ALSTON MOOR

Ruth Lancaster James Cottage Hospital  Grid Reference: NY 718 462 Historic England Building File: 102534

Established in 1908, still running as an NHS hospital in 2025.

Alston with Garrigill workhouse NY 719 456

ARTHURET

Longtown and Border Joint Isolation Hospital (Longtown Isolation Hospital, now Virginia Lodge) NY 392 684   HE BF 102283

The isolation hospital seems to have been built in 1917 by the Longtown Rural District Council. A proposal to establish such a hospital had been made early in 1916, as the potential for an outbreak of infectious disease in the general area had grown following the recent influx of workmen centred on Longtown. Dr Morison, the Medical Officer of Health for Cumberland, considered the provision of an isolation hospital an absolute necessity. [Sources: Dumfries & Galloway Standard, 19 Feb. 1916, p.2; 24 Oct. 1917, p.2.]

BARROW-IN-FURNESS

Devonshire Road Hospital (Barrow-in-Furness Infectious Diseases Hospital)
NGR SD 201 708 – HE BF 102088 (largely demolished)

Barrow in Furness Corporation built an infectious diseases hospital on this site in 1882 that was subsequently extended. The original hospital comprised the H-shaped range in the south-east corner of the site. This range had a central brick block with timber ward wings to either side with room for 24 patients. In 1912 extensions to the hospital included the clock tower that has been retained in the housing development on the site. Two new ward pavilions were added in 1915, one for scarlet fever with 18 beds the other with 8 beds for diphtheria. The larger ward block also seems to have been partially retained in the housing development. Another ward block was added in 1922, and another in 1933, the latter likely to have been the half-butterfly-plan block to the south. [Source: Historic England Archives, RCHME Hospital Report, Ian Goodall, 1992.]

North Lonsdale Hospital
 NGR SD 203 688 – HE BF 102085

A cottage hospital was established in Barrow in Furness in 1866 in two converted houses on the corner of Cross and Albert Streets. It had 18 beds, and was largely funded by subscriptions – subscribers being then able to recommend patients for admission or to access the dispensary. The hospital also accepted accident cases. By the end of 1869 moves were being made to raise funds to build a larger hospital. The Furness Railway company gifted the site for the new hospital in 1870 which was to be known as the North Lonsdale Hospital. Initial plans by Paley and Austin of 1873 were commissioned, but laid in abeyance.

In the meantime the original cottage hospital had transferred to terraced houses in School Street in order to cope with demand for its services. In 1880 there were renewed efforts towards building the new hospital. Cost continued to be the main stumbling block, and the architects, Paley and Austin, drew up revised plans between 1883 and 1885 before an affordable scheme was devised. Work finally commenced in 1885 and patients moved into the new building in May 1887.

The new hospital comprised an administration block with a ward wing to the east – probably designed to be built in phases with a second ward wing added on the west side as funds permitted, as was done in 1898-1900. A laundry had been added to the site the year before. Minor additions and extensions were carried out in the early 1900s and during the First World War, two Army huts were erected in the grounds providing 30 additional beds. Sufficient funding for additions after the war proved elusive, but in 1921 a private nursing home was established in converted houses in Church Street and in the following year a reduced scheme of additions was commenced with the aid of funding from the British Red Cross and Order of St John of Jerusalem. The architect for the works was H. T. Fowler. This provided for an extension to the men’s ward block, a new mortuary, and various other minor adds and alts. The new buildings were officially opened in March 1925.

A bequest form Miss F. M. Blower enabled the erection of the Pritchard Memorial Ward, which served as a memorial to Miss Blower’s cousin, W. E. Pritchard, a prominent official at Vickers. Fowler was again the architect for the Pritchard Wing, built to the rear of the main building and completed in 1933. The private nursing home seems to have been run in association with or by the hospital. A new building was designed in 1934 by Wadham & Son, local architects, as a single-storey block on Albert Street. It was completed at the end of 1936. This is the only part of the pre-war hospital to have survived, having been altered and adapted into a nursing home (Risedale at St George’s Nursing Home). The arched entrance with stone plaque above with the inscription ‘North Lonsdale Private Nursing Home’ adorn the north front of the building. [sources: RCHME Hospital Report, Ian Goodall, 1993.]

