The Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum, more commonly known as Deva, lies in the grounds of the still active Countess Of Chester Hospital in Chester.

In 1829, the Cheshire Lunatic Asylum opened on part of the site. The county’s mental health unit was based in the ‘Lunatic Asylum Building’. The name of the site changed throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, from the “Chester County Lunatic Asylum”, to “County Mental Hospital”, to the “Upton Mental Hospital”, finally the “Deva Hospital”. During this period, treatment for mental illness changed from institutional confinement to medication and therapy making the wards less busy. Eventually less than 5% of patients were kept confined in the hospital for treatment.

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16 Comments

  • George Calby, November 8, 2023 @ 19:10

    My uncle James jones died there aged 49 he took epileptic fits I believe he fell down some stairs it was about 1980

  • tumbles, May 11, 2022 @ 14:21

    Chester Archives are you best bet

  • David Thomas, May 1, 2022 @ 19:00

    My grandad was here for 20 years after the 1st world war.Are their any records of the inmates?

  • Stephanie, February 26, 2022 @ 17:50

    My mum said her auntie worked here back when my mum was a little girl, she said she can remember her taking hair bows etc into work for the patients cos she thought it was good for the patients mental health to look after their appearance. This was a long time ago so her auntie must have been quite a forward thinking lady to care about the patients the way she did x

  • Sarah Jane Drummond, October 27, 2020 @ 17:54

    Does anyone have any details on Moston Hospital which was near Deva. It used to be an old army camp, since defunked. Any photographs etc. would be appreciated.

  • Margaret Crabbe, September 13, 2020 @ 18:18

    Old medical case files of patients were sent to Chester archives, I found records of Edward Langtry who was a patient in 1891

  • tumbles, June 2, 2020 @ 11:36

    I will direct you to another site I work on which gives you more info – https://www.countyasylums.co.uk/deva/ – click on the further info tab and you’ll see a few resources you can try.

  • Lesley Piper, May 31, 2020 @ 04:56

    Are any records available from 1905 my great grandfather died here and I would like to find out more

  • Anne Ollier, January 31, 2020 @ 16:16

    Are records still available from 1936-1955? I’m researching my family tree and my grand mother was a patient then.

  • Dawn E Berry, October 20, 2019 @ 21:38

    Would be great to get hold of the records as i believe once they are 101 years old they should be available for personal & research purposes

  • Dawn E Berry, October 20, 2019 @ 21:36

    Can you still find details of the patients when it was ‘ Cheshire Lunatic Asylum’ from 1881. 10 years previous and 10 years on from that date as my gt gt grandfather Abraham Emms was sent here from Norfolk. It comes up on the census but i know patient records and minutes from meetings were available but they moved the records. Unsure where they moved the records to. I do believe items were auctioned off

  • tumbles, June 18, 2016 @ 20:22

    It’s demolished.

  • TomH, June 17, 2016 @ 21:15

    Can you still get into it today?

  • Gary, November 3, 2012 @ 00:02

    pic 24 was a mess when i visited. Shame they knocked it down, it was right on my front door step!

  • tumbles, May 8, 2012 @ 08:30

    It’s sadly all gone now.

  • Susan, May 3, 2012 @ 17:43

    Are we able to visit this place? Our Great Great Grandfather George Hughes, died there aged 38 of ‘general paralysis ending in apoplexy’ in 1881

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