ABERDARE

Aberdare Hospital SO 005 027 (demolished)

There is a hospital marked on the OS maps from 1900 to the 1920s, not far from Aberdare station. The premises are marked as a doctor’s surgery in the 1950s (Nos 63-65 Aber-nant Road).

Aberdare General Hospital, Abernant Road SO 005 032 (demolished)

First opened in 1917 in Abernant House, but rebuilt after a fire in 1929. Closed in 2012 when services were transferred to Ysbyty Cwm Cynon in Mountain Ash, which opened that year.

BARRY

Amy Evans Memorial Hospital, Holton Road

The hospital evolved from the Barry and District Nursing Association in the 1890s. The Association opened a General Accident and Surgical hospital in Kingsland Crescent in 1895. Sister Amy Evans was the first nurse affiliated to the Association and Lady Superintendent of their hospital, but resigned in 1898, taking over a hotel in Holton Road that became the Amy Evans Hospital. The building [source: ‘The men and women who built and shaped Barry’, Vale People First website.]

Barry Accident Hospital, Wyndham Street

Opened in 1908. A purpose-built hospital to replace the converted premises in Kingsland Crescent where the hospital first began, established by the Barry and District Nursing Association.

The Barry Hospital, Colcot Road

Opened in 1995, replacing the former Barry Accident hospital.

Sully Hospital NGR ST 140 675 converted to private apartments

Even the Pevsner Architectural Guide waxes lyrical about Sully Hospital, which it describes as an ‘outstanding example of inter-war Functional architecture’. Designed by the specialist hospital architects W. A. Pite, Son & Fairweather as a tuberculosis sanatorium following a competition held in 1931, and built in 1932-6. It’s perhaps the closest Britain got to Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium.

The northern block – to the rear on the postcard above – was a nurses’ home. Sandwiched between that and the south range were the administrative and service buildings. The south range overlooking the sea was for the patients. All their rooms were on the south side, a spine corridor ran behind and rooms on the north side contained lavatories, bathrooms, sluice rooms, utility, ward kitchen and other service and store rooms.

The patients rooms varied from single rooms to four-bed wards and eight-bed wards. These had full-height glazing, with a clerestorey of louvres above bi-fold doors, made possible by this part of the building having a steel frame. Beds were mostly placed parallel to the windows. At the centre were communal recreation and dining-rooms.[Architects’ Journal, 1 Oct. 1936, pp.139-146: John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, pp.575-6.]

BRIDGEND

Bridgend General Hospital, Quarella Road NGR SS 904 802 original workhouse range converted to housing later hospital blocks demolished

The hospital originated in the Bridgend and Cowbridge Union Workhouse, built in 1836-8 to designs by George Wilkinson of Witney. Elegantly described in the Pevsner Architectural Guide for Glamorgan as having its main range looking like an almshouse, with ‘three central gables like pricked ears, flanked by many barge-boarded dormers.

A surgical treatment centre of c.1898 was ‘memorable for its enormously long two-storey cast iron balconies, a medically approved feature of that moment’ for which the local architect P. J. Thomas provided the plans. Union Offices were added in 1911 in a Neo-Baroque style, fairly common for late-19th/early 20th century Board Offices. [Sources: John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, p.161.]

Glanrhyd Hospital, Pen-y-fai, NGR SS 900 820

Originally built as the Glamorgan County Lunatic Asylum. It was designed by William Martin and John Henry Chamberlain of Birmingham, with Richard Bell of London and opened in 1864. The name was changed to the Glamorgan County Mental Hospital in 1922, and subsequently to Glanrhyd Hospital under the NHS. A new unit was added in 2014 named Taith Newydd (new journey), as a low-secure unit.

The gardens were designated as of historic importance in 2022.

Princess of Wales Hospital, Coity Road NGR SS 910 810

Built in 1981-5 to designs by the Alex Gordon Partnership, two storeys, two-tone brick with pitched roofs. The earliest section (the northern half of the main hospital range) looks like a ‘Nucleus’ plan hospital with its grid-layout. The Pevsner Guide suggests the design was ‘an attempt to make modern institutional architectural less overpowering’. Whilst that was indeed considered an important factor in hospital design, the standard Nucleus plan was designed to be economical to build, with the minimum amount of space and maximum flexibility. [Sources: John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, p.161.]

CARDIFF

Cardiff Royal Infirmary, Newport Road NGR ST 193 768 later additions on east side demolished

The Pevsner Architectural Guide published in the mid-1990s noted that the site was ‘stuffed with buildings erected over a period of forty years’. It was founded as the Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire Infirmary. The site was donated in 1880 and a competition held for the design following which James, Seward & Thomas were appointed architects. They adopted a Tudor Gothic style which was followed for later additions to the site. An outpatients’ department was added in 1907 (Edwin Seward, architect) and a chapel was added in 1921. [Sources, John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, p.307.]

Dental Hospital (see University Hospital below)

Ely Hospital, Cowbridge Road NGR ST 142 764 demolished

Possibly one of the most notorious hospitals in the 1960s following allegations of the ill treatment of patients there. This and similar scandals prompted widespread reforms, though they were slow to take effect. Ely Hospital evolved from an Industrial school set up under the Poor Law in 1862. The school relocated in 1903 and the older buildings became a workhouse specialising in the accommodation of the chronic sick, ‘mentally defective’ and mentally ill. The hospital closed in 1996.

