Gobowan Hospital's Early History
The Beginnings of Agnes Hunt and Robert Jones Orthopaedic Hospital
Oct 27, 2009
The Agnes Hunt and Robert Jones Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen, Oswestry, UK, is one of the foremost facilities of its type. But while the hospital has gone on to great things, its original home in a quiet village a few miles away has been redeveloped to get a new lease of life as apartments.
Nightingale House
Unless a visitor knew where to look, the large, old fashioned building in the centre of Baschurch, a small village to the north of Shrewsbury, might go unnoticed. But it was here, at Nightingale House, in 1901, that young nurses Agnes Hunt and Emily Selina Goodford started their convalescence home for crippled children.
Since then the site has been used as a military hospital during the First World War, an old people's home, and has now been converted into apartments.
David Ward, from HM Crossland Properties, which carried out the work, said: "We've had two open days locally. During one open day a little old lady came up and she was the former gardener or housekeeper and had lived in the top rooms of the house when it became a nursing home.
"And we had Agnes Hunt's great granddaughter come around too. She's writing a book on Robert Jones at the moment and she said she was thinking about writing one about her great grandmother as well."
Listed Building Features
Mr Ward added it had been a challenging experience converting the building while retaining its history.
He said: "This place has a lot of history, it's been really interesting. It's a Grade II-listed site and in a conservation area so we've had to keep all the original features. As the house was extended they used different bits we've had to stick to each of the styles.
"We've kept all of the original features, although it's been quite tricky because of the different patters of edging. We had to take molds and get it all individually made to match.
"During the work we've found some old bits of slate and awls that the children might have played with, or maybe they had lessons while they were in here. And in the old operating room we found old window shutters which would have been used to control the light levels or give the doctors some privacy."
History
The building, which was originally called Florence House, changed its name when the hospital went to Park Hall near Oswestry. The reason they eventually moved from here to Park Hall in 1921 was because it was difficult to get the children up and down the stairs.
Agnes had great compassion for the youngsters she cared for, having experienced first hand the pain and difficulties orthopaedic problems could cause.
When she was young, she had suffered with osteomyelitis, leaving her seriously disabled. But it was this that spurred her on to be a nurse, and on October 1, 1900, the Baschurch Home was “declared open and ready to receive four little boys and four little girls needing country air and good food”.
By 1901 there were 20 patients, and a shed, open on one side, was built in the garden to provide somewhere for the children who couldn't walk to sleep, working on the theory that fresh air and sunshine would be good for them.
In 1903 Robert Jones, a surgeon from Liverpool, agreed to become honorary surgeon of the home, and in 1907 the first operating theatre was built.
The Future
In October 2009 the apartments at Nightingale House went up for sale, while the work at Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital continues to carry out its life-changing work.
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