ABERGAVENNY

Abergavenny Union Workhouse, Union Road SO 291 143 (Partly demolished)

Built in 1837-8 for 150 inmates on a cruciform or square plan as recommended by the Poor Law Commissioners. The plans were drawn by George Wilkinson, who gave the building an attractive Tudor-bethan style with stone mullioned and transomed windows and gables enlivening the roofline on the entrance block. The paupers accommodation wings behind were plainer. [Sources: workhouses.org. ]

Maindiff Court Hospital, Ross Road, Abergavenny SO 315 154

Nevill Hall Hospital, Brecon Road, Abergavenny SO 288 143

Nevill Hall hospital originated in a convalescent home established in 1920 in a private house that had been built in the 1860s for James Charles Hill of the Blaenavon Ironworks. The hosue was originally called The Brooks, but was renamed in 1890 after it was acquired by the Marquess of Abergavenny. It transferred to the NHS in 1948 and became a small general hospital. In the mid-1960s it had 44 beds.

A new District General Hospital was built on the site in the later 1960s which opened in 1970. It was designed by Sir Percy Thomas & Son for the Welsh Hospital Board. It is of the tower on a podium type, comprising two, off-set, H-plan multi-storey blocks (presumably containing the wards) sitting above a single-storey podium that presumably containing the out-patients’ department – similar to Monklands General in Scotland. The house was retained and turned into a conference and training centre. [Source: RCAHMW Coflein.]

Pen-y-val Hospital (sometimes Pen-y-Fal: County Lunatic Asylum for Monmouthshire, Herefordshire, Brcon and Radnor) SO 305 144 (Largely Demolished)

The County Asylum was designed by Thomas Fulljames for the join counties of Monmouth, Hereford, Brecon and Radnor with the City of Hereford. It was built in 1849-52. (The union with Herefordshire and the City of Hereford was dissolved in 1868.) The first patients were received in December 1851. It was originally designed to accommodate 210 patients. An infirmary wing was added in 1859-61, and laundry block in 1861-75. In 1883 further additions provided a new central administration block and a block for patients with epilepsy. A dormitory for male ‘working’ patients was completed in 1891 (Alfred Swash, architect).

The hospital closed in 1997. The original main range of the hospital has been retained and converted to housing, while most of the rest of the buildings on the site have been demolished to make way for a new housing development. The chapel also survives. [Sources: RCAHW Coflein.]

Victoria Cottage Hospital, Hereford Road SO 302 146 (now Victoria Court)

A dispensary was established in Abergavenny in 1828, and the cottage hospital was founded around 1891. It was renamed the Victoria in about 1902, when the new building was erected on Hereford Road. It was transferred to the NHS in 1948. A new outpatient and x-ray department was opened in 1956, and resident staff accommodation was added in 1965. In the mid-1960s the hospital had 28 beds. It closed around 1976. [Sources: Gwent Archives

ABERTILLERY

Abertillery & District Hospital (Aberbeeg Hospital), Aberbeeg SO 207 017

Cottage hospital designed by Walter Prosser and built by John Henry Monks in 1920-22. It was connected to the local coal companies – the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company and the Lancaster Steam Coal Company. The site was acquired from the Hanbury Estate. The hospital transferred to the NHS in 1948, and served as an acute hospital with 44 beds in the mid-1960s.

There have been later additions to the rear (west), with two large wings – that to the south added between 1972 and 1986, that to the north more recently. It closed in 2008, but continued in hospital use by the St Luke’s Hospital Group (now operated by Elysium Healthcare, part of Ramsay health Care).

BLACKWOOD

Oakdale Hospital, Oakdale, Blackwood, Caerphilly ST 184 985 (converted to private housing)

Cottage Hospital dated on the building 1914. It was built on the edge of Oakdale Garden Village, built for the workers of Tredegar Iron & Coal Company and the Oakdale Steam Navigation Coal Company. The Oakdale Colliery had opened in 1907, and the managing director, A. S. Tallis, planned the model village with the aim of providing a high standard of living and varied amenities for the workers and their families.

He employed the architect A. F. Webb, who was also his brother-in-law, to design both village and hospital, as well as an institute, chapels and a hotel. The cottage hospital is an attractive Arts & Crafts style building, in the style of T. Alwyn Lloyd. It was listed in 1997 (revised 1999) grate II, as the ‘best cottage hospital in South Wales’ with ‘interesting associations with the industrial and social history of the area’. The hospital closed in 2011. [Sources: South Wales Argus, 25 Sept 2021, online: CADW, list description.]

