Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Now for a delve into the General Hospital's history, and in particular, one of it's founders, Dr John Ash..
Dr John Ash - Sir Joshua Reynolds portrait
Our story begins in Summer Lane..where else?
In 1765, a committee for a proposed hospital, formed by John Ash and supported by Sir Lister Holte, 5th Baronet, the Earl of Bradford, Samuel Garbett, Sir Henry Gough, Charles Adderley, Matthew Boulton, John Baskerville, Sampson Lloyd and others, purchased:
all those four closes, pieces, or parcels of Land, Meadow, or Pasture Ground, situate, lying, and being together near a place called the Salutation, in Birmingham aforesaid, containing, by estimation, eight Acres or thereabouts, be the same more or less, adjoining at the upper end or part thereof into a Lane there called Summer Lane, and at the lower end or part thereof unto a way called Walmore Lane from a Mrs Dolphin, for £120 per acre. (Walmore Lane is now Lancaster Street)
However, work to erect the new hospital on that land stopped through lack of funds in 1766. Eventually, much of its funds came from the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival, the first of which was held over three days in September 1768, and which continued to fund the hospital into the 20th century.
The hospital finally opened on 20 September 1779, giving its name to Hospital Street. About 200 patients were treated in its first three months of operation, even though the 40 beds were fewer than half those aimed for. Eventually 235 beds were provided on the site.
The site was later used for a tram, then bus, depot and is now occupied by Centro House, headquarters of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, where there is a blue plaque commemorating the hospital.
Original General Hospital
Moving over to Steelhouse Lane..
The hospital relocated to Steelhouse Lane in 1897. Neville Chamberlain became an Official Visitor and then a director of the Hospital. He advocated a larger facility, a cause in which he was eventually successful, though building did not commence until 1934. He was still fundraising while he was Prime Minister.
On 5 July 1948 the hospital became part of the new National Health Service.
Until 1964 the hospital was a training centre for nurses, who, on qualification, became members of the General Hospital Birmingham Nurses League. After 1964, training switched to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the nearby suburb of Edgbaston.The league was wound up in 2000, due to its remaining members' increasing age.
The General closed in the mid 1990s. Its Grade A locally listed, red brick building has been used as Birmingham Children's Hospital since 1998.
Old and New Hospital
Thus spake Wiki...but now from the pen and immense research talents of the Thylacine, here's a little something else extra on Dr Ash...with a few queries...
After Ell Brown on Flickr (with much thanks)
(His nephew Edward Ash FRS c 1773-1829 was also a physician-scientist whose work was helpful to that of Humphry Davy)
St James's Chapel ... Dr Ash's former 'sumptuous house' Ashted (Beilby Knott and Beilby 1830)
Here is John Ash's entry in the admission book of Trinity College Oxford:
Here endeth the lesson...
Dr John Ash - Sir Joshua Reynolds portrait
Our story begins in Summer Lane..where else?
In 1765, a committee for a proposed hospital, formed by John Ash and supported by Sir Lister Holte, 5th Baronet, the Earl of Bradford, Samuel Garbett, Sir Henry Gough, Charles Adderley, Matthew Boulton, John Baskerville, Sampson Lloyd and others, purchased:
all those four closes, pieces, or parcels of Land, Meadow, or Pasture Ground, situate, lying, and being together near a place called the Salutation, in Birmingham aforesaid, containing, by estimation, eight Acres or thereabouts, be the same more or less, adjoining at the upper end or part thereof into a Lane there called Summer Lane, and at the lower end or part thereof unto a way called Walmore Lane from a Mrs Dolphin, for £120 per acre. (Walmore Lane is now Lancaster Street)
However, work to erect the new hospital on that land stopped through lack of funds in 1766. Eventually, much of its funds came from the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival, the first of which was held over three days in September 1768, and which continued to fund the hospital into the 20th century.
The hospital finally opened on 20 September 1779, giving its name to Hospital Street. About 200 patients were treated in its first three months of operation, even though the 40 beds were fewer than half those aimed for. Eventually 235 beds were provided on the site.
The site was later used for a tram, then bus, depot and is now occupied by Centro House, headquarters of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, where there is a blue plaque commemorating the hospital.
Original General Hospital
Moving over to Steelhouse Lane..
The hospital relocated to Steelhouse Lane in 1897. Neville Chamberlain became an Official Visitor and then a director of the Hospital. He advocated a larger facility, a cause in which he was eventually successful, though building did not commence until 1934. He was still fundraising while he was Prime Minister.
On 5 July 1948 the hospital became part of the new National Health Service.