Rakesmoor Hospital (Barrow-in-Furness Smallpox Hospital)
 NGR SD 205 725 – HE BF 102089 (demolished)

Barrow-in-Furness Corporation established this smallpox hospital in 1903 to the north of the town on Rakes Moor Lane. It was of ‘temporary’ galvanised iron construction, of the type supplied by Humphreys of Knightsbridge, and consisted of an administration block flanked by ward blocks.

Risedale Nursing Home (Risedale Maternity Hospital) NGR SD 206 704 – HE BF 102086

The Risedale Maternity Home was established by Barrow-in-Furness Corporation in Risedale house, a large villa off Abbey Road. It opened on 18 August 1921, with accommodation for 18 maternity cases. Fees were charged on a means tested basis. Plans for a new wing were drawn up in 1930, and around this time a nurses’ home was also built. the hospital had 32 beds by 1943. The hospital closed in 1984, but the building was extant as of 2022 in use as Risedale Nursing Home. [sources: County Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, Medical Officer’s Report for Year ending December 31st 1925, p.19: HE Archives, RCHME Hospital Report, Ian Goodall 1992.]

Roose Hospital (Barrow-in-Furness Workhouse) NGR SD 221 689 – HE BF 102084 (demolished)

The site of the former workhouse and infirmary is now a small housing development around Redshaw Avenue. The workhouse was originally built in 1878-9 to designs by the local architect, J. Y. McIntosh. Previously Barrow had been part of the Ulverston Poor Law Union but in 1876 by order of the Local Government Board, the union was dissolved and Barrow had to provide its own accommodation for paupers. Paupers were initially placed in a building in Dalkeith Street until the new workhouse had been completed, moving in during February 1880.

The new Barrow workhouse had space for between 300 and 350 paupers, far more than the 84 housed in Dalkeith Street. A separate infirmary was added to the east in 1884, a porter’s lodge 1899, and a new laundry in 1909. The buildings were of brick and render with slate roofs. The main workhouse bore marble foundation stones noting details of the ceremony, including that a Mrs Schneider of Oaklea laid the foundation stone on 12 September 1878, together with the names of the Guardians and architect. The hospital closed in 1993, , and there should be record photographs in Historic England’s archive.[Source: HE Archive, RCHME Hospital Report, Ian Goodall, 1992, revised 1992.]

BEAUMONT

Carlisle Infectious Diseases Hospital (Carlisle Smallpox Hospital) NGR NY 357 562 – HE BF 102282 (largely extant)

Originally built by Carlisle Corporation as a smallpox hospital in 1906. Plans for the hospital were drawn up by the City Surveyor, Harry C. Marks, in 1905. It originally comprised an administration block, ward block and a mortuary, brick built with minimal stone dressings. A lodge was added in the mid-1930s. The hospital closed c.1970, after which the administration block and the ward block were converted to housing.

BRAMPTON

Brampton War Memorial Hospital (Brampton and District War Memorial Hospital) NGR NY 535 607 – HE BF 102274

Built after the First World War on the south-eastern outskirts of Brampton. It was designed in 1922 by Samuel W. B. Jack of Carlisle and completed in 1923. It provided just eight beds, in wards on either side of the central administrative offices etc. Additions in the 1930s provided a maternity ward, also designed by Jack. The hospital became part of the NHS in 1948 and was extended to the east in about the 1980s.

It is an attractive little building, with a single storey front rising to a gabled attic storey over the entrance, jettied out and with mock half-timbering, sheltering the panel with the dates 1914, 1918 and the name of the hospital over the doorway. It commemorates those from the district who died during the First World War, and the names of 144 who died are recorded on wooden boards inside the building. [Sources: HE Archives RCHME Hospital Report, Ian Pattison, 1992.

