Reports of the superintendent and chaplain of Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, with statistical tables, for the year 1876.

  • Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports of the superintendent and chaplain of Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, with statistical tables, for the year 1876. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/98 (page 9)
    From the time at which the control of the repairs of the buildings was transferred from the Council to the Office of Works no use whatever was made of the labour of the patients in that department until the month of June in last yean, at which time the Office of Works gave their sanction to the employment of a party of patients in the work of painting. Between that time and the end of the year the money value of this description of work, executed by the patients and their attendants, amounted, according to a return furnished by the Office of Works, to the sum of 228/. 19s. Qd. The means of recreation afforded to the inmates have been Means of often stated in former years, and they have undergone no ietieatl0U' material alteration in the year which has just ended. They include a good library, an ample supply of daily and weekly journals and periodicals, billiards, bagatelle, chess, draughts, cards, dominoes, and other in-door games; together with cricket, croquet, bowls, and other out-of-door games during the summer months. The band, composed partly of attendants and partly of patients, and which now includes 17 of the latter amongst its members, does much credit to the skill and labour bestowed upon it by its conductor, Mr. Thomas. It plays regularly twice a week, once in the male and once in the female division of the asylum. Several additions, alterations, and improvements to the Repairs of structure of the buildings have been recommended by the and pro- Council of Supervision, the most important of which are works.neW better means of warming some of the wards ; an increase in the number of single rooms, and certain minor improve¬ ments in the construction of some of those already existing; a new tailors’ workshop; another workshop for the making and repairing of furniture ; an additional number of cottages for the married attendants; besides works necessary for completing the machinery at the pumping station; also for repairing and re-arranging the gasworks, which are inadequate for the present consumption of gas; and also for increasing the means of extinguishing fire. The consideration of these matters was referred last year by the Secretary of State to a Committee. That Committee has presented its report, but the final decision of the Secretary of State is still awaited. The expenditure for the year is stated in detail in the Expendi- 32nd Table at page 70. The amount of the Parliamentary vote for the year ending on the 31st of March 1877 was 29,484/. whilst the amount actually expended was 27,391/., so that there remains a balance of 2,093/., which will be returned into the Exchequer.