Hospitals The word hospital is connected with hospitality. In medieval times, monks offered hospitality to travellers, especially pilgrims, who were given food and a place to sleep. Monks also cared for the sick, So the earliest hospitals brought religious and medical care together, looking after the whole person, body and soul. In later times hospitals were places to dread. Nobody understood the importance of hygiene.The buildings were filthy; the nurses were untrained, scruffy and often drunk. A patient was lucky to come out alive. Attitudes improved in Victorian times through the efforts of nurses like Florence Nightingale whose family home, Lea Hurst at Holloway, lies on the edge of the Peak. Read More >> More Pictures Health and Sickness