| Administrative History | Ladysbridge Hospital, Banff, Aberdeenshire was first conceived with the creation of the Banffshire District Lunacy Board as a result of the 1857 Lunacy Act. The Board's task was to build and maintain an asylum for the care of lunatic paupers. Ladysbridge Asylum or Banff District Lunatic Asylum, as it was originally and officially known, opened for the reception of 90 patients on 1 May 1865.
As early as 1878 new accommodation was required and the decision was made to build a completely separate dependent asylum for the care of 40 `incurable but inoffensive and easily managed females'. Woodpark Succursal Asylum opened on 1 June 1880 but was fully amalgamated with the main asylum on 29 June 1889 - a mere nine years later.
In 1884, following a typhoid epidemic, a cottage hospital was built to care for cases of infectious disease amongst the patients. By 1898 the Board realised that a new villa was necessary to alleviate the overcrowding, and that the sewage system, the boiler-house and the kitchens were in urgent need of renovation. This work was completed in 1903 and in 1914 verandahs were added in an attempt to further alleviate problems of overcrowding. More verandahs, attendants' cottages and a house for the superintendent were completed by 1924.
In 1930, following the passing of the 1929 Local Government Act, the Banffshire District Lunacy Board was abolished and Ladysbridge was then administered by the Lunacy and Mental Deficiency Committee of Banff County Council.
Under the terms of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947 (10 & 11 Geo. VI, c.27), Ladysbridge became part of the Lower Banffshire Hospitals Board of Management in 1948. In the 1950s it was decided to develop Ladysbridge as a regional centre for mentally handicapped adults. Extensive new buildings and renovations completed in 1973. Ladybsridge closed in 2003. |
| Description | Minutes, 1858 - 1948; financial records, including ledgers, wages books, bank books, 1865 - 1972; registers, including lunatics, deaths, attendants, etc. (some indexed), 1865 - 2005; case notes (some indexed), 1868 - 1956; lunacy forms, 1865 - 1947; reports (including Commissioners of General Board of Lunacy/Control), 1865 - 1963; miscellaneous volumes, including letter books, circulars, inventories, 1873 - 1958; miscellaneous bundles, including reports, correspondence, etc., 1864 - 1964; daily registers, including incomplete series of statistics, 1952 - 1966; maps and plans, 1926 - 1932; photographs, 1875 - 1954. |