Some houses are built without walls: Poems from the Staffordshire Asylums

This pamphlet began as a poetry research project within the archives of the Stafford Records Office, focussing on the 19th century admission books, correspondence and photographs from three Staffordshire mental asylums. While the use of terms like ‘mental asylum’, ‘lunatic’ and ‘madness’ are incompatible with our modern day understanding of mental ill health, the language of the poems is copied directly from the archives and reflects an earlier, less enlightened time.