Support this site with

Magdalen Hospital

Bull Meadow

Dating from 1161-1184, the Magdalen Hospital was opened to house lepers and protect the city population from the disease. Leprosy was probably brought back to England by pilgrims returning from the Holy Land, and the first recorded cases in the country, predates the Crusades. The hospital was situated in Bull Meadow, and consisted of a quadrangle with a chapel on one side and small buildings to house the inmates on the other three. Inmates were confined to the hospital and could be punished with a stint in the stocks if found wandering in the city.

Leprosy did not respect rank and Richard Orenge, Mayor of Exeter in 1454, contracted the disease and was confined in the hospital in 1458. Leprosy, as a tropical disease started to decline as fewer journeyed to the Holy Land but there is evidence to suggest that some cases of leprosy were still being admitted in 1530. The hospital gradually reverted to housing poor families and the destitute, and in 1835 the Municipal Corporations Act transferred the running of the hospital from the Corporation to the Exeter Municipal General Charities. By 1863 the buildings were derelict and were demolished.

Top of Page

Magdalen Hospital was in this corner of Bull Meadow.

The Hospitals of St Alexius and St John
inside Eastgate

The famous St John's Hospital School was founded by Gilbert and John Long in 1238, who gave their name to Longbrook Street. As was common at that time, the hospital was a religious foundation, which housed five priests, six singing boys and twelve poor people. After the Reformation of the 1530's, the hospital was shut and the buildings used for among other things, a gunpowder store, a workhouse, and a fleece and wool market. In the 17th Century it became the Exeter Grammar and Exeter Free School, the foundation institutions for both Exeter and Heles School. More on St John's Hospital School

Top of Page

St Johns Hospital School was situated in the High Street, approximately were the Virgin Megastore is now located.

The Blue Maids' Hospital School
Mary Arches Street

Founded as a school for girls in 1656, it was used briefly as a military hospital when William of Orange entered Exeter in 1688. The weather had been bad when he landed and by the time his army of mercenaries had reached Exeter they were suffering from exhaustion and exposure. The Blue Maids' School was pressed into service to care for the sick and lame soldiers. By 19th November 1688, 156 mostly Dutch soldiers had been admitted with a variety of ailments including leg ulcers, convulsions, a rupture, violent pain in the heart and stomach and one case classified as 'stupid'.

The hospital staff consisted of a surgeon, Mr John Case, his two servants, an apothecary Mr Westcott and Mrs Waters in charge of housekeeping. They even provided two brewers, Mr Palmer and Mr Gandy, as beer was safer than water. The last record for discharges and deaths for the hospital was on 12th February 1689. It is interesting to note that the expenses charged to Prince William by the city amounted to £284 12s 6½d of which £34 10s was for Mr Case.

The school was again used as a hospital during the 1832 cholera outbreak, when a soup kitchen was set up to feed the poor. Actual cases of cholera were treated at home, to reduce the risk of infection.

Top of Page

The Heavitree or City Hospital - a history

Heavitree

The Poor Law Act of 1698 created in Exeter "a Corporation to continue forever to consist of the Mayor and Alderman and of forty other persons... for and towards the relief of the Poor." A new workhouse was built on a site in St Sidwell on the old London Road. Designed by Richard Mitchell, the main block was complete by 1699 with other sections completed by 1707.

Referred to as the Workhouse, the inmates were put to work spinning worsted and the manufacture of clothing. In 1701 a beadle was appointed at a cost of £18 per annum "to suppress the beggars outside the workhouse, to keep the poor in good order within the House, to train the poor, and perform all cures to the best of his skill on wounds and sore legs". Inmates could be punished by whipping with thongs at a whipping post and confined to a 'dark house'.

Workhouse and hospital
In  1718 Mr John Patch was employed as a surgeon at £20 per annum - he would become one of the first surgeons at the Devon and Exeter Hospital in 1743. Between 1821 and 1858 additional buildings were constructed to expand the medical facilities beyond those needed for the inmates, and the workhouse started admitting fever and maternity cases from the whole of the city.

Many of the children at Newtown School were from the workhouse and would be accompanied to school, wearing regulation hobnail boots, and dressed in navy and black. The Workhouse remained until 1929, when it was absorbed into the hospital.

In 1905 an infirmary with 150 beds was completed, with the wards named after Dr Pereira Gary and Sir Edward Seaward. The hospital still offered a social function and, in 1913, a Children's Home was built on the Heavitree Road. Soon after, the hospital became VA Hospital No. 3, one of five military hospitals, established in Exeter during First War hostilities.

