Heralding the Past: the story of Wantage Hospital

IN July 1924 a well-attended public meeting was held in Wantage Town Hall to discuss proposals to build a new hospital in the town.

The chairman, the Rev A George Robinson, explained that the committee was faced with spending at least £400 on improvements to the existing cottage hospital in Belmont, which had been built as a private house.

The committee therefore proposed that a new hospital should be built in Wantage. They also resolved that the new building should be worthy of the town and must include children’s, maternity and out-patients’ wards.

The vicar then went on to explain that although the venture would be costly – about £10,000 was needed – they already had two marvellous offers.

Mr A S Castle had offered a plot of land in Ham Road and Mr A T Lloyd had promised £2,000 – but Mr Lloyd’s money was conditional on the committee raising a further £4,000 by the end of the year.

Mr A J Kenyon, Wantage’s postmaster, became the honorary secretary of the appeals committee and set about the fundraising with enthusiasm.

New and well-tried ventures were organised including concerts, dramatic entertainments and collections.

The Reverend Mother donated £100 for a ‘St. Mary’s Home’ bed, and the Misses Sawyer also endowed a bed in memory of the late Col. and Mrs Sawyer.

Children were asked to help build and equip a children’s ward and Miss Atkin of The Priory organised the children's stamp scheme.

Mrs Freddie Fox of Letcombe Regis organised two successful balls in the Victoria Cross rooms in October 1924 and 1925. On both occasions dancing was to the London orchestra of Jack Hylton and the guests included the leading jockeys Steve Donoghue, Frank Bullock, Bernard Carslake and Freddie Fox.

These and other efforts resulted in well over £4,000 being raised before the end of 1924.

In fact, by January 1925 there was £8,000 in the kitty. This included £500 from Sir Mortimer Singer of Milton Hill, Steventon – eldest son of the American inventor of the sewing machine.

The town procession in July of that year was also held in aid of the new venture.

Unfortunately the plans then hit a snag: on closer inspection of the land offered by Mr A Castle in Charlton, it was felt that it would be very expensive to develop.

After looking at a number of other sites, the committee managed to secure a corner of Charlton Park.

Having secured a site, plans were prepared by Messrs J G T West & Son, the Abingdon architects.

With Mr E W Jackson as the consulting engineer, a local firm Messrs J Barrett & Sons of Hanney was awarded the construction contract.

The work employed mainly local labour: all the joinery for the doors and windows was produced in Hanney and the bricks came from the Abingdon Concrete Brick and Tile Company.

Abingdon monumental mason, Mr Dennis Godfrey made the stone columns by the main entrance and another local firm, Messrs T H Tombs was responsible for the plumbing.

The work began early in 1926 and the new Wantage Hospital was officially opened on Thursday, June 30, 1927, by Her Highness Princess Helena Victoria, the third daughter of Queen Victoria.

Crowds of local people from Wantage and the neighbouring villages gathered to watch and a guard of honour was provided by Boy Scouts and Girl Guides.

President of the hospital Mr A Thomas Loyd announced that the people of Wantage and the surrounding villages had raised the grand total of £12,900 during the three-year appeal.

This was only £2,200 short of the estimated cost of the building, but there was also the cost of furnishing and equipping the hospital.

The committee had therefore decided to continue their fundraising to clear the remaining balance and to use the proceeds from the sale of the old hospital building in Belmont to pay for the necessary furnishings.

The new hospital had a men’s general ward (six beds), men’s private ward (two beds), women’s general ward (six beds), women’s private ward (two beds), maternity ward (two beds) and a children’s ward of four beds.