Ghost Hospital #2 (Ecclesfield)
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I originally wanted to do a lost hospital series but while researching for that i found out about this Reformatory so decided to do a cache about it. So Lisboa_bruno started the ball rolling with the Ghost hospital series and gradually expanding it. If anyone would like to add to the series please contact Lisboa_bruno or myself and we are here to help.
A Rehabilitation hospital for Roman Catholic female inebriates In March 1899, under the orders of Cardinal Vaughan, the Sisters of the Order of the Good Shepherd acquired Ecclesfield, a commodious mansion with a lodge and cottages in 45 acres of grounds, in order to establish a convent and a Certified Inebriate Reformatory for Roman Catholic women. A team of Sisters were tasked to establish the Reformatory. Changes were made to the mansion to provide temporary accommodation for the inmates. An existing room as a Dining Room, a workroom and a Recreation Room. Another team of Sisters set up a laundry in the lodge. it opened on 8th April 1899.Roman Catholic women from any county in England and Wales were eligible for admission if their local authority was willing to pay 7 shillings (35p) a week and the first patients were admitted in May and by August, there were 25 inmates. By the end of the year there were 42 women. As it was a religious establishment, only Roman Catholics were admitted.By 1900 it had 75 beds, but only 36 inmates. Thewomen sent from the courts proved to be of too rough a character for the Sisters' methods. Most were of the lowest class of prostitute, many with syphilis or gonorrhoea, and needed stricter management than the Sisters could enforce. The laundry, intended to make the Reformatory self-supporting, was also in trouble as the inmates, unused to such physical labour, were too debilitated to work. It was decided to cease admissions from the courts after December 1903. When the last of these were discharged in 1906. Early in 1905 the site was split into two parts - St Joseph's Reformatory for working-class inebriates and Ecclesfield (Home of the Good Shepherd), a retreat for 65 middle-class women who had been admitted voluntarily. The Sisters divided the inmates of Ecclesfield into two classes. Those in the Sacred Heart Class paid the most and did not engage in manual labour. The second group - St Joseph's Class - could afford to pay little or nothing, but earned their keep by undertaking domestic work for the Sacred Heart Class. The group in St Joseph's Reformatory (the traditional type of voluntary penitents) were designated as Our Lady's Class. Thus, from being a Certified Inebriate Reformatory, the institution became a three-class Retreat. In October 1907 the laundry - a main source of income for the institution - caught fire. Everything - the machinery, laundry utensils and most of the linen sent to be washed - was destroyed, as was the Recreation Room. The 50 penitents, who had been at dinner at the time, lost all their worldly possessions, including their clothes which had been stored away until they left the Reformatory. All the winter clothes they had prepared for the coming winter were also lost. The Sisters estimated that insurance money would be sufficient to repay the money they had borrowed to install and furnish the laundry, and to compensate those whose property had been destroyed. However, in the meantime, they had to provide for the 50 girls and women. An appeal was launched for funds to feed and clothe them for one month. If there was no immediate prospect of rebuilding the laundry, the penitents would have to be disbanded. In the event, the laundry was rebuilt. By 1913 the Retreat was charging its middle-class inmates from 12s 6d (63p) to 2 guineas (£2.10) a week, admitting those suffering from inebriation (and now there is a pub at each end of the road), drug addiction and anxiety. By the mid 1920s the Retreat had some 90 to 100 upper and middle class patients (those of lower status were not admitted - they were sent to the Reformatory to do laundry work). Of this number, a third were cured and a third improved; treatment of the remaining third proved completely useless. On admission, patients were purged. Bromides and hyoscyamus and sal volatile were given every two hours. These were continued from 3 to 6 weeks, as necessary, after which simple tonics were then given. The usual stimulant nourishments were supplied and, for a short time, whatever stimulant the patient had been taking prior to admission. This was then tapered off and, once ceased, spartein sulphate injections were given. Credit lost hospitals of London
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(Decrypt)
Unatvat nebhaq. Abg gur boivbhf cynpr.