A Brief History & Memories of Scalebor Park Hospital
Moor Lane, Burley in Wharfedale
Scalebor Park Hospital, Moor Lane, Burley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire.
Also known as West Riding Private Asylum & Scalebor Park Asylum was opened by West Riding County Council in 1902. It was designed by J. Vickers Edwards (County Architect for West Riding of Yorkshire) and built by Mr Isaac Gould of Leeds.
In 1948 the hospital became part of the National Health Service.
Also known as West Riding Private Asylum & Scalebor Park Asylum was opened by West Riding County Council in 1902. It was designed by J. Vickers Edwards (County Architect for West Riding of Yorkshire) and built by Mr Isaac Gould of Leeds.
In 1948 the hospital became part of the National Health Service.
1899-1903 - A temporary branch siding from the Otley & Ilkley Joint Railway was built to aid construction of Scalebor Park Hospital. The loco used & owned by Isaac Gould was called Hannah named after his wife.
All the above images are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland's Digital Map Service.
Plan of Scalebor Park Hospital in the Burley Archive. The plan is dated 1910 and shows a very symmetrical layout - men's wards on the left, women's on the right. In the middle are the shared areas plus administration, laundry etc.
Scalebor Park Theatre (Recreational Hall & Ballroom) - Built c1904 demolished 2001.
All the above images of Scalebor Park Hospital Theatre courtesy of the Theatres Trust.
1995 Main part of the hospital closed and the site was put up for sale.
Parts of the hospital site were demolished in 2001 & redeveloped for housing. The wards overlooking the sports ground & facing Moor Lane were converted into apartments.
2010 Scalebor Park Housing Development
Fragments of pottery from Scalebor Park Hospital found in Rushing Beck stream bed below the old Hospital site in 2004. They date, anywhere between 1902 to 1995.
Moor Lane Centre
Was originally the new admissions unit or wing for the hospital, built c1960s. When the main hospital closed in 1995, it continued with respite services, but these closed in 2009. The buildings were demolished & new housing has been built on the site.
Highlands
To the north east of the main Scalebor Park Hospital site.
A mansion called High Lands or "The Highlands" was built in 1896 for William Mitchell, a director of Wm Fisons & Co. & designed by the architect Ernest Newton (1856-1922). |
The two drawings of The Highlands, Burley in Wharfedale by Ernest Newton, are taken from the Academy Architecture and Review journal of 1899.
1915 The mansion & its estate was bought by West Riding County Council & added to the Scalebor Park Hospital complex. At some point it underwent substantial alteration, with the addition of an extension to the front in the style of the rest of the property.
Highlands became a child and adolescent unit. Also known in the National Archives as Highlands Hospital. This was closed at a similar time to Scalebor Park Hospital & the site is now housing.
The original "Highlands" was demolished & replaced with x3 large detached properties, one of which is called Highlands.
West Lodge, Moor Lane
Built for the Benn family from Clayton, Bradford between 1891 and 1894. The architect was J. Vickers Edwards.
c1920s West Lodge and its grounds was acquired by West Riding District Council. The site became a location for nurses residences & a training school.
Between 1940 & 1947 West Lodge was used as an evacuation nursery by the Waifs & Strays Society (Children's Society). It took children from the Beckett Home for Babies (architects: Chorley & Connon) at Meanwood, Leeds.
Between 1940 & 1947 West Lodge was used as an evacuation nursery by the Waifs & Strays Society (Children's Society). It took children from the Beckett Home for Babies (architects: Chorley & Connon) at Meanwood, Leeds.
Muriel Drayton left Barbados as a twenty-year-old when she and her sister, like many other young women she knew, were recruited by a nursing agency. In 1956 she came to Burley in Wharfedale, a village that’s part of the Bradford District, after a nineteen-day journey from Bridgetown to London’s Victoria Station.
"When I arrived, it was so dark. I was worried England was dark like this all the time, but it was the fog! You could scarcely see. But I do prefer the cold weather to the heat, which I can’t stand very much. The Nursing Council was there to meet us nurses, and I was sent by train all the way from London to Burley, Scalebor Park Hospital. They met me there with my suitcase and when I got to the nursing home, it was all Barbadian ladies! All Barbadian nurses. The girls there were the Bovell sisters, three Warner sisters, and my sister and I. On the men’s side, it was Jamaicans and a Barbadian. We had a good life there." |
1971 - Leeds Region's Wharfedale Hospital School of Nursing was based at West Lodge. This school had training places for 20 RMN student nurses plus 40 SEN (General) and 12 SEN (Psychiatric MI) Pupil Nurses per year.
