site map

site map

Site map showing the grounds and buildings of Meanwood Park Hospital 'mental deficiency colony', June 1974. Dark blue ink on cream paper. Printed from original drawing by J.C.B.

Inscription

LEEDS GROUP B / HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE / SEACROFT HOSPITAL LEEDS 14 LS14 6UH / HOSPITAL: MEANWOOD PARK. / DRAWN J.C.B. SITE LAYOUT / CH'K'D / APP'D / DATE JUNE / 74 / SCALE 1:1250 DRG. No. SK 182
001 Entrance Lodge / 002 Nurses Home. / 003 Recreation Hall. / 004 Mansion. / 005 Villa 13 / 006 " 14 / 007 " 15 / 008 " Farm Buildings. / 019 Villa 1 / 020 " 2 / 021 Occupation Therapy Unit / 022 Villa 3 / 023 Female Workshops & Linen St. / 024 Laundry / 025 Engineers [sic] Workshops. / 026 Boiler House. / 027 Main Stores / 028 Kitchen Block. / 029 Tea Room. / 030 villa 4 / 031 " 5 / 032 " 6 033 " 7 / 034 " 8 / 035 " 8a / 036 " 9 / 037 " 10 / 038 School / 039 Villa 11 / 040 " 12 / 041 " AW. / 042 Tennis Pavilion. / 043 Cricket Pavilion / 044 Chaplins [sic] House. & Garage / 045 Engineers [sic] House & Garage. / 046 Parkside Close. (6. cottages) / 047 71, Parkside Rd. (Not shown) / 048 Oddys Fold (1 cottage) (Not shown) / 049 Parkside Green. (2 cottages) (Not shown.) / 050 Garages 8N0.
Scotland Mill Lane. / Car Park / Car Park. / Tongue Lane. / Parkside Close. / Parkside Road

Production organisations

Leeds: Leeds (B) Group Hospital Management Committee

Associated organisations

Leeds: Meanwood Park Hospital

Associated place

Meanwood

Labels

Meanwood Park Hospital opened in June 1920 as a ‘mental deficiency colony’ following the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. It was created ostensibly to provide care for “Mentally Defective Persons” under one of its four categories: “Idiots”, “Imbeciles”, “Feeble-minded persons” and “Moral imbeciles”. People in these categories could be forcibly removed to a colony or placed under guardianship. This included children, those “without visible means of support”, and women receiving poor-relief whilst pregnant with an illegitimate child. However, it was a system open to corruption and in many cases used as a tool to remove ‘undesirables’ from society.

The Act was heavily influenced by the rise of the new ‘science’ of Eugenics popular amongst middle and upper-classes, and a panic that, whilst their own birth-rates were falling, the lower classes were reproducing abnormally quickly, causing societal decline and passing on unfavourable traits.

Executive Officer for Meanwood Park, Samuel Wormald, was a member of the Eugenics Society and published A Guide to the Mental Deficiency Act, calling it “a powerful means [of] preventing the propagation of a degenerate stock.” He was a notorious figure in Leeds in the 1920s and 30s, responsible for locating “defectives” for the colony.

Following campaigns by the National Council for Civil Liberties in the 1950s, thousands of people were found to be unjustly held under the Act and were released. By this point almost 30% of them had been incarcerated between ten and twenty years – an unimaginable waste of life. The Mental Deficiency Act was finally repealed in 1959. Sadly, many former inmates were too institutionalised to cope with life outside, having spent most of their lives detained. Frank Tottie, aged just ten years old when admitted as the first patient at Meanwood Park, would remain there until his death over sixty years later.