Lansdowne Hospital, Sanatorium Road NGR ST 157 761 largely demolished

Built in 1893-5 for infectious diseases to plans by the Borough Engineer, W. Harpur. Originally eight blocks, of yellow brick with sparse red brick dressings. These comprised three ward blocks – two large one small, connected to each other and an administration block by corridors or covered ways, a detached laundry and small service block and a mortuary in a group to the west, then a long range to the east and gate lodge, plus further small service buildings. [Sources, John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, p.279.]

By the start of the First World War a further three ward blocks had been added to the south of the original group, and by the start of the Second World War the surviving block to the north had been added, as well as a further ward block to the south (probably for TB given the long veranda on its west side. As the need for accommodation for infectious diseases dwindled in the 1950s the hospital became a general hospital and was renamed the Landsdowne hospital. A large hospital services centre was built on vacant ground to the east. Most of the hospital blocks were demolished after the hospital closed to make way for a housing development.

Rookwood Hospital, Fairwater Road NGR ST 150 780

‘The hospital has unfeelingly colonized an extraordinary High Victorian Gothic mansion’ – according to the Pevsner Architectural Guide. A comparison of the maps above demonstrates the point – as the original house acquired appendages of ward blocks. It was acquired as a convalescent home in 1918, and after the war was given to the government as a rehabilitation centre for disabled servicemen, run by the Ministry of Pensions. Most such hospitals were taken over by the NHS in the 1950s-60s. Rookwood Hospital became part of the University of Wales.[ Sources, John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, pp.261-2.]

Royal Hamadryad Hospital, Ferry Road NGR ST 185 743 part demolished

Hospital ships were not uncommon in Britain, used to isolate those with infectious diseases. The Hamadryad was a man-of-war with 46 guns built in Pembroke Dock in 1823 that had never seen active service. The ship was towed from Devonport to Cardiff and fitted out as a floating hospital in 1866. It was intended principally as an isolation hospital for seamen. The mooring site was gifted by the Marquess of Bute.

A purpose-built hospital was erected to replace the ship in 1902-3 designed by E. W. M. Corbett, an ‘ebullient performance in his favourite Queen Anne-cum-Jacobean style. Red brick, red stone and red terracotta’, according to the Pevsner Architectural Guide.

The new purpose-built hospital was built as part of the national fund raising and events marking Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1887. The Marquis of But, who had donated the original piece of ground for the hospital ship, bequeathed £20,000 towards the cost of the new building. Corbett was the Marquis of Bute’s local estate architect. The hospital transferred to the NHS becoming first a general hospital and later a psychiatric unit. It closed in 2002, its services transferred to St David’s Hospital, Canton. The main block on the north side fronting present-day Hamadryad Road survives, but the remainder of the hospital has been demolished. [Sources, John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, p.268; People’s Collection Wales website (link in photograph above.]

St David’s Hospital, Cowbridge Road East NGR ST 172 765 former hospital buildings demolished

Originally Cardiff Union Workhouse (not to be confused with the workhouse that became Ely Hospital on Cowbridge Road West), opened in 1839. A separate hospital was built to its north-west in 1872. Major rebuilding of the original workhouse complex took place in 1879-81, James, Seward & Thomas architects.

Further extensions in the 1880s, ’90s and early 1900s. It closed in the early 1990s and the site largely cleared for a new hospital that opened in 2002 (HL Design with Macob Construction on a PFI contract). [Sources: workhouses.org; H. L Design; John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, p.279.]

St Winifred’s Hospital, Romilly Crescent NGR ST 165 770 part demolished, redeveloped as apartments

Built in 1939 to designs by Cyril F. Bates. A further ward wing was added to the west. Only the central block has been retained in the redevelopment of the site for housing. [Source: John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, p.279.]

University Hospital of Wales, King George V Drive, Heath Park NGR ST 174 793

A huge complex which aimed to centralise hospital services in Cardiff, one of the aims of the post-war hospital plan developed by the National Health Service. A competition was held for the design in 1960 won by S. W. Milburn & Partners. As a teaching hospital, accommodation for students and staff was also required and the medical college was built in 1966-71 linked to the hospital ward blocks. A separate dental hospital was built in 1963-5 – a five-storey slab on a steel frame, its black and yellow bands between the windows ‘make it an eye-catcher from the A48’ according to the Pevsner Architectural Guide.

A later addition to the site is the Cardiff Medical Centre of the early 1990s by Gordon Jones of Powell, Alport & Partners: ‘long, low and shed-like, with glazed aisles and a continuous ridge skylight. Purple brick cladding piquantly contrasting with the exposed white metal frame.’ [Sources: John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, p.287.]

Whitchurch Hospital, Penlline Road NGR ST 146 805

Whitchurch Hospital was built in 1902-8 to designs by G. H. Oatley & W. S. Skinner, architects of Bristol, on an échelon plan. A competition for the design had been held in 1901. It was originally Cardiff City Lunatic Asylum. It is possibly one of the best preserved of the many asylums built on this pattern. The idea was to place the patients’ accommodation in blocks that were arranged in an arrow formation to preserve an open outlook to the south. Single-storey corridors linked the blocks to the rear, and the central area contained the communal and service buildings: dining-hall, kitchen, laundry and workshops. The administration block was on the north side, and a detached chapel set at a little distance further north. At the centre on the south side was the medical superintendent’s house.

