Norfolk and Norwich Hospital Virtual Cache

We have placed this cache to celebrate my 42 years of nursing at this hospital and the 250^th Anniversary of the Jenny Lind Department this year.

Norfolk and Norwich Hospital

In 1758 the Bishop of Norwich, Thomas Hayter, suggested the founding of a Norwich hospital, but the project stalled when he was moved to London. However, William Fellowes and Benjamin Gooch established a committee and a subscription fund begun, and in 1770 land near St Stephen’s Gates was purchased as a site for the hospital on a 500year lease.

The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, built at a cost of £13,323/8/11, opened for outpatients in July 1772. It had some medical staff, a matron and 20 beds.

The hospital went from strength to strength, expanding and developing, but in 1877 it was decided that a new hospital would be built rather than extending the existing buildings and in August 1883 a new hospital fully opened to patients at a cost of £57,116/6/2.

It was closed in closed in 2003 moving to its present site in Colney built under a Private Finance Initiative scheme which will eventually cost around £1,160,000,000

Jenny Lind

Norwich was the second city in the country to have a children’s hospital (the first was London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children which opened in 1852) The Norwich Infirmary for Sick Children admitted its first inpatients just two years later on 3 April 1854 thanks to the generosity of Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind. Lind, nicknamed the “Swedish Nightingale”, was one of the most popular entertainers in mid-19th century Europe – you may have seen character feature recently in the hit film The Greatest Showman starring Hugh Jackman.  In 1847, she gave her first concerts in Norwich and they proved so popular that a third concert was arranged. The money raised from the Jenny Lind concerts were earmarked for a children’s hospital. A public meeting in 1853 unanimously endorsed the idea and in 1854 the hospital opened in Pottergate, Norwich.

By the end of the 19^th century, the original Pottergate building had fallen into disrepair. Mr Jeremiah Colman donated land at Unthank Road and an appeal was launched to build a new Jenny Lind Hospital for Children. The rather grand building was opened in 1900 by The Prince of Wales, later to become Edward VII.

With the advent of the NHS in 1948 and shorter hospital stays, the standalone Children’s Hospital became less efficient and finally amalgamated with the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in 1975. Recently in 2001 the Jenny Lind Children’s Hospital moved again where it continues to provide treatment and care for the county’s children.

To Log this cache please go to the posted coordinates and private message the inscription over the doorway including the date.

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Please leave the following text at the bottom of the page, so cache finders understand the Virtual Rewards 3.0 project.

Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023

This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.