The Yorkshire Children’s Orthopaedic Hospital
An important part of Kirkbymoorside’s history has been preserved with the publication of a series of three books on the Yorkshire Children’s Orthopaedic Hospital, better known as Kirkbymoorside’s Adela Shaw Hospital.
It has been researched with the help of patients and former staff by Kirkbymoorside History Group to mark the 40th anniversary of its closure.
Adela Shaw was a member of one of Ryedale’s best-known families. They owned the Welburn Estate, and she became president of the Yorkshire Association of Women’s Institutes, a magistrate and was a holder of the CBE. In later life, she moved to Burn Hall, near York, and died at the age of 92 in 1962.
Mrs Shaw was originally involved in the Ryedale Cottage Hospital at Howkeld when she sponsored its building along with Lady Margaret Beckett and Mrs Harrison Holt. However, it closed in the 1930s because of the costs of essential repairs.
The new hospital was to be built on the site of the original small Red Cross Convalescent Hospital. Initially it consisted of four large army huts and a bungalow, given by Mrs Shaw, and provided accommodation for between 70 and 100 beds.
Major Sir Robert Lister Bower, the chairman of the executive committee of the North Riding Red Cross, said at the time in a letter to the York Herald in 1924, that the urgency for such a hospital was “great”, adding that in Yorkshire there were about 5,000 children, now crippled, “the vast majority of whom are wholly or partially curable, with proper treatment”.
The hospital was to become a life-long commitment for Adela Shaw and her name became synonymous with child welfare in Yorkshire.
Appeals for funds to help run the hospital proved successful and it was officially opened in 1925 by Princess Mary, the Princess Royal.
In later years the hospital’s focus shifted from a specialist unit to a general hospital as polio and TB were largely eradicated through the vaccination programme. With that, the knowledge and nursing at the Adela Shaw was lost.
By the mid-1960s it was catering for adult patients and would treat anything from tonsils, adenoids and bunions to hip replacements.
The buildings were gradually deteriorating and eventually a decision was made to close the hospital and transfer the long-stay patients to a new orthopaedic centre at Scarborough’s Cross Lane hospital in 1970.
With its closure, the memories of this once-important facility began to fade from history and so the history group undertook an ambitious project to capture the stories, memories and photographs linked to the children’s wards. Hundreds of people have since been in contact either requesting information or donating it, and the importance of the hospital has now been recognised.
In November 2013 the group organised a reunion for all involved in the project. It was a huge success with more than 100 people travelling to see the display, including the former Kirkbymoorside vicar Michael Wright who was part of the fight against the hospital closure back in 1969 and 1970. There were also former patients and staff who came from as far afield as Hull, Wakefield and Sunderland to see and meet up with old friends and colleagues.
One of the last child patients, Donella Agar, was invited to unveil an information panel and sign at the entrance to the former site.
Adela Shaw and the Yorkshire Children’s Orthopaedic Hospital
This book is the first in a series of three on the topic of Kirkbymoorside’s very own Children’s Hospital. Once renowned for its ground-breaking approach to the treatment of disease in Yorkshire, this book covers the history of the hospital from opening in 1925 right through to the closure in 1970.
Smile
Following on from the first book, Smile is a wonderful collection of photographs and memories sent in by former patients, staff and relatives, capturing a complete sense of this unique wooden hospital and daily life on the wards.
Fresh Air on the Verandah
This is the final book in the Adela Shaw series and brings together all of the letters and stories sent into the history group following the publication of the first two. Learn just how far people would travel and learn how patients fared after they left the gates of the hospital for the last time.
Books are available from Children in Distress charity shop in town (Market Place) or via our contact page.