BRIDEKIRK

Dovenby Hall Hospital (now Dovenby Hall testing facility for M-Sport, originally Dovenby Hall Colony for the Mentally Defective) NGR NY 094 331 – HE BF 102292 (buildings largely extant)

Dovenby Hall Hospital is fairly typical of the institutions established in the 1920s and ’30s in response to the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act which aimed to separate the mentally ill from those with non-curable disabilities. The outbreak of the First World War had prevented much progress in this direction, the main problem was overcrowding in the existing mental hospitals and unsuitably accommodated people with disabilities in former workhouses. The disposal of estates after the First World War because of crippling death duties meant that numerous institutions were founded on large estates with grand houses, the houses themselves were readily adaptable to staff offices and accommodation and the large grounds for building residential blocks for patients.

Dovenby Hall had been acquired by Cumberland, Westmorland and Carlisle joint board by 1930 and plans for conversion to a ‘mental defective colony’ were drawn up by J. H. Morton & Sons of South Shields. The institution opened in October 1931 at which time there was accommodation for 80 patients within the administration block and 120 patients in two 60 bedded blocks in the grounds (probably the E-plan blocks nearest the house). Additional blocks were added later, and the hospital continued to expand in the early years of the NHS. It was not until the 1960s that the policy of ‘care in the community’ shifted responsibilities for those with disabilities to local authorities. The hospital closed in 1996.

CARLISLE

Carlisle Dispensary, Chapel Street  NGR NY 402 560 – HE BF 102281 (Building extant 2025)

A dispensary was founded in Paternoster Row in 1782 by John Heysham, a local physician. This was replaced by a purpose-built dispensary in Chapel Street, constructed in 1857-8 to designs by John Hodgson. It is a handsome two-storey, four-bay classical building, with ashlar stone facing to the street elevation, with pedimented doorcase and windows to the ground floor, and ‘Dispensary 1857’ inscribed in the entablature. The building was restored in 1934, and was latterly occupied as offices.

City General Hospital (now University of Cumbria, originally Carlisle Union Workhouse) NGR NY 409 556 – HE BF 102279 (largely extant in 2025)

The Carlisle Union Workhouse was built in 1863-4. A competition had been held for the design in 1862, awarded to Lockwood & Mawson of Bradford, with some input from the architects James Stewart and John Hodgson. It was originally capable of housing 478 paupers.

Cumberland Infirmary, Newtown Road (East Site)
 NY 388 561  HE BF: 102277

The original Cumberland Infirmary was built in 1830-32 to designs by Richard Tattersall, architect, Manchester. The foundation stone had been laid on 1 October 1830 by Sir James Robert George Graham, M. P. and Provincial Grant Master of Cumberland. Robinson and Bennett of Preston were the building contractors. However, a lack of funds together with misunderstandings with the builders, meant that the completion of the building was delayed until 1841. Dr Thomas Barnes, who had originally suggested that such a hospital should be established in Carlisle, was appointed honorary physician. It was located to the west of the city, in the area of Newtown when it was still largely open countryside. The building itself is Neo-Classical in style, a symmetrical three storey box, with tetra-style portico with Greek Doric columns marking the entrance, and slightly advanced end bays.

The first extension to the infirmary was built in 1872-4 by which time the railways had transformed the city and the population increased. Wings were added on either side to provide additional wards and a new out-patients’ department. Plans for the extension were drawn up by Charles J. Ferguson of Cory & Ferguson, architects. A plan of the ground floor of the infirmary was published in H. C. Burdett’s portfolio of plans that accompanied his colossal Hospitals and Asylums of the World, in 1891-3 and shows the extent of the infirmary after Ferguson’s extensions.

