Bootham Park Hospital, York, focus of Bob Adams’ new book

Flighty, Melancholic and Wild – 250 Years of Mental Health Care in York, by Dr Robert Adams, tells the story of Bootham Park Hospital from its days as the York Asylum in the 1770s to modern times.

The author, Bob, was a consultant psychiatrist at Bootham Park Hospital from 1990 until his retirement in 2014, and is now employed by the mental health tribunal service.

Leeds and York Partnership NHS Trust was given five days notice to shut the Grade I-listed hospital on Bootham which then closed on October 1 2015 after the building was deemed no longer fit for purpose, leading to patients being moved as far away as Middlesbrough.

The new book by Bob Adams charts the history of the Bootham Park Hospital site and mental health care. There was no inpatient NHS mental health hospital in the area for a year until a temporary 24-bed mental health hospital opened at Peppermill Court in York.

Bob spent several years researching the site for his newly-published book, drawing on resources and patient records at the Borthwick Institute for Archives, at the University of York, as well as his own personal experiences. He has used more than 100 illustrations to bring the history and development of the site, and mental health care in general, to life.

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The book title, ‘Flighty, melancholic and wild’, are words that were used to describe people who were admitted to the York Asylum, which was founded in 1773, in its early years.

The York Asylum received notoriety for poor care before a local and national enquiry in 1814 led to major improvements over subsequent decades. The institution went on to become an example of good practice, paving the way for Bootham Park Hospital – as it was renamed in the early 1900s – to become a pioneer in community care services as part of the NHS York Services from the 1950s onwards.

As well as examining what was happening in York, the book sheds light on changes to the care and treatment of mental health patients over two and a half centuries.

Bob said: “It is an important building and it also has a significant role in the history of the development of mental health services throughout the country. I wanted to outline this history.

“We can use it as a lens – as an example of how mental health services have developed over 250 years right up to last year. The accessibility of records at the Borthwick Institute enabled me to look through patient records and there’s a lot of information about how patients were treated.”

Flighty, Melancholic and Wild – 250 Years of Mental Health care in York, £20, is published by Quacks Printers in York, and is available at the Little Apple Bookshop in York, and Waterstones.

Bob, a member and past president of the York Medical Society, will be signing copies at the York Medical Society Rooms at 23 Stonegate, from 10am until 4pm on on September 27 when it is open to the public as part of York Unlocked.