Catalogue description BARONY HOSPITAL, Nantwich (formerly NANTWICH UNION WORKHOUSE)

The records consist of 25 registers of patients from 1917 to 1978. All, except the volume relating to Child Welfare Centre, date from after 1948.

Records are arranged as follows:

Nantwich Board of Guardians records, (including registers of inmates) 1842-1949 see LGN

County Council Public Assistance Committee Minutes 1930-1948 see CCC1/3.

County Medical Officer of Health reports see CCC 2/2.

South Cheshire Hospital Management Committee records see NHCs 9.

Barony Hospital, ?1930-

Under the Public Records Act, all the records, except the statistical register (NHCs 6/3920/11) are closed for 100 years from date of final entry.

Acc 1266,1447(pt), 3920(pt)

• Nantwich, Cheshire
• Patients

Nantwich Union Infirmary was built in 1890-1 by Nantwich Board of Guardians, on a site adjoining the Workhouse in the Barony Ward. The Workhouse had accommodation for c.300 inmates, and the Infirmary had 70 beds for the treatment of the sick poor. Under the Local Government Act, 1929, Boards of Guardians were dissolved and their buildings and functions transferred to the Local Authority in 1930. Since the Workhouse and Infirmary occupied the same site, Cheshire County Council decided that the Infirmary could not be usefully appropriated for hospital purposes; so the whole was designated a Public Assistance Institution for treating the (chronic) sick poor, under the management of the Public Assistance Committee. In 1930, it had 124 beds. In 1935, the Council introduced a new scheme to allot particular types of cases to particular Public Assistance Institutions; the Barony was appropriated for acute medical, maternity and a proportion of chronic cases.

On the outbreak of war in 1939, part of the site was appropriated for use under the Emergency Medical Service and a hutted hospital of 240 beds was erected.

With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, the Hospital was transferred to the management of the South Cheshire (Group 20) Hospital Management Committee, part of the Manchester Regional Hospital Board. The Committee established its administrative offices in the Hospital. As well as treating medical and maternity cases, the Hospital also functioned as a mental hospital from 1948 to 1962. In 1963 it had 264 beds.

When the NHS was reorganised in 1974, the Hospital became part of Crewe District in Cheshire Area Health Authority; at the reorganisation in 1982 it became part of Crewe District Health Authority, which has its headquarters on the site. In 1982 the Hospital had 147 beds for geriatric and psychiatric patients.

Child Welfare Clinics (see NHCs 6/3920/10) were established by the County Council as part of their Maternity and Child Welfare Scheme introduced in 1914 under the power granted in the Notification of Births Act 1907. The Centre in Nantwich, established in 1917, was situated in Beam Street.

• View Record