New Year’s Eve Ball, Cheddleton Asylum

Description:One of the most popular events which Staffordshire’s asylums provided for both staff and patients was the annual New Year’s Eve Ball at Cheddleton (St. Edward’s) hospital, held in the Main Hall. The last one took place in the 1940s. Fancy dress outfits were made by the patients, including clown costumes, sailor suits more exotic clothing. The asylum band, led by the Medical Superintendent Dr. W.F. Menzies, provided the music, and men and women sat separately, mixing only on the dance floor. This was an event at which patients and staff could mix and take part, and provided a major social focus for the festive period.

In 1890 Staffordshire County Council’s Lunacy Committee decided to build a new asylum for the north of the county due to overcrowding in the existing asylums at Stafford and Burntwood. Land at Bank Farm near Cheddleton, south of Leek, was settled on by the Committee as the site for the new asylum. Giles, Gough and Trollope, a London architectural partnership, designed the buildings which were built by William Brown and Sons of Salford at a cost of around £165,000. The foundation stone was laid in October 1895. Many of the building materials and workmen, and later visitors, were transported using an electrified tramway linked to the North Staffordshire Railway.

The buildings were finally completed by early 1899 and the first patients were moved in from August of that year. William Francis Menzies was appointed as the medical superintendent; he stayed in post until 1936. By 1902 the asylum was full, and so extensions were built increasing accommodation from 618 to 1038 patients, 519 from each sex. As a typical example of the late Victorian asylum, Cheddleton was envisaged as a self-contained community in itself, both for the patients and for the staff. The most visible element of the asylum village was the 135 foot water tower.

The advent of the NHS in 1948 saw the hospital renamed St. Edward’s, after the local patron saint of Cheddleton parish church. It finally closed in 2002, when the land and surviving buildings were converted into a housing estate