BLAENAVON

Blaenavon Workman’s Hospital (Blaenavon General Hospital), Church Road SO 249 089

Opened in 1925 in a converted house (Ty Mawr or Blaenavon House). It was transferred to the NHS in 1948 and in the mid-1960s had 17 mainly acute beds and 8 beds for the ‘chronic sick’. Now listed as The Beeches, a private house, on the modern GIS map, but shown as boarded up and in a ruinous state in October 2023 on Google StreetView.

CAERPHILLY

Caerphilly District Miners’ Hospital, ST 147 863 (demolished)

The hospital was built around a house, The Beeches, to which ward wings were added in the 1920s-30s. In 1948 it was transferred to the NHS and by the mid-1960s had 217 acute beds.

Cefn Mably Hospital, ST 223 840

A sanatorium for tuberculosis was established in Cefn Mably House, north of Cardiff, in 1924. A detached ward pavilion had been built to the south-west of the house by about 1939. The sanatorium was transferred to the NHS in 1948, and various additional buildings were constructed in the grounds of the house. In the mid-1960s it had 158 beds. Latterly it became a geriatric hospital but closed in the 1980s. The house became derelict and suffered fire damage, but was restored and converted to apartment sin the early 2000s, with new housing to the north and west. About two-thirds of the pre-war hospital block has been retained and converted to housing.

CHEPSTOW

Chepstow & District Hospital, Bridge Street, ST 536 942 (now Chepstow Museum)

The hospital was established in Gwy House in 1921. The house was built in 1796 and was originally the home of Warren Jane the younger, an apothecary. In the early twentieth century it became a school, and was used as a Red Cross Hospital during the First World War. It remained in hospital use from 1921 to 1976, transferring to the NHS in 1948, and in the mid-1960s had 21 beds. After closure it was converted into a museum. [Source: Listed Building description.]

Chepstow Community Hospital, Tempest Way ST 526 936

Chepstow Union Workhouse (Regent House), Mounton Road ST 530 937 (demolished)

Lydia Beynon Maternity Hospital ST 356 896

Coldra House was converted to a maternity hospital c.1940. The house was built in the 1860s by local industrialists, the Powells, owners of the Powell-Dyffryn company. It was purchased by Thomas Beynon in 1915 who added a new wing and installed two stained glass windows depicting the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon. The hospital was named after Thomas Beynon’s mother. It closed in 1977, and was purchased in 1980 by the Celtic Inns Company which developed the Celtic Manor resort on the site. The founder of the company, Sir Terence Matthews, had been born at the hospital. [Source: RCAHMW Coflein.]

Mount Pleasant Hospital ST 526 893 (demolished)

Built by the Admiralty and opened in 1918 intended for shipyard workers. It was transferred to the Ministry of Pensions in 1919 to become a centre for disabled ex-servicemen. It became part of the NHS after the Second World War and in the mid-1960s had 260 beds and was specialising in chest diseases and geriatrics. [Source: Chepstow in the Great War 1914-1918, Chepstow Society, online publication.]

St Lawrence Hospital (demolished) ST 523 936

Built during the Second World War as an emergency hospital under the Emergency Medical Scheme. It became a specialist hospital in plastic surgery and burns. It transferred the the NHS and in the mid-1960s had 201 beds, continuing to specialise in plastic surgery and orthopaedics. [Source: OS mapping: Chepstow in the Great War 1914-1918, Chepstow Society, online publication.]

EBBW VALE

Ebbw Vale Hospital (Hillview Hospital), Hillside SO 166 091

Hillside House was converted into a cottage hospital c.1900. The house was extended northwards in the early twentieth century and further extensions built after the hospital transferred to the NHS in 1948. By the mid-1960s the hospital had 71 acute beds and 15 maternity beds. It closed in 2005, services transferring to the new Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan.

Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan, Festival Drive, Ebbw Vale SO 171 084

Built on the site of the Ebbw Vale Steelworks, construction began in July 2008 and the hospital opened in 2010. Said to be the first NHS hospital in England or Wales in which all the patients were accommodated in single rooms. The siz-zag plan two-storey hospital was designed with 107 single-bed ensuite rooms built around two courtyards, which includes an 11-bed mental health unit. The architects were IBI Nightingale (project architects, Amy Cowan, Ian Strakis, Nick Durham and Norman Robson-Smith) with Arup engineering, FIRA as landscape architects, and BAM Construction as the main building contractor. [Source: Architects’ Journal, Buildings Library ]

Ysbyty Tri Chwm, College Road, Ebbw Vale SO 162 110

Mental health facilitiy opened by Glenys Kinnock in July 1996. It replaced Pen-y-Fal Hospital in Abergavenny.

