THE era when people with learning difficulties were routinely sent away to institutions far from home has now passed.

A century ago, many young people from Furness and the old counties of Cumberland and Westmorland were sent to Lancaster.

The Royal Albert Hospital in Ashton Road, Lancaster, opened in 1870 for the care and education of children and later adults too.

The 1911 census - the most recent we have details from - shows that 13 of its patients and eight of its staff were born in what is now South Cumbria

The architect was Edward Paley and the original name was the Royal Albert Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles of the Seven Northern Counties.

The foundation stone was laid in 1868 and the first patients were admitted in December 1870.

It was renamed in 1910 as the Royal Albert Institution and in 1948 was under NHS control as the Royal Albert Hospital.

In 1909 there were 662 children there and after 1913 it also admitted adults.

By 1948 the patients numbers reached 886 and exceeded 1,000.

It closed in 1996 and the building is now an Islamic college for girls.

In 1911 the live-in staff were headed by medical superintendent Archibald Robertson Douglas, 43, who was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne.

His cook was 25-year-old Edith Grayston, who was born at Dalton.

South Cumbrians on the staff included nurse attendants May Martindale, 25, from Windermere; Isabella Young, 22, from Barrow and Rachel Kendall, 23, from Millom.

Serving mistress Annie Bradley, 27, was born at Dalton and housemaid Ruth Fell, 28, was from Barrow.

Kitchen maid Margaret Hannah Rawlinson, aged 22, was born in Barrow and laundry worker Ruth Frost, 22, was from Ambleside.

The patients were from all over Lancashire with a few from much further afield, including Toronto in Canada and Constantinople in Turkey.

From south Cumbria, there were Barrovians aged 20 and 26 and from Ulverston there were patients aged 16 and 17,

Bootle, near Millom, provided two patients, aged 17 and 18.

There were also single patients from Levens, Ravenglass, Bowness, Cark, Windermere, Ambleside and Eskdale - the youngest being 10 and the oldest 30.

A photographic exhibition by Nick Dagger on the former Lancaster Moor hospital can be seen until the weekend at the City Museum, Lancaster.