| Description | The collection contains weekly report books 1914 - 1961, copies of letters out 1910 - 1913, lists of patients on View Day 1947 and 1952, diaries from 1939, contract books for meat, food and clothes 1894 - 1942, price books 1900 - 1927, staff wages for 1912, and a register of infectious cases Sept. 1947 - May 1968. |
| Administrative history | In the Middle Ages, as well as after 1546, the Steward was responsible for buying food, and from the seventeenth century he was ordered to keep a register of all patients admitted, although those before 1818 have not survived. The idea was that the admission records would enable Governors to calculate how much money was needed each week for the standard menu, and in the ninteenth century it was decided that these records should be preserved due to their importance. The role of the Steward gradually became more important and he was responsible for food stores, hardware and stationary, bedding and coal.
In 1917 a food supervisor was appointed, and later the food store became the responsibility of the Catering Officer, before being outsourced to a commercial provider. The stores of hardware, stationary, bedding and coal were taken over by the Supplies department in 1963.
From 1963, the Steward dealt with public relations, legal claims and the general administrative care of patients and their relatives. The post of Steward was abolished in 1977. |