In Ward’s Northumberland and Durham directory for 1883 is an entry for :- Garbutt (Wm) and Co. Dunston Lodge Asylum.
Situated on the now Dunston Road, (where the petrol station stands) A Mr. J.E. Wilkinson established the asylum in 1830 and Cornelius Garbutt took over in 1852. In 1856 his son William took control and remained at the helm until its closure in 1900. Dunston Asylum was considered to be one of the best in the country and had several influential inmates, Its recovery rate was well above average and its peaceful and attractive setting must have been a great factor in its success,
“The flower gardens on the west side of the house are large and laid out with great tatse and judgement, the building set apart for the patients contains bedrooms, dinning rooms and sitting-rooms, there are also a billiard room and a bowling green for the use of those capable of enjoying the game.
The institution is the last survivor of several in the district, since 1852 the private asylums at Wrekenton, Bensham, the Fell and Spittal Tongues have disappeared, the fact that Dunston Lodge remains is eloquent testimony to its management…
In a report published in 1884, the following exract is taken… “there is however another and more specific proof of the care and zeal of Garbutt and his staff, of 237 patients admitted during the ten years ending in 1883, not fewer than 145 (over 60 percent) were “discharged recovered” Dunston Lodge contains at the present time 18 male and 17 female patients, one of the sitting-rooms of the Lodge contains some handsome pieces of furniture made of oak dredged out the river Tyne at a depth of twenty-feet below the water-mark, inside of the front entrance may also be seen a bugle found on the field where the famous battle of Waterloo was fought and won.
In 1841 there were 84 persons housed there, increasing to 157 ten years later, the asylum gradually declined as public hospitals took over health care and the Lodge was eventually demolished in the late 1920s
On the 5th April 1853 the lunatic inspectors report on Dunston Asylum was presented to magistrates.The report made for shocking reading and recommended that the proprietor J. E. Wilkinson who had run the place since it opened should not retain his licence because of his mistreatment of the inmates. According to the report one charge against Mr. W. was that of having horsewhipped a lunatic this inmate - a Mr. Gibson - did not stop there, he not only ordered "some of his teeth to be extracted but stood by and watched while his punishment was enacted" The report acknowledges that Wilkinson claimed that the horsewhipping was in self defence against a violent man and that the extraction of his incisors was to prevent biting. One witness, however, testified that Wilkinson only sent for the horse whip once Gibson had already been overpowered.
The magistrates agreed that Wilkinson had acted with "undue severity" and "flagrant cruelty" and the asylum passed into the control of Cornelius Garbutt. But Wilkinson must have still been on the scene - his daughter married Garbutt's son who was also the next proprietor of Dunston Asylum!.
In Bourn’s history of Whickham Parish, published in 1893 is an entry :- “Dunston lodge was formerly held by the Marley Family, it is an old mansion, containing a great number of room and is pleasantly situated on Dunston Road”.
On October 24th 1900 fire engulfed the Dunston Lodge Lunatic Asylum almost gutting the brick building collapsing the roof and some sections of walls. The asylum had just closed a few months before and so no lives were lost in the blaze. A crowd of onlookers watched room after room catch fire but the Gateshead fire brigade soon arrived and were gradually able to bring the blaze under control. Ironically , a fire station was later built on the same site, and used until the 1960's.
By early 1920 the estate was run as a market garden by the Kennedy family only a small part of the house remained suitable for habitation. An illustrated letter heading advertising the Asylum as “For the recovery of the insane” which dates from Wilkinson’s time or before 1852 show the lodge as greatly different from the picture below, the house was impressive with a frontage of six bays and quite a statley door surround.
Together with Dunston Hill, Redheugh Hall and Farnacres it must of been one of the grand houses of this part of our area.
The site of Dunston Lodge is today covered by the petrol station on Dunston Road which replaced the fire station (pictured below) and the present lodge which contains the name and tradition of one of our old buildings, so few of which remains.
