Devonshire hospital and Buxton Bath charity : instituted for the relief of poor persons from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland suffering from rheumatism, gout, sciatica, and neuralgia ; pains, weakness or contractions of joints or limbs, arising from these diseases, or from sprains, fractures, or other local injuries ; chronic forms of paralysis ; dropped hands, and other poisonous effects of lead, mercury, or other minerals ; spinal affections ; dyspeptic complaints, uterine obstructions, etc. etc. ; supported by annual subscriptions and voluntary contributions : annual report for the year 1879 ; commencement, progress, and character of the hospital extension ; action and purpose of the governors of the cotton districts convalescent fund ; management, history, annual statement, accounts, meteorological report and tables, rules and regulations, list of subscriptions and benefactions &c., Bath charity report for 1785, and copies of conveyances of hospital and baths from the Duke of Devonshire to the trustees.

  • Devonshire Royal Hospital (Buxton, Derbyshire, England)
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Devonshire hospital and Buxton Bath charity : instituted for the relief of poor persons from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland suffering from rheumatism, gout, sciatica, and neuralgia ; pains, weakness or contractions of joints or limbs, arising from these diseases, or from sprains, fractures, or other local injuries ; chronic forms of paralysis ; dropped hands, and other poisonous effects of lead, mercury, or other minerals ; spinal affections ; dyspeptic complaints, uterine obstructions, etc. etc. ; supported by annual subscriptions and voluntary contributions : annual report for the year 1879 ; commencement, progress, and character of the hospital extension ; action and purpose of the governors of the cotton districts convalescent fund ; management, history, annual statement, accounts, meteorological report and tables, rules and regulations, list of subscriptions and benefactions &c., Bath charity report for 1785, and copies of conveyances of hospital and baths from the Duke of Devonshire to the trustees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    from tlie accumulated fund was given towards tlie Hospital; leaving* a residue of £1,500 consols, whicli sum remains tlius invested. (See Estate Account.) The history and doings of the Buxton Bath Charity have thus been summarily brought down to the time of forming- the Hospital, the expenses of which were defrayed by the individual and collective liberality of the Trustees ; by special subscriptions from the public; by the proceeds of a bazaar, that was bountifully supplied and sup- ported, &c.—a total sum of £6,000 having been thus got together, and expended on the conversion of this valuable building- to hospital purposes. This conversion with its anxious details and successful results, v/as mainly due to the untiring- exertions of the late Mr. Wilmot, aided by the architectural skill of Mr. H. Currey, and the liberal consideration of the late Duke of Devonshire. It forms an interesting episode in this history, that, in the winter of 1862-3, during what vrill be long remembered as the Cotton Famine, a sx^ecial fund was obtained, chiefly by the exertions of the late Mr. Wilmot, and 100 young women, under 30 years of age, selected by the Relief Committees of their respective towns, as being- most likely to be benefited by the change of air and the comforts of the Hospital, Vfere received, and taken care of, as to food, and as to medicines, and restored to their homes in the subsequent spring-, with renovated health and strength, and full of gratitude for what they had received. The balance of the subscriptions, amounting- with interest, to £256, was invested as a separate fund for ever, to enable ]}oov female opera- tives from factory towns to be received into the Hospital. A very important circumstance in the history of the Hospital is that the grounds in front of it have been, with much kind considera- tion, made over to the Institution, on the i^art of the Duke of Devon- shire, maintaining the detached x)osition of the building, enhancing- its appearance, and adding'- to the out-door advantages of the patients. The building- is the property of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire ; and the conversion of it to the use of the Hospital for ever, on the payment of the rent of £5 yearly, was benevolently g-ranted by the late Duke of Devonshire, as testified on the stone over the principal entrance, on which is inscribed: The last munificent Charity of »William Spencer, 6th Duke of Devonshire, K.G., who allowed these buildings to be converted to the use of the sick poor, January, A.D. 1858. A considerable sum of money that had been collected for the construction of the Hospital was expended upon the work. The walls and roof of the structure were fortunately found to be in good preser- vation ; the interior was entirely removed, and re-arranged; the sub- soil carefully taken away ; and about two-thirds of the building occu- pied for the purposes of the Hospital, by a chaplain's house, a dispen- sary, and a dispenser's apartments, a house for the master and matron, kitchen, day-rooms, dining-hall, and spacious dormitories, affording- separate beds for 120 patients, in addition to the beds provided for cases of accident, and in addition to the rooms required for the servants of the establishment.