Sandhill, Pembury Road, Tunbridge Wells

[MaxD]

My Oct 1940 birth cert has my place of birth as Sandhill, Pembury Road, Tunbridge Wells.  Parents address given as the house elsewhere in T Wells that I know I was brought up in.  Birth was registered in Tonbridge.  Does anyone know what Sandhill was in 1940/today?  MaxD

[BridgetM]

Here's a link:

http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-438495-sandhill-farmhouse-pembury

TQ 64 SW PEMBURY TONBRIDGE ROAD

5/430 Sandhill Farmhouse

Former farmhouse. Probably early C19 with some C20 modernisation. Ground
floor level is red brick, weatherboarded timber framing above; brick stacks
and chimneyshafts; peg-tile roof.

[poppyann]

You might be able to get some help from Kent Archives at Sessions House in Maidstone. There is a Pembury Road in Tunbridge Wells.  Poppyann

[poppyann]

I have just been looking on the internet and the Union Workhouse was called Sandhill and after it wasn't used as a workhouse I think it was turned into a hospital which was called Pembury Hospital which must have had a maternity ward. I hope this is of help. Poppyann

[MaxD]

Thank you both.  The workhouse site (thanks for the clue Poppyann) does say Sandhill was indeed the workhouse but was turned into Pembury Hospital in 1938 (it had then to wait two years for me to turn up!)

[poppyann]

You are welcome.

[MaisieCat]

You are not going to believe this, but my great Aunt Lil used to live at Sandhill Farm on Pembury Road back in the 1980s and I remember visiting her there every weekend as my grandfather lived there with her and her husband back then.

I have checked that it is definitely the same place by following the listed building link provided by BridgetM.

If you want any more information, please do get in touch.  I do also know a little about the workhouse and hospital as I investigated it a bit because Aunt Lil and her husband worked at the hospital together for many years and I was working there up until the old biulding closed to make way for the new hospital that is nearly finished now.
 
Would be delighted to help.

[MaxD]

Thanks for the offer Maisiecat. For starters, how did what looks like a small farmhouse get to be a workhouse, then a hospital? (Or was it a small workhouse/hospital?)
MaxD

[MaisieCat]

I think some of the information you have been given has confused you a bit. 

Sandhill Farm is quite separate to the workhouse/hospital.  I imagine that 'Sandhill' was the name of the estate to which the land upon which Sandhill Farm and the workhouse were built originally belonged. 

If you follow the link to the listed building which someone kindly gave you before, that is most definitely Sandhill Farm.  If you look at the OS map given on that link and follow Tonbridge Road southwards, you will find the hospital.  This is where the workhouse used to be.  Once the workhouse closed, the buildings started to be used as a hospital and other buildings were gradually added over the years.  Most of the newer buildings on the site have already been demolished to make way for the new hospital.  The old workhouse buildings are still there (I used to work in that part of the hospital), but will soon be flattened to make way for more parking spaces.   The only part that will remain is the old workhouse chapel which, after local campaigners got it listed status, has been saved. 

Here's a link that explains a lot more:
 http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Tonbridge/Tonbridge1881.shtml

Now that I have read your first post more carefully, I'm wondering if 'Sandhill' as your birthplace refers to the hospital, as you say your parents' address is elsewhere in Tunbridge Wells.  The above  link says that the workhouse became a hospital in 1938, so that's only 2 years before you were born.

The 5th paragraph in the link under the heading 'After 1834' expalins that the land purchased to build the workhouse on was at 'Sandhill'.  this could explain your birthplace also.

 I do hope that this helps