FAQ
Hello everyone and thank you for checking out our Zooniverse project page.
Here are some frequently asked questions to give you a bit of insight into the project. We will try to update this as the project gets more volunteers, so long as people remain curious about our work.
Who are you?
We are Cheshire Archives & Local Studies, Cheshire's county record office. The service is also responsible for delivering the archives service for Warrington and Halton boroughs. We deliver access for all to our collections for information, learning and enjoyment and work to make sure archives survive so that future generations will be able to do the same.
We are a shared service of Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East Councils.
Where are you based?
Since 1986 our searchroom and large amount of our collections have been held in our Duke Street offices, Chester. We are in the midst of an exciting time where we are looking to secure funding to create two new centres in Chester and in Crewe. Details about this can be found on our main website and FAQs about it can be found here.
How can I hear news about the archives in general?
We have a quarterly e-newsletter that you can sign up to by contacting us, as well as a strong social media presence on Twitter through which we often share day to day updates.
What is the history of Parkside Asylum?
Parkside Asylum, also known as Parkside Lunatic Asylum and Parkside Mental Hospital was built in 1868-1871 as a County Lunatic Asylum for the accommodation of pauper lunatics. This was because the County asylum at Upton, Chester, had insufficient accommodation. The Court of Quarter Sessions appointed a Committee in 1865 to advise on the need for a new asylum, then to select a site and to erect an asylum in the north of the County. The Asylum was erected under the supervision and to the plans of Robert Griffiths, architect.
The building was originally designed to accommodate 700 patients, but, as a result of extensive new building works, including an isolation hospital (1896), admission hospital (1905), 'Uplands' for private patients (1913) and a major new group of villas in 1938, the total accommodation rose to over 1500. The name was changed from County Asylum to County Mental Hospital c1920.
The asylum was supervised by a Visiting Committee of Justices, appointed by the Court of Quarter Sessions from 1871 until 1889 when the County Council took over responsibility for appointing the Committee of Visitors. The Committee also included representatives of the County Boroughs of Stockport and Wallasey. The minutes of this Committee before 1894 are lost, but some annual reports survive both in the series of printed reports and in the relevant minute books of the County Council.
With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, management was transferred to a Hospital Management Committee, under the overall control of the Manchester Regional Hospital Board. In 1970 the Parkside HMC was merged with the Macclesfield and District Group HMC to form the East Cheshire Hospital Management Committee.
After the further NHS reforms in 1982, Parkside became a part of Macclesfield Health Authority.