Barnes Hospital in

Cheadle, Greater Manchester Cheadle () is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, it borders Cheadle Hulme, Gatley, Heald Green and Cheadle Heath in Stockport, and East D ...

, England, is a former hospital. It is on the border between

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

, near the

A34 road The A34 is a major road in England. It runs from the A33 and M3 at Winchester in Hampshire, to the A6 and A6042 in Salford, close to Manchester City Centre. It forms a large part of the major trunk route from Southampton, via Oxford, to B ...

in the middle of the complex interchange between Kingsway, the M60 and

M56 motorway The M56 motorway, also known as the North Cheshire motorway, serves the Cheshire and Greater Manchester areas of England. It runs east to west from junction 4 of the M60 at Gatley, south of Manchester, to Dunkirk, approximately north of Ches ...

. The main building is

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and lies on

green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...

land. The building, completed in 1875, is a noted example of Victorian

Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

and a prominent landmark, sitting on a mount overlooking the surrounding roads. The hospital closed in 1999, and although the building was promptly listed to protect it from demolition, it became derelict. The former hospital building has now been converted into flats and is at the centre of a new housing development called Barnes Village.

History

Following the improvements to

nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...

inspired by the work of

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during t ...

in the 1860s, demand for convalescent care grew in the British hospital system. The

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

Joseph Adshead campaigned for the construction of a convalescent hospital in Manchester; after his death in 1861,

Manchester Royal Infirmary Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) is a large NHS teaching hospital in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England. Founded by Charles White in 1752 as part of the voluntary hospital movement of the 18th century, it is now a major regional and nati ...

rented Cheadle Hall, to the south of the city, for use as a convalescent hospital. The rural location was selected as a recuperating atmosphere away from the industrial

smog Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a portmanteau of the words ''smoke'' and '' fog'' to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor. The word was then inte ...

of Manchester. The site is now surrounded by major roads on all sides. A donation of £10,000 for the founding of a new

convalescent hospital Convalescence is the gradual recovery of health and strength after illness or injury. It refers to the later stage of an infectious disease or illness when the patient recovers and returns to previous health, but may continue to be a source of ...

in Cheadle was made in 1869 by Robert Barnes, a local

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...

, to purchase land for the construction of a new convalescent home. Barnes has had made his fortune in the Manchester cotton trade and had served as

mayor of Manchester This is a list of the Lord Mayors of the City of Manchester in the North West of England. Not to be confused with the Directly elected Greater Manchester Mayor. The Current and 124th Lord Mayor is Cllr Donna Ludford, Labour who has served Sin ...

from 1851-53. He made a further contribution to the project, bringing his total gift to the hospital construction to £26,000. Another donor, Humphrey Nicholls, gave £10,000. Barnes was also the main benefactor of Barnes's House of Recovery in Monsall, north Manchester, later known as

Monsall Hospital Monsall Hospital was a hospital in North Manchester, England. History The facility was established as a fever hospital by the trustees of Manchester Royal Infirmary, largely because of the insistence of John Leigh, the first Medical Officer of ...

. Construction of the Barnes Convalescent Home in Cheadle started in 1871 and was completed in 1875. It was constructed of bricks, the clay for which was provided locally. There were 132 beds. During construction of the hospital, broken remains of three stone

high cross A high cross or standing cross ( ga, cros ard / ardchros, gd, crois àrd / àrd-chrois, cy, croes uchel / croes eglwysig) is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early Medieval traditi ...

es were discovered in 1874. The location of only one of these is known today; this consists of a

crosshead In mechanical engineering, a crosshead is a mechanical joint used as part of the slider-crank linkages of long reciprocating engines (either internal combustion or steam) and reciprocating compressors to eliminate sideways force on the piston. ...

Celtic cross The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses er ...

form with a central

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

, and dates from the late 10th or 11th century. It is now located in

St Mary's Church, Cheadle St Mary's Church in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, England, is a Grade I listed building. It is an Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield and the deanery of Cheadle. Its benefice is united with th ...

