Wharncliffe War Hospital - Wadsley, Sheffield

Wharncliffe War Hospital was located at Wadsley near Sheffield, not far from where Hillsborough football stadium stands today. Originally known as the 'South Yorkshire Asylum', when the hospital first opened it's doors in 1872, it's primary function was to care for patients suffering from mental illness.

Exterior view of the hospital by E, Hawley of  Hillsbro'
Postcard from my personal collection

When the asylum was converted into a military hospital in early 1915, all it's former residents were transferred to alternative facilities around the North of England, 1,500 beds were then made available to the war office for the treatment of sick or injured soldiers. Through out the war, the hospital was known as the 'Wharncliffe War Hospital' rather than it's actual name of 'The West Riding Asylum, Wadsley' This was most likely an attempt to distance the hospital and it's patients from it's former purpose and prevent prejudice and stigma against the men convalescing there. Sadly attitudes towards mental health during this period were not as understanding as they are today. The name Wharncliffe is probably a reference to Edward Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, 1st Earl of Wharncliffe, who chaired the committee which founded the asylum in the 1860s.

In September 1915 King George V visited the hospital during a royal tour of Sheffield. It is estimated that between April 1915 and July 1920 about 35,000 casualties were treated at the hospital.  By using Ancestry.co.uk, we know of at least one young man who sadly died at the hospital, Able Seaman Alfred Walker passed away at 8.30am on 17th July 1918 in Wharncliffe War Hospital Middlewood Rd, Sheffield, from Intestinal Hemorrhage & Heart Failure. Wharncliffe ceased to function as a war hospital in the Summer of 1920, when it was returned to it's prior use as an asylum.

A group of staff and patients pose on a ward
Postcard from my personal collection.

During WW2 the building once again served as a military hospital. In 1948 the hospital became part of the NHS and although it continued to care for psychiatric patients, it no longer used the outdated term 'Asylum' in it's title and became known as the 'Middlewood Hospital' instead. In 1996 the hospital shut it's doors for good and the land was subsequently sold off to developers. Today most of the site has been demolished, however, several of the buildings are still standing due to them holding grade II listed status. The main admin block (the clock tower), and Kingswood ward have been converted in to flats.

View more photographs on my follow up post - Wharncliffe War Hospital - Part 2

Sources______________________________
1914-1918.net/hospitals_uk
Ancestry.co.uk/
Redcross.org.uk/First-World-War/Auxiliary-Hospitals
sheffieldsoldierww1.co.uk/Hospital/
wharncliffewarhospital.co.uk/
wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlewood_Hospital