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Avoncliff Red Cross Hospital

Avoncliff, Westwood, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

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A range of buildings on the Westwood side of Avoncliff, which had been housing for workers at the woollen cloth mill and then the Bradford Poor Law Union Workhouse, became in 1917 a Red Cross Hospital for treating soldiers who were recuperating from wounds from fighting in the Great War. The hospital functioned until 1923, when it was sold and became the Old Court Hotel.

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Ancliff Square when it was the Red Cross Hospital, as seen from across the valley on an old postcard. It shows the buildings better can be seen today, not obscured by trees. The original range of buildings is nearest, with others that were added when it was the Workhouse beyond.

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Click on the thumbnail pictures for a larger view

A line-up of patients and the nursing staff of the hospital.

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Some of the patients with two of the nursing sisters. The men have been issued with a distinctive uniform with wide light-coloured lapels to their jackets.

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Sister Ethel Vicborn with patients from Winsley Ward at the Red Cross Hospital, Avoncliff. Portrait photographs were taken by W.G. & A. Collins in Bradford.

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The nursing staff at Avoncliff Red Cross Hospital

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To provide some entertainment for the patients a horse-drawn barge named “Bittern” was adapted to carry them along the Kennet & Avon Canal to Bradford or perhaps to Bath. Mary Wilhelmina Skrine of Kingsfield House in Bradford is at the tiller of the barge and her daughter Phyllis is holding the horse.

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“Bittern” is loaded up at Avoncliff Aqueduct, ready for a trip. It was a popular feature in the few years it was running and has drawn a crowd. It also features in several of the paintings  of W.H. Allen.

The narrow gauge railway track carried blocks of stone from Westwood Quarry to the canal and railway.

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An outdoor “minstrel show” style concert party entertains the soldiers on a makeshift stage against the wall of the hospital.

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