The workhouse ethos still existed in the 1930's, when the Casual or Z block was created to accommodate vagrants and 'down and outs' in small cells for up to 24 hours. They were expected to break half a ton of stone for use in road building, during their stay. A derelict section of the hospital buildings was refurbished in 1930, to become a private nursing home of sixteen beds. For two guineas a week you could be attended by a doctor from the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and even have surgery in the private operating theatre. At the outbreak of war in 1939, the private facility closed as all the hospitals in Exeter responded to the national emergency.

Destroyed by bombs
The City Hospital was the one hospital in Exeter that suffered serious destruction and loss of life in the May 1942 blitz. There were 194 patients in the hospital that night, when high-explosive bombs and thousands of incendiaries fell on the city. The hospital was hit by the incendiaries, and despite the heroic efforts of the staff, 18 bedridden patients on the first floors of Ward Block A and B were killed. Nursing staff were commended for their efforts in trying to save their patients. Night nurse Mrs Emily Knee stated "...We succeeded in getting many of the patients out, but when we came to rescue those in Block A Sick Ward the fire was raging and the stairs were ablaze, and we could not get to them". Nurse Knee received the George Medal for her bravery, while two British Empire Medals were awarded that night and seven commended for brave conduct. See hospital dead for a list of casualties. All the records for the hospital were also lost in the conflagration.

On 5th July 1948, what remained of the City Hospital was absorbed into the NHS. Since then, the hospital has seen considerable rebuilding, and become a centre for maternity, dentistry and geriatrics. The maternity unit closed down in June 2007 and moved to a new £31.5 m facility which opened for business at 8.30am on the 15th June 2007. The maternity unit had delivered 106,000 babies since it was opened in 1954, with Benjamin Hudson the last baby to be born at Heavitree, when he was delivered at 8.56am on the 15th June 2007, weighing 9lb 10oz.

Top of Page

Heavitree Hospital.
The female infirmary and ward block at Heavitree. Now used for procurement and logistics.
Nursing staff in 1917 when the City Hospital was VA Hospital No 3.
Photo courtesy Dick Passmore

The First War VA Hospital No 3, Heavitree, with an ambulance trailer hauled by a private car.
Photo courtesy Paul Tucker

The Exeter Dispensary
Queen Street

Founded in 1818 by Dr Henry Blackall to provide relief for the poor suffering from fevers and contagious diseases, and for children who were unfit to be admitted by the Devon and Exeter Hospital. Premises were rented for £31 per annum on Frienhay Street, and it opened for business in March. Six physicians, six surgeons and three consultant surgeons offered their services for free. It was funded by subscription, with a guinea making the donor a governor of the institution.

Many infectious cases, that would not be be admitted to the Devon and Exeter, were dealt with in the first 9 months of operation. Whooping cough, small pox, dysentery, scarlatina and general coughs and stomach complaints were treated. Patients were admitted at 12 noon each day, on rotation, or visited in their homes. In 1828 9,665 cases were dealt with, and its physicians attended many of the cholera cases in the 1832 epidemic. Dr Hennis who was killed in a duel in 1833, working from the dispensary, laboured tirelessly during the outbreak. Dr Shapter, who chronicled the epidemic in 1848, inaugurated the Devon and Exeter Pathological Society at the dispensary, in the same year.

After several years of searching for a site to build a purpose designed dispensary, land on the corner of Northernhay Street and Queen Street, opposite the City Prison, now the Rougemont Hotel, was acquired from the City Council. The foundation stone was laid on 12th August 1840 by Sir John Buller MP. The building, designed by Mr Greig, was opened in 1843.

In 1896, the hospital was altered to allow accommodation for one nurse. Most cases were treated as outpatients as accommodation was very limited. The rather attractive building became offices for the NHS towards the end of the 20th Century, before the University of Plymouth occupied the building at the start of the 21st century.

 Top of Page  

The Old City Hospital
the Triangle

Founded as a workhouse, this establishment briefly became a rival of the Devon and Exeter Hospital in Southernhay. A Canon of Exeter Cathedral, the Reverend John Bury died on the 5th July 1667, leaving in his will of the 15th June 1667, a bequest of £40 per annum to endow a workhouse.

