hea 9 The history of the North Staffs Infirmary at Hartshill from Etruria.

The title of the building over the entrance door reads – Parish Hospital of Stoke-upon-Trent 1842 and thousands must have passed its doors every day without a glance in that direction. Now the building is a listed Grade II to ensure its preservation as part of the original workhouse complex.

It was built because of the need for a hospital, not just for inmates of the workhouse, but also the people of Stoke who had nowhere to go for any form of treatment. It is now used as offices. An advertisement was placed for tenders in the Potteries Mercury to build a hospital, the first to be erected in the Borough of Stoke. The article gives a whole list of items require in the specification. During the first world war it was set apart as a military hospital and a number of photographs have survived of this time and included in the article.

Full details of its early life and the types of treatment offered is well worth a read and as such an interesting piece for the early years of hospitals.

The Potteries, as an industrial conurbation consisting mainly of tightly knit groups of hovels, no sanitation, no clean running water and loads of cesspits plus the constant pollution caused by its native industry. Smallpox became almost a never-ending pandemic with no cure, the problem with the sick and dying became an unsolvable problem and the cause then still a mystery. It was not until 1798 that Edward Jenner discovered that a vaccination could prevent smallpox, but the reality was to get people, especially children vaccinated in the 19^th century.

Stoke-on-Trent did not escape the infections, in fact it suffered badly because of its poor cramped accommodation, mostly owned by pottery manufacturers for their workers. For the vast majority of those infected the only accommodation was the workhouse where accommodation was limited to just a few wooden huts with a limited number of beds separated some distance from the main buildings. Care was provided by the odd female inmate who had suffered the disease previously and therefore immune from in getting it again. For this they would receive a payment of a few shillings or a half-bottle of gin. However, the one thing both had in common as the only way to stop its advancement was isolation.

So, from this position came the thought of Isolation Hospitals and the towns of Fenton, Stoke and Hanley combined to solve the problem. Longton did not join them. From this came the search for land isolated which was the all-important factor and finally accepted a large plot in Eaves Lane, Bucknall.

Through the years it treated thousands of patients for the districts who supported it. Later it became a hospital that catered for infectious dieses and finally a hospital for elderly people. Now it has become a large housing estate and all signs of its previous life no longer exists.

An important study for those researching early medicine and treatments in industrial towns.