With the news this past week that plans to extend Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester have been given the go ahead, it seems timely to look back at its history.

Here, we’re sharing photos of the original hospital near the town’s shopping streets, its associated isolation hospital and the new private Winterbourne hospital and of course the building of the modern day DCH in the 1980s.

Founded in 1840, the first Dorchester Hospital was located on Princes Street near the town centre.

Dorchester Hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948, at which point it was treating 2,000 inpatients per year.

The Union workhouse on Damers Road, built in 1836, also joined the newly formed NHS in 1948 as Damers Hospital.

Dorset Echo:

Demolition of the Union workhouse in 1994, which joined the NHS as Damers Hospital in 1948

By the late 1990s, the hospital was in need of replacement, and services began to be transferred to Dorset County Hospital. Dorchester Hospital was formally closed in 1998, and the buildings were converted into flats.

Dorset Echo:

Construction of the West Dorset District Hospital was underway in 1985

Plans for the new hospital, located between Damers Road and Bridport Road, began in the early 1980s, and construction took place in phases.

Dorset Echo:

The first phase on the north part of the site was completed in the late 1980s and became known as West Dorset County Hospital. Upon completion of the second phase of construction, the entire site became known as Dorset County Hospital; it was officially opened by the Queen on May 8, 1998.

Dorset Echo:

Ben White was the first patient to undergo an MRI scan at the new hospital, in December 1998

Until the 1980s, Dorchester was also home to an Isolation Hospital on Herringston Road.

Patients suffering from diseases such as smallpox or Scarlett Fever were housed in isolation wards away the main units in an attempt to prevent the deadly illnesses from spreading.

Dorset Echo:

Pictured are some of the old wards of the isolation hospital at Herringston Road, on the site of the current Winterbourne Hospital

When the Isolation Hospital was demolished, work began on the private Winterbourne Hospital, which is now run by BMI Healthcare and neighbours the Joseph Weld Hospice.

Dorset Echo:

1993: the nursing station at Winterbourne Hospital

 

Dorset Echo:

In April 1981, Sir Joseph Weld lays the foundation stone of the new Winterbourne Hospital

 

Dorset Echo:

1988: a bronze sculpture of a dog by Dame Elizabeth Frink was moved to a spot near the children’s creche by the main entrance of the hospital. Pictured are, from left, Sister Rene Skilleter, hospital manager Anne Bowen, assistant manager Ruth Williams, Dame Elisabeth Frink, unit general manager David Pinder and Valerie Pitt-Rivers, vice chairman of the West Dorset Health Authority

Dorset Echo:

Theatre assistant Paul Collins shows members of the public around one of the operating theatres at the new Dorset County Hospital in July 1998

 

Dorset Echo:

In 1999, demolition work was well underway at the site of former Dorchester Hospital on Princes Street