Until 1964 the hospital was a training centre for nurses, who, on qualification, became members of the General Hospital Birmingham Nurses League. After 1964, training switched to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the nearby suburb of Edgbaston.The league was wound up in 2000, due to its remaining members' increasing age.
The General closed in the mid 1990s. Its Grade A locally listed, red brick building has been used as Birmingham Children's Hospital since 1998.
Old and New Hospital
Thus spake Wiki...but now from the pen and immense research talents of the Thylacine, here's a little something else extra on Dr Ash...with a few queries...
- John Ash (1722-1798)
1722 (date ?) born to prosperous Coventry brewer John Ash and Anna Ash (née ?)
(25 July) baptized St Michael's Coventry
c 1730-1740 attends King Henry VIII School Coventry (probably ?)
1740 (4 March) enters Trinity College, Oxford; degrees: Bachelor of Arts (21 October 1743); Master of Arts (17 October 1746); Bachelor of Medicine (6 December 1750); Doctor of Medicine (3 July 1754)
(said to have travelled and studied in Europe for eight years after leaving Oxford ... doesn't fit well with chronology ?)
1752 establishes home and practice at 9 Temple Row, Birmingham: patients will include William Hutton (antiquary) and William Shenstone (poet); makes some £25,000 over the years; becomes a prominent citizen of Birmingham (Lamp Act commissioner; governor of King Edward VI School; proprietor of Birmingham Canal; friends with 'Lunatics' Matthew Boulton and Robert Augustus Johnson).
1765 (4 November) calls public meeting to launch Birmingham General Hospital (BGH)
1766 (March) William Small (1734-1775) (late of Virginia, US) joins practice, becomes close friend and colleague
1769 moves practice (to ?) from Temple Row (which remains his home ?)
1771 leases 10 hA of land from Sir Lister Holte (1720-1770) fifth Baronet of Aston; begins to build 'sumptuous house' named Ashted
1779 (October) BGH opens: Ash is major subscriber and most senior of four honorary physicians; consults three months per annum; colleagues include William Small and William Withering (1741-1799)
1781 fears for his 'mental health' first arise: William Withering takes part of his workload; decline in practice has 'hurt his spirits'; regrets cost of building Ashted
1786 BGH board suggests locum for Ash
1786 (22 December) admitted candidate Royal College of Physicians (RCP; fellow 1787)
1787 (8 November) elected FRS;
(17 December) resigns BGH;
elected fellow of Society of Antiquaries; joins Dilettanti
1788 (14 February-6 March) reads paper to the Royal Society entitled 'Observation and Experiments to investigate by Chemical Analysis the Medicinal Properties of the Mineral Waters of Spa and Aix la Chapelle in Germany and of the Waters and Boue at St Amand in French Flanders' (later published);
(April-July) portrait painted (by Reynolds) for BGH governors (cost £210);
abandons Ashted (where he never lived; becomes St James's Chapel in 1791); moves to Bath
1789 Cured by 'botany and mathematics' therapy, establishes home and practice in London; becomes active member of RCP (censor 1789 and 1793; Harveian orator 1790; Goulstonian lecturer 1791; Croonian lecturer 1793); founds Eumelian Club (convivial learned society; meets Blenheim tavern, Bond Street; members include: Joshua Reynolds, Richard Payne Knight, James Boswell)
1790 Publishes Oratio Harveiana
1791 portrait engraved by Bartolozzi (after Reynolds)
1798 (18 June) dies at home (Brompton Row, Knightsbridge); buried (26 June) at St Mary Abbots, Kensington
1965 commemorative lectureship established by University of Birmingham
2000s (?) commemorated by blue plaque (House of Fraser store, Temple Row, Birmingham)
After Ell Brown on Flickr (with much thanks)
(His nephew Edward Ash FRS c 1773-1829 was also a physician-scientist whose work was helpful to that of Humphry Davy)
St James's Chapel ... Dr Ash's former 'sumptuous house' Ashted (Beilby Knott and Beilby 1830)
Here is John Ash's entry in the admission book of Trinity College Oxford:
- Ego Joannes Ash, Filius Josephi Ash, generosi de Coventria in Comitatum Warwick natus ibidem annos circiter 16 admissus sum commercialis inferioris ordinis sub tutamine magistri Geering. Quatro Die Martii 1739-40.
Tentative translation:
I, John Ash, the son of Joseph Ash, gentleman of Coventry in the County of Warwick, born in the same place about 16 years ago, am admitted to the commercial lower order [?] under the protection of master Geering. On the fourth of March 1739-40.
Here endeth the lesson...
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