Mental Disability in Victorian England: The Earlswood Asylum 1847-1901

Several decades ago, during my teenage years in the 1970s, I attended a grammar school near Reigate in Surrey. Every weekday morning for seven years, I would take an early train from Horley to Redhill, before walking or catching a bus from there to the school. As the train travelled northwards on its way to Redhill (and on to London), it passed through a small, often seemingly abandoned, station at Earlswood. Just before the train reached Earlswood Station, passengers could glimpse through the trees on the embankment on the eastern side of the line, the imperious, neo-gothic façade of the Royal Earlswood Hospital, as it was then known. This view of the asylum at Earlswood, visible from the windows of the 7.50 train to London, left an indelible impression on my young, receptive mind.