EXTRACTS FROM
BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
No 153 April and May 2010.
Click on any heading to go to that section:
| SOCIETY EVENTS | FRIENDS OF ST. LEONARDS CHURCH | SOCIAL HISTORY |
| PLANNING MATTERS | ARCHIVES |
Our Winter Talks series continues on 13th April when Gerry Harris will
speak about “The History of Watercolours” and concludes on 27th April
when our old friend John Vigar returns with a talk entitled “Murder, Sex, and
Mayhem in English Churches”. Both are at 7.30pm at the Hythe Bay Cof E Junior
School.
Formal notice of our Annual General Meeting, which will be held at the
Town Hall at 7.00pm on Tuesday 11th May, is enclosed with this
Newsletter. There will also be a talk on a topical subject.
We are still looking for a volunteer to fill the single vacancy on the Executive
Committee for a person well versed in Local Government Planning Processes. If
you would like to help us in this very important area – or know of someone
suitable who might be persuaded – please contact our Hon. Secretary at the
address below or send an e-mail to
Summer Outing. Doug's evening will be on Wednesday 30th June we will be
visiting Amanda Cottrell's garden Laurenden in Challock, Some of you will
remember that she spoke to us at an Autumn Lunch about her year as High Sherriff
of Kent. Afterwards we will have a finger buffet at the Wheel Inn, Westwell. The
coach leaves Red Lion Square at 5.30 pm. The cost, to include coach, gratuity,
garden and supper, will be £20 per head. Please make cheques payable to
D.H.Amans and send them to 4, The Maltings, High Street, Hythe CT21 5AB
Our annual Autumn Lunch will be on Saturday 2nd October (NOT
9th October as previously foreseen) at Hythe Bay School and Margaret King
will be doing the catering as usual. There is accommodation for 120 on round
tables so there is no need to make advance reservations. Each table seats six
so, on booking, please, if you have a preference, tell us with whom you would
like to sit.
The guest speaker will be Mark Everett, Theatre Director of The New Marlowe
Theatre, Canterbury.
There will not be a bar this year so please bring your own wine or drinks other
than water.
Bookings will be taken after 1st June so please don’t call or write before then.
Full details will be in the next issue of the Newsletter.
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FRIENDS OF ST. LEONARDS CHURCH
Click here for details of the
Friends of St Leonard’s Church
programme giving details of all concerts in St Leonard’s during 2010.
Jianing Kong, sixth prize winner in the 2009 Leeds International Piano
Competition, performs Schubert’s Sonata No. 16 in A minor, D.845,
Debussy’s 3 Etudes from Book 2 and Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 6 in A, Op.
82 in St Leonard’s Church on
Saturday 10th April at 7.30pm.
The Hythe Town Concert Band and the Hythe Salvation Army Band combine forces
with guest soloists for their annual concert in the church on
Saturday 1st May at 7.30pm, following
which there will be a retiring collection.
In complete contrast, sopranos Hannah Mayhew and Lindsay Kidd Churchill,
accompanied at the piano by Suzy Ruffles, will perform an entertaining programme
of ‘Diva Duets’ on
Saturday 29th May at 7.30pm, while on
Saturday 5th June at 7.30pm
Francis Grier (piano) and his daughters Indira (cello) and Savitri (violin) -
the Grier Trio - will perform Elgar’s Violin Sonata, Prokofiev’s Cello
Sonata and Shostakovich’s 2nd Piano Trio.
Tickets at £7 each for the recitals on 10th April, 29th May and 5th June will be
available from Brandon’s Music Shop or at the church door (admission free for
those under 18 in full-time education).
Notice is hereby also given that the Annual General Meeting of the
Friends of St Leonard’s Church
will take place on Thursday 17th June at 7.00pm in the church.
For more information about the Friends of St Leonard’s Church please
contact the secretary Mrs Gill Roffey:
telephone 01303 263739 or
e-mail 
Age Concern
invites anyone who would like to learn sign language to contact Donna through
the office.
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SOCIAL HISTORY
St. Saviours Medical Charity
is very much a local Hythe institution operating solely for the benefit of Shepway residents. The present trustees are all local
folk who give their services freely. Originally they operated the hospital in
Seabrook Road themselves but its sale to BUPA in 1989 provided the capital from
which the Charity's income is now derived. Since then it has distributed some
£350,000 annually both in grants to individuals in need of medical treatment and
to institutions to purchase equipment to enable them to provide a better medical
service to local residents. Though the transformation from hospital management
to medical charity is relatively recent, the story of how this came about can be
traced back to 1845.
