The Opening of Stannington : the First Children’s TB Sanatorium

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This week we have another guest post kindly provided by Dr Hazel Jones-Lee on behalf of Children North East detailing the establishment of the Sanatorium by the Poor Children’s Holdiay Association, the predecessor to Children North East:

 

The opening to patients on 15 March 1908 of the first Children’s Sanatorium in Great Britain at Stannington, Northumberland, was the culmination of a lengthy and tireless process by the Poor Children’s Holiday Association to improve the health and wellbeing of poor children by taking them out of the fetid air of the slums of Newcastle to the fresh air of the seaside or countryside.

 

Against a background of a national Fresh Air Movement, the PCHA’s founders, J.H.Watson & J.T.Lunn, began work in 1891, by taking 120 poor children for a day at the seaside in Tynemouth. Supported by the generosity of local people, this modest scheme expanded rapidly in 1894 to include country holidays of two-three weeks for those sickly or weak children who needed a longer period of fresh country air. By 1901, 8796 children a year went on day trips and 214 on country holidays: even so, it was soon clear that more was needed.

 

At least as early as 1903, the charity’s honorary physician, Dr.T.M.Allison, was calling for separate treatment to be available for the many consumptive children in the region, whose condition might be improved significantly by a prolonged stay in the country with “food and fresh air, shelter and sunshine’ , but who could not be sent into the country homes where they might infect others.

 

Accordingly, a small sub-committee of the PCHA was set up in 1903, and having established that there was no conflict with the focus of the existing County of Northumberland Sanatorium Committee chaired by Lord Armstrong, produced a plan at the AGM of 1904 proposing an interdependent three-part scheme: a farm on which to train rescued street boys who were not suited to city life; a Boys’ Convalescent home and finally a Children’s Sanatorium.

 

White House Farm at Stannington, with 173 acres, had already been found by the time the formal appeal for the £11,000 needed to fund the scheme was launched on 28 April 1905.  Thanks to the CNE 1generosity of one of the Charity’s supporters, Mr. Roland Philipson, £5000 was promised to add to the £3500 already available from the Trust Fund of another supporter, the late Mr.Robert Scott. These gifts, together with further donations or low interest loans, meant that the plans could go ahead. (Their magnitude is apparent if we compare the ‘pleasant surprise’ at the donation of £500 to a rival southern scheme felt by Rev. Edward Bedford of Great Ormond Street, writing to Dr. Allison on October 6, 1905 )

 

The tenant farmer, Mr. Atkins was retained as farm manager to train young boys in farm work to produce the high quality food and milk needed for the future Sanatorium and by the autumn, 6 boys were already at work, with a further 14 to follow.

 

The design of the Sanatorium was heavily influenced by Dr. Allison, who insisted on the inclusion of many French windows topped with fanlight arches to let in as much light as possible (see photograph below) and on occasion the architect, W.T. Spence, was asked to modify his design to suit. Finally, on October 5, 1907, the building was opened by the Duke of Northumberland and the first of the 50 patients admitted on March 15 1908.

 

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There is an early example of the effectiveness of the simple regime of ‘food and fresh air, shelter and sunshine’ on the patient to the left of the photograph (left), taken in 1908. ‘M__J__S came to us from a Workhouse. She was in the last stages of consumption, having a cavity in both lungs, and was terribly wasted and thin. In a month’s time she put on 6 1/2 lbs. weight…her cough has now almost gone, all spitting has ceased, and we are hoping that instead of an early death there is a long and useful life before her.’ 

 

Between March 15 and October 31, there were 52 patients, of whom 10 left with the disease ‘arrested’, 2 very much improved, 3 went home to die and 37 remained under treatment. Given that there was no attempt to select only the ones most likely to thrive, this was a remarkable achievement. More was to follow.

Northumberland’s Airship Bases.

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In the months leading up to First World War, there was great concern that Zeppelins would wreak havoc on British cities. The other new weapon of war, the submarine was dismissed as being of little threat to the country. The Germans had a relatively small fleet of them in 1914 and it was presumed that the War would be over before they would have time to build many more. The conflict was only a few months old when the Admiralty became alarmed at the increasing number of ships being lost to German submarines. A number of measures were implemented to counter this new menace. They included the construction of a chain of airship stations stretching from Cornwall in the south to the Orkney Islands in the north. Aeroplanes at that time had a very limited range and airships had the advantage of being able to stay airborne for many hours.

There was a large airship station at the entrance to the Firth of Forth at East Fortune. Their machines escorted convoys along the coast as far as Northumberland.  Airships from Howden, Yorkshire would then take over responsibility. It was not until 1918, that an airship station was established in Northumberland at Chathill. It was one of several “mooring out” stations that appeared during that year. Sometimes the weather would change when the airships from East Fortune reached the vicinity of Holy Island and they would have difficulty in returning to their base. This problem was alleviated by the construction of a base at Chathill. They could divert here if the prevailing wind was against them or wait to rendezvous with a north bound convoy of ships.

Chathill was commissioned on 31st July, 1918 and lay a short distance to the east of the railway station of the same name. Unlike its parent base of East Fortune it was a very primitive affair. There were no sheds to house the airships. Instead clearings were made in the local wood where they could then be moored. The personnel were housed in tents. On 2nd November, 1918, Submarine Scout Zero S.S.Z.59 had to be quickly deflated when a gale blew up. By this date Chathill was being used frequently by this class of small non rigid airships. It was intended to erect two small portable airship sheds here and have three Submarine Scout Zero and two Submarine Scout Twin airships operating from this location by the summer of 1919. The end of the War put paid to these plans and Chathill was abandoned shortly after the end of hostilities.