"...wherein all the poor people of that parish, that shall be able to work, shall be maintained therein, and kept to work, then, and as long as the employment shall be continued." (Jenkins)

A committee was formed in 1671 to acquire a suitable building at the lower end of Paris Street in what is now the Triangle. Progress was slow, and by 1676 it was experiencing financial problems. The project limped on until, as a result of an Act of Parliament in 1698, the Corporation became responsible for its running and plans were put into place to convert the workhouse into a hospital. In 1741, the year that the Devon and Exeter Hospital was planned, the Corporation decided to improve what had become known as, the City Hospital. There was a certain amount of rivalry between the one, supported by the city, and the other supported by the church and a group of country gentlemen.

The City Hospital opened in 1741, with forty beds and £100 annual funding from the Corporation. Physicians who signed up for the City Hospital included Dr John Jago and Dr George Bent. After four years, the City Hospital closed, suffering competition from its more glamorous rival, the Devon and Exeter, and from lack of funds. The building became a bridewell and then a tapestry works, before closing and partial demolition in the 19th Century.

 Top of Page  

The Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital - a history

Wonford

Housed in Gras Lawn, the former house of James Veitch, on the site of Buckerell Bore, a natural spring, the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital was opened on the 16th November 1927 by the Duchess of York, and named at her request, after her infant daughter, Princess Elizabeth, the present Queen. The hospital was the result of the efforts of Sir Robert Jones, a Liverpool orthopaedic surgeon, who with Mr Gaythorne Girdlestone planned to establish a number of open-air hospitals for crippled children.

Dame Georgina Buller, daughter of the erstwhile General, was enlisted to assist in fund raising, and by the opening in 1927, had helped raise £21,000. Although rickets was not endemic in Devon, other crippling diseases existed - TB of the joints and bones, polio and congenital deformities of the hip were not uncommon. The need for a specialist hospital was great, as a stay in hospital with these types of complaint could stretch into months or even years. By the end of 1928 the hospital had admitted 74 boys and 51 girls.

Alongside the house,  there were constructed two ward blocks, built with one side open, for fresh air. Soon, clinics at Barnstaple, Honiton, Okehampton, Torquay and Tiverton were feeding patients into the hospital. In 1932, the hospital was enlarged and a Convalescent Annexe added.

The Exeter Hip
The hospital is responsible for the pioneering Exeter hip which was developed in 1969, and which was first inserted into a patient in 1970. It was developed by Professor Robert Ling. One patient has had a hip for 33 years without a problem and it is now the most widely used hip in the world.

When the new Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital was built in the 1990's, the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital moved into new facilities, as part of the main complex. Much of the old site is now housing, with the old operating theatres, the living rooms of houses.

 Top of Page  

Operating theatres are now living rooms in this former Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital building.

Redhills Workhouse and Hospital

This former workhouse and then hospital still stands, almost proudly, on the corner of Exwick and Okehampton Roads.

Before 1899, St Thomas was responsible for its own administration. Therefore, the St Thomas Poor Law Union was formed on 21st April 1836 to administer poor relief over a wide area of 49 parishes including Alphington, Exmouth, Heavitree and Woodbury, to be overseen by a Board of 61 Guardians.

A new workhouse was built at Redhills in 1837, on the border of St Thomas and Exwick to accommodate 450 inmates. The architect was Sampson Kempthorne, who designed many other workhouses in Devon, and it covered 3½ acres and cost £11,000 to construct. It had three wings, emerging like spokes from a hub, with each wing meeting at right angles a long block arranged around the hexagonal periphery. Each area between two three storey accommodation wings was divided into two exercise yards. Sometime later, a hospital block was built north of the main complex, on the Exwick Road known as the Victoria Block, and a second Albert Block dating from 1897.

In 1930, the Poor Law Union maintaining the Redhills Workhouse was abolished to be replaced by the Public Assistance Institution and then, in 1948, the workhouse was absorbed into the new NHS. The hospital block was used as a maternity facility during and after the Second War, and in the 1950's, the old workhouse became a geriatric hospital, and later a drop in centre for the elderly. In 1996 it was used as a day centre for mental patients for the Exeter Community Health Trust. The buildings have since been redeveloped for housing.

 Top of Page  

This was the entrance and administration block of the Redhills Workhouse.

The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital - a history
Southernhay and Wonford

The 18th Century proved to be a prodigious time for the establishment of hospitals in England. Many of the London teaching hospitals were founded at this time, followed by a rash of new hospitals in the provinces. Doctor Alured Clark, was appointed Dean of Exeter in 1741, having held the same post at Winchester, and having been instrumental in the founding of the Royal Hampshire Cottage Hospital in 1736.

Soon after arriving in Exeter, he convened a meeting of interested and local gentlemen on 23rd July 1741, with a view to founding a similar hospital in Exeter. Offers of support soon came in, and John Tuckfield donated a large area of land in Southernhay, that had formerly been used as a tilt yard and a public space for fairs and horse shows.