Around this time the first Anglican Religious House to be formed since the
Reformation was planned. It was supported by such eminent people as Gladstone,
Lord Manners, Lord Lyttleton and Lord Clive. A small house was purchased near
Regents Park to accommodate the Sisters. Because the law had not been amended
since the Reformation, the legality of the foundation was challenged in
Parliament and a Select Committee had to be set up to report on "Conventual and
Monastic Institutions". It found that any Church, other than The Church of Rome,
was free to set up such communities and so the founding of The Order of The
Sisters of Mercy went ahead. The original house was found to be too small and so
a new one was leased in Osnaburgh Street in 1852. The house was dedicated to
St.Saviour. The Sisters started working in the local parish and part of the
house was used as a children's home. In 1854, even though they had no nursing
experience, they went out to the Crimea, together with a Sisterhood from
Devonport, to support Florence Nightingale's work. On their return the two
Orders amalgamated. There followed some difficult times, few Novices were coming
forward, there were some defections to Rome, their numbers fell and they
encountered financial difficulties. In 1877 they joined up with another group of
Nuns, the Order of The Holy Cross, originally based at Ascot.
The Sisters regrouped to continue their work and St. Saviours Home was purchased
by Mr. (Edward) Palmer, then Governor of the Bank of England. His wife, a deeply
religious person, who had worked previously with the Sisters of the Holy Cross,
set up the home as a Hospital, mostly for cancer cases and St Saviours was a
pioneer in attempting to treat this disease. Mr. Palmer continued as an
extremely generous patron and benefactor and his sponsorship attracted others. A
committee of prominent laymen was formed to look after the business side whilst
the Sisters administered the hospital, using mainly lay nursing staff.
During the 1880’s some beautiful baroque carved wooden choir stalls and altar
furnishings from a Carthusian monastery in Buxheim, Bavaria, came into the hands
of a Belgian dealer and Mr. Palmer purchased them as a gift for his wife who, in
turn, gave them to the Order where they were installed in the chapel.
Click here
for some background.
In 1892, following the death of Mrs. Palmer, her husband assigned the lease of
the hospital, which was for ladies only at that time, to a Rev. Brinkman,
representing the Nuns, on the condition that the work should continue as before.
A ward was set aside for cancer patients and another, funded by a Mrs. Willard's
Bed Fund, provided for sick members of the acting profession. Special
accommodation was also provided for sick nurses. A group of Trustees was formed
and later expanded to include a number of members of the medical profession.
Prices were to be kept low and "cases of hysteria, epilepsy, fever or anything
that would inconvenience existing patients would be declined".
However, by 1916 the incumbent Order could not muster sufficient Sisters to
staff the hospital and the work was taken over by the sisters of the Community
of the Epiphany, originally from Truro, who continued with it for the next 30
years. Records still exist of an undated list of prices quoting ten guineas/week
for a private room and three guineas for Theatre Fees. Patients would make their
own arrangements with the surgeon and anesthetist and pay there own pharmacy
bills.
In 1935, due once again to declining numbers, The Order handed over to The
Community of the Presentation, a Nursing Order, who had previously run a nursing
home in Highgate. They provided "hands on" running of the medical side of the
hospital until well after the Second World War and the advent of the NHS.
Throughout all this time the records indicate that whilst private patients paid
fees, many who could not afford to pay were treated at lower cost.
In 1960 the building in Osnaburgh St. was the subject of a compulsory purchase
order to facilitate the construction of an inner ring road in London. After much
discussion on possible locations it was decided to relocate to Hythe, where the
Community already owned a house in some 4 acres of ground, then used as a
convalescent home for their Nuns. Some of the land was sold to the Trustees and
a 13 bed hospital was built following approval from the Charity Commissioner's
“a hospital for medical and surgical treatment of patients of limited means”.
Part of the sale agreement was that a Chapel should be built for the Nuns. It
would of course house "The Buxheim Carvings."
Another major feature of the Chapel was the Cupola which, watched by a large
crowd, was lifted from Sene Valley Golf Course and set in place by helicopter.
