Voices from the Asylum: West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Almost forgotten by time, tucked away beyond the sight of the passerby, there is a little piece of old England, which was for many years a forgotten wilderness. If it were not for a weather-beaten plaque on the gatepost few would realise that beyond the rusted gates there lies, in unmarked paupers’ graves, 2,861 former patients of the once formidable Menston Asylum.To be admitted to a lunatic asylum in the nineteenth century was fraught with danger, and in many cases meant a life sentence h...