Thirty five days after the first meeting, the 'foundation stone was laid in a very solemn manner....and a party of soldiers saluted with three volleys of small arms'. While the new hospital was being constructed, the City Corporation opened the City Hospital as a rival. See Old City Hospital above.

The architect for the new hospital was John Richards who was born in North Devon, and had no formal architectural training. His design, of what is now, the elegant Dean Clarke House was built in two stages. The central block and southern wing were completed first, while the northern wing was added to balance out the whole, some six years later. Alured Clark died some months before his creation was finished.

Opening Day
On 1st January 1743 the first two patients, Mary Coote and John Elliott, were treated as outpatients and five days later the first four in-patients were admitted into the thirty bed hospital.

The first stage of the hospital had four wards - the Devon, the Exeter, the Bristol and the Winchester Wards. Interestingly, the beds were placed with their sides to the wall, foot to foot, under the windows. Later, they were placed with the foot of each bed against the wall, and it wasn't until 1821 that the head was placed in the conventional position, against the wall. Another feature, that could be reintroduced, for medicinal purposes only, was the brew-house which supplied three pints daily to each patient. Water was likely to be contaminated, so the supply of beer was usual in workhouses and hospitals, and would also supply the patient with much needed carbohydrates and vitamin B.

The medical staff at the opening of the hospital consisted of six physicians, five surgeons and an apothecary. The apothecary was employed by the hospital at £30 per year, while the physicians and surgeons were honoury, running their own private practices elsewhere. In 1741, the nursing staff consisted of a matron and two nurses, which by 1752 had become eight nurses for fourteen wards. Night duties were performed by 'outside females', who would waken the ward nurse, who slept in a cubicle attached to the ward, if there were an emergency.

In the 19th Century, many of the names of the medical staff would have been recognised by those who attended the hospital fifty years earlier. Sons and grandsons would follow into medical practice - James, Patch, Luscombe, Shapter, de la Garde, Harris and Roper were all families that provided service to the hospital for more than one generation. In 1855, the nurse training centre was created, when a Scottish woman was trained for nursing at Scutari Hospital in the Crimea. Rolle Ward was equipped in 1860, as the hospitals first children's ward, funded by Sir John Bowring, after whom the ward was named. Towards the end of the century, in 1891, a Nursing Committee was set up which implemented a system of Ward Sisters, Charge Nurses and probationer nurses.

The Royal is born
After the Duke and Duchess of York visited the hospital in 1899, the hospital was given permission to add Royal to its title, becoming the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. Many medical improvements were introduced in the early 20th Century, especially radiography (x-rays) and improved anaesthesia. It wasn't until 1928 that the first Maternity Department was partly completed.

The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital escaped damage in the Exeter blitz and on 24th August 1948 the last board meeting was held before the hospital became part of the newly formed NHS. The buildings of the RD&E were becoming inadequate for a modern health service and in 1974, the hospital moved to a new, purpose built facility on the Heavitree cricket field at Wonford. The site was dominated by a large concrete and glass block, containing many of the wards - the view from Tor, the cardiac ward at the top over the city was extensive.

Unfortunately in 1984, the building was found to suffer from concrete cancer and plans were drawn up to build a new, low level hospital and demolish the previous structure. The first section, including a new eye infirmary opened in 1992, followed by phase 2 in 1996 and in 2004, the Peninsula Medical School was completed. The old hospital had to be demolished on a tight site without causing contamination to the surrounding buildings, and a large amount of asbestos carefully removed, before a car park and landscaping installed on the vacant ground.

On 15th June 2007, the new maternity, neonatal and gynaecology unit opened at Wonford. The facility cost £31.5 m and covers 9,000 sq metres, has 150,000 metres of cable, 3,550 terracotta tiles, a water-birthing pool, 453 doors and 237 rooms, of which, 10 are delivery rooms. The first baby born at the unit was Leila Burnett who was delivered to her mother, Amy Burnett at 1.30pm on the 15th June 2007. Her parents were on holiday in Dawlish when little Leila decided that she would set a trend for life and arrive early, so she could take a look at the new unit..

 Top of Page  

Dean Clarke House, the old Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.

Dean Clarke Ward at the old Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, pre First World War
The old RD&E that was demolished due to concrete cancer. The photo is with the kind permission of the Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trust.

The entrance to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Wonford.

