Deighton Grove Hospital Archive

Administrative records, comprising visitor’s reports, 1966-1971, newspaper cutting regarding the opening of the annexe, 1947; land and building records, comprising plans and drawings, c.1927-1928; patient records, comprising case books, 1963-1970, and a letter, 1949.

Deighton Grove House at Crockey Hill, south of York, was purchased with its estate by York County Hospital in 1945 for use as an annexe for post-operative and semi-convalescent adult and child cases. The house was set in extensive grounds of 70 acres with a large pond, tennis court and putting green, and a garden producing vegetables.
The buildings were altered and added to during 1946 and the hospital was opened for patients on 8 September 1947.. It was under the control of a Sister-in-Charge. There were 46-47 beds but because of the difficulty of obtaining furnishings and staff it initially opened with only 25.
The acquisition of the new premises was designed to extend available accommodation at the County Hospital which could not be provided at the main building due to war time building restrictions. However the hospital authorities were also taking advantage of the opportunity to provide healthy accommodation in the country for convalescing patients, and expressed the view in their 1947 annual report that 'future hospital services should be outside not in the centre of large towns.' It was also considered that Deighton Grove might be the modest beginning of a future hospital centre for York and large areas of the East and North Ridings.
Less than one year after the opening of Deighton Grove both it and its parent hospital passed into National Health Service (NHS) hands, under York A Group Hospital Management Committee. There were 807 discharges in 1950, 756 in 1951, 820 in 1953 and about 600 each year in the later 1950s and 1960s. The only substantial structural addition after becoming NHS was the addition of a sun lounge for patients in 1951.
In 1955 it was designated a hospital rather than an annexe because it increasingly received patients from hospitals other than its parent one. The children's ward closed in 1955 due to a lack of demand; it reopened as a female medical ward and the bed complement was reduced from 47 beds to 44.
Deighton Grove continued to fulfil the function of providing pre-convalescent and post-operative beds, both medical; and surgical, up to 1971. In that year its function changed to that of psychiatric hospital and it was used as an annexe of Naburn Hospital. Initially this change of use was to allow an upgrading of several wards at Naburn, but it continued to fulfil this role up to its closure at the end of October 1976.

Records are open to the public, subject to the overriding provisions of relevant legislation, including data protection laws.

The archive was deposited at the Borthwick Institute in 1995 as part of the transfer of York Health Archives to the Institute from their temporary home at Clifton Hospital.

Deighton Grove House at Crockey Hill, south of York, was purchased with its estate by York County Hospital in 1945 for use as an annexe for post-operative and semi-convalescent adult and child cases. The house was set in extensive grounds of 70 acres with a large pond, tennis court and putting green, and a garden producing vegetables.
The buildings were altered and added to during 1946 and the hospital was opened for patients on 8 September 1947.. It was under the control of a Sister-in-Charge. There were 46-47 beds but because of the difficulty of obtaining furnishings and staff it initially opened with only 25.
The acquisition of the new premises was designed to extend available accommodation at the County Hospital which could not be provided at the main building due to war time building restrictions. However the hospital authorities were also taking advantage of the opportunity to provide healthy accommodation in the country for convalescing patients, and expressed the view in their 1947 annual report that 'future hospital services should be outside not in the centre of large towns.' It was also considered that Deighton Grove might be the modest beginning of a future hospital centre for York and large areas of the East and North Ridings.
Less than one year after the opening of Deighton Grove both it and its parent hospital passed into National Health Service (NHS) hands, under York A Group Hospital Management Committee. There were 807 discharges in 1950, 756 in 1951, 820 in 1953 and about 600 each year in the later 1950s and 1960s. The only substantial structural addition after becoming NHS was the addition of a sun lounge for patients in 1951.
In 1955 it was designated a hospital rather than an annexe because it increasingly received patients from hospitals other than its parent one. The children's ward closed in 1955 due to a lack of demand; it reopened as a female medical ward and the bed complement was reduced from 47 beds to 44.
Deighton Grove continued to fulfil the function of providing pre-convalescent and post-operative beds, both medical; and surgical, up to 1971. In that year its function changed to that of psychiatric hospital and it was used as an annexe of Naburn Hospital. Initially this change of use was to allow an upgrading of several wards at Naburn, but it continued to fulfil this role up to its closure at the end of October 1976.

A typescript finding aid, to file level, is available for consultation in the searchroom of the Borthwick Institute.

2015-07-23

A reprographics service is available to researchers subject to the access restrictions outlined above. Copying will not be undertaken if there is any risk of damage to the document. Copies are supplied in accordance with the Borthwick Institute for Archives' terms and conditions for the supply of copies, and under provisions of any relevant copyright legislation. Permission to reproduce images of documents in the custody of the Borthwick Institute must be sought.

Further accruals are not expected.

For related material held by the Borthwick Institute, see York County Hospital Archive which includes a photograph of Deighton Grove Hospital in 1947 and the minutes of the County Hospital House Committee, 1962-1970. For the post 1948 history of Deighton Grove Hospital, see the archives of York A Group Hospital Management Committee and its successors, particularly the printed annual reports.

Published

GB 193