The administration block was often given the most architectural ornament, as is the case here, and contained the board room on the first floor. A tall water tower is a local landmark.

Each of the patients’ pavilions or ward blocks had its own garden ground in front, with a gazebo or shelter. The map shows that a ha-ha formed the outer boundary of the patients’ grounds, rather than the encircling walls that had been a feature of earlier asylums. [Sources: John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995: Whitchurch Hospital Historical Society]

LLANTRISANT

Royal Glamorgan Hospital Ysbyty Brenhinol Morgannwg, Ely Valley Road NGR ST 036 841

This new acute general hospital with 463 beds was opened in 1999. It was built to replace East Glamorgan General Hospital, Pontypridd.

MAESTEG

Maesteg General Hospital, Neath Road NGR SS 844 915

The Pevsner Architectural Guide describes Maesteg General Hospital as an eccentric design, mainly single-storey, the angles defined by three broad, curvaceously battlemented towers. It was built in phases in 1900 and 1913 to designs by the local architect J. Humphreys. This and an isolation hospital a short distance to the north were both established by Maesteg Urban District Council, as was a larger isolation hospital to the south-west of Maesteg (see below). The smaller isolation hospital had been demolished by the late 1930s. [Sources: John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, pp.419-20.]

Maesteg Isolation Hospital NGR SS 848 904 demolished

Maesteg Isolation Hospital was the second and larger hospital for infectious diseases built by Maesteg Urban District Council. The hospital has been largely demolished, the former administration block and part of the small ward block to its west have been retained, the area developed with housing around Llynfi Court (Cwrt Llynfi).[Source: OS maps.]

MERTHYR TYDFIL

Prince Charles Hospital, Gurnos Road NGR SO 045 081

NHS District General Hospital built 1965-75 (official opening by Prince Charles in 1978)and subsequently expanded. The original phase was designed by the Sir Percy Thomas & Partners with Norman Thomas and Wallace Street as the design partners. The Welsh Common Services Agency were responsible for the 1989-91 additions. Further additions providing six ward built 1998 and a cancer unit in 2009 [Sources: John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, p.440: Delme Griffiths, 50 Years of the NHS in Wales, 1998: National Monuments Record of Wales online database: Coflein.]

St Tydfils Hospital, Upper Thomas Street NGR SO 051 063 largely demolished

Originally Merthyr Union Workhouse built in 1853 to designs by Aickin & Capes, architects, London. Its relatively late date is due to local resistance to building a workhouse in favour of offering the more humane outdoor relief (i.e. financial aid allowing people to remain in their own homes). The Poor Law Commissioners exerted pressure to provide a workhouse, the Board of Guardians finally agreed in 1848. The late date also meant that the building did not follow any of the earlier standard plans. What was built was not a great improvement – with back-to-back wards in three wings of the cruciform building, a communal dining room in the fourth.

A separate infirmary was built to the north east, which, like the main workhouse building, featured back-to back wards. The layout can be seen on the Town Plan, showing a front range, with ward wings at either end, linked to a rear block by two stubs of corridors, with further back-to-back wards.

A new infirmary was built to the north of the main workhouse range, on the other side of the cemetery, in 1896-1900, E. A. Johnson, architect. This followed the more sanitary pavilion plan, with a central administration block flanked by ward wings designed on the Nightingale format of large open wards with opposing windows.

The statue in the forecourt of the building is of Lord Merthyr (W. T. Lewis), the bronze figure signed Thomas Brock and dated 1898. The hospital closed in 2012, with services transferring to Ysbyty Cwm Cynon.

In 2015 all but the front range of the original workhouse were demolished. There were plans for housing development on the site. The remaining front range has been allowed to deteriorate. The images on Google StreetView taken between 2009 and 2022 show the sad decline of the building. [Sources: John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, p.440: workhouses.org : OS maps: People’s Collection Wales.]

MOUNTAIN ASH

Lady Aberdare Maternity Hospital, Granville Terrace, NGR ST 047 996

The Lady Aberdare Maternity Institution opened in May 1926 in the former cottage hospital. It was administered by Mountain Ash Urban District Council. Lady Aberdare had placed the building at the disposal of the Council and officiated at the opening. Miss N. Morgan was the first matron. It is now the Lady Aberdare flats. [Sources: Merthyr Express, 15 May 1926, p.8: OS maps.]

Mountain Ash General Hospital ST 045 999 largely demolished

Only one ruinous building remains of Mountain Ash General Hospital. A cottage hospital had been founded by 1900 at the end of Granville Terrace. This was replaced by a much larger general hospital in 1924, built to the designs of J. J. Lynham by Richard Jones, building contractor. The new hospital comprised three blocks – administration, men’s ward and women’s ward – and provided 42 beds. The opening ceremony was performed by the Rt Hon. Thomas Richards P.C., general secretary of the South Wales Miners’ Federation.

