The facility, which was designed by Watson and Pritchett using a corridor plan layout, was opened as the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum in 1818.

[1] William Ellis, who had a reputation for employing the principles of humane treatment, was appointed the first superintendent of the asylum.

[3] James Crichton-Browne, who was appointed superintendent at the hospital in 1866, went on to carry out pioneering research on the neuropathology of insanity.

[4] After the facility joined the National Health Service in 1948, it became the Stanley Royd Hospital.

[6] After the introduction of Care in the Community, the hospital went into a period of decline and eventually closed in 1995.