Newbury Infirmary 1879?

[seasider]

Does anyone know where the local infirmary would have been in Newbury in 1879? Or where a person would have been taken to with serious injuries.

Thanks Pat

[newburychap]

Before the hospital was built the was no specific place to take an injured person.  They could be taken to a doctor's surgery, home, the workhouse, or perhaps the dispensary (in West Street).

Do you have a more precise date?

[seasider]

Yes thanks, I have got the date from the newspapers as Tuesday 3rd July 1979. It says that she was taken to the infirmary, where she was lying in a very precarious condition and as the incident took place where she lived in Newbury, I took it that the infirmary must have been nearbye.

Pat

[newburychap]

Probably the infirmary in the workhouse, the nearest thing to a hospital at that time (the workhouse became a hospital when the workhouse system was abolished - 1929 or thereabouts).

[seasider]

Newburychap

Thanks again, I wondered if the workhouse doubled as the infirmary and I looked on the 1881 census as two of the children are in there but no sign of mother Elizabeth Gibbons, of course she could of died of her injuries in 1879 but there again I can't find a death around that time.

Pat

[newburychap]

As it happens I was looking through the Newbury Weekly News for 1877 today. One issue raised was the proposed expansion of the Workhouse - to enlarge the Infirmary.

[seasider]

That's very interesting, I reckon she was taken to the workhouse that doubled as the Infirmary, I now just need to find her death.
Many Thanks
Pat