. The other two pieces are said to be part of a much older cross, and the upper part of an

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

cross shaft. The hospital lost several thousand pounds a year and had to be subsidized by

, but in 1925 the trustees accepted that this enabled more patients to be admitted to the main hospital. Electricity and a mains water supply were installed in that year. When an orthopaedic department was established at the infirmary many long-stay patients were cared for at Barnes. Lifts, a surgical theatre, an X-ray department, a physiotherapy gym and occupational therapy department were established. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the hospital was used as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers. The hospital operated through the war caring for injured soldiers and taking in traumas. On the same site of Barnes Hospital there was also a fever hospital where patients with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

and

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. In ...

were treated in isolation wards. The main use for the hospital in its later life was for geriatric care and stroke patients. It was estimated the hospital treated tens of thousands of patients over its 115 years as a convalescent home. It closed in September 1999 while Central Manchester Healthcare NHS Trust was undergoing a £2 million cost cut. In the same year, the hospital received Grade II listed status. Following its closure the hospital temporarily housed a large group of refugees from

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

. The site was briefly occupied by around 100

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

families in February 2007. The hospital was sold in 2001, and was for a number of years owned by Realty Estates who allowed the listed building to fall into a state of dereliction. It was later sold to the Irish property development group Benmore for a sum estimated to be around £12 million. The company proposed a new 128 residential unit development around the hospital building but it was never proposed to the planning authority.

Architecture

The Barnes Convalescent Hospital was built for the

between 1871 and 1875 by Lawrence Booth of the architecture firm of Blackwell, Son and Booth of Bury and Manchester. It is noted for its architectural distinctiveness and as an early example of a purpose-built convalescent hospital. The building was designed on a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

plan in the French Gothic Revival style, constructed of

red brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

and

blue brick Staffordshire blue brick is a strong type of construction brick, originally made in Staffordshire, England. The brick is made from the local red clay, Etruria marl, which when fired at a high temperature in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere ta ...

with

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

and

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

dressings, and the roofs are covered with

Welsh slate The existence of a slate industry in Wales is attested since the Roman period, when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, now Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, then expanded rapidly until the l ...

. The building was richly decorated with ornamental brickwork,

pointed arch A pointed arch, ogival arch, or Gothic arch is an arch with a pointed crown, whose two curving sides meet at a relatively sharp angle at the top of the arch. This architectural element was particularly important in Gothic architecture. The earlie ...

ed and

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed windows, decorative ridge tiles. On the western side is the building's main landmark, the tall

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

, with clock faces on each side and a high two-stage

lantern roof A roof lantern is a daylighting architectural element. Architectural lanterns are part of a larger roof and provide natural light into the space or room below. In contemporary use it is an architectural skylight structure. A lantern roof w ...

topped with an ornamental iron crown. Alterations to the building were carried out in 1893 by Pennington & Bridgen, and again in 1939-45 by Thomas Worthington & Son, both Mancunian architects' firms. Barnes Hospital was not given a lengthy description in

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

's architectural guide, ''

The Buildings of England ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''; Pevsner simply described the building as "large, Gothic and grim". In its state of dereliction, the building has been described as a "great gaunt pile of a building, abandoned and all dark at night, except for the lonely light in its tower-top clock."

Filming location

Barnes Hospital was used as one of a number of

filming location A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage. In filmmaking, a location is any place where a film crew wil ...

s by the Spanish director

Jorge Grau Jorge Grau (born Jorge Grau Solá, 27 October 1930 – 26 December 2018) was a Spanish director, scriptwriter, playwright and painter. His 1965 film '' Acteón'' was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1973, he directed ...

for his 1974 horror film, ''

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie ''Let Sleeping Corpses Lie'' is a career-spanning five-disc box set of the band White Zombie. It is named after the 1974 Italian horror film of the same name. Contents The set contains a remaster of every album and E.P. released officially b ...

'', otherwise known as ''The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue''. Grau's careful choice of locations was praised by critics for its depiction of England as "a very bleak place indeed, full of sinister quietness", and he emphasised the sense of Gothic decay in Barnes Hospital to create the fictional Manchester Morgue. In September 2005, the Barnes Hospital building was featured on the

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series, ''

Most Haunted Live ''Most Haunted Live'' is a spin-off of the paranormal reality television series ''Most Haunted'' and was also produced by Antix Productions. The show consists of paranormal investigations broadcast live over a period of one or more nights, us ...

''.

Redevelopment

A redevelopment on the site, including the conversion of the hospital into apartments, commenced on site in 2015. The development is known as Barnes Village.

References

Bibliography