It closed in 2012 when services were transferred to Ysbyty Cwm Cynon. The buildings were subsequently demolished.[Sources: Aberdare Leader, 9 Aug. 1924, p.2.]

Mountain Ash Isolation Hospital, Llanwoddo Road NGR ST 046 984 demolished

The provision of an infectious diseases hospital in Mountain Ash was made after 1885, when plans were submitted to the Local Government Board. A temporary hospital had been opened by 1887, but erecting a permanent structure was under discussion. [Sources: South Wales Echo, 6 Oct 1885, p.7.]

Ysbyty Cwm Cynon, (Cynon Valley Hospital) New Road, Mountain Ash

Opened in 2012. A new acute general hospital designed to replace the general hospital at Aberdare, the old Mountain Ash General Hospital and St Tydfil’s Hospital. Designed by HLM and built by Vinci Construction. Jaggery, who took the photograph above, noted that the hospital buildings and adjacent parking areas have a graceful curved shape, following the curved norther bank of the river – Afon Cynon – behind the hospital.

NEATH

Cimla Hospital, Cimla Common, Neath NGR SS 764 960 original hospital demolished

The present hospital was built to replace Cimla Chest Hospital. This had developed from a small temporary hospital erected by Neath Rural District Council in 1893 for smallpox cases following a local outbreak of the disease. It comprised a single building of timber board framework and corrugated iron, put up by Abraham George, builder, of Neath.

In about 1914 the fever hospital was acquired by the Wales National Memorial Association for the Eradication of Tuberculosis (WNMA). The association had been founded around 1910 as a memorial to King Edward VII. At the end of May 1914 the Cimla Hospital was expected to be ready for occupation in the next six weeks. Neath Corporation planned to build a new isolation hospital hereabouts, but the outbreak of the First World War saw those plans set aside. The new hospital was eventually built at Tonna (see below).

Under the NHS it had developed into a hospital specialising in diseases of the chest. [Sources: South Wales Echo, 17 March 1893, p.3: Central Glamorgan Gazette, 31 March 1893, p.5: Western Mail, 31 July 1902, p.6: Glamorgan Gazette, 22 May 1914, p.2 ]

Neath Union Workhouse, (Lletty-Nedd) Llantwit Road NGR SS 758 979 part demolished

Neath Union Workhouse was built in 1838, but in the mid-1890s was described as having been subsequently ‘rebuilt and improved’. Land to the west had been acquired and the font range extended westwards, along with some new ranges built against the north boundary.

The name ‘Lletty Nedd’ was adopted in 1918 by the Board of Guardians, it means Neath Lodgings, implying a liberal attitude to the town’s poor. Perhaps it was decided to move over to outdoor relief, as the workhouse was closed in 1924, sick paupers being accommodated in the separate workhouse infirmary (see below). If this was the hope, circumstances evidently led to the workhouse’s continuation – if sporadically. There were reports of overcrowding in 1928, and in the same year the Ministry of Labour ran a continuation school for unemployed youths in part of the workhouse. By the mid-1930s the eastern section of the front range seems to have been subdivided and by the post-war period is separately numbered.

Some time between 1965 and 1970 the western half of the site was disposed of and a YMCA built on the site. The right-hand or eastern side of the workhouse remains, with commercial premises on the ground floor.[Sources: Workhouses.org; OS maps ]

Neath Union Workhouse Infirmary, (Neath General Hospital), Briton Ferry Road NGR SS 744 957 demolished

Built in 1911-12 to designs by Joseph Cook Rees for the Neath Board of Guardians. Originally it comprised the central administration block with one ward wing on either side, a range to the north, at the rear of the administration block, and a smaller nurses’ home to the north-west. By the mid-1930s the larger nurses’ home to the south had been built, and the infirmary had been transferred to Glamorgan County Council. It had also been renamed ‘Penrhiwtyn Infirmary’. It closed in 2003 and the buildings demolished to make way for a housing development. Services were transferred to the new Neath Port Talbot Hospital which opened in 2002, that also replaced the former Port Talbot General Hospital. [Sources: OS maps: workhouses.org.]

Tonna Hospital (Neath District Isolation Hospital), Tonna-uchaf, NGR SS 780 994 part demolished

Originally built as a hospital for infectious diseases, and opened in 1939. The building contractors were Lawford Gower & Sons, the foundation stone being laid in July 1937 by J. Cook Rees, Chairman of the Neath Joint Isolation Hospital Committee. Plans were drawn up by H. Alex Clarke, the Borough Engineer.

It became a children’s hospital in the early years of the NHS. Much of the hospital survives, three ward blocks having been demolished to make way for a new mental-health unit, probably in the late 1980s. [Sources: Neath Guardian, 30 July 1937, p.2: Porthcawl Guardian, 4 August 1937, p.6.]

PENARTH

Llandough Hospital / University Hospital, Penlan Road NGR ST 166 729

Llandough Hospital was built in the early 1930s, opening in October 1933. It was designed by Willmott & Smith in a Neo-Georgian style of brick with stone dressings. The hospital had originally been planned by the Cardiff Board of Guardians before the First World War. The site had been acquired, plans drawn up (by the architect B. T. Kitchin) and approval given by the Local Government Board before the outbreak of war postponed the scheme. When the scheme was revived after the war the high costs involved with the likely rise in rates caused lengthy arguments and debate. Fresh plans had been drawn up by a Mr Seward, but in 1923 the Ministry of Health had agreed to the appointment of Willmott & Smith instead (E. C. Morgan Wilmott became the hospital’s consulting architect), initially to implement Seward’s plans.

