Devonshire hospital and Buxton Bath charity : instituted for the relief of poor persons from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland suffering from rheumatism, gout, sciatica, and neuralgia ; pains, weakness or contractions of joints or limbs, arising from these diseases, or from sprains, fractures, or other local injuries ; chronic forms of paralysis ; dropped hands, and other poisonous effects of lead, mercury, or other minerals ; spinal affections ; dyspeptic complaints, uterine obstructions, etc. etc. ; supported by annual subscriptions and voluntary contributions : annual report for the year 1880 ; commencement, progress, and character of the hospital extension ; action and purpose of the governors of the cotton districts convalescent fund ; management, history, annual statement, accounts, meteorological report and tables, rules and regulations, list of subscriptions and benefactions &c., Bath charity report for 1785, and copies of conveyances of hospital and baths from the Duke of Devonshire to the trustees.

Devonshire Royal Hospital (Buxton, Derbyshire, England)

Date:: 1881

Credit: Devonshire hospital and Buxton Bath charity : instituted for the relief of poor persons from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland suffering from rheumatism, gout, sciatica, and neuralgia ; pains, weakness or contractions of joints or limbs, arising from these diseases, or from sprains, fractures, or other local injuries ; chronic forms of paralysis ; dropped hands, and other poisonous effects of lead, mercury, or other minerals ; spinal affections ; dyspeptic complaints, uterine obstructions, etc. etc. ; supported by annual subscriptions and voluntary contributions : annual report for the year 1880 ; commencement, progress, and character of the hospital extension ; action and purpose of the governors of the cotton districts convalescent fund ; management, history, annual statement, accounts, meteorological report and tables, rules and regulations, list of subscriptions and benefactions &c., Bath charity report for 1785, and copies of conveyances of hospital and baths from the Duke of Devonshire to the trustees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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The life subscriptions received during the year amount to £84. The total sum obtained from offertories and collections in churches and chapels during the year has amounted to £176 18s. Offertories have been only granted in the Buxton churches on one Sunday during the year. Those at St. John's and St. James' Churches have amounted to £107 16s. lid. Efforts have been made during recent years, by the unanimous wish of the members of the Committee of Management, to obtain united action in aid of the hospital from all the churches and chapels of Buxton and its neighbourhood on a given Sunday of the year. This wish has been readily and kindly responded to by the clergy and ministers of Buxton, Trinity Episcopal Chapel (Buxton), Burbage, Harpur Hill, Wormhill, Bentley (near Ashbourne), Bottesford, Alfreton, Belvoir Castle, New Mills, Nortbenden, Bradbourne, Staley, Ballidon, Mansfield Woodhouse, Aldwark Mission-room, Buxton Congregational Church, and ]Malvern House, Buxton. It is a subject of reasonable regret that collections have not been obtained from any other churches and chapels. Much more might be expected to be received from these influential sources of benevolent action, and especially when situated in tlie manufacturing centrfs of population, obtaining, as these towns and districts do, a very large proportion of the benefit derived from the oper- ations of the hospital. The works of the hospital extension, as they advance, and approach more and more nearly to completion, realise most satisfactorily the great gain that may be hoped for to the future well-doing of the institution. The thorough and satisfactory character of the construction, the enlarged area ■of all parts of the interior, the greater number and increased size of the windows, the fireproof access to all the wards, the detached security of all of the wards, and the sanitary effect of this, and the character and capacity of the dome-covered interior, cannot but be full of advantage in the working of the hospital. The convenient arrangement of the cellars and store-rooms, the kitchens and various offices, the business-rooms, receiving-rooms, dis- pensary, &c., the detached building for surgical uses and accident case^, the detached provision for any infectious case that may at any time unhappily have found admission, will, it is trusted, supply so many elements of great good, and might well be considered to have been indispensable. The detailed account of the extension has now been repeatedly brought before the subscribers to the hospital; and it need only perhaps be added that, although the munificent grant of £24,000 from the Governors of the Cotton Districts Convalescent Fund is intended to cover the entire cost of the exten- sion, and has been provided for accordingly, under binding contracts with eminent and responsible contractors, there must remain smaller items of necessary or desirable outlay, that would minister to the satisfactory working of the hospital, and more or less to the oomfort and advantage of the patients, and that donations and benefactions in aid of such ex- penditure would be thankfully received and of unquestionable advantage. When it is seen how much of valuable detail has been foreseen and pro- vided, it v/ill be admitted how much skill and eare have been exercised on this behalf; but it must be expected, in so eomplicated a construction, with the various and multiplied wants that the working of a hospital must develop, that such unforeseen and desirable items of expenditure will present them- selves. The oost of the patients, so much above the sum received from the annual subscribers for the privilege of recommendation, justifies the desirability that the general funds of the hcfepital should be taxed as httle as possible for any extraordinary expenditure, however important. The atten- tion of the supporters of the hospital is anxiously requested on this behaif. Dr. Robertson has again been unanimously re-elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Committee of Management.

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