THE DEVONSHIRE ROYAL HOSPITAL AND BUXTON BATH CHARITY, BUXTON

Note that Buxton Bath Charity records are to be found at number D4508/9/1-5 and 16/1-2.

Minutes

Reports

Management papers

Property, endowments, etc

Transfer to National Health Service

Rules and regulations

Provision of services

Accounts

Premises

Water supplies

Staff

Training and research

Patients and treatment

Publications, publicity, etc

Photographs

Miscellaneous

Friends of the Devonshire Royal Hospital

• <corpname>Devonshire Royal Hospital, Buxton</corpname>
• <corpname>Buxton Bath Charity, Buxton</corpname>

These records were deposited in the Record Office in July 1996, January and July 2000.

The mineral waters at Buxton have been known and used since Roman times, although it is only from the 16th century that there survives much information on their use and the development of accommodation for visitors wishing to drink the waters. Such accommodation was for the better-off, but it seems that a Charity to enable poor persons to use the medicinal waters existed at least from the 16th century. There is said to have been a treasury of the bath for this purpose in 1572. The charity was revived or formally reconstituted in 1779 as Buxton Bath Charity.

In 1858, the Duke of Devonshire handed over to the trustees of the charity part of the Great Stables (built at the same period as The Crescent in the 1780's). After adaptations, these were opened in 1859 as the Devonshire Hospital and Buxton Bath Charity, where the charity lodged poor people whilst undergoing treatment. In 1878, the Cotton Districts Convalescent Fund gave £24,000 in recognition of the Hospital's services to distressed Lancashire cotton operatives after the collapse of the industry during the American Civil War. This enabled the conversion of the remainder of the Great Stables to be adapted for Hospital use. The inner area of the building was opened up and the whole including the former exercising yard for the horses covered with a dome. The work was completed in 1881. Meanwhile, the building and grounds had been legally conveyed to the charity by the Duke of Devonshire in 1868 for a nominal rent.

The Hospital established research laboratories in 1912 with the appointment of a bacteriologist, later in 1923 appointing a research chemist (or biochemist). Research was into arthritis and rheumatism. The Hospital continued to expand, adding or converting further buildings and purchasing the Buxton Clinic in 1948.

In 1934 it was granted permission to be known as the Devonshire Royal Hospital and in 1948 became part of the National Health Service.

The Hospital was closed in 2000.