• Skip to content
  • Upload
  • Contact us
  • twitter
  • facebook
Lancashire Learning Disability Institutions
A people’s history of institutional life
  • Home
  • About
  • History
  • Themes
  • Archive
  • News
  • Want to help?
You are here: Home>Themes>Agency & Resistance

Agency & Resistance Highvolume Play Pause Stop

Here are examples of ways in which those who lived, worked or had family in the institutions remember actively resisting, or exercising agency by coping or engaging with the controlling regimes.

(Grateful to Natalie Mullen for the idea of 'agency' as it used here. Mullen, N. (2019). Negotiating the asylum : patient agency and institutional authority in Lancaster County Asylum, 1840 to 1915. Unpublished PhD, thesis, Lancaster University.)

  • 'Bees made the honey'

    'Bees made the honey'

    Harrry Oldham was in the Royal Albert Hospital from the 1920s to the 1980s.  In a reminiscence session in Lancaster in ...
  • 'Come to Brockhall'

    'Come to Brockhall'

    Betsy Bell was born in 1926. She went to Brockhall hospital in 1959, and except for a few months away ...
  • 'God made the Bees'

    'God made the Bees'

    Betsy Bell was born in 1926. She went to Brockhall hospital in 1959, and except for a few months away ...
  • 'I absconded from there"

    'I absconded from there"

    People often tried to abscond or escape from the long-stay institutions. Here ‘Frank’ talks about how he escaped from Brockhall Hospital ...
  • 'The Cocoa Song'

    'The Cocoa Song'

    In Lancaster and Morecambe, in the late 1980s, men and women met and shared their experiences of years and years ...
  • "Come to Barlow"

    "Come to Barlow"

    Opened in the early 1930s, Barlow Home was the first taste of the Royal Albert Hospital for many little boys. ...
  • "Go back and knock!"

    "Go back and knock!"

    Frank Cochrane and James Leach remember Mrs. Wareing, the Matron at the Royal Albert Hospital from 1962 to 1972. Frank ...
  • "He wouldn't go in the bathroom"

    "He wouldn't go in the bathroom"

    This is an extract from a reminiscence session at the College of Adult Education, Lancaster on October 16th 1987. Two former ...
  • "We give 'em plums alright!"

    "We give 'em plums alright!"

    The Royal Albert, as with similar institutions, had its own farm, gardens and an orchard. Although supplies were bought as ...
  • "We had to see this doctor"

    "We had to see this doctor"

    “We had to see this doctor” Frank (not real name) was born in 1958 and went into Brockhall aged 4 in ...
  • "You can sing it about any hospitals…"

    "You can sing it about any hospitals…"

    Peggy Palmer was in the Royal Albert Hospital, Lancaster for many years before leaving in the 1980s. She attended a reminiscence ...
  • "You’re not here to give us advice Cadet"

    "You’re not here to give us advice Cadet"

    Christine Whalley was a Cadet Nurse at Brockhall from about October or so in 1972 to December 1973. She was ...
  • “I didn’t take the door off.”

    “I didn’t take the door off.”

    In the early 1970s, when a young woman, June Flynn was a student nurse at Calderstones. As was usual during ...
  • Nurses' Sit-In

    Nurses' Sit-In

    In 1977 a group of nurses occupied two of the wards at Calderstones. According to the newspaper report they were ...
Themes
  • Agency & Resistance
  • Arrival
  • Before the Institution
  • Buildings
  • Closure
  • Death
  • Emotion
  • Entertainment
  • Family
  • Health
  • Later Years
  • Life Stories
  • Outside World
  • Personal & Private
  • Policy
  • Politics
  • Punishment
  • Regimes
  • Relationships
  • Special Occasions
  • Sport
  • Training
  • Ward Culture
  • Wardlife
  • Wartime
  • Work
Search the archive

Advanced search

By keyword

By institution

By date

By format

By role

North West Training and Development Team (opens in new window) Heritage Lottery Fund (opens in new window) Pathways Associates (opens in new window)
Copyright the site owners. All rights reserved. Website by CommunitySites