GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE

Note on CLA 1/5 - CLA 1/13 Files
The material in CLA 1/5-1/13 comprised Accession 1993/7. They were collected from Claypenny Hospital, just prior to its closure, in Spring 1993. They had already been put on one side for 'disposal'. They consequently represent a selection, made on site, by the Archivist, from the whole amount of material.
The selected material was transferred to Archives for sorting. It was, in most cases, fairly easy to re-group the archives under their original provenance. The bulk of the files were generated by the Administrative Officers, by the Consultant Psychiatrists, by the Psychologists, by the Nursing Officers, by the Assistant Manager, Residential Services (later called the Site Manager), by the Activities Officer and by various wards. A few were the files of others: the Voluntary Services Officer, the Catering Manager and the Engineer (only one or two items relate to the latter and these were placed in CLA 2/1 and CLA 2/2 with earlier, but related, material).
A few files could not have their provenance identified. These have been put in CLA 1/13. A few of the doubtful files, however, could be slotted readily into CLA 1/5-CLA 1/12 where they seemed to fit - where a file's provenance has been guessed, a note appears in the list.
It should be stressed that these files represent only a selection. Of necessity this was an arbitrary one due to the already disordered nature of the records. As a consequence, there may be gaps, or overlap. However, together they contain a great deal of information about the hospital in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, up to closure.
It should be noted that some of the administrative files are actually very routine or low level in their nature, dealing with minor or day to day matters. These files were stored in distinctive folders which made them easy to identify: a decision was made to salvage all of them (they are not large in number) as examples of routine or everyday records which would not normally be necessarily preserved, and yet which reveal the small details of administrative organisation, and thus reflect everyday life in the hospital during its latter years.
The files as a whole cover a period of change, when Claypenny, like other hospitals for the mentally handicapped, was in the process of being assessed, run down, and finally closed after alternative arrangements and patterns of care were evolved. The earliest files show the hospital in complete working order; other files reveal the working out of the closure policy; yet other files relate to the accommodation to which existing patients were being moved.
Although the bulk of Accession 1993/7 consisted of files, there were also a few volumes and papers, particularly leaflets and newsletters. Such material has been placed in the following sections: CLA 1/- Visitors Books; CLA1/3 Printed Material; CLA 5 Establishment; CLA 6 Patients.

Many of these records contain sensitive personal and confidential information which is likely to be restricted under data protection laws and the terms of deposit. For records less than 100 years old, please contact the Borthwick Institute via email or letter. Files must be checked before access is granted, to ensure no confidential material is contained within individual files.

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