Ferguson was recalled in 1891 to design an additional floor over the single-storey out-patients’ block to provide nurses’ accommodation. Other additions in the 1890s provided a detached mortuary and post-mortem room, built in 1893, and a new operating room, similarly in a detached single-storeyed building connected to the main building by a link-corridor raised on arches. In 1907 the Infirmary managers turned to J. J. Burnet, the Glasgow architect who had designed the Western Infirmary there in the 1860s, and more recently had designed the Elder Cottage Hospital in Govan. This resulted in a new west pavilion, kitchen block, ophthalmic and X-ray department, and nurses’ home, as well as some remodelling of the existing buildings including the reconstruction of the out-patients’ department and sanitary annexes added to the earlier wards. The work was carried out in phases, beginning with the kitchens in July 1908 with a formal ceremony of cutting the first sod performed by the Mayor. The ward wing extended westwards from the southern ward block added earlier. The foundation stone was laid by the ever-busy Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll on 24 September 1908. The ward block was named the King Edward VII Memorial Wing, inscribed across the building’s west end with the date 1910. The nurses’ home was named the Barnes Wing, after Henry Barnes, MD, LLD, in recognition of his services in the project to enlarge the infirmary.

In the 1920s ambitions plans were laid to further enlarge the infirmary, but the cost proved prohibitive and in the end a more modest scheme was carried out. This included a new out-patients’ department with wards above built in 1925-30, and a new pathological laboratory built about the same time.

In 1938 with the prospect of war with Germany two wooden ward blocks were added next to the King Edward VII Ward and at the start of the war a twin operating theatre suite was added, with S. W. B. Jack of Carlisle as architect. Later in the war four emergency hutted wards were added to the north, brick-built with flat roofs. In 1948 the infirmary became part of the NHS and Crozier Lodge, the adjacent fever hospital, was absorbed into the site. A nurses’ recreation hall was added on the east side of infirmary street (Salkeld Hall). In 1972 the first phase of a new hospital was begun on the site, completed in 1975 and opened by Princess Anne. This six-storey block was demolished in 2019.

In June 2000 Tony Blair officially opened the present main hospital building, built under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract in 1997. This building was designed to replace services previously housed in the former Cumberland Infirmary buildings, and also the City General Hospital and City Maternity Hospital. A new cancer centre was opened in 2021 (I think this must have been built on the site of the 1970s ward block). [Sources: RCHME Hospital Report, Ian Goodall, 1993.]

Fever Hospital  (Crozier Lodge, now part of Cumberland Infirmary)
 NY386 561  102278

Crozier Lodge was acquired as a new site for the Carlisle House of Recovery in 1847, having been established as a charitable institution in 1820. The Lodge had been built in the early 19th century, but perhaps had become a less desirable residence after the Cumberland Infirmary had been built to the east in the early 1830s. The House of Recovery took fever patients, and soon it was known as a fever hospital. An epidemic of smallpox in Carlisle in 1872 led to an agreement with the urban sanitary authority to use the hospital and the Town Council funded the erection of two detached ward blocks to the rear of the Lodge. By 1881 a further ward block had been built and a coach-house for an ambulance. By the late 1890s there were four ward blocks and a service building to the rear of the Lodge.

The ward block in the north-east corner of the site had perhaps been of temporary construction as it was demolished in the early twentieth century, by which time a new ward block had been built to the south-east of the Lodge.

After transfer to the NHS in 1948 Crozier Lodge Hospital became part of the Cumberland Infirmary (see above). [Sources: RCHME Hospital Report, Ian Goodall, 1993.]