St Thomas Hospital for Lunatics

The foundation of what was in effect, Exeter's first mental hospital was proposed in 1795, when a bequest from a Mr Pitfield of £200 was made, to build a lunatic ward at the Devon and Exeter Hospital. The bequest was for a facility for middle-class and professional patients, who would not be funded by the rates.

The same year, Bishop Buller found an additional £200 to be donated to the Devon and Exeter Hospital. It was suggested by the Rev. James Manning that the money be combined with the Pitfield bequest to construct a purpose designed building to care for the city's lunatics. The 15th Century Bowhill House, on Dunsford Hill was selected for use as the hospital, and was opened in 1801. Plans were made for a newly built facility, next to the existing house, and on 23rd March 1803, the foundation stone was laid by the Rev Manning.

Accommodation for seventy patients was provided, which included three walled courts and three gardens, along with five indoor galleries. The constitution stated, contrary to the current opinion at that time that such cases were hopeless, that the inmates were to be cured of their symptoms. Although opened for the middle classes who were expected to pay, pauper inmates could be given a place in the hospital if accompanied by an order from a Justice or Clergy and an officer of the parish from where the came. From 1812, Dr John Blackwell was the resident physician, who was replaced by Dr Thomas Shapter in 1845. The 1842 Metropolitan Commission in Lunacy reported that the hospital needed more land, and plans were made to build a new institution in Wonford. The hospital closed when the Exe Vale Hospital opened in 1869.

 Top of Page  

The West of England Eye Infirmary

On 11th August 1808, a meeting at the Hotel (Royal Clarence) was held to make plans for an eye hospital in Exeter. A house was found on Holloway Street, with seven beds attended by a matron, nurse and servant. An increase in patients meant that, in 1813, the hospital had to vacate Holloway Street and move to a larger house in Magdalen Street. The building had three storeys, to which was added over the years extensions to enlarge the facility. In 1880, in preparation for a new building, parcels of land between the infirmary and Bull Meadow were gradually acquired, until a large contiguous plot was secured.

In April 1896 an appeal under the chairmanship of Lord Courtenay was launched for a new hospital building. The foundation stone was laid on the 11th April 1899 by George Franklin JP and a new building was designed by Sir Alfred Brummell Thomas (1868-1948) in a hybrid baroque style. He was a specialist in public buildings.

The entrance has a large 18th century marble fireplace that was taken from the former house on the site, and a decorated marble terrazzo floor covers the ground and part of the first floor. It had four wards, a state of the art operating theatre, an 18 person lift, an acre of gardens and cost £25,000. It was known as the West of England Eye Hospital, and offered a 25 bed infirmary. It was considered second only to Moorfields in London. The new hospital was opened on 4th October 1901 by Lady Clinton with the Archdeacon of Exeter giving the blessing. During the First World War, it was designated VA Hospital No 1 for the treatment of soldiers wounded at the front. The hospital was absorbed into the NHS in 1948.

When the eye hospital was closed and moved to Wonford in 1992, the building became vacant. It was used briefly by Exeter University before it was sold and converted into the Hotel Barcelona which opened in 2001.

 Top of Page  

Hotel Barcelona, formerly the West of England Eye Infirmary.

Exe Vale Hospital, Wonford House

In 1842, the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy reported on Bowhill House, recommending that it increase the size of its grounds for the patients. As a result, the Governors of Bowhill House decided, that rather than extend the present institution, they would build a new facility to improve the treatment of their patients. Twenty acres of land was acquired at Wonford in Heavitree, Mr Cross employed as architect, and the foundation stone laid on the 18th October 1866.

The Earl of Devon opened the 120 bed Wonford House on the 7th July 1869. The new building was large and airy, with a grand entrance up a flight of steps. A billiard room was included for gentlemen, and social spaces provided for the patients to mix. Dr Shapter, the chronicler of the Exeter cholera outbreak, already a physician at Bowhill House, was  appointed to the hospital.

Now named, Exe Vale Hospital, the extensive grounds also accommodate the main Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital which moved from Southernhay in 1974.

 Top of Page  

Sources: A History of the Exeter Hospitals - 1170 to 1948 by P M G Russell, workhouse.org.uk, institutions.org.uk, Exeter Burning by Peter Thomas, the Hotel Barcelona and the Express and Echo.

Exe Vale Hospital, Wonford House.

If you want to view my guestbook and leave a comment, please click the Guestbook All the photos in Exeter Memories are © 2007 David Cornforth and should not be used without permission. However, they are available for use in other websites and printed leaflets, brochures and adverts - Contact me for information on availability and cost. I Contact I also have a large library of photos that do not appear on this site.