Collection: Stirling District Asylum
Collection Ref.: GB 0559 SD
Administrative History:
Stirling District Lunatic Asylum was established in 1865 by the Stirling District Lunacy Board. The first patients were admitted in June 1869, many being transferred from asylums in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. Located in Larbert the institution was renamed Bellsdyke Hospital in 1960. The historical records of the asylum were transferred to the University of Stirling Archives in April 2012.
Further information is available on the Stirling District Lunatic Asylum Wikipedia page.
Contents:
Patient records including admission registers (1869-1941); registers of deaths (1869-1977); case books (1869-1918). Administrative records including annual reports, committee minutes, official circulars and memoranda. The Passing Hour, the magazine of Stirling District Asylum (1901-1917).
Extent:
95 volumes
The collection has been fully catalogued. A full descriptive list is available on our online catalogue.
Additional catalogue information is available on the Archives Hub page for Stirling District Asylum.
The Passing Hour is fully digitised and available through JSTOR.
The collection is arranged into the following sections:
SD/1 Patient records
SD/2 Administrative records
SD/3 The Passing Hour
SD/4 Medical Journals
Accruals:
No further accruals are expected
Related collections:
The University of Stirling Archives holds the historical records of NHS Forth Valley which also include the archives of the Royal Scottish National Hospital, Larbert.
Falkirk Archives hold the following material relating to Bellsdyke Hospital: building plans (1881-1947); copies of patient magazines (1901-1903)
Material from the Stirling District Asylum features on the ALCMAEON Project which aims to innovate the teaching of medical history and to work in a better integration of historical, ethical and psychosocial components of medical humanities.
Access:
To protect patient confidentiality there is a 75 year closure period in operation for adult clinical records. Please contact the University Archivist for further details.
The Passing Hour, the magazine of Stirling District Asylum.
Available on our JSTOR Open Community Collections pages.
Staring at the ceiling, looking at the stars
The human geography of Stirling District Asylum Archive
New artwork co-created by patients at Bellsdyke Hospital and artist Sharon Quigley, inspired by the stories of patients in the Stirling District Asylum Archive.
Read more about the project here.
In 2016 Layla Essat, a Masters student in Gender Studies at the University of Stirling carried out a research placement in the University Archives. She produced a series of articles on her work on the Stirling District Asylum which are reproduced here:
Archives Reading Room
Opening Hours:
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Monday - Friday
Please note our current service arrangements
Contact us:
Tel. 01786 466619
Email: archives@stir.ac.uk
Please contact us in advance of your visit. Material can be ordered in advance by emailing us at archives@stir.ac.uk