Home for Incurables of the Border Counties NY 387 554  102276 (demolished)

Strathclyde house opened in 1885 as a home for ‘incurables’, built on the outskirts of Carlisle to the south-west on the Wigton Road. Patients with incurable conditions, which in the nineteenth century included cancer, were often excluded from general hospitals. A number of homes were established that offered long-term care for such patients. Strathclyde House was designed by the Carlisle architect, George Dale Oliver in 1884 and is typical of such homes from the later nineteenth century, where there was a conscious effort to give the building a more domestic, or at least less institutional, appearance. The wards were small, as there was less of an emphasis on isolation and ventilation. There was also a greater emphasis on day spaces: a dining-room, sitting-room, sometimes a library and, as here, a smoking room (added to Strathclyde House in 1917). Pleasant gardens and an attractive outlook from the home were also important. A chapel was added in 1894 and a wing added in 1895 to provide new cancer wards. The number of beds rose from 26 by 1897 to 38 by the end of the 1920s. In the inter-war years the area became built-up with a housing suburb, and much of the remaining open countryside around the home had been built over with houisng by the mid-1960s. Strathclyde House was transferred to the NHS in 1948 and remained a centre for long-stay patients. It was still extant in 1992 but had closed and the building boarded up. Croft House, to the east of Strathclyde House, had been acquired at some point and used as a nurses’ home. In 1992 it was being used as an NHS clinic. A supermarket was built on the site of both, a Somerfield’s in 2009, then a Co-op (by 2012) and since 2016 it has been a B&M store. [Sources: RCHME Hospital Report, Ian R. Pattison, November 1992: OS mapping: Google Street View.]

COCKERMOUTH

Cockermouth Cottage Hospital   NY 125 310  102293 (demolished)

The cottage hospital at Cockermouth was built in 1915 to designs by (Sir) Edward Guy Dawber on a site offered by Lord Leconfield in 1913 for the purpose. Its origins lay in a nursing home established by Thomas Williamson in 1902 set up in a private house – Harford House on the corner of Crown Street and Low Sand Lane. Funds to erect a purpose-built hospital were raised, with one Edward Lamb being the principal benefactor. By the late 1930s the hospital had 14 beds and two cots. An accident and X-ray department were added on the east side, but were replaced by a new clinic on the site in 1987. A ward extension to the west of 1965 was also rebuilt in the late 1980s-early ’90s.

The hospital was replaced by a new community hospital on the vacant land to the south, which opened in 2013. The original hospital had been damaged by the floods in 2009 and was subsequently demolished and replaced by a block of retirement apartments called Lancaster Court . [Sources: Architects’ Journal, 23 March 1921, p.364: RCHME Hospital Report, Ian Goodall, April 1993: BBC online news, 8 March 2012.]

Cockermouth Union Workhouse NY 118 304   100170 (Demolished)

Built in 1840-3, but with part of it being finished by 1841. The design is based on Samuel Kempthorne’s model plan of a workhouse for 200 paupers, and was similar to the workhouses in Penrith and Wigton near by. It closed in 1935, but was used by the Royal Army Service Corps during the Second World War. The workhouse was demolished in 1949 and housing built on the site. [Source: workhouses.org.uk ]

GRANGE-OVER-SANDS

North-Eastern Counties Friendly Societies’ Convalescent Home, Lindale Road
 SD 417 789  Historic England Archives BF 102533. 

A convalescent home in Grange-over-Sands was proposed in 1888, leading to local Friendly Societies combining to establish a home for the benefit of their members. Yewbarrow Cottage was offered rent free by Mrs Williams of Yewbarrow Grange, and the home began with accommodation for just six to eight patients in about 1890-1. The popularity of the home encouraged Mrs Williams to fund the building of a home for twenty patients which she rented to the North Eastern Counties Friendly Societies. A larger new home was built in 1896-7 overlooking Morecombe Bay on Lindale Road. It was built in phases with an aim of accommodating 50 patients. It was opened on 7 May 1897. It is a handsome three storey E-plan building, with steep pitched roofs, of the local pale limestone, and what looks like red sandstone dressings. The Welsh slate hipped roof rests on a bracketed cornice. In 1904 a new wing was opened bringing the accommodation up to 80 beds.

Risedale Convalescent Home, Allthwaite Road
  SD 398 768   BF102532. Originally constructed for the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union 1913-16 (Wadham). Two storey home designed on the hotel principle of separate rooms. Accommodation for 66 patients. Flat terraced roof with garden.

