St Edward's Hospital was a mental health facility at Cheddleton in Staffordshire, England. The hospital closed in 2002 and was converted into apartments and houses.

History

Background

Cheddleton was the third and final county asylum in Staffordshire (although smaller private asylums existed), built to accommodate patients from the north and supplement Burntwood Asylum and Stafford Asylum. After carrying out at least 13 site inspections to sites including Bramshall, Knenhall near

Moddershall Moddershall is a small village in the borough of Stafford in the county of Staffordshire, England, part of the civil parish of Stone Rural and ecclesiastical parish of Oulton with Moddershall. Lying to the East of the River Trent, it is roughly ...

, and

Wetley Rocks Wetley Rocks is a village in Staffordshire, England, about south of Cheddleton and south of Leek. For population details as taken at the 2011 census see under Consall. It is on the A520 road which runs from Leek (to the north) to Stone (to t ...

, were purchased for £12,750 in February 1892 on the edge of the village of Cheddleton. The site was located on a spur of land overlooking the

River Churnet The River Churnet is a river in Staffordshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Dove. Etymology The origins of the name "Churnet" are unknown, though it is thought to derive from the pre-English, British name for the river. Course ...

and the Caldon Canal at Cheddleton Heath just north of Cheddleton. A competition was held for the design of the asylum for which 30 entries were received. The brief requested a design to accommodate 300 male and 300 female patients, and following standard practice they would lead segregated lives from one another on opposite sides of the asylum. The winning design was by London-based architects Giles, Gough and Trollope, with construction beginning in 1895.

Construction

Following a tender exercise, W Brown & Son of

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

were selected with a contract price of £164,250. To assist in construction of the hospital - which required the shipment of over 18 million bricks - the contractors laid a line from the

North Staffordshire Railway The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire. The company was base ...

's (NSR) Churnet Valley Line at to the hospital site. Brown's used a small

0-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...

Tank engine A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locomot ...

called ''Weaver'' (

Manning Wardle Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Precursor companies The city of Leeds was one of the earliest centres of locomotive building; Matthew Murray built the first commercially ...

H-class 1072) to transport both men and materials to the construction site.

Layout

Cheddleton Asylum was laid out in the chevron or echelon style on a south facing plateau. At the apex of the echelon was the administration building which was flanked on either side by four ward blocks. The wards (infirmary, recent, acute, and

epileptic Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

) and within the echelon the quiet and working patients' ward. Those wards to the right or east housed male patients whilst females lived on the west side - there were two separate keys for each side of the building, to ensure that patients never mixed. The asylum was atypical for its time, in that it was a self-contained and self-sufficient village in its own right with farms and workshops that produced both the uniforms for patients and staff. On the male side there were the various artisans' workshops: brick layers; brush makers; carpenters; cobblers; electricians; painters; plumbers and upholsters. These trades also employed male patients to help in the running of the asylum. Due to its location the asylum generated its own electricity via four

Lancashire boiler A shell or flued boiler is an early and relatively simple form of boiler used to make steam, usually for the purpose of driving a steam engine. The design marked a transitional stage in boiler development, between the early haystack boilers and ...

s that powered three turbo-generators to light the wards and run the electric tramway. The architectural signature of the asylum was its water tower, which at tall held 156 tons of water that was electrically pumped there from the asylum's deep well. In 1937 there were discussions on creating an internal currency to reward patients for their toil. A system of brass tokens was introduced with face values from ½d to 4/- each denomination varied in shape from circular, oval, hexagonal and octagonal.

Redevelopment

After closure in 2002, the entire site was sold to Redrow plc, which developed a modern housing estate in the former grounds, renovating the old and now listed hospital buildings into apartments.

St Edwards Hospital tramway

Upon completion of the hospital in 1899, Staffordshire County Council took over the line and converted it to the 220

volt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference ( voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827). D ...

DC electrically powered

St Edwards Hospital tramway The St Edward's Hospital tramway was a tramway built for Staffordshire County Council for the construction of the St Edward's County Mental Asylum at Cheddleton, Staffordshire. Opened in 1899, the line ran until 1954 before being closed and ...

. Passenger services ceased in 1920, while coal traffic to power the sites four Lancashire steam boilers continued until December 1954, when delivery by road took over. The line was closed and by May 1957 the line had been lifted.

References

;Notes ;Sources * * * * *

External links

CheddletonMemories.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Edwards Hospital Hospital buildings completed in 1899 Staffordshire Moorlands History of Staffordshire Hospitals in Staffordshire Hospitals established in 1899 Hospitals disestablished in 2002 Defunct hospitals in England Former psychiatric hospitals in England 1899 establishments in England