100 years of healthcare in Heanor

In February 1919, just a few months after the end of the First World War, talks began in Heanor for a cottage hospital in the town as a memorial to the men of the Heanor and Langley Mill district who fell in the war.

The local community felt the need to have a hospital for practical reasons too. Transport was still in its infancy and road travel to Ilkeston, Derby or Nottingham would have been slow and uncomfortable, especially for someone seriously ill or suffering from injuries following an accident. At this point, the NHS was nearly 30 years into the future.

In 1923 just after the Remembrance Cross was unveiled in the churchyard, a public meeting was arranged in the town hall to discuss the building of a memorial hospital.

The plan met with unanimous approval from the town’s people and an architect was engaged to get the scheme underway.

The chosen site, on Ilkeston Road, already belonged to Heanor Urban District Council and was the site of some old coal-pit workings dating from the 19th century and had been known as West’s Pit, having belonged to a Mr West of Marlpool.

It was far from plain sailing as the local community rallied around to get the plans off the drawing board and for building work to start on the earmarked plot.  

A board of trustees, composed of local councillors, headmasters, and business men was formed with an advisory committee of medical people, including the local doctor.

It is reported that in July 1924 it was decided to postpone building work because of rising costs.

Happily, they overcame these early financial teething problems and the contract for the building was awarded for a reported cost of £3,875. Nearly a century later the cost of building the next generation of health facilities in Heanor was around £3.5 million.

Over the following months in 1924 and 1925 work progressed on clearing the site and laying the foundations, with a memorial plaque from 16 May 1925 commemorating the laying of the foundation stone by Lady Smith of Dunstead.

The stone, now incorporated into the fabric of the health centre which sits on the hospital site, reads: “to the immortal memory of the brave and gallant men of the Heanor Urban District who fell in the Great War 1914-1918, their name liveth for evermore”.

By October 1925 the building was completed and the beds and equipment were installed. Miss W F Hanbury was appointed as matron and she in turn interviewed and chose the staff.

On Saturday 28 November 1925, Heanor, Langley Mill and District Memorial Hospital was officially opened by His Worship the Mayor of Nottingham, Alderman C Foulds.

During 1938 the number of patients admitted to the hospital was 362 at a cost per day equivalent to thirty-seven and a half pence each.

These were the days before the National Health Service and funds had to be raised from the general public and from local firms. In 1927 the first officially organised fete and gala, called Heanor Carnival, took place.

The carnival gradually grew and by the 1930s it had evolved into a whole week of events which were only discontinued during the Second World War.

During the post-war period the carnival came to be known as the Hospital Fete and Gala and eventually became a Saturday-only event, although Heanor Hospital’s League of Friends held fund raising activities throughout the year.

The League was formed in 1962 and over the years raised many thousands of pounds for the old hospital.

The hospital cared for generations of local residents from its opening in 1925 until its closure in September 2013 and eventual demolition in 2015.

The discovery of asbestos and other safety concerns prompted the forced shutdown of Heanor Memorial Hospital in September 2013 and there followed a frenzied period of public debate about what would happen next.

Health leaders gave a commitment that Heanor would retain health facilities in the town, and after much investigation of viable options it was decided that the old hospital could not be re-opened and a new building would be provided in its place.

Amber Valley Borough Council formally approved plans for a single storey purpose-built health development, as a base for a range of health services for the local community, at the end of November 2015.

Contractors A&S Enterprises Ltd, from Burton upon Trent, were appointed to build the new health centre and handed over the new building to Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust on 24 November 2017 – just four days before the 92^nd anniversary of the grand opening of the original hospital.

The project was completed on time and to budget. The total cost of the project was around £3.5 million, incorporating not just the building costs but all the associated costs of fitting out, preparing and opening the new building ready for patient care. 

The health centre includes purpose designed consulting rooms and treatment rooms and opened its doors to the first patients on 11 December 2017.

On 13 February, 2018 the new health centre was officially opened by Prem Singh, then chairman of Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust.

Artifacts and memorobilia from the old hospital had been salvaged during the demolition of the old hospital and have been relocated in the replacement health centre.

Some of these artifacts are on display in the foyer of the health centre as a reminder of the people who blazed a trail for Heanor to have its own health services, and who celebrated the culmination of their efforts a century ago in 1925 when the hospital was first opened.

The details in this article are based on an original account from the time by a local man called Frank Bacon and which was part of the hospital archive.