KENDAL

Kendal Borough Sanatorium
  SD 520 918  102690

Kendal Green Hospital

(Kendal Workhouse; Windermere Road Institution) SD 512 932   102082

Kendal Memorial Hospital SD 511 923  102081

Westmorland County Hospital SD 511 923   102080

KESWICK

Mary Hewetson Cottage Hospital NY 265 241   102294

LAKES

Brockhole NY 389 010. Country house constructed in 1899-1902 by the architect Dan Gibson when he was working in partnership with the garden designer Thomas Mawson. In 1945 the house became a convalescent home. By 1968 it was in use as an adminstrative and visitor centre for the Lake District National Park Authority.

MARYPORT

Maryport Isolation Hospital
  NY 039 357  102291

Victoria Cottage Hospital
  NY 038 357  102290

MEATHOP AND ULPHA

Meathop Hospital (North Eastern Counties Friendly Societies’ Convalescent Home; Westmorland Sanatorium) SD 436 801 BF102079. Opened in 1899-1900 as a tuberculosis sanatorium at a former convalescent home, built 1891. More chalets were built and a hospital, nurses home and a doctors residence were added in the early 20th century. Closed in 1964, part of the site was demolished.

MILLOM

Hodbarrow Hospital SD 171 789 102486

MILNTHORPE

Kitching Memorial Hospital SD 490 810 102531

ORMSIDE

Ormside Hospital (Ormside Fever Hospital) NY 697 165 102689

PENNINGTON

High Carley Hospital, East Site (Lancashire County Sanatorium for Tuberculosis; High Carley Sanatorium)
  SD 270 760 102395

High Carley Hospital, West Site (Ulverston Union Infectious Diseases Hospital; High Carley Isolation Hospital for Infectious Diseases) SD 268 760 102087

PENRITH

Fairhill Hospital (Penrith UD Isolation Hospital; Fairhill Fever Hospital) NY 513 313  102688

Jubilee Cottage Hospital NY 519 341  102487

ST CUTHBERT WITHOUT

Garlands Hospital (Cumberland and Westmorland Lunatic Asylum) NY 432 538  102284

SILLOTH-ON-SOLWAY

Silloth Nursing Home (Silloth Convalescent Institution; Cumberland and Westmorland Convalescent Institution) NY 104 531  102286

THRELKELD

Blencathra Hospital (Blencathra Sanatorium) NY 303 256   102295

ULVERSTON

Conishead Priory, (Manjushri Institute) SD 3045 7580. Country house built between 1821-36 on the site of a 16th century house and the claustral range of Conishead Augustinian Priory. Irregular plan. Extended in 1853, used as a hydropathic Institute between 1878-1930, a convalescent home from 1930-70 and became a Buddhist monastery in the 1990’s. Examination of the basement in 1929 suggested that the Bath stonework was the foundation of claustral buildings associated with Conishead Priory. An oven was found which was of the same age as the foundations.

Ulverston Cottage Hospital (Ulverston and District Cottage Hospital) SD 291 784  102083

Ulverston Hospital (Ulverston Union Workhouse; Stanley Hospital) SD 284 786   102090

WEDDICAR

Galemire Hospital (Galemire Joint Hospital for Infectious Diseases; subsequently Galemire Veterinary Hospital) NY 003 153   102287

WHITEHAVEN

Meadow View Hospital (Whitehaven Union Workhouse)
 NX 975 163  100168

Whitehaven and West Cumberland Infirmary (Whitehaven Castle) NX 977 178 82302

Whitehaven and West Cumberland Infirmary NX 972 178 102530

WIGTON

Wigton Hospital (Wigton Union Workhouse) NY 248 490 102285

WORKINGTON

Ellerbeck Hospital (Workington Poor House; Workington Corporation Infectious Diseases Hospital) NY 006 270 102289

Workington Infirmary NY 001 279 102288