ODHS, High st Westbury on Severn

I recently came across this address, O D H S, 1 High St, Westbury on Severn when researching a great uncle, Thomas Evans who died there in 1945. There were a lot of residents living there. Can anyone help fill in the use of the building please.

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That's the address used by the Workhouse so that's presumably where he died. But I don't know what ODHS stands for...

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Could it be the Workhouse Hospital?

Chris

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Looking at the 1939 Census

Gloucestershire RD (17 pages)

The Enumeration District was ODHS

Where Thomas EVANS was in 1939 -

1 High Street
Westbury on Severn

Leopard BIRD was Master of Public Assistance Institution
Annie BIRD was Matron Public Assistance Institution

----

probably not the same Thomas EVANS

???

Probate (Ancestry)

EVANS Thomas of The Firs, Ruardean Hill, Drybrook, Gloucestershire
died 10 April 1945
Administration : Gloucester 11 September to Lydia WHITSON (wife of Alexander WHITSON)

Effects: £220

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Hi all, thanks for info. Thomas was registered at 1 High St Westbury in 1939 and his death is at that address in 4th quarter 1945. I can only assume that was the workhouse and/or hospital.

Brian

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Hi Brian,
yes Number 1 was indeed the old Workhouse, they started using this address in 1904, as described on this excellent webpage;
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/WestburyOnSevern/

Unfortunately that page doesn't tell us much about it's latter years in the time your Great Uncle was there. However we get a lttle more from the British History page for W-o-S, namely;

"In 1835 Westbury was included in the Westbury Union, which bought the workhouse for its own use. The workhouse, which stands west of Westbury village street, comprises a long three-story brick range, apparently incorporating the original parish workhouse, and a larger brick range behind, evidently built in 1874, in which a chapel is included. The buildings later housed a county council welfare home, called Westbury Hall, which was closed in 1969. A local board of health for Westbury was formed in 1863,and in consequence the parish became an urban district under the act of 1894, but it was taken into Gloucester Rural District in 1935."
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol10/pp97-98

Altho not mentioned in the above website, there were definitely hospital facilities at the Workhouse since it's enlargement in 1869, see
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=7144

I'm sure we touched more on this subject in the past but am struggling to find the old thread, although I can find this one which is relevant. I've just updated it to include a mention & photo of nurses at Westbury c1925.
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=16761

Since late Victorian times the Workhouse hospitals often saw "short-term" stays from people who couldn't afford medical care, especially pregnant mothers who would admit themselves to the local workhouse hospital to have their child, so as to be under good medical care rather than at home, alone, perhaps. Maybe this is similar to what happened with your Great Uncle, given the dates of his birth maybe his father was away from home in the armed forces and his mother was on hard times ?.
These prior posts may be of interest in this respect;
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?mode=entry&id=45593
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?mode=entry&id=42498

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By way of interest Westbury Hall was briefly known as Dean Hall in the late 1940s.

BNA Gloucester Citizen - Wednesday 20 October 1948

On the recommendation of the Westbury-on-Severn hostel committee, it was agreed that new wireless equipment should be installed to serve both the residential accommodation and the hospital wards, and that the Infirmary should be renamed Dean Hall

BNA Gloucester Citizen - Wednesday 16 February 1949

Westbury—Not " Dean " —Hall

Owing to the confusion and inconvenience which, it was stated, had been caused to relatives and friends of patients and residents at the Welfare Hostel at Westbury-on-Severn through the adoption of the name " Dean Hall," the Hostel Committee reported having given further consideration to the matter. Several alternative names were proposed, it was stated, and eventually the name was changed to " Westbury Hall."

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That's interesting Mike, does seem an odd choice of name from a geographical viewpoint, but I wonder why it gave "confusion" in 1949 ?
At first thought it seemed obvious, as when we were primary school kids c1970 we all knew the term "Dean Hall" related to children with learning difficulties, not that we called them that at the time, sadly...
In those circumstances it seems easy to see why some 1950s folk at Westbury might object to a perceived link.

BUT apparently that Dean Hall, apart from being miles away near Speech House, wasn't opened as such until 10 years later in 1958. At least this was when the Council school started, perhaps it was a privately owned before that c1948 ???.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol5/pp405-413#h3-0003

I find that the old (Speech House) Dean Hall was built in 1915 to be a Forestry School, but instead became NCB offices. So I guess even then it was government owned, so unlikely to be briefly privately-owned before becoming a council school in 1958 ?.
https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101288976-old-dean-hall-school-west-dean#.W7vsN2dSRkg

Ah well... think I'm reading too much into things... again !
Thanks again sir.

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ODHS, High st Westbury on Severn (General)