This week, we are going to have a look at some of the old hospitals of Huntingdonshire, starting with the Primrose Lane Hospital which many readers will remember from the 1960s and 1970s.
But before this, the hospital on the original site was a fever hospital and housed the elderly and people with contagious diseases. It was called the Huntingdon Infectious Disease Hospital and was built around 1897.
The advancement of Penicillin meant there was little use for these type of isolation wards and it later became the Primrose Lane Maternity Hospital.
The maternity hospital closed and in 1983 and relocated to a new unit at Hinchingbrooke Hospital. The former building on Primrose Lane is residential housing.
Another old building on Mill Common, in Brampton Road, Huntingdon, was the Huntingdonshire infirmary and dispensary. Instituted by public subscription in 1798, it was extended in 1831 to improve its services to out patients.
Later the Huntingdon County Hospital was built at the same location with money raised from the public and it replaced the old infirmary. This was a very old and daunting building inside and out and many older Huntingdonshire residents may remember their own experiences of visiting this place.
It also closed in 1983 and moved to Hinchingbrooke Hospital.
The old county hospital building is now a residential community building, but a lot of exterior features relating to the old hospital can still be found. It’s worth a look if you are ever passing by.
According to records, there was a workhouse that housed around 200 people situated at the bottom of St Peter’s Road, in Huntingdon, just off Ermine Street. It was opened in 1836 and a first meeting was on held on January 25 at The George Inn in Huntingdon.
Its operation was overseen by approximately 35 parish guardians. The building was completed in approximately 1837 and the first 'inmates' arrived in the autumn.
Later, it became Petersfield Hospital and housed elderly patients. The site is now the Walnut Tree housing estate.
I am sure that this has opened up some interesting information for readers about the buildings that stood before us in Huntingdonshire.
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