While our priority will always be giving you and your loved ones the best possible care, preserving our heritage is also very important to us.
We believe it’s vital that our clinical teams have the right facilities and equipment to give you the treatment you need – especially in an emergency.
To continue to do this, both now and in the future, we needed to build a new Emergency Department at Scunthorpe.
Sadly, that meant that we had to demolish some of our older buildings – which were no longer fit for purpose – to create the space we need.
However, we have taken a number of steps to preserve our heritage.
About the building
Although it’s not a listed building, the three-storey administration block that had to be demolished was one of the oldest buildings on our sites.
It was part of the original Scunthorpe War Memorial Hospital, which was opened in 1929 and the exterior of the Administration block looked much the same as it did back then.
This included the striking archway over the main entrance, which included the inscription Scunthorpe General Hospital and a 1929 date stone, along with memorial cornerstones bearing the dates 1914 and 1918 in memory of those lost in the First World War.
As such, we felt it was only right to preserve this memorial to their bravery and sacrifice and incorporate it into the new building.
How it all started
Built prior to the foundation of the NHS, the £100,000 project was funded by public subscription.
There had been a significant rise in demand for medical care as a result of the injuries sustained by workers in the town’s growing steel industry.
Lord St. Oswald donated the 14 acre site, while local chartered architect, W H Butterwick, designed the building, with the assistance and advice of Colonel Mackintosh of the Glasgow Western Infirmary.
It’s one of his sketches of the hospital – printed in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph in 1927 – that’s published at the top of this page.
Built by Messrs H J Thompson Ltd of Scunthorpe in 1927 and their local workforce, the original plans were for a 66 bed hospital, spread across two wards.
An article in the Hull Daily Mail, printed that year, listed further facilities including an administration block, lifts, kitchens, dining rooms, operating theatres, an admission block, casualty, x-ray, massage, dental and eye departments.
There were also supporting services, including a mortuary, sleeping accommodation for nursing and domestic staff, and a laundry.
Our community heritage
The foundation stone was laid that same year by Lord Buckland of Bwlch, the chairman of Lohn Lysaght Ltd of Scunthorpe.
Over the next two years the building works continued, until it finally opened as a 112 bed facility, replacing the 28 bed Frodingham Cottage Hospital.
The site was officially opened on December 5, 1929, by Talbot Cliff, the chairman of Scunthorpe Magistrates – who stepped in after the Prince of Wales was unable to attend.
The site was further extended several times in the following years.
The foundation stone for the new Nurses’ Home was laid in 1932 by Mr W Benton-Jones, the chairman of United Steels Ltd.
The existing administration block had grown too congested and this new building would provide accommodation for 60 nurses and lecture rooms, as the hospital was to become a nurse training centre.