Shropshire Star

The Market Drayton isolation hospital that disappeared forever

In all his 83 years, there is something that George Edwards of Market Drayton has never seen.

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And that is a picture of the town's disappeared isolation hospital.

"I have talked to one or two people of my age who like me remember it, but we have never seen any photographs of it," said George, of Farcroft Drive.

"Hospital Road is still there. Mobile homes are on the site now.

"I can remember it in the 1940s when quite a few of our lads went in there, in isolation, and others had to talk to them through the window as we weren't allowed to go in.

"It was a red galvanised building with a few windows and a main door, right in the middle of the field.

"It was for people with diphtheria and that sort of thing. It was mainly for children. I can remember four local lads of my age, 10 to 12, going in there.

"My father used to work for the council. When they got paid on the Saturday lunchtime my father picked me up and we went to the isolation hospital and took the caretaker's wages for the week. He used to meet us at the gate.

"There was a Harry Wall, an evacuee from Glasgow, who died there. The family came down from Clydebank when they were bombed out and they lived about four doors away from us. I suppose he would be about 18 or 19 when he died."

George thinks the hospital probably closed around the 1950s.

Of course, if any reader has a picture of the isolation hospital at Market Drayton, we would love to hear from you.