Joselyn Taylor: “Yorkshire’s Forgotten Few” – The untold story of Deaf people in 19th – 20th century asylums

My name is Joselyn Taylor and my colleague and I have published a book detailing the experience of several deaf people who lived in asylums throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

I attended St. John’s School for deaf children at Boston Spa, Yorkshire. I have loved learning about history all my life and reading up on information that piques my interest and this continues to this day. My colleague Wayne Richards attended Doncaster school for deaf children at Doncaster.

In 2000, I was concerned the school I attended may/would close down the same way as other deaf schools were closing, sending deaf children to mainstream schools. Also I noticed at that time different authors were writing books about deaf schools and I felt someone should do the same for St. John’s.

I approached Peter Jackson of BDHS and he advised me that it is better written from someone who was a past pupil. I decided to make a start and the book was eventually published in 2007 in between studying for my degree and working full time.

Whilst researching for this book, I came across stories about some of these deaf children who were living in workhouses throughout Great Britain. This prompted me to do some research and to see if information could be collated.

At the same time, I met my colleague, Wayne Richards who was doing a similar project and we decided to work together to collate this information. We felt this is an important part of deaf history and we realised life in workhouses is related to poverty and asylums were for those suffering with their mental health.

Researching and delving into information from archives throughout Yorkshire, Middlesbrough and Lancashire was a varied experience. Some attitudes we encountered at some archives were positive and some people were very helpful in researching with us yet some others were not so helpful.

Obviously there were communication barriers especially when we came across people who had no Deaf Awareness. Trying to lipread an archivist who had a full beard and a moustache was the biggest headache for Wayne and myself. We either left feeling satisfied or we felt disillusioned depending on which archives we attended.

We found surprising information about what happened to these Deaf people recorded in the book. We identified 38 Deaf people and found 40 others with no identification or no information about them.

A young deaf female hid her pregnancy and she had the baby in her bedroom alone and what followed was a tragedy.

Another mother couldn’t cope or manage her 10 year old deaf son and he was sent to the asylum and what followed was very sad. Most of the deaf patients were recorded as ‘having no intelligence’ or being of ‘unsound mind’.

The title of the book is; “Yorkshire’s Forgotten Few – The untold story of Deaf people in 19th – 20th centre asylums.” It costs £20 including postage and packing and we do hope this inspires other people to write about asylums from their own areas.

We do have another book coming up later this year focusing on workhouses throughout Yorkshire. So, watch this space!

 

The book can be ordered by emailing joselyn@btopenworld.com  or w.c.richards@hotmail.co.uk
Please do get in touch if you require further details.