The new architects urged that Seward’s plans be scrapped owing to new ideas in hospital construction. The new plans were for a hospital with 1,056 beds, including 72 in side wards for paying patients. The hospital was to be built in phases, with six of the planned fourteen ward pavilions to be built in the first instance. By the end of 1925 the proposed changes to local government and the impact on the administration of the Poor Law, together with the impact of a new general hospital on the voluntary hospitals, led to the Ministry of Health holding a public inquiry on the proposed hospital at Llandough. Further discussion and consultation on the plans took place that resulted in some revisions.

Tenders were accepted for ground works in 1928 from S. C. Taverner & Co. Ltd of Newport, Monmouthshire, but arguments continued to rumble on and there were calls to delay work on the building. Nevertheless, the foundation stone was laid by Princess Mary at the end of June that year. In April 1930 Cardiff City Council took over the functions of the Board of Guardians, and most of the superstructure was built after that time. It may be one of the earliest municipal hospitals built after the Local Government reforms.

The Hospital expanded under the NHS, acquiring the former Penarth Sanatorium to the south. Percy Thomas Partnership were the architects of additions in the period 1965-76, Wallace Sweet as the design partner in charge. An ante-natal clinic of 1984 was designed by the Alex Gordon Partnership. [ Sources: John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, pp.378-9: Western Mail, 28 July 1913, p.6; 2 Dec. 1925, p.9; 26 March 1928, p.13; 28 May 1928, p.5: Western Mail & South Wales News, 26 Oct. 1933, pp.7-8.]

Penarth Sanatorium, later St Mary’s Day Hospital, NGR ST 164 727 largely demolished

Built by Penarth Urban District Council, the large ward block to the north appears to be extant.

PONTARDAWE

Gellinudd Hospital, Lon Catwg, Gellinudd SN 736 043

Originally built as an isolation hospital by Pontardawe Rural District Council in the early 1900s. It survived relatively unaltered into the 1970s, but all but one block were demolished to make way for the present hospital built in 1994.

Pontardawe Union Workhouse (Danybryn Hostel), Brecon Road SN 728 047 (demolished)

The workhouse was built in 1879 following the formation of the Pontardawe Poor Law Union in 1875. The institution could house 130 inmates. It was taken over by Glamorgan County Council in 1930 after the local government reforms, and in 1948 became Dan-y-Bryn Hostel. This closed in 1988, and the buildings replaced by a new care home. [Source: workhouses.org ]

PONTYCLUN

Hensol Hospital / Hafod Y Wnnol NGR ST 047 789 part demolished, mostly converted to housing

Hensol Castle Hospital was opened in 1930 as a ‘mental deficiency’ institution. County council’s were required to provide hospital accommodation for people with a range of learning disabilities under the terms of the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913, which aimed to remove this class of patient from mental hospitals and the long-stay wards of workhouses. Country houses and castles with their estates were not uncommon as the location for these hospitals. Typically the house itself was converted for staff and office accommodation and detached two-storey ‘villas’ for patients constructed in the grounds. These were often grouped around communal buildings for recreation, education and workshops.

With the Mental Deficiency Act coming in to force at the start of the First World War, it wasn’t until the 1920s that new institutions started to open. Glamorgan County Council purchased Hensol Castle and its estate in 1926-7. Initially it accommodated men only. The purpose-built section was erected around 1935, with service extending to women and children. The Second World War caused another lull, but in the immediate post-war years and the early years of the NHS this was an area that was prioritised for new building. The move towards providing care through social services rather than the National Health Service began in earnest after the NHS reorganisation in 1974, and most of these relatively new hospitals were wound down through the 1990s. Hensol closed in 2003. The site was purchased for redevelopment as housing, with the castle itself as a wedding venue and conference centre. Although the former hospital buildings have been greatly altered, they retain a certain sense of their original external appearance – some more than others.

PONTYPRIDD

Dewi Sant Hospital, Albert Road

East Glamorgan General Hospital, Church Village, NGR ST 079 859 demolished

Built as a municipal general hospital by Glamorgan County Council in the 1930s. In January 1936 a competition was held for the design, with 24 architects s invited to submit plans by the end of May. The Council appointed their County Architect, W. James Nash, and the specialist hospital architect E. Stanley Hall as assessors. Amongst the instructions for the architects were the stipulation that walls, floors and staircases were to be fire resistant. Flat roofs were ‘not encouraged’. It was suggested that the walls be of local bricks and built hollow, ‘since there is an average annual rainfall of 50 inches’ – the cavity presumably helping to mitigate dampness. The high rainfall may also explain the preference for pitched roofs. The hospital was to comprise an administration block, kitchens and dining rooms, ward units, including maternity, operating theatres and special department, all inter-connected by corridors. Further there needed to be a laundry, boiler-house, ambulance garage, staff homes, a house for the deputy resident medical officer, mortuary and gate lodge. Most of the complex should be no more than two storeys, but staff homes could be of three storeys.

