The north
Liverpool suburb which borders Croxteth, Aintree and Kirkby, parts of
Fazakerley lie in neighbouring Knowsley. A base for a Royal Ordnance Factories
plant manufacturing weapons during World War II Fazakerley is now the home of
Fazakerley Hospital, also known as Aintree University Hospital.
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| Liverpool c 1930s Postcard - Fazakerley |
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| Harebeck House |
Harbreck House
was in Bluebell Woods off Higher Lane, Fazakerley, the Estate was bought by
Liverpool Council in 1898 and this later became the site Aintree Hospital. The
house was used as an administration block and staff quarters for the Annexe
until the 1950's.
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| Doctors Houses at the Hospital |
The City
Hospital Fazakerley was one of the hospitals built around Liverpool to cope
with the ever growing need for the care of the poor, who had traditionally been
sent to workhouses, and the control of diseases. Dr William Henry Duncan who
practised in Rodney Street, but had taken on extra duties in the Liverpool
Dispensary in Vauxhall Road, warned that
fever would continue while living accommodation was dirty and lacking fresh
air. Dr Duncan was appointed as the first Medical Officer of Health in England,
and as a result of his intervention, in 1849 the General Board of Health
ordered the removal of persons from rooms where diseases appeared. Temporary
hospitals were set up often too late; some of the sick were taken to the
Workhouse spreading the diseases further amongst a susceptible population.
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| The kitchen block on this hospital from the late 19th century ©NMR B Skingle |
Over the coming
years and various epidemics it became apparent, although unpopular, that
isolation of patients was as important as the need for social change. Fifty
years later, the City Hospital Fazakerley was one of the hospitals built around
Liverpool to cope with the ever growing need for the care of the sick.
Fazakerley
Hospital was used by the military during the First World War for the treatment
of soldiers injured during fighting on the front. Some other Merseyside
hospitals were used as satellite military hospitals to Fazakerley during this
period. Troops at the hospital were visited by Queen Mary who visited
Fazakerley Hospital to meet wounded and hospitalized soldiers receiving
treatment for their injuries.
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| Noel Cavasse VC and Bar |
The hospital has
honoured World War One hero Captain Noel Chavasse by naming a ward after him.
Liverpool’s specialist brain hospital The Walton Centre has named a new 29 bed
ward, which is part of a wider multi-million pound hospital expansion, after
the courageous Army doctor and opened it on Tuesday, February 26 2013 with a
full military fanfare. The ward was officially opened by Major General Ewan
Carmichael, Director General of the Army Medical Services.
Timeline of
events
1898: Liverpool
Corporation buys land from Harbreck family.
1901: Annexe of
temporary buildings opens.
1906: Permanent
building – City Hospital North, Fazakerley, for Infectious Diseases – opens.
1913: 1st
Western Military Hospital opens.
1916: Queen Mary
visits Fazakerley.
1920: Opening of
Fazakerley Sanatorium for Tuberculosis.
1939-50: During
World War II, patients evacuated from Royal Southern Hospital to the main
hospital.
1940: Bomb
damage.
1947: Main
hospital changes its name to Fazakerley Infectious Hospital.
1948: Hospitals
pass from city council to National Health Service.
1950: Fazakerley
Sanatorium changes its name to Aintree Tuberculosis Hospital.
1965: Work
begins on a large new general district hospital.
1968: Name
changes to Fazakerley Hospital.
1969: Maternity
unit opens.
1974: Fazakerley
District General Hospital main site opens, incorporating Fazakerley and Aintree
hospitals buildings.
1996: Walton
Centre moves on to site.
1999: Name
changes to University Hospital Aintree to reflect close links with Liverpool
University.
2006: Becomes
Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Harbreck House,
has a history of its own. Sadly, it has now gone, what remains however is, Bluebell Woods which
shows some evidence of the demolished building, There are also obvious signs of a previous residential garden, including a
large monkey puzzle tree.
Aintree
University Hospital is now a large teaching hospital providing Accident & Emergency
services and a wide range of acute and non-acute specialties.
The hospital
serves a population of around 330,000 in North Liverpool. South Sefton and
Kirkby. As a teaching hospital, provides a range of acute and non-acute
specialties, the hospital works in partnership with other organisations to
provide community-based and specialist
services with a world-class reputation to a population of 1.5m residents across
the North West.
Robert F Edwards
