H is for Hospitals

In the latest instalment of the Special Collections A-Z, the letter H is for Hospitals, and courtesy of the Cope Collection we have a whistle stop tour of some of the different types of hospital seen in Hampshire.

Hospitals are not always what they seem. Activities which took place within the walls of the twelfth-century foundations did not include a great deal of health care. Often attached to religious institutions, they provided accommodation for the aged and for travellers, and although this might involve a certain amount of care-giving, it was not usually their main purpose. In Southampton, God’s House Hospital was founded in 1185 by Gervaise le Riche to provide an almshouse for four aged men and women as well as shelter for pilgrims. At Winchester, St John’s Hospital, thought to be a foundation of the late Saxon period, supported the local poor and also needy travellers whilst the nearby Hospital of St Cross, founded between 1132 and 1136 by Henry of Blois, housed thirteen poor men, feeding a further one hundred daily.

The Hospital of St. Cross, by D.L. (1783) Rare Books Cope c WIN 33 pr1109

At the medieval leper hospitals there were few options for treatment, instead cleanliness and an adequate supply of food supported physical health and attendance at chapel sustained spiritual needs. Both Southampton and Winchester had leper hospitals and excavations at Magdalen Hill, the site of the Winchester hospital, suggest that it is one of the earliest in the country, dating from the 11th century. As the incidence of leprosy declined in England, the hospital was used as an almshouse until damage by Dutch prisoners of war in the seventeenth century, led to the buildings being abandoned and eventually pulled down in 1788. Of Southampton’s leper hospital, established in the 12th century, no trace remains above ground. Archaeological investigations place it on the main road out of the town in the vicinity of the present Civic Centre, where, like the Winchester hospital, though separated from the town, it was well-placed for collecting alms from passers-by.

Winchester Leper Hospital From: Description of the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, near Winchester, from drawings taken by Mr. Schnebbelie, August 1788 (1796) Rare Books Cope ff WIN 24

In the 18th century the concept of voluntary hospitals gained popularity, a local example being the Hampshire County Hospital at Winchester which opened in Colebrook Street in 1736. As the name suggests, voluntary hospitals were independent organisations, run by a committee of governors and funded by donations, often in the form of subscriptions. In the Collection of Papers, Rules and Orders relating to the Rise, Progress and Government of this Charity (1737) much can be learned about the reasons for the hospital’s establishment by Alured Clarke, a canon of Winchester Cathedral, and the way in which it was run. The ‘poor sick’ met the criteria for treatment, but children under seven, unless requiring an operation, pregnant women, people with ‘disordered senses’, those with infectious diseases or those who were unlikely to be cured were excluded.

List of patients treated at Hampshire County Hospital from: Alured Clarke Collection of Papers, Rules and Orders relating to the Rise, Progress and Government of this Charity (1737) Rare Books Cope 61

Subscribers of £1 or more could recommend in-patients who were admitted every Wednesday. Treatment was also available for out-patients and as Clarke believed that sickness was a result of un-Christian living, books of religious instruction were given to all patients. The Collection lists the rules which all those working or being treated at the hospital had to follow as well as diets for the patients.

The patients’ diets, from: Alured Clarke Collection of Papers, Rules and Orders relating to the Rise, Progress and Government of this Charity (1737) Rare Books Cope 61

With its strong connection to the armed forces it is not surprising that Hampshire has been home to major naval and military hospitals, the Royal Hospital Haslar opening at Gosport in 1753 and the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley in 1863. By an order in Council of 1744, naval hospitals were required to be built at Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham, bringing to an end the haphazard system of treating the naval sick and wounded in civilian hospitals and private lodgings. In 1745 land was acquired on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, although inconvenient to reach by road – most patients being expected to arrive by boat – the isolated position was seen as a way of deterring deserters, many of the patients being victims of press gangs. At the time, Haslar was the largest brick building in Europe and was designed to accommodate 1,500 men, treating medical, surgical, fever, dysentery, smallpox and scurvy cases. Despite the addition of two new wings in 1762, it was often overcrowded and on occasions old hulks had to be used to accommodate the overflow of patients.

Perspective view of the Royal Hospital now Building for the Reception of Sick and Wounded Seamen at Gosport, Hants. (1751) in Views in Hampshire v.2 no.160 Rare Books Cope ff 91.5 – only 3 sides of the building were built

For soldiers, medical treatment had traditionally been arranged on a regimental basis, large military hospitals first appearing in England towards the end of the 18th century. The Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley, which opened in 1863, was created in response to the Crimean War. Planned as a central block with two wings extending on both sides, the internal layout of the hospital famously met with Florence Nightingale’s disapproval. The small, poorly ventilated wards ran counter to the large wards with direct access to fresh air which she advocated, and although some concessions were made, including replacing the windows of the corridor fronting the hospital with arched openings, it was too late for significant changes to be made. With its 138 wards, Netley could accommodate 1,000 patients and as at Haslar, its relatively isolated position made desertion less likely. 

Royal Victoria Military Hospital, Netley near Southampton.
engraved by T.A. Prior, drawn by E. Duncan. (19–) in Views in Hampshire v.5 no.160 Rare Books Cope ff 91.5

Another type of hospital of which there are many examples in Hampshire is the cottage hospital. These were founded in the second half of the 19th century and were generally located in rural settings where they were intended to deal with emergencies – perhaps more prevalent with the mechanisation of farming – and to overcome the problem of patients and visitors having to travel long distances to the nearest voluntary hospital. A more homely environment was also thought to aid recovery. Petersfield Cottage Hospital opened in 1871 and with its hung tiles, gables and casement windows, it appears the epitome of the cottage hospital. Each of its wings had two small wards but like Netley, its ventilation was judged inadequate.

Petersfield Cottage Hospital (1910) Rare Books Cope postcards PET 61 pc615

At the other end of the spectrum of hospital provision is Southampton General Hospital, which began life as the Southampton Workhouse Infirmary in 1902. Taken over by the Borough Council in 1929, it became Southampton General Hospital in 1948 and part of the National Health Service. The 1970s saw work beginning on the construction of a new 1,300 bed hospital at the rear of the site, provision also having to be made for the new Medical School, which opened in 1971 in partnership with the University.

View of the site for the new General Hospital behind the original buildings in A Teaching Hospital for Wessex (1969) Univ. Coll. LF 789.4M3

This was not the first involvement of the University with a hospital. In 1914 University College Southampton’s new buildings at Highfield, including those that now form part of the Library, had been lent to the War Office for use as a temporary hospital. For many years after the College re-occupied the site in 1919, much of its teaching was carried out in the huts previously used as the wards of the University War Hospital, the establishment of the University as a major provider of medical and nursing education then being some years away. 

University College buildings showing huts retained from War Hospital, 1925 [MS1/Phot/39 ph 3076]

To find out more about the University War Hospital see the previous Special Collections blog post They came from near and far to do their patriotic duty – staffing the University War Hospital