shelter them. The erection of the Borough Asylum, at Winson Green, was
commenced in 1846, and it was finished in 1851. The house and grounds
covered an area of about twenty acres, the building being arranged to
accommodate 330 patients. Great as this number appeared to be, not many
years passed before the necessity of enlargement was perceived, and,
ultimately, it became evident the Winson Green establishment must either
be doubled in size or that a second Asylum must be erected on another
site. An estate of 150 acres on the south-eastern slopes of Rubery Hill,
on the right-hand side of the turnpike road from here to Bromsgrove, was
purchased by the Corporation, and a new Asylum, which will accommodate
616 patients, has there been erected. For the house and its immediate
grounds, 70 acres have been apportioned, the remainder being kept for
the purposes of a farm, where those of the inmates fit for work can be
employed, and where the sewage from the asylum will be utilised. The
cost of the land was £6,576 8s. 5d., and that of the buildings, the
furnishing, and the laying out of the grounds, £133,495 5s. 8d. The
report of the Lunatic Asylums Committee for 1882 stated that the number
of patients, including those boarded under contract at other asylums, on
the first of Jan., 1882, was 839. There were admitted to Winson Green
and Rubery Hill during the year 349. There were discharged during the
year 94, and there died 124, leaving, on the 31st Dec., 970. The whole
of the 970 were then at the borough asylums, and were chargeable as
follows:--To Birmingham parish, 644; to Birmingham borough, 8; to Aston
Union, in the borough, 168; to King's Norton, 16; to other unions under
contract, 98; the remaining 36 patients not being paupers. The income of
the asylums for the year was--from Birmingham patients £20,748 1s. 9.;
from pauper patients under contract, and from patients not paupers,
£2,989 9s. 5d.; from goods sold, £680 1s. 5d.; total, £24,417 12s. 7d.
The expenditure on maintenance account was £21,964 4s., and on building
capital account £2,966 7s. 7d.--total, £24,915 11s. 7d.; showing a