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Hospitals

Information about County Durham and Darlington hospital records in Durham County Record Office.

Winterton Hospital

About the Records

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.

Winterton Hospital records - online catalogue

Access to the Records and our Research Service

Access to Winterton Hospital records is restricted for 85 years from the last date in a volume or file.

We hold case papers for Winterton Hospital (Sedgefield Lunatic Asylum) 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 ascertain whether or not any notes survive for the person you are looking for, you will need to use our Research service. See apply for research service for more information and application forms. In most cases we can locate the notes within one hour (at a fee of £32), but it may take longer. If you wish us to continue the search additional time is charged at £16 per half hour or £32 per hour as appropriate. See details of how to pay.

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.

Winterton Hospital patient records have restricted access for 85 years under Data Protection legislation.  If you think your request will fall into this category, you will need to send us proof (birth/marriage/death certificates) either that:

• you are the patient
• or 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 sell copies of  'Behind the wall - The life and times of Winterton Hospital' by Adam Lamb and Jack Turton. For more details see the section 'Books About Popular Archive Collections' on our Publications page.

Other hospital records

To Search the Catalogue for other collections of hospital records select from H/Da, H/Du, H/NWD, H/NYR, or H/SWD in the 'reference' drop-down list. 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).