Introducing 'Stories of Mental Health from York: Past, Present, and Future', and the 'Walk of Alfred'

Posted on 14 May 2025

We are delighted to announce we were recently awarded £9,000 from the University of York’s Mentally Fit York fund to undertake the engagement project ‘Stories of Mental Health from York: Past, Present and Future’.

A photograph of an elderly man seated in a Victorian suit and waistcoat is overlaid with the words Walk of Alfred.

This year-long project aims to engage audiences with our mental health archive collections in new and more creative ways, demonstrating the importance of archives in helping us contextualise and make sense of our lived experiences. You can find out more about the project here: www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/projects/stories-of-mental-health/.

We are hoping that the project will engage attendees with the history of York, which can help with issues around identity, belonging and sense of place. By working with archives relating to mental health patients in the past, we also hope that we can work towards normalising mental health and attitudes towards it.

To officially launch the project and introduce some of the records we’ll be working with in our facilitated workshops our project partners, local artists Stephen Lee Hodgkins and Griselda Goldsbrough, will be offering a free guided walk around York on Saturday 17^th May. Called the Walk of Alfred, attendees will be following in the footsteps of Retreat patient Alfred Smith.

Alfred Smith kept a diary throughout his time at The Retreat, and notes many things in detail, such as fixing his eight-day clock, seeing the new gas lights at the station, watching Fulford New Church go up in flames, and buying a Portuguese onion! He also notes 'awful accounts' from the Yorkshire Gazette about the battle of Waterloo, visits to The Retreat by government inspectors, New Lodge being built and a 'racoon' in the back yard. Alfred's diary also includes several walking routes that he took around the streets and pathways of York, and Stephen and Griselda will be using one of these walks from 1877 for the Walk of Alfred. Meeting at The Retreat at 1.45pm on Saturday 17^th May (the walk itself will start at 2pm) the walk is open to all, around four miles long and will take approximately two hours. It follows a level route, and will finish back at The Retreat, Heslington Road.

To take part, please contact Stephen and / or Griselda (hiya@stephenleehodgkins.net / griselda.goldsbrough@gmail.com). They’ll look forward to seeing you!

To keep up to date with the Stories of Mental Health from York: Past, Present, and Future project, keep a look-out for our monthly newsletters and posts on social media.