Toomey Family of Churcham, Gloucester Hospital Records (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Sunday, September 18, 2016, 00:42 (2989 days ago) @ sidtoomey01

Hi again Sid,
this is NOT my area of knowledge at all, but hopefully you'll agree with my findings, gained over a very interesting browse around the net, namely;

Littleworth and St Owen were both in the Southgate/Docks area just west of Gloucester city centre.
See Section 4 of this excellent document for history
http://www.gloucester.gov.uk/resident/Documents/Planning%20and%20Building%20Control/His...

The original Gloucester Infirmary was in Southgate Street until it was demolished in the 1980s. It can be seen on the southwestern edge of the city on this 1792 map of Gloucester, as you can see Sid the city is centred on "The Cross", from which North, East, West and Southgate Streets radiate outwards. The Cross was originally at the centre of the Roman fortress Glevum built about 68AD, from which the rest of the settlement grew.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publications/pubid-281/images/fig0...

It's marked in the lower L/H corner of this highly-detailed O.S. map from the 1880s
http://maps.nls.uk/view/101453175

The Kelly's Directory of 1897 states

"The General Infirmary, in Southgate street, with which is amalgamated the Gloucestershire Eye Institution-(formerly in Market parade), is a structure of brick, the central portion of which was erected in 1755 from designs by Mr. L. Singleton: the south wing, erected in 1827, is assigned to the treatment of medical cases only, and the north wing, opened in 1871, to surgical cases, accidents and out-patients, the original block being reserved for miscellaneous patients: there are beds for 150 patients, besides some additional private wards, surgery, dispensary, and medical officers' rooms; the annual number of in-patients admitted is about 1,430 and of out-patients about 7,580."

This, and details about the other old infirmaries and dispensaries within old Gloucester are described in great detail in the Kelly's Directory of 1897 which may be found near the very bottom of this webpage.
http://forebears.co.uk/england/gloucestershire/gloucester

In 1848 it looked like this
http://www.ancestryimages.com/proddetail.php?prod=h2390

Inside a ward in 1912
http://www.visit-gloucestershire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/1900GlosRoyal1912_WEB...
From this great site for old Gloster http://www.visit-gloucestershire.co.uk/old-gloucester/old-gloucester-menu/

And in more recent times, c1970?
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/9c/79/e8/9c79e8a3c7bb2996aeda52f694b21e48.jpg

So, all this ties-in nicely with Slowhands' old forum post
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?id=9540

Hence it definitely seems to me that this is the Infirmary you're thinking of.
(wheras I was ignorantly wondering whether the Workhouse would be relevant ?)

This Infirmary was presumably still in use at the same time as the NHS Hospital I attended a few times in the 1970s, a dark-looking Victorian building on Great Western Road which is the opposite/eastern side of the city centre. Apparently known as Gloucester City General Hospital, it was originally the infirmary for the Workhouse next door. This can be seen towards the centre of the old OS map referenced above.
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Gloucester/

This "Great Western" Hospital as we called it was replaced in the 1970s by the modern tower block "Gloucester Royal Hospital" built on the same site. It seems that the remaining services being performed at the old Infirmary site were then also transferred to this new "Royal", before the old Infirmary was itself demolished in the 1980s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloucestershire_Hospitals_NHS_Foundation_Trust

All this is detailed within the British History site, albeit in a rather haphazard manner, see General Infirmaries section.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol4/pp269-275#h3-0002

Thanks Sid for teaching me there were actually two hospitals in the city when I was a regular visitor to Gloster before I moved away from the Forest, I'd never have guessed. I realise this background may not be entirely pertinent to your query, but it's really helped me understand things better !

Anyhow, back to your query regarding Infirmary records !

Some Records are held by Gloucester Archives, see
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/9c0c229b-4a9f-4876-93b4-728f60d3244e

That page has a link to the Gloucester Archives site, ie
http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives/article/107703/Archives-Homepage

My quick search for "Hospital Records" produced this document.
http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=56553&p=0

So it looks like you're best option is to contact Gloucester Archives.
I really hope you get lucky, but given the tremendous amount of re-organisation of local Government and NHS etc that have taken place in Gloster in the last 10 years never mind the last 150+, I suspect a lot of these records may no longer exist. I do hope I'm wrong, please keep us informed on your progress.
Oh, and Good Luck with the Lottery !