The winning designs were displayed at the County Hall in Cardiff in July. Bradshaw, Gass and Hope were the architects chosen for the commission. Work was underway by 1938, and continued in the early years of the Second World War. In 1942 the RAF were anxious to secure another hospital in South Wales and entered into negotiations to use the as yet incomplete County Hospital. As things then stood, it was not expected that the hospital would be completed until the following year. Building operations were adjusted to concentrate on the essential elements in order to have the hospital ready sooner. At that point it comprised a two-storied brick building with central block and two wings, the wards at right angles to the wings. Large windows gave excellent views of the surrounding country. There were 8 general wards each with 30 beds, that were separated into bays by glass panels. There were also separate side wards with four beds, and some single rooms. The maternity department had 25 cubicled beds – ‘which provided ideal officers’ ward accommodation’. It was opened in early September 1942 with 110 beds. Work continued so that the number of available beds steadily increased to the full 290. In common with other RAF general hospitals its departments covered general surgical, medical, orthopaedic and peripheral nerve centres, ophthalmic, and ENT. To these was added a maxillo-facial unit in 1943 as the need for this type of treatment increased. In 1944 the hospital was very active in taking the casualties from D-day, mostly sent on from Wroughton Hospital. Afterwards it became a centre for tuberculosis, but Glamorgan County Council objected and the patients were transferred to the RAF general hospital at St Athan.

In April 1946 Glamorgan County Council regained their hospital, but staff shortages meant that they were unable to bring it into service. [Sources: Western Mail, 8 July 1936, p.13. The Builder, 7 Jan.1 936, p.276; July -Dec 1936, vol 41, pp.62-5, 71: A History of the Second World War, The Royal Air Force Medical Services, vol.1 Squadron leader S. C. Rexford-Welch editor, London, HMSO, 1954, pp.188-9.]

Pontypridd & District Hospital see Ysbyty Bwythyn Hospital below

Tonteg Hospital, Pontypridd Urban District Council Isolation Hospital, Church Village NGR ST 088 867 original buildings largely demolished

In June 2023 the original administration block at the south end of the site was empty and boarded up, as it had been since at least 2009 (according to the photographs on Google Street View). the southernmost of the ward blocks was extant in 2024 and still in use, the range to its north was demolished in the 1980s, replaced by a low prefabricated, flat-roofed block. The small block next to the north remained, probably originally the ambulance shed, disinfector and mortuary block. These formed part of the complex as built in the early 1900s.

A further ward block added in about the 1930s was probably for tuberculosis patients, it had a long glazed veranda on its south side. This remained, though altered, into the 1990s but has now been replaced by ‘The Priory’, a mental health facility. Under the NHS the hospital became a geriatric unit.

Ysbyty Bwythyn Hospital, (Pontypridd Cottage Hospital, Pontypridd & District Hospital), Hospital Road, The Common, Pontypridd NGR ST 082 901

There were proposals to establish a cottage hospital in Pontypridd in the early 1890s. Little progress seems to have been made, but Queen Victoria’s jubilee in 1897 revived the project with the idea of building the hospital to commemorate the Queen’s reign. A meeting of the committee appointed to further the scheme held in March 1897 appointed an executive committee to flesh out the scheme and start obtaining subscriptions. There was also a call for the hospital to be ‘greater than … Porth Cottage Hospital’ which had eight beds. Still no progress was made, and it wasn’t until May 1910 that the foundation stone of the new hospital was laid. The building was to provide 14 beds, and the site, gifted by Mrs Syssilt Morgan and Mrs L. Forestier-Walker, was near the ‘famous Rocking Stone’ [Cardiff Times, 14 Nov. 1891, p.2; 13 March 1897, p.4: South Wales Daily News, 6 May 1910, p.5.]

The ceremony for laying the foundation stone was a large affair, attended by the local gentry and members of many local societies. When everyone arrived at the site, the Maritime Male Voice Party ‘rendered selections’ before Lord Tredegar gave a speech and performed the ceremony. The architects of the hospital, A. O. Evans, Williams and Evans, presented Lord Tredegar with a silver trowel.

All the wards were on the ground floor, along with matron’s room, a separate entrance for casualties, with receiving and operating rooms. There was also a dining-room for nurses, the kitchen and other ancillary services, plus the mortuary. On the first floor were bedrooms for the nurses. Heating was to be by radiators. The building contractors were E. R. Evans & Bros, Cardiff. [The Builder, 14 May 1910, p.567.] Funds were being raised in the 1920s for an extension. A further ward block was added in about the 1930s to the south-east as well as additional blocks to the rear of the original building. After the hospital was transferred to the NHS in 1948 a new block was built to the north. There is a more modern extension to the south-east, but designed in a complementary style.

PORTH

Porth Cottage Hospital, Cemetery Road

The cottage hospital opened in 1895.

