Grandfather at either Coatdyke Hospital or Coatmill Hospital

[doddsie4]

    Just before he died in 1962, my grandfather, John P Martin, was living at a place called Merrystone House, Coatbridge.      I suspect that was an old folks Care Home - does anyone know if that is right?

  ....Before that, I remember visiting him in a hospital at Coatdyke, and up until now I have always thought that it was Coatdyke Hospital, but I see on the map there is Coathill Hospital.        Is there, or was there, also a Coatdyke Hospital?      If there wasn't, then it must have been Coathill Hospital I visited.     Would just like to know.
 

[hanes teulu]

Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser, 20 Oct 1956

"Merrystone House Residential Home for Old People
Applications are invited for the post of ASSISTANT HOUSE MOTHER ...."

 

[scotmum]

Putting both names in old newspaper search consistently returns hits for Coathill Hospital and none for Coatdyke Hospital. Perhaps as the area was Coatdyke, locals just referred to it as the hospital at Coatdyke, which then was maybe shortened by some to Coatdyke Hospital, even although it was Coathill Hospital.

https://historic-hospitals.com/gazetteer/lanarkshire/ for picture and info, which also notes that Coathill was the former Old Monkland Poorhouse. Part of the grounds were also used for Coathill Fever Hospital.

[doddsie4]

       I think you must be right.      People would be referring to Coathill Hospital as Coatdyke Hospital, simply because it was in Coatdyke.    From there, he moved on the Merrystone House, Coatbridge.   After a while, he caught pneumonia and was rushed to Motherwell Hospital and died there.      He was a great old guy with a wonderfully gentle sense of humour.      I never heard him raise his voice in annoyance or anger in all the time I knew him.

[Istrice]

Coathill Hospital was located in the Whifflet area of Coatbridge.  Hospital Street, on the south side of Whifflet ran west from the main road to Bellshill.  Margaret Street ran north/south and met Hospital Street at right angles.  Coathill Hospital was located at this junction.
As noted in an earlier post, the building was formerly part of the poor house.

Istrice

[sancti]

Coathill Hospital in Whifflet area was quite a distance from Coatdyke which was at the boundary of Coatbridge and Airdrie. The hospital was a geriatric hospital at one point. You may remember it being at the top of a hill.

[doddsie4]

    The place I visited had elderly patients who were in beds, and to get to my grandfather's ward, I had to go to the second floor of the building.       It was away back  about 1960 that I visited him.     Two years later he was living at Merrystone House.        I have the impression of the hospital  being quite large.       I wonder if it could have been Coatbridge though.        I don't think so, because he was a cricket fan, and he mentioned attending a game at nearby Drumpellier once.   

      By the way, he also mentioned that when he was a young man, he saw the great W.G.Grace play cricket when he was down South.  ...The ward he was in seemed like a Geriatric ward, rather than like a Home.

   

[Istrice]

Merrystone House was a care home for the elderly in Coatbridge.  It was located at the northeast corner of the Blairhill Street/West Canal Street junction.  The property can be seen on google maps, but I am unaware of its current usage.
The cricket connection is entirely likely as Drumpellier Cricket Ground is a short distance from Merrystone, and easily walkable.  Walking West from Merryston along King Street to Blair Road, turn left and walk down the hill to Drumpellier Avenue (on the right).  The DCC is on the left, about 100m. from the junction.  Total distance, about half a mile.

Istrice