Situated on the now Dunston Road, (where the petrol station stands) A Mr. J.E. Wilkinson established the asylum in 1830 and Cornelius Garbutt took over in 1852. In 1856 his son William took control and remained at the helm until its closure in 1900. Dunston Asylum was considered to be one of the best in the country and had several influential inmates, Its recovery rate was well above average and its peaceful and attractive setting must have been a great factor in its success,
“The flower gardens on the west side of the house are large and laid out with great tatse and judgement, the building set apart for the patients contains bedrooms, dinning rooms and sitting-rooms, there are also a billiard room and a bowling green for the use of those capable of enjoying the game.
The institution is the last survivor of several in the district, since 1852 the private asylums at Wrekenton, Bensham, the Fell and Spittal Tongues have disappeared, the fact that Dunston Lodge remains is eloquent testimony to its management…
In a report published in 1884, the following exract is taken… “there is however another and more specific proof of the care and zeal of Garbutt and his staff, of 237 patients admitted during the ten years ending in 1883, not fewer than 145 (over 60 percent) were “discharged recovered” Dunston Lodge contains at the present time 18 male and 17 female patients, one of the sitting-rooms of the Lodge contains some handsome pieces of furniture made of oak dredged out the river Tyne at a depth of twenty-feet below the water-mark, inside of the front entrance may also be seen a bugle found on the field where the famous battle of Waterloo was fought and won.
In 1841 there were 84 persons housed there, increasing to 157 ten years later, the asylum gradually declined as public hospitals took over health care and the Lodge was eventually demolished in the late 1920s
On the 5th April 1853 the lunatic inspectors report on Dunston Asylum was presented to magistrates.The report made for shocking reading and recommended that the proprietor J. E. Wilkinson who had run the place since it opened should not retain his licence because of his mistreatment of the inmates. According to the report one charge against Mr. W. was that of having horsewhipped a lunatic this inmate - a Mr. Gibson - did not stop there, he not only ordered "some of his teeth to be extracted but stood by and watched while his punishment was enacted" The report acknowledges that Wilkinson claimed that the horsewhipping was in self defence against a violent man and that the extraction of his incisors was to prevent biting. One witness, however, testified that Wilkinson only sent for the horse whip once Gibson had already been overpowered.
The magistrates agreed that Wilkinson had acted with "undue severity" and "flagrant cruelty" and the asylum passed into the control of Cornelius Garbutt. But Wilkinson must have still been on the scene - his daughter married Garbutt's son who was also the next proprietor of Dunston Asylum!.
In Bourn’s history of Whickham Parish, published in 1893 is an entry :- “Dunston lodge was formerly held by the Marley Family, it is an old mansion, containing a great number of room and is pleasantly situated on Dunston Road”.
On October 24th 1900 fire engulfed the Dunston Lodge Lunatic Asylum almost gutting the brick building collapsing the roof and some sections of walls. The asylum had just closed a few months before and so no lives were lost in the blaze. A crowd of onlookers watched room after room catch fire but the Gateshead fire brigade soon arrived and were gradually able to bring the blaze under control. Ironically , a fire station was later built on the same site, and used until the 1960's.
By early 1920 the estate was run as a market garden by the Kennedy family only a small part of the house remained suitable for habitation. An illustrated letter heading advertising the Asylum as “For the recovery of the insane” which dates from Wilkinson’s time or before 1852 show the lodge as greatly different from the picture below, the house was impressive with a frontage of six bays and quite a statley door surround.
Together with Dunston Hill, Redheugh Hall and Farnacres it must of been one of the grand houses of this part of our area.
The site of Dunston Lodge is today covered by the petrol station on Dunston Road which replaced the fire station (pictured below) and the present lodge which contains the name and tradition of one of our old buildings, so few of which remains.
Opened 1831. Purpose built as an asylum
Proprietor (1844) J.E. Wilkinson.
(Probably John Etridge Wilkinson, whose son married Isabella Gustard Garbutt, daughter of Cornelius Garbutt and brother to another Cornelius Garbutt and a William Garbutt - see below)
27.8.1839 Birth of William Garbutt (Christened Gateshead 9.10.1839) to Winifred and Cornelius Garbutt
1.1.1844 100 patients. 77 pauper and 23 private. Weekly charge for paupers 8/- including clothes.