PORT TALBOT

Aberavon, Port Talbot & District General Hospital, Hospital Road, SS 752 899 (demolished)

Opened in February 1916. The Mayor of Aberavon, Rhys Davies, was largely responsible for generating support for establishing a voluntary hospital. Sir Sydney Byas donated generously on behalf of Mansel Tinplate Works, as did Sir Charles Wright on behalf of Port Talbot Steel Works. Their employees also donated £1 a head. Colonel Sir Arthur Pendarvis Vivian gifted the site. Originally the hospital had just 18 beds and four cots. The Aberavon hospital amalgamated with Margam Cottage Hospital at some point in the 1920s – at least by 1927. In 1928 two wards were added, increasing the number of beds ot 52, and in 1931 a children’s ward and staff bedrooms were added. [Source: West Glamorgan Archive Service, catalogue entry.]

Groes Wen Isolation Hospital (Port Talbot Isolation Hospital; Groeswen Hospital), Margam Road SS 780 882 (demolished)

Established by Port Talbot Corporation in the late 1920s/1930s.

Margam Cottage Hospital, Pen y Cae Road, SS 774 897 (now divided into two private houses)

Margam cottage hospital opened in 1893 as a private establishment supported by Miss Talbot. [Source: Burdett’s Hospitals and Charities Year Book, 1921.]

Neath Port Talbot Hospital, Baglan Way SS 754 905

Opened in 2003. Chunky two-storey and attics, multi-courtyard plan with brick facing to ground floor and white-painted rendered above, pitched grey roofs, plus the usual atrium entrance foyer. With the green infill panels on the ground-floor windows and the red facia on the roofline to the gutters, it reflects colours of the Welsh flag. It was built under a PFI contract granted in 2000, designed by SSL and built by Kier Group. It replaced the former Neath General and Port Talbot General hospitals.

SWANSEA

Cefn Coed Hospital (Swansea Mental Hospital), Waunarlwydd Road, Cockett SS 624 940

Quite a late example of George T. Hine échelon-plan asylum. Essentially, this was a pre-First World War scheme that was only built after 1918. By 1914 only the foundations had been built, and work did not recommence until 1928. The asylum was officially opened by the Princess Royal as Swansea Mental Hospital in 1932, by which time it surely must have been seen as out-dated. A range to the west looks like an admissions hospital, and there was a detached nurses’ home and a chapel resembling Norman Shaw’s Bedford Park church.

The Pevsner guide describes it as a ‘mighty complex’, in red brick with Bath stone trim and the usual distinctive water tower, with ‘idiosyncratic Baroque crown’ that is ‘a landmark for miles around’. [John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995,p.622.] A new mental health unit was begun to the north-west of the original range in 2009, with intriguing flower-petal shaped blocks. The admissions unit has been demolished, and a large housing development built to the south-west of the site.

Clydach War Memorial Hospital, Quarr Road, Clydach (part demolished)

Clydach hospital was built as a war memorial in the mid-1920s. A plaque on the building is dated 1924 and records that the hospital was erected by the inhabitants in memory of those who fell in the Great War. This was later extended to the memory of those fallen in the Second World War, for whom a brass plaque recording the names of the fallen was erected.

Only the northern range survives – the original administration/entrance block which bears the ward memorial plaques. This has been converted to flats (Ty Coffa), while the remainder of the site has been developed with housing.

Garngoch Hospital, Hospital Road, Gorseinon SS 610 974

This began as a small isolation hospital built by Swansea Rural District Council in the early 1900s. It comprised two ward blocks, an administration building and service block – probably with disinfector, mortuary and perhaps ambulance shed. The original buildings were largely replaced, either in the late 1930s or after the Second World War, but still as an isolation hospital. In 2012 a new day centre was built to the west of the earlier buildings, called Ty Garngoch, for older people with mental health problems, designed by EPT Partnership and built by Carillion. [Sources: OS maps: premier construction news online, accessed 08.01.2025.]

Gorseinon Hospital, Brynawel Road, Gorseinon SS 585 990

Established by William Rufus Lewis of William Lewis & Sons, woollen millers, to whom there is a stone plaque on the building dated 27 March 1930. Designed by Glendinning Moxham, and built c.1932-3, with a ‘long, low Doric colonnade, white stone against red brick’. [John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995, p.363.]

After transfer to the NHS it became a maternity hospital. Minor additions had been made to the north-west by 1958 (since demolished), and more extensive additions were carried out in the 1970s-80s on the north-west side of the original hospital. In the 1990s as a rehabilitation unit. It continues as an NHS hospital (as of end 2024).

Hill House Hospital, Cockett Road SS 629 937

Now owned by neighbouring Gower College which purchased the hospital after it closed in 2013. It was built as an isolation hospital by Swansea Corporation in the grounds of Hill House, a Georgian villa built by Iltyd Thomas which was extended and became the nurses’ home for the hospital (the house was demolished in 2005). A carved stone plaque records the official opening of the hospital on 22 April 1929 by councillor William Owen, who was vice chairman of the Health Committee of the County Borough of Swansea. The hospital was designed by the borough architect, Ernest E. Morgan, and Humphreys Ltd of Knightsbridge were the building contractors (a company long connected with hospital projects and by this date other large commercial buildings). The foundation stone had been laid in September 1926. The ward blocks seem to be mostly single-storeyed, rendered with brick dressings. [Sources: RCAHMW, Coflein site record: Hill House Hospital, Swansea wordpress site.]

