2 years ago
tHESE HOSPITALS WERE BIG!
LYNXVAL 2 years ago
cant help keep playing this ...
gets me everytime ...
I must be mad ...
roor06 2 years ago
No your not, i feel the same way about it, spooky!!
SIMLASTAR 2 years ago
does anyone know of other old flims showing the asylum and footages of real patients? and doc. or something?
whitewolf200 2 years ago
Night shifts on Fern or Netherfields were pretty scarey!!! But I loved my years there. Worked with some dam hardworking people, 40 patients on the sick wards and 3 staff!!!
mammievic 2 years ago
@mammievic sounds like the opld ward 36! did you work with Gordon Hall??
davidwlc 1 year ago
Kentswifey4ever,
I, too, am attracted to these kinds of places. Although, I would not want to visit one alone or at night. Maybe I went insane in my former life, if there is such a thing.
VattesLori 2 years ago
It's a propoganda film. Life there would have been hell. No different in the states, or even worse in many other places.
Nice find. Thanx for the post.
87cadillachearse 2 years ago 2
I agree....where are all the patients? Not anywhere near a camera, that is for sure.
no1zgrl4eva 2 years ago
I am from Cincinnati, Ohio in the States. Our grand City Music Hall were concerts are heal was built in 1878. It was built on the remains of the old Cincinnati Insane Hospital (circa 1820). There were pits of bones from former patients of this facility - it was like a "potter's field". These remains were found in the 1980s and were quickly reburied. Who knows how many hundreds of souls were lost to this failed institution.
So my point is that conditions for the insanse were no better over here
mikemanners11 2 years ago
Society, their values and morals over the 170 years of history attached to the former "West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Wakefield" were to blame for sending people into a liftime of institutional care, in some cases without foundation in todays terms.
The staff At Stanley Royd recieved these people and gave them care and compassion as much as the resources and hospital management would allow.
stealthpiccasso 2 years ago
I take back my initial responce ...
You are quite correct that staff had only good intentions ...
Respect ...
roor06 2 years ago
I believe that the vast majority of people employed within these large victorian institutions were caring people drawn to the service of others, there is always a bad apple but they would have been expelled within a short space of time.
stealthpiccasso 2 years ago
Err ...
No doubt the staff done their best at the time but, most days it was just total misery and no fresh flowers ...
roor06 2 years ago
PROPOGANDA ...
All the fresh flowers etc ...
Aye Right ...
roor06 2 years ago
I worked there (as a general nurse student on a placement) back in 1980 - it looked pretty much still like that, very institutionalised and regimented. Thank God mental health care has progressed.
It is all now trendy apartments
LinnetLegs1 2 years ago
I do not know what it is, but I am attracted to these places, I do not know if it is my paranormal instinct, or my study of psychology, or just wanting to learn more, thank you for posting it is amazing.
Kentswifey4ever 2 years ago
I'm quite like that, I love old hospitals and their history, I trained as a nurse at Pinderfields in the late 90's, my interview for Uni was on one of the old Royd buildings. I loved the buildings where the university library was, such a shame it couldn't go on as a working hospital. I feel the same about Pinderfields will be a shame when the new hospital is finalised. I spent many nights working in that hospital and was spooked on many occasion
rachy1979 2 years ago
what was it like working there?
thEannoyingE 2 years ago
@thEannoyingE hi look at my post above
davidwlc 1 year ago
it is my honest opinion that there weren't that many 'real' insane people back then. i believe that medication, incompetent doctors, and time made the brain into mash and insanity resulted...but that's just my opinion.
Mocabean82 2 years ago 2
Brilliant video, such a shame it had to be pulled down, I would of loved to take some photography there, a rare treat.
I spoke to a guy who used to work there, and towards the end of it's days as a working hospital it had a chamber of underground rooms, apparantley they found various items within Stanley Royd and donated most of them to the Wakefield museum.
Great Footage, black and white always gives a mood to the film also the music choice is excellent.
Well Done!
Rams
Ramsx99 2 years ago
It brings a tear to my eyes, U can see it had a soul, Excellent find :)
ladyplim17 2 years ago