Information about County Durham and Darlington hospital records in Durham Record Office, including patient records for Winterton Hospital, the County Asylum.
Winterton Hospital (Sedgefield Lunatic Asylum)
The Record Office holds a large collection of records for Winterton Hospital, the County Lunatic Asylum, opened in 1858 and located at Sedgefield in County Durham. The collection includes administrative records and patients’ case notes. Access to Winterton Hospital records is restricted for 85 years from the last date in a volume or file under Data Protection legislation.
We hold case papers for Winterton Hospital up to 1945. After that date we retain only a 2% sample of Winterton Hospital patient files (case notes). The way that case notes for Winterton Hospital are recorded is complex and, although some are indexed, it can prove time consuming to locate relevant notes. To find out whether any notes survive for the person you are looking for, you will need to use our research service.
In most cases we can locate the notes within one hour (for a fee of £35), but it may take longer. If you wish us to continue the search additional time is charged at £35 per hour as appropriate. As part of this search, we will supply you with copies of any notes we locate in the time available that are over 85 years old.
If you think your request will fall into the restricted 85 year category, you will need to send us proof (birth/marriage/death certificates) that:
- you are the patient
- that the patient is deceased and you are a direct descendant
If we locate notes that are less than 85 years old, we have to obtain permission from the appropriate NHS Trust to release the notes to you. We will advise you if this is the case. There is an additional fee of £30 for us to obtain permission. This fee is to cover the costs of the NHS Trust.
Behind the Wall
We now sell digital copies of the book ‘Behind the wall – The life and times of Winterton Hospital‘ by Adam Lamb and Jack Turton, as a downloadable pdf file. Buy a copy of Behind the wall online.
Other hospital records
To search the catalogue for other collections of hospital records select from:
Aycliffe Hospital (ref. H/Ay)
NHS County Durham and Darlington (ref. H/CDD)
County Durham Primary Care Trust (ref. H/CDPCT)
Chester-le-Street Hospital (ref. H/CS)
Darlington Hospital (ref. H/Da)
Durham Hospital (ref. H/Du)
North West Durham Health Authority (ref. H/NWD)
Northern and Yorkshire Regional Health Authority (ref. H/NYR)
South West Durham Health Authority (ref. H/SWD)
For more results try a general keyword search.
Hospital Records Database
The Hospital Records Database on the website of The National Archives provides information on the existence and location of the records of hospitals in the United Kingdom. The entries, which have been compiled by the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, can be found by searching the database and they include the following information:
- administrative details of the hospitals, and their status or type
- location and covering dates of administrative and clinical records
- existence of lists, catalogues or other finding aids
- links to some online hospital catalogues on Access to Archives (A2A)