September 1845 Charles Lockhart Robertson "Resident Medical Officer in the Cumberland County Lunatic Asylum at Dunston Lodge"
September 1846 Charles Lockhart Robertson resigned as appointed to the Royal Military Lunatic Asylum at Yarmouth. (letter 5.5.1849)
1846/1847 By contract with the Cumberland and Westmoreland magistrates, Dunston Lodge became, in effect, the temporary County Asylum for those counties.
1847 Report of the Cumberland Lunatic Asylum at Dunston Lodge, Gateshead-on-Tyne, for ... 1847 Gateshead (England). Cumberland Lunatic Asylum Publisher: Edinburgh : Neill & Co., pr., 1847 24 pages; 21 cm. Copy in the rare books collection of Cambridge University Library. The only report of the asylum in the COPAC catalogue.
In 1851, a male pauper bit the arm of J.E. Wilkinson. He was placed in a straight jacket, then flogged and secluded. Later, his two upper incisor teeth were removed by the medical attendant. An inquiry was held by the Visiting Magistrates of Cumberland and Westmoreland and then taken up by the Lunacy Commission. J.E. Wilkinson was found guilty "of the most flagrant cruelty" and the renewal of his license prohibited by the Commission.
1853: License transferred to Mr Cornelius Garbutt (born 1806, died 1865)
1858: 151 patients. 119 pauper and 32 private
1865 Cornelius Garbutt's son, William, took over management of the asylum. William Garbutt was proprietor of Dunston Lodge Lunatic Asylum from 1865 to 1900. J.E. Wilkinson was his daughter's father-in-law
16.5.1866 Jane Thornton Garbutt, daughter of Mary Elizabeth and William Garbutt, christened Whickham, Durham. Jane was the second of their eleven children (4 sons and 7 daughters). The three oldest daughters all married young doctors employed by William Garbutt as Medical Superintendents. One son and six grandchildren became doctors.
1870 The licensee was "W. Garbutt", who had just become sole licensee.
June 1874: George C. Harrington, aged 50, hanged himself in Dunston Lodge Asylum.
1881 Census: Dunston West Lodge and Lunatic Asylum, Dunston Lane, Whickham, Durham. William Garbutt, aged 41, born Gateshead "Insane
Asylum Proprietor Forms Attached A/79 B/5 C/17" living with his wife, Mary Elizabeth Garbutt, aged 39, born Wooler, Northumberland, and daughter, Jane Thornton Garbutt, aged 14, born Dunston, Scholar. William Marshall Taylor Medical Superintendent: unmarried, aged 26, born Newcastle On Tyne, Surgeon M.D. Edinburgh - M.R.O. England
1884 A Day in a Private Lunatic Asylum by George Herring, London/Newcastle. Originally published as a series of articles in the Tyneside Echo, this is a very favourable account by a journalist who got himself "admitted" as a "new inmate" for a day. There were 44 inmates at the time of his visit. The "chief male attendant" was John McDougall. The "matron" was Miss Mary Wilson, and the medical superintendent was still Dr Taylor. The medical visitors were Dr Hume and Dr Embleton of Newcastle. Geoffrey Allen's grandmother (see below) appears as a toddler.
1894 Whellan's Directory of Durham, 1894, pages 1239-1240: "Dunston Lodge Private Asylum was established in 1830 and has been in the hands of the family of the present proprietor for many years. The grounds are extensive and a farm of 100 acres surrounds the house, which occupies a pleasant situation west of the village. The recoveries have been much above the average. Lord Ravensworth is chairman of the visiting committee"
March quarter 1901 Death of William Garbutt aged 76 recorded in the Gateshead district. Dunston Lodge Asylum does not appear in the 1901 census.
[Some family information on the Wilkinsons and Garbutts provided by Ann Adams. A substantial part of the history (not all entered yet) has been provided by Geoffrey Allen, whose grandmother (1882-1954) was the youngest daughter of William Garbutt]