HENGOED

Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr, Ystrad Fawr Way

New NHS community hospital opened in 2012. It replaced four older hospitals: Aberbargoed, Caerphilly District Miners’ Hospital, Oakdale and Ystrad Mynach.

LLANFRECHFA

Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital, (The Grange University Hospital) ST 311 946

Llanfrechfa Grange is a nineteenth-century house that was acquired for adaptation into a ‘mental deficiency’ institution after the Second World War. It opened in 1953 and subsequently detached villas were built in the grounds. The architects for the Welsh Hospital Board were the Percy Thomas Partnership. By the mid-1960s the hospital had 524 beds. With the change to community care for those with learning disabilities to be provided by local authorities rather than the NHS, the hospital closed to in-patients in 2008, though an assessment and treatment unit remained on the site. Grange University Hospital has been built to the north as a new specialist critical care centre. This was designed by the Building Design Partnership, with Laing O’Rourke as the main building contractors, and opened in November 2020. [Sources: Listed Building description; Building Design Practice projects.]

MONMOUTH

Monmouth General Hospital, Hereford Road SO 509 136 (converted to housing, Richard Creed Court)

The hospital originated in a hospital and dispensary that opened in 1868 in St James’s Square. In 1900 land on Hereford Road (just south of the workhouse) was acquired on which to build a new hospital which opened in 1903. It was built to designs by Richard Creed. [Source: Gwent Archives catalogue entry.]

Monmouth Union Workhouse SO 509 136

Built in 1870 replacing a pre-1830s workhouse. Designed by G. C. Haddon for 200 inmates. It is now part of Monmouth Haberdashers’ Schools. [Source: workhouses.org.]

NANTYGLO

Blaina & District Hospital (Nantyglo Cottage Hospital), Hospital Road (demolished) SO 197 098

NEWPORT

Royal Gwent Hospital, Cardiff Road, Newport ST 310 872

The Newport Dispensary was founded in Llanarth Street in 1839 and developed into a hospital in the mid-1860s., becoming the Newport Dispensary and Infirmary in 1867. A new, purpose-built hospital was erected in Cardiff Road which opened in August 1901. This comprised a central administration block linked to a ward wing on either side, a block to the rear and a lodge. It became the Royal Gwent Hospital in 1913.

There were extensions on the north-east side by 1921, then a period of further expansion to the south-west in the 1920s-30s, including a nurses’ home. Under the NHS the site was earmarked for redevelopment for a new District General Hospital. In the late 1950s early ’60s the first phase was built at the south-west corner of the site. The second phase took place in the 1970s-80s, to the east of the original complex which survives, in part at least, with many additions and alterations.

St Cadocs Hospital (Newport Borough Asylum: Newport Mental Hospital), Lodge Road, Caerleon ST 331 909

Opened in 1906 as Newport Borough Asylum. The main complex was designed by Alfred J. Wood following the then preferred echelon plan which featured blocks arranged in an arrowhead formation so that each had an unrestricted southerly view. It was intended to accommodate 350 patients. [Source: RCAHMW, Coflein.]

St Woolos Community Hospital, (Newport Union Workhouse) Stow Hill, Newport St 306 875

Newport Union workhouse was built in 1827-8 for the accommodation of 200 inmates. The architect was T. H. Wyatt, who followed the cruciform or ‘square’ plan advocated by the Poor Law Commissioners. The workhouse was enlarged in 1868-9, at which time a detached infirmary was built to the west and a detached chapel to the north. In 1900-3 the workhouse was largely reconstructed on pavilion-plan principles. The workhouse became a military hospital during the First World War, then in 1930 it passed to Newport Council, but essentially remained part workhouse part hospital. [Source: workhouses.org.]

PONTYPOOL

County Hospital (Pontypool Union Workhouse; Panteg County Hospital), Coed Y Gric Road, Griffithstown, Torfaen ST 292 996

Pontypool Union Workhouse was built in 1837 to designs by George Wilkinson. Originally for 100 inmates it was later extended to twice the size. It followed the standard cruciform plan. Various additions were made including casual wards and cottage homes in 1881; laundry, board room, day rooms and dormitories in 1884; and a detached infirmary in 1895. This last was to the north of the main workhouse range and was designed by E. A. Lansdowne to provide 65 beds.

