Hospitals The hospital of St Mary in the Peak, at Castleton, was run by monks. It was almost certainly founded in the 12th/13th century by the wife of William Peveril. Wealthy people made gifts to religious establishments. In 1342-3 Queen Philippa, the wife of Edward III gave money to St Mary in the Peak. Two centuries later, the annual income of the hospital was 40 shillings (£2) but all monastic life in England was then swept away under Henry VIII. For the next few centuries, hospitals were places to dread. Florence Nightingale led the way in making dramatic improvements after nursing British soldiers in the Crimean War. In 1858 part of the Duke of Devonshire’s stables at Buxton was converted into a hospital supported by the Buxton Bath Charity. In 1882 the central area was enclosed beneath a massive dome, then the largest in the world. Modern medicine developed and the Devonshire Royal Hospital, as it became known in 1934, specialised in orthopaedics (bone problems). Meanwhile isolation hospitals had sprung up around the Peak. In 1894 a wooden infectious diseases hospital was built in Shutts Field at Bakewell. It was frequently used for cases of scarlet fever, so was known as the fever hospital. Scarlet fever and diphtheria patients from Edale were sent to one at Chinley. A fever hospital was erected at Birchinlee during construction of the Upper Derwent Dams, where a “tin town” was built to house the navvies and their families. Only one patient was ever admitted to the lonely isolation hospital in the fields at Water Grove, near Wardlow. She was successfully nursed through smallpox. An outbreak of smallpox at Sheffield in 1892 led to a few scattered cases in Hathersage and an isolation hospital was hastily built on an exposed field at The Booths. Bakewell & District Cottage Hospital opened after the First World War as a war memorial. It was built chiefly due to the efforts of Edward Lascelles Hoyle of Holme Hall, who had lost two of his own sons in the war. Communities raised funds to pay for treatment at their local hospital. This entitled them to a number of “recommends” Without a recommend, you could not have hospital care. One or two trusted people were responsible for giving them out when needed. At the Whitworth Hospital, for example, there was a “Tansley bed” for patients from that village. Birchover’s Hospital Demonstration Committee raised funds for Bakewell War Memorial Cottage Hospital, for the Whitworth at Darley Dale and the Devonshire at Buxton. Events such as Hospital Sundays took place all around the Peak. They were often organised by a local friendly society. A brass band and various groups led a procession round the village as collections were made for local hospitals. More Pictures Health and Sickness