Now has new housing in the grounds called The Drive. West Lodge itself has now been refurbished (Aug 2020) as a private house.
Now has new housing in the grounds called The Drive. West Lodge itself has now been refurbished (Aug 2020) as a private house.
Memories of Scalebor Park Hospital
1922 Wedding Present - info from ebay June 2021
Antique EPNS Bowl With Adjustable Handle. Wedding Present From 1922. Inscription: "Presented To Nurse A Hogg By The Nursing Staff At Scalebor Park, Burley In Wharfedale On The Occasion Of Her Marriage On The 30th September 1922".
Antique EPNS Bowl With Adjustable Handle. Wedding Present From 1922. Inscription: "Presented To Nurse A Hogg By The Nursing Staff At Scalebor Park, Burley In Wharfedale On The Occasion Of Her Marriage On The 30th September 1922".
1962 Scalebor Park Hospital staff
Thanks to Laurie Sloan for identifying the image below as being 1964 or 1966 Wizard of Oz at Scalebor Park Theatre (Recreation Hall & Ballroom), Burley in Wharfedale.
1966 - Scalebor Park Hospital Gala, month unknown, possibly July or August.
1977 - YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dKQO_JqQYM
A short film, made from black & white stills, about Scalebor Park Hospital by Joy Godfrey
"Joy was granted permission to film there during the last year of her Community Arts Course in Bradford. Narration is by Bill Godfrey, staff nurse, and Miss Rhoden, head of occupational therapy. The poem "A Crabbit Old Woman" was read by an outpatient at the hospital."
"Joy was granted permission to film there during the last year of her Community Arts Course in Bradford. Narration is by Bill Godfrey, staff nurse, and Miss Rhoden, head of occupational therapy. The poem "A Crabbit Old Woman" was read by an outpatient at the hospital."
1980 or 1981 Thanks to Laurie Sloan for identifying this image as Scalebor Park Hospital Gala, Burley in Wharfedale.
1982-83 Scalebor Park Hospital football team
1990 Scalebor Park Hospital Gala, Burley in Wharfedale. Images from the Norman Cawood Collection in Burley Archive.
Family History Research
For people tracing their family history, it should be noted that Scalebor Park Hospital never had its own graveyard. People who died at the hospital, whose bodies were unclaimed, were buried either in God's Acre graveyard, Bradford Road, Burley in Wharfedale or St Mary's Parish Church graveyard, Burley in Wharfedale.
The Burley Archive has the burial records of both of these graveyards. Contact us if you would like further information.
The Burley Archive has the burial records of both of these graveyards. Contact us if you would like further information.
Percival Edgar King (1883-1938) - one of the subjects in the BBC's "A House Through Time" Series 4, Episode 3 is buried in God's Acre cemetery, Bradford Road, Burley in Wharfedale. His body was claimed by his family but for an unknown reason he was buried in Burley in Wharfedale, rather than Headingley, Leeds where his family lived.
To find Percival's grave in God's Acre cemetery
Enter the graveyard via the Lych Gate on Bradford Road. On the right hand side of the path, count fourteen rows of graves (the first row starts with Albert William Bird (1899-1980)). The fourteenth row starts with Fred Robinson, then Gordon Phillips; Clara Galling; Charles Whitehead; Barbara Coultous; John Whitehead, next to him is Percival Edgar King.
Please note that some of the headstones & grave markers are missing.
(At the very end of this row is Mary Chorley & Harry Sutton Chorley).
Enter the graveyard via the Lych Gate on Bradford Road. On the right hand side of the path, count fourteen rows of graves (the first row starts with Albert William Bird (1899-1980)). The fourteenth row starts with Fred Robinson, then Gordon Phillips; Clara Galling; Charles Whitehead; Barbara Coultous; John Whitehead, next to him is Percival Edgar King.
Please note that some of the headstones & grave markers are missing.
(At the very end of this row is Mary Chorley & Harry Sutton Chorley).
Burley Community Library & Burley Archive, Grange Road, Burley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire England LS29 7HD
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Burley Archive & Local History Group: Drop-In Sessions Friday 2.30pm to 4.30pm. For other times please contact us