Bored and directionless I sat at the bottom of the stairs by the side entrance to the hospital, just to get a few minutes of fresh air before completing my final morning tasks prior to the arrival of the early staff and the children waking.
It really is a glorious time of day (which most will never witness); so quiet, free from bustle & activity. Probably the best time to view the hospital, at its most serene where no one else can be seen & nothing can be heard beyond the tweeting of birds. Who in their right mind would be up at 5.30am unless they had to be?
Strange to think that by this time next year, in fact in less than ten months all hospital activity will have stopped at the Royal Infirmary site.
Excavations on the site revealed that a large medieval hospital operated on exactly the same site from the thirteenth century until the fifteen eighties. Following the Poor Law Act of 1834, the Stoke Union was formed which led to creation of a substantial workhouse. In 1842 a school house and hospital block were added, in 1866 a large new school block and chapel were built and various infirmary blocks were added from 1875. A new administration block, kitchens and a dining room together with a bakery and fire station were built in 1907. Most of the original workhouse buildings were demolished in the 1960's but many of the later additions survive forming part of the North Staffordshire Hospital site.
It will be odd for health care (in the most liberal of descriptions) to not be provided here after eight hundred years.
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