Kendray Fever Hospital

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Barnsley, Yorkshire, England

Kendray Fever Hospital, Barnsley, Yorkshire, England

Following an outbreak of smallpox in Barnsley in 1887, Mrs Ann Alderson Lambert, donated £4,000 to buy a site for an infectious diseases hospital for Barnsley. Mrs Lambert was daughter of a Mr Francis Kendray, who had been a linen manufacturer in the town, and a condition of the donation was that the new hospital should carry her father's name. Barnsley Corporation provided the eleven acre site on which the hospital was built.

The foundation stone was ceremoniously laid by the Mayor of Barnsley in March 1889 and on 27 February 1890 the Kendray Fever Hospital was formally handed over to the town of Barnsley.

An unusual, possibly unique feature of the hospital was the Round Block (20 beds), which had its own kitchen and nurses room to avoid contact with other patients and staff. This ward contained a large, central fireplace with chimney, designed to draw germs off the ward.

Round Block, Kendray Fever Hospital

In 1901 an new building, known as Long Block was added to the hospital to provide for patients suffering from Typhoid Fever. As time went by further wards were added: in 1929 Arnot Block (named after Matron, Miss Elizabeth Arnot Bissett) and Lambert Ward, and in 1934 a block with eight cubical and a small operating theatre, later know as South Wing. The hospital also had a 35 bed Nurses Home.

In 1892, 77 cases of smallpox were admitted to the hospital. Smallpox had largely died out by 1894 and admissions for scarlet fever became more common. In the early days the hospital had its own horse drawn ambulance. This was replaced by a motor abmbulance in 1902, but the horse drawn ambulance continued to be used for smallpox patients for several more years.

In 1950 the hospital began to cater for geriatric patients and in 1958 it began to provide accommodation for the chronic sick. In 1965 the treatment of infectious diseases was discontinued (those cases being taken on by Barnsley District General Hospital). From 1974 it also provided for the mentally ill.

In 1982 redevelopment, provided four new wards. Upon their completion the old Lambert and Children's Ward and the Round Block were demolished.

Kendray Fever Hospital was originally managed by the Health Committee of Barnsley Corporation. Following the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948, it was taken over by the Ministry of Health and management passed to the Barnsley Hospital Management Committee of Sheffield Regional Hospital Board, within Trent Regional Health Authority. Today the hospital is part of Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Sources

• Kendray Hospital, Barnsley - National Archives
• [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendray Kendray, Wikipedia.
• The Health Service in Barnsley and District by Pat Gwynnette with the assistance of Les Depledge. : Wharncliffe Publishing 1998.