A historical view of Broadmoor Asylum showing its large Victorian building, terraced gardens with a gazebo, and a figure in Victorian dress standing on the lawn.

At Home in Broadmoor

Name: At Home in Broadmoor
Start: 2027-01-28T14:00:00+00:00
End: 2027-01-28T15:15:00+00:00
Location: Webinar

Life in the Female Wing of Victorian and Edwardian Broadmoor

What was everyday life like for the women who lived, and worked, in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum?

This talk will explore life in the ‘Women’s Division’ or ‘Female Wing’ of Broadmoor during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. It looks beyond the reasons why women were admitted to discover what living in the Asylum was like. What did the women do with their days? How did they spend their time, and what did they read, talk about and argue about? Alongside the patients’ experiences, the talk will also consider the lives of the female attendants, their work, and their relationships within the institution.

The talk tells the story of the female side of Broadmoor: not simply an asylum, but a place where women lived and worked, formed friendships and were cared for and managed—and, for many, spent much of their lives.

This is the first of three talks in the Winter Potpourri Talks Series. The other talks take place on 25th February and 25th March. You may book tickets for individual events or for all three talks in the series for a reduced price.

To book

Pre-booking is required, because the event link will be sent in advance.

First-time users of Zoom, will be asked to download a small piece of software, before joining the talk.

Image: copyright Royal Berkshire Archives and reproduced with their kind permission

To book, scroll down.

Book Event

Member

£4

Available Tickets: 59

For members of Berkshire Family History Society

The "Member" ticket is sold out. You can try another ticket or another date.

Non-member

£5

Available Tickets: 59

For non-members of Berkshire Family History Society

The "Non-member" ticket is sold out. You can try another ticket or another date.

Total: 0

Tags: asylum records, berkshire, broadmoor asylum, edwardian era, female patients, institutional history, mental health history, victorian era, womens history

Date

Thu 28 Jan 2027

Time

14:00 - 15:15

Tickets

£5.00

Location

Webinar

Zoom Video Conference

Website https://berksfhs.org

Organiser

The Family Research Centre

Email

booking@berksfhs.org.uk

Website

https://berksfhs.org/local-teams/

Book Now!

Speaker

Dr Alison Pedley Senior Honorary Research Fellow, School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at University of Roehampton

Dr Alison Pedley

Senior Honorary Research Fellow, School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at University of Roehampton

Alison researched the institutional experiences of ‘criminally-insane’, infanticidal mothers in Victorian England and Wales for both her 2020 thesis and 2023 monograph. This research has encompassed research into third-party institutions which had an impact on the discharge of female patients from Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. She is also Secretary of Berkshire FHS.