In 1917, the Admiralty drew up an ambitious plan to create a large fleet of rigid airships which would be the British equivalent of the Zeppelins. Large sheds to house them would be built at a number of locations including Northumberland and Yorkshire. The lack of enthusiasm in some quarters of the War Office coupled with the shortage of steel for new sheds ensured that these plans never became a reality.

NRO 3441-076Some rigid airships were built and operated from a small number of sites. A modest scheme was given approval to create further bases for the smaller non rigid airships at Killeagh (Southern Ireland), Moreton, (Dorset) and Cramlington, (Northumberland  see image). At the latter site, an airship station was constructed next to the London to Edinburgh railway. On the opposite side of the tracks was Cramlington Aerodrome.

 

Most major airship bases and aerodromes in First World War, were in fact located close to a railway. A siding lead off from the main line to serve the airship station. A single Coastal class airship shed was constructed which was 358 feet long and 110 feet wide. It was reportedly painted a brownish colour. NRO 3441-571There was a small hydrogen gas making plant in a building behind the shed. It was intended to eventually base four non rigid Submarine Scout Twin airships here. The complement of the airship station was to be 20 officers and 281 men. the First World War ended before Cramlington became operational. Like most other airship stations in Britain it was hastily abandoned.

 

In the early 1920’s a company considered using the facilities to operate an airship service to Norway but nothing came of this plan. Some of the buildings were used as a hostel for miners. The closing years of that decade saw a revival of its fortunes. A small enterprise which went by the name of British Airships Ltd.; which later changed its name to the Airship Development Company thought it could revive the fortunes of the small non rigid airships. They constructed an airship designated the A.D.1 in the airship shed at Cramlington. The machine was 138 feet in length and maximum diameter of 29 feet .It was advertised as being suitable for private flying, passenger flights, instruction, advertising , aerial photography and surveying. The main revenue was anticipated to come from advertising and for this role it had panels on its side measuring 76 feet by 24 feet.

NRO 3441-078The A.D. 1 first flew on 13th September, 1929 bearing the registration G-FAAX. The following month it appeared at the Newcastle Air Pageant where it circled with its engine throttled back and was so quiet that the spectators could hear the two crew talking to each other. During the following summer it left Cramlington for the south of England to demonstrate its capabilities. Construction was also started on a second airship, the A.D.2.

 

The Airship Development Company, however was liquidated at the end of 1930 having overestimated the demand for its services. Britain at the time was in deep recession. The two airship envelopes were sold to be made into dust sheets for furniture and the airship shed at Cramlington vacated  ,never to be used again by airships.

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Towards the end of its days, the airship shed was used by a firm called Concrete Utilities Ltd ., to make concrete lamp posts. It was eventually demolished in 1967 having outlived its contemporaries by many years. Most other airship sheds had in fact disappeared by the outbreak of World War II.

 

 

 

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Malcolm Fife in supplying this article for the Northumberland At War Project.

Case Study – Tuberculosis of the Hip

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The radiographs from the Stannington collection allow for a detailed insight into the effects that tuberculosis had on the body. One such example is patient 132/1951, a nine year old individual transferred from Fleming Memorial Hospital to the Stannington Sanatorium with Tuberculosis of the Hip. There are a total of 31 radiographic images allotted to this individual, mostly of the pelvic area but also some of the right knee.

 

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Figure 1 – HOSP/STAN/7/1/2/2046

 

Infection is evident in the right hip, the femoral head (head of the femur) and the acetabulum (socket of the pelvis) show visible signs of bone destruction which continues down into the lower part of the pelvis, the ischium. The reduced gap in the joint between the femoral head and the acetabulum is also indicative of tuberculosis (Figure 1). There is also some porosity shown in the femoral head, which displays the weakened state of the bone due to the extent of the infection.

This can be compared to the healthy, left side of the pelvis where a clear ball shaped femoral head can be distinguished with structured shape, lined up with the acetabulum. The gap between the upper and lower sections of the pelvis is evidence of this being a child as the pelvis has not yet fused.

Due to the level of destruction to the right hip, there would have be a significant impact on this individual’s standard of living, the possibility of reduced mobility due to ankylosis of the hip and atrophy.

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Figure 2 – HOSP/STAN/7/1/2/2046

 

Figure 2, however, shows the results of a surgical intervention to repair damage caused by the tuberculosis infection, a procedure known as arthrodesis. This procedure is descried in the patient’s notes in a letter from the surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle to a doctor at Stannington:

‘… a cortical graft was taken from the anterior aspect of the right tibia. This would was closed with catgut and silk-worm gut to the skin. The right hip was approached from an incision over the posterior aspect of the greater trochanter…. The shaft of the femur was divided just below the greater trochanter and a gap made in the ischium. The bone graft was inserted into two gaps between the femur and the ischium…..’

 

As a result of the surgery it is noted that there was some flexion in the right hip and some apparent lengthening of the right leg. The tuberculosis infection was deemed quiescent and this individual, after being monitored as an outpatient, went on to be discharged as ‘healed’.

View more radiographs on our Flickr stream https://www.flickr.com/photos/99322319@N07/sets/72157648833066476/

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