Driffold Asylum

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Driffold Asylum
Opened 1836
Closed 1931
Demolished 1935
Current Status Demolished
Building Style Single Building
Location Birmingham
Alternate Names
  • Doctor Bodington's Lunatic Asylum
  • Driffold House Asylum



History[edit]

Dr George Bodington was an established General Practitioner in Erdington (Parish of Aston) Warwickshire, when he returned to Sutton Coldfield to devote himself to the care of the Mentally Sick. He became proprietor of the Driffold House Asylum in Maney. According to the 1851 census there were 11 Lunatic Patients at the Driffold Asylum with 6 Staff including his Wife, Ann and Daughter Mary.

In 1840 G. Bodington wrote a revolutionary paper entitled "An essay on the Treatment and Cure of Pulmonary Consumption" which changed ideas of this disease and its treatment. He died in 1882 in his 83rd year in Sutton Coldfield. Some of the area of the Driffold Asylum is now the site of Sutton Coldfield Odeon.