At this time the London trustees resigned and local men were appointed. Sir
Thomas Rapp was the first Hythe Chairman and the trustees included such well
known local names as Rear Admiral Hall Thomas, Major General Sheffield,
Brigadier Daniell and John Garford Bliss as well as The Reverend Mother Lilly.
St. Saviours Hospital and the Chapel were dedicated in June 1965 by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Ramsey.
In the first year more than 200 patients were admitted and 126 operations
carried out. The average stay at that time was 14 days. The hospital continued
with The Community managing the nursing and day to day operations until 1975.
The Trustees, who carried the legal responsibility for the hospital’s
operations, were becoming increasingly concerned that the remaining nuns who
were few and becoming elderly would not able to manage the facility to meet the
increasingly onerous demands of a modern health service. It was a very difficult
time for both parties as the nuns were simply not willing to relinquish control.
The Trustees’ view prevailed however and Joan Slater was appointed as the
hospital’s first lay Matron in January 1976. The Community continued to provide
some nurses but many more State Registered Nurses were employed.
Over the next few years, as age overtook them, the remaining nuns retired to
their convent next door. Fortunately, by that time relations had healed and the
last chapter in the saga of "The Carvings" was now written. The chapel was
essentially no longer used and the Anglican Church Authorities decided that it
should be sold and "The Carvings" returned to the monastery at Buxheim (See also
NL108). They were sold to the Bavarian Government and are now restored and back
where they belong. The Rev Mother was invited to Buxheim for the opening
ceremony and was awarded The Freedom of The Town, only the second person in
history to have been accorded that honour. The chapel building was then sold to
house a private pathology facility.
The Trustees increasingly felt that the hospital was no longer sufficiently
viable to meet modern medical requirements at its current size and with its
present facilities. Plans were put in hand for the first of a series of
expansions that included a new wing, a new operating theatre and recovery room,
an increase in the overall capacity to 36 beds, more of them with en-suite
facilities, refurbishment of the catering facilities and laundry and other
equally important changes. All this was to make the hospital attractive to
insured patients and attract more business. This required a major £250,000 fund
raising exercise by the Trustees. Contributions included £25,000 from The
Community financed from the proceeds of the sale of "The Carvings", £20,000 from
the Consultants who each contributed £1000, a loan from BUPA, donations from The
Friends of St Saviours, grateful former patients and other generous benefactors
too numerous to mention.
The first phase of the extensions was completed within a year of the plans being
formulated and was opened in January 1981.
During the Eighties the hospital went from strength to strength both in terms of
the numbers treated and the scope of the treatments offered and any profits made
were ploughed back in improvements or used to give grants to needy patients. In
1982 for example 340 uninsured patients were helped with their fees.
Throughout this time, the regulations governing private hospitals were becoming
more and more stringent and expensive to implement and Brig. Ronnie Winfield,
who had been appointed Chairman of the Trustees in 1981 and masterminded the
modernization process, came up with the idea that the hospital should be sold to
BUPA and the proceeds invested. This would not only ensure for the long term a
well managed private hospital facility in Hythe for the use of local residents
but the proceeds of the sale, carefully invested, would generate a great deal
more cash each year with which to provide charitable grants. The sale was
ratified in 1989 and St. Saviours Medical Charity was set up in its present
form.
We are grateful to Mr. Bruce Tait, a trustee and past Chairman of the charity,
for this article. If you or someone living in the area that you know might
benefit from a grant from the charity, please contact the Secretary, Mr. Paul
Seward, on 01303 263833 on Tuesday & Wednesday mornings.
Sainsbury’s
application for a new supermarket in Military Road has now been approved by S.D.C. and the Government Office for the South-east (GOSE) has subsequently declined to call it in for a public enquiry. A group opposed to the development is considering further action.We are very pleased to record our thanks to Mr. Ron Sansom for his generous gift of a delightful watercolour of the School of Musketry. It was probably painted around 1880 from a viewpoint south of the canal, showing the famous elm trees, then about 70 years old, in quite a mature condition
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You can e-mail us at:
Secretary |
Treasurer |
Editor |
Membership & NL |
Mrs. Mary Hunter |
Alan Joyce, |
Christopher Melchers |
Mrs. Anne Woodward |
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