This is another major change along the route, with the second of a new housing estate and just recently a retirment home complex, which once use to be the grounds of Worcester Ronkswood Hospital
Ronkswood Hospital was built on part of the original Tolladine Golf Course at the beginning of World War II under the Emergency Medical Services, as a temporary hutted hospital, later to be used by the Ministry of Pensions as a Pensions Hospital. It had a compliment of 600 beds in 14 wards, some wards having as many as 40 beds. It was opened in 1941 with its own staff (Medical, Surgical and Nursing) and during the war treated service casualties, civilian casualties from the Birmingham air raids and other cases, but a few years after the conclusion of the war its occupancy fell very low.
As a National Health Hospital, Ronkswood came under the control of the Selly Oak Group in 1951 for the purpose of reducing the long list of patients waiting for treatment in Birmingham. This proposal was impractical due to the distances patients and their families needed to travel to Worcester, so in 1952 it was transferred to the South Worcestershire Group and became part of Worcester Royal Infirmary and extended greatly. The number of beds was subsequently reduced to 319.
In September 1952 a large Maternity Department of 49 beds utilising four of the existing wards and the addition of an ante-natal clinic and classroom was opened at Ronkswood Hospital by Dame Hilda Lloyd. This department catered for both normal and abnormal midwifery and later for General Practitioner midwifery in a separate unit. No further midwifery was done at Castle Street. Some 32 years later in 1984 Mrs CJ & me were blessed with our son Matthew
This cache is named after GEO son who got me into geocaching and has been a big help from time to time, and the enjoyment when able to go caching together, the cache is a black magnetic micro please return as found
The bonus cache can be found by collecting all the letters and associated numbers then placing them in alphabetical order to locate where the cache is, they have been placed in the caches along the route(but not in order) and are at the top/beginning of each log good hunting Honours go to a very quick off the mark Nibbles 12 who was out to find this only minutes after being published and the FTF of all my caches welldone FTF Nibbles 12 STF HKM Hill TTF Smurfette 76