Llwyneryr Hospital, Clasemont Road, Morriston SS 664 986

Built on the site of the Llwyneryr Training Home for Girls, which had occupied a converted house (now demolished). The Llwyneryr Unit provides an assessment unit for people with learning disabilities. Probably built in the 1980s? [Sources: OS mapping.]

Morriston Hospital (Ysbty Treforys), Heol Maes Eglwys SS 664 999

Established as an emergency war hospital under the Emergency Medical Scheme by 1942. It was replaced by a new District General Hospital on the Nucleus model in the 1980s, having been approved in 1976. Planning permission was granted in 1978, work commenced in 1981 and the hospital opened in 1985. The 1980s Nucleus hospital is largely two storeys with some taller sections, of buff brick with chocolate brick stripes, bands and window dressings, and a pitched tiled roof, with deep eaves and red facias. Numerous later additions.[Sources: Hansard, 19 Dec 1985, v.89.]

Singleton Hospital, Sketty Lane SS 626 919

Built by the Welsh Regional Hospital Board to designs by their in-house architect O. Garbutt Walton as a new District General Hospital. First phase completed 1961. Original scheme based on two ten-storey blocks, to which various additions have subsequently been made.[Source: John Newman, Stephen Hughes and Anthony Ward, The Buildings of Wales, Glamorgan, 1995 p.619.]

Ystradgynlais Community Hospital, Glanrhyd Rd, Ystradgynlais SN 783 091

Approval for the hospital was granted in July 1980 and the building was opened in 1986. Welsh Health Common Services Agency were responsible for the design, and were awarded a gold medal for architecture in 1988 by the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

TONYPANDY

Glyncornel Hospital, Llwynpia SS 993 939

Established as a maternity hospital during the Second World War in Glycornel house to the west of Llwynpia as an annexe to Llwynpia Hospiatl. The house had been built in the early 1900s by the Cambrian Coal Combine for senior management. Negotiations to acquire the house by Glamorgan County Council took place in 1944. It had become a general hospital by the 1960s. In 1979 it was acquired by the Council and is now the Glyncornel Environmental Centre. [Sources: Glamorgan County Council, Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1944, Cardiffp.11: Wikipedia/Rhondda Cynon Taf Council website.]

Llwynpia Hospital (demolished) SS 001 943

The hospital has its origins as a poor law institution, originally built as ‘Llwynpia Homes’ in 1903 by Pontypridd Union. A separate infirmary was added in 1909.

Penrŷs Isolation Hospital, Penrys Smallpox Hospital ST 004 943 (demolished)

Built by Rhondda Urban District Council between 1900 and 1915.

Tyntla Isolation Hospital (Rhondda Urban District Council), Tyntla Avenue

A small fever hospital was established in 1887 between Ystrad and Llwynpia. This was greatly extended by Rhondda Urban District Council in 1897-1915. It closed in 1991, but survives with some infill as a care home. [Sources: Women’s Archive of Wales GB 213 DWAW41 catalogue entry; OS maps.]

Ysbyty Cwm Rhondda (Rhondda Valley Hospital), Partridge Road SS 997 941

Opened in January 2010 to replace Llwynpia Hospital. Designed by Nightingale Associates and built by Cowlins, with 108 beds in four ward units, outpatients, X-ray, and minor injuries unit. The site was to the east of the former hospital. [Sources: Wales Online, 23 Jan. 2010.]

TREHERBERT

Treherbert Hospital, Rhigos Road SS 939 986 (demolished)

The hospital was officially opened in 1927. It was established as a voluntary hospital partly from grants from the Miners’ Welfare Fund and partly by public subscription. The scheme to provide a hospital began in 1922 after a public meeting when a committee was appointed composed of representatives of the local collieries. The site was purchased in 1924. The hospital closed in 1999, with services transferred to Ysbyty George Thomas. A fire at the hospital after it closed caused major damage. [Source: Canfod, Glamorgan Archives, online catalogue.]

TREORCHY

Ysbyty George Thomas, Cwmparc Road (George Thomas Hospital) SS 961 962

The hospital was built to replace Pentwyn Cottage Hospital on ground to its north-east. the new hospital was officially opened in 1991 by Lord Tonypandy, after whom it was named. E. T. & S Construction Ltd. Main body of the hospital has a cruciform plan, with four internal courtyards, like a mini Nucleus hospital. Mostly low rise, red brick with pitched roofs, and hint of Po-Mo, perhaps, in the boiler house, though equally could be styled neo-Vernacular.

Pentwyn Cottage Hospital, Pen-twyn Road SS 963 962 (now Ty Pentwyn Nursing Home)

Opened in 1923 (the date 1924 is in the open pediment above the door. The building survives little altered externally, from the evidence of Google Streetview in September 2022 and the GIS mapping from 2024.

The hospital was funded by William Jenkins, general manager of the Ocean Coal Companies collieries in this area, on the proviso that maintaining the hospital would be the responsibility of the miners. [Source: Donach Seán Lucey and Virginia Crossman eds, Healthcare in Ireland and Britain from 1850, 2014 p.150.]

Notes

Aberdare Hospital, Prince Charles Hospital: © Crown copyright: RCAHMW full explanation of this abbreviation: The Image is Crown copyright and is reproduced with the permission of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW), under delegated authority from The Keeper of Public Records.