Lansdowne & Griggs oversaw alterations and redevelopment on the site between 1897 and 1901 that involved alterations to the original workhouse, a new laundry, isolation hospital, mortuary and accommodation for aged couples.

The single-storey ward blocks to the north of the infirmary and isolation block were probably added during the Second World War under the Emergency Medical Scheme. The hospital transferred to the NHS in 1948 and in the mid-1960s had 282 beds, mostly acute general beds. More recentl additions have been made to the site at the north end. [Sources: workhouses.org OS mapping]

Pontypool and District Hospital, Leigh Road SO 274 022 (Demolished)

Established as a voluntary hospital c.1903, later becoming a general NHS hospital. It was a substantial stone-faced building of 2 and 3 storeys on two levels, with castle-like semi-turrets and parapets. The hospital was closed in February 1994 and demolished shortly thereafter. [Sources: RCAHMW.]

Snatchwood House Hospital, Pontnewynydd SO 269 024 (demolished)

Operated as a pre-convalescent hospital in the mid-1960s with 30 beds. It occupied a nineteenth-century house – Snatchwood Park. It was linked to Chepstow Hospital as an orthopaedic recovery unit.

RHYMNEY

Redwood Memorial Hospital, The Terrace, Rhymney SO 112 076 (demolished)

This small cottage hospital first opened in 1904. It had been commissioned by the Rhymney Workmen’s Medical Aid Fund. It was named the Redwood Memorial Hospital in 1947 in memory of Dr de Action Redwood who had been surgeon to the hospital for 43 years. The hospital was still standing and functioning in 2011, but closed in 2013. It had been demolished and replaced by a tow of insipid houses by 2021. [Sources: Ewart B. Smith, Upper Rymney Valley Through Time.]

Rhymney Isolation Hospital SO 115 074 (demolished)

Very small hospital for infectious diseases established by 1901 and latterly administered by Rhymney Urban District Council. By the 1960s it seems to have become a private house – named ‘isolation bungalow’ on the OS maps of the 1960s-80s. A health centre now stands near the site of the hospital.

TREDEGAR

St James’s Hospital (Bedwellty Union Workhouse), SO 151 080 (demolished)

Originally built as Bedwellty Union Workhouse. The union was formed in 1849, the parishes of Aberystruth formerly having been part of the Abergavenny union. Later Bedwellty Union was joined by the newly created parishes of Abertillery, Ebbw Vale, Rhymney and Tredegar. The workhouse was built in 1852, and numerous additions were built subsequently. It was used as a military hospital during the First World War, and in the 1930s became Ty Bryn public assistance institution, but after the formation of the NHS in 1948 it developed as a general hospital, renamed St James’s. In the mid-1960s it had 132 acute beds. [Sources: workhouses.org: Medical Directory 1966.]

Tredegar General Hospital (Tredegar Cottage Hospital), Park Row SO 140 086 (largely demolished)

Tredegar Cottage Hospital opened in December 1904. Establishing a hospital had been proposed in 1901 by the Tredegar Medical Aid Society and funds were raised for the purpose, with the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company being one of the main benefactors. Maintaining the hospital was subsidised by local workmen’s contribution of a weekly halfpenny deducted from their wages.

Tredegar’s healthcare system was influential on other schemes in part due to the publication in 1937 of A. J. Cronin’s novel, The Citadel, (Cronin had worked as a doctor at the hospital in the early 1920s, and through the experience of Aneurin Bevan who had been a member of the hospital’s management committee in the late 1920s and its chairman in 1929-30.

The hospital closed in 2010 when services were transferred to the new hospital in Ebbw Vale, Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan. A Health and Wellbeing Centre has been built on the site, incorporating part of the facade of the original hospital. There were efforts to list the building because of its historic significance, but to no avail. [Sources: ‘How the Medical Aid Society started’, Tredegar Development Trust 2008, cradleofnhs.org.uk

USK

Cefn Ila Maternity Hospital, SO 362 005 (demolished)

Maternity hospital established in Cefn Ila House to the west of Usk. Still functionin gin the mid-1960s when it had 22 beds.

YSTRAD MYNACH

Ystrad Mynach Hospital ST 145 935