Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood: Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter — John Shaqi
Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood: Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other MatterWalter, J. Conway (James Conway)
History
Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood: Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter
Walter, J. Conway (James Conway)
Woodhall Spa (England)
Of this church we can only say that all true lovers of architecture must
regret the style in which it was erected. The original idea, strenuously
advocated by the late Bishop Suffragan, Dr. E. Trollope, one of our
greatest authorities (as well as by the present writer, as patron of the
benefice) was that the Church of St. Andrew should be enlarged by
doubling the nave and extending the chancel. Arrangements had been made
to obtain stone for this purpose from the ruins of Stixwold Priory, of
which that church was originally built. A suitable edifice would thus
have been erected, in a central position. Unfortunately the Bishop died
while the question was yet _sub judice_, and, as most persons of taste
must feel, counsels less wise prevailed. The present structure of brick
has been called a barn; it is of no architectural pretensions; the
tracery of the windows is of the most meagre description. The ground
around it is too limited to be used for burial, although the churchyard
of St. Andrew is rapidly filling, and at no distant date a cemetery must
be provided.
The writer, while incumbent of Woodhall Spa, in conjunction with Mr. R.
Cuffe, M.R.C.S., then lessee of the Victoria Hotel, commenced, in 1873, a
Cottage Hospital for the poor, on a small scale, which was largely
beneficial, patients being admitted almost literally from Land’s End to
John o’Groats’ house. Some left their crutches behind them, nailed to
the walls of the bathhouse; and it may be added, as shewing the efficacy
of the water, that cases occurred of patients who, on their arrival,
could only get about painfully on crutches, but who yet, before leaving,
ran in foot races at the village sports. The cottage then rented has of
late years been superseded by the much larger Alexandra Hospital, a
substantial building, under the patronage of the Princess of Wales,
erected through the exertions of the Rev. J. O. Stephens, rector of
Blankney, on a site presented by the syndicate. It was opened in 1890,
and has conferred large benefits on the suffering poor. The medical
officer is Dr. Williams, L.R.C.P., Ed., Brookside Cottage, by whom
patients are treated with great skill. He has published a pamphlet on
the Woodhall water and treatment. He is ably assisted by Mr. H. W. Gwyn,
L.S.A. A pamphlet on the same subject was also published by the late Mr.
A. E. Boulton, M.R.C.S., Horncastle. Mr. R. Cuffe, M.R.C.S.,
Surgeon-Major, has also a large residence, the Northcote House
Sanatorium, for the reception of high-class patients, who are under his
own supervision. He has had a large and long experience in every variety
of ailment for which the Woodhall treatment is adapted, having been sole
lessee of the Spa establishment from 1866 to 1883; he has written much on
the subject; was himself mainly instrumental in founding the British
Balneological and Climatological Society, which has as its members the
leading physicians of the chief watering places in the kingdom; and at
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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