The Kendray Hospital is a health facility in Doncaster Road, Barnsley,

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sh ...

, England. It is managed by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

History

The hospital was the gift of Mrs Ann Alderson Lambert, the last surviving daughter of Francis Kendray, a linen manufacturer. It was initially conceived as a fever hospital and the foundation stone was laid by the Mayor of Barnsley in March 1889. Barnsley Corporation provided the eleven acre site on Measborough Hill. The hospital was officially opened in February 1890. In 1892 77 cases of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

were admitted to the hospital but 21 of these cases were attributed to an infected tailor who had overpowered his nurse and escaped the hospital stark naked. Smallpox had largely died out by 1894 and admissions for scarlet fever became more common. It joined the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

in 1948. In 1965 Kendray officially ceased to be an infectious diseases hospital. In 1979 it was announced that £6 million was to be spent on the hospital to provide facilities for the mentally ill and severely mentally infirm old people. A new biomechanics suite, intended to improve diagnosis and treatment for patients with lower limb ailments, opened in 2014.

References

{{authority control Hospitals established in 1890 1890 establishments in England Hospital buildings completed in 1890 Hospitals in South Yorkshire NHS hospitals in England Buildings and structures in Barnsley