Surrey hospital collection moves to Langdon Down Centre

Friday, 20 May 2011

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has donated hundreds of items from the former Royal Earlswood Hospital in Redhill to a new museum at the Down’s Syndrome Association’s headquarters, near Teddington, Middlesex.

Ian Jones-Healey, Archivist at the Down’s Syndrome Association said: “The Langdon Down Centre is delighted to be acquiring these fascinating artefacts which create a direct link to the early period of John Langdon Down’s career before he opened Normansfield. This marks a significant development in the creation of our museum of learning disability. Following a design process we hope the collection will be available again for viewing by the public in the Summer of 2012 and we are grateful to the Royal Earlswood Museum Committee for their assistance and generosity in making this collection available to us.”

The Trust, which now manages NHS learning disability services in the area, has stored most of the collection since the Royal Earlswood closed in 1997 and its museum collection had to re-locate. A few of the most important items have been on display at the Belfry Shopping Centre in Redhill since then while the Royal Earlswood Museum Committee and Surrey Heritage have searched for a permanent home for this collection.

Royal Earlswood offered care, education and training to thousands of people with learning disabilities for 150 years and its museum collection is of international importance.

Freda Knight, Curator and Chairman of the Royal Earlswood Museum Committee, explains: “Many of the long-stay hospitals had their own museums which were disbanded once they closed. Royal Earlswood is particularly important because it was the first hospital of its kind in the country and all the others took its lead. That’s why we have been determined to preserve these important works for future generations.”

“After 14 years, we’d almost given up on finding this collection a permanent exhibition space when the Down’s Syndrome Association agreed to not only exhibit it but make it the dramatic centrepiece of a new museum.”

Highlights of the collection include around 60 pieces of work by James Henry Pullen (1835 – 1916), known in his day as the Idiot Genius of the Earlswood Asylum. Pullen had Savant Syndrome, the condition depicted in the 1989 film Rain Man that is characterised by a severe learning disability combined with immense expertise in a specific area. Pullen was a skilled carpenter and a genius at drawing, painting and mechanics. As well as numerous paintings, his imaginative works include an intricate model of the SS Great Eastern (Brunel's iron sailing steam ship); The State Barge, a fantasy vessel designed to be fit for Queen Victoria to rule her empire from; and ‘Pullen’s Giant’ – a four metre high mechanical model of a Prussian soldier, operated from the inside with levers for the arms, legs and facial features (displayed at Surrey History Centre in Woking for the past 18 months).

Around 200 other items demonstrate the varied everyday life at the hospital. Many patients learned a trade or tended an 80 acre farm, making the institution practically self-sufficient, so these include items such as farm tools, musical instruments and machinery.

The collection is particularly relevant to the Down’s Syndrome Association.  John Langdon Down, ‘Father of Down’s Syndrome’, spent his early career as Royal Earlswood’s first medical superintendent. He knew Pullen and identified both Savant Syndrome and Down’s Syndrome whilst in-charge there before setting up a private hospital, Normansfield, based on the model of care he developed. Normansfield, now called The Langdon Down Centre, is today home to the Down’s Syndrome Association’s headquarters.

The new exhibition will be housed in a recently restored Victorian theatre there – which was once used for entertaining patients – and will complement an existing display about Langdon Down and the history of Normansfield in the basement of the building.

Plans are now underway to develop a much larger museum in other wards and rooms in the grade II listed hospital building. These displays will exhibit other items in the collection and contemporary artwork from people who have a learning disability alongside antique letters, patient case notes and photographic plates currently stored at the London Metropolitan Archive.

When complete, the museum will include interactive displays and be an educational resource for children, students, professionals and other visitors to learn about the history of the care, education and training of people with learning disabilities.

Fiona Edwards, Chief Executive of Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said: “?Royal Earlswood Hospital has played a huge part in shaping the way that care and support for people with a learning disability has developed over the past 200 years. Down’s model of care was compassionate and radical for his time and Pullen’s work is one of the success stories of the system of education and training developed there, a system which was later mirrored elsewhere. I’d like to thank Freda and the committee for their dedication to preserving Surrey’s fascinating learning disability heritage and ensuring it will be shared with generations to come.”

Freda adds: “This is indeed a happy ending for this internationally important collection. We never dreamed that such a spectacular building would one day house the Royal Earlswood Museum and that it would be in the care of such a relevant organisation.”

Lalage Grundy, Team Manager for Learning, Museums and Partnership at Surrey Heritage, said: "I’m delighted that this wonderful collection is going to be the basis of a really exciting new museum after we have been searching for a home for it for so long. We have of course been housing ‘The Giant' in our foyer and will be sorry to see him go, but look forward to seeing him in his new surroundings."

The Belfry Shopping Centre Manager, Andy Nash, says: “We have been very happy to provide a home for these important and unusual exhibits for the past 14 years, giving thousands of local people and visitors from all over the UK, and internationally, the chance to view this fascinating part of British history. We will be sad to lose these unique local artefacts, but are delighted that such an ideal permanent home has been found for the entire collection, as only 10% has been displayed here. The Royal Earlswood Story and The Pullen Collection will be on display here at the Belfry Centre until late June.”

An exhibition about the museum and its new home will be mounted in the display area at the Belfry shortly afterwards.

Freda adds: “I’d like to thank my six fellow members of the Museum Committee: Anne Lea; John Burleigh; Jill Hickmott; Dave Sharp; Mary Jopp and Betty Norman for their loyal service over the years. Sadly, our late secretary Sylvia MacFarlane, who did so much for the museum, is no longer with us to share this exciting new chapter in the museum’s history. I would also like to thank the Belfry Shopping Centre for providing such an unusual showcase and help over the years and Surrey Heritage for its advice and support.”