Blog: HEALTH: ARCHIVES

HEALTH: ARCHIVES

L A N C A S H I R E A R C H I V E S

The Lancashire Archives is a building containing official documents and records from the Lancashire area dating as far back as the 1800s.

I chose to visit the building while exploring the Whittingham grounds since I was in Preston and there could be information available on Clara.

The archives have you look through folders of lists of documents they have available to you and you are able to request them to your table, a maximum of three at a time. I was able to find the patient register for 5 Oct 1950 - 27 Feb 1953, which considering Clara was admitted in 1952, her record of entry should be in between those dates.

I was able to find a Clara Whitaker, admitted on 20th Oct 1952, the date I had predicted, aged 45 Years.

We found that she had been discharged on 16th Dec the same year, the doctors had written her as recovered, which we were told means both the patient and staff believe they are well. However I believe as she had written in her letters to her daughter Sybil, that she was desperate to come home for Christmas, and that she may have just gone along with the charade for the doctors so to get discharged earlier.

Another piece of information I found was the phrase "previously dealt with under the Lunacy Act or the Mental Treatment Act", which means this is not the first time she has been admitted in to hospital for treatment for her mental health. A fact I had previously not known. And now I can't say how many times she might have been at Whittingham.

Below are some more documentations I found through research