ARCHIVE FEATURE: The College and Savernake Forest Hospital
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The future of Savenake Hospital?
In recent months there has been much anxiety amongst all those who live in Marlborough about the future of Savernake Hospital. When closure seemed a possibility, just over 10 years ago, ex-beak Bill Spray (Common Room 1946-70 and HM of C1 1959-63 and of Littlefield 1963-70) led a very successful campaign, which not only saved the hospital but led to a refurbishment costing several millions of pounds involving the creation of a Minor Injuries Unit, 2 new wards and a Day Hospital.
Sadly, the euphoria resulting from this success was not to last long, for, within about 4 years, the administrative structure of Wiltshire was changed and Savernake found itself within a new Primary Healthcare Trust which had inherited a huge financial deficit and needed to make economies. |
| Captions: Headed by an old farm-hand, the boys of Marlborough School set off to work. They earn twopence an hour and work five hours each day, afterwards pooling their wages, which they give to Savernake Forest; Robert Holt, son of Sir Herbert Holt, off to farming. A survivor of the Lusitania, he passed his lifebelt to a woman and jumped into the sea. |
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Recently, in the face of fierce public protests, both the M.I.U. and one of the wards have been closed and there are many who suspect that this is merely the prelude to the total closure of Savernake Hospital and the sale of its site for development as an up-market housing estate. This would indeed be a sad end to a distinguished example of an excellent institution created and supported for most of its 136 years by a mixture of private patronage and community support. |
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The edition of “The Marlburian” for the 19th April, 1871 contains the following brief item under the heading if “Occasional Notes”:
“The Master* filled the pulpit of Christ Church, Savernake, on Wednesday last on the occasion of the laying of the Foundation Stone of the Savernake Cottage Hospital, supplying the place of the Bishop of Salisbury, the latter being prevented from attending by a family bereavement.”
* The Master then was still George Bradley, who left the College at Christmas that year after he had been elected to the Mastership of University College, Oxford. |
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 The land on which the Hospital was built was given by the Marquess of Ailesbury to the people of Marlborough and the surrounding districts, specifically for this purpose and from 1872 until the National Health Service was established Savernake Hospital was supported entirely by the local community through all sorts of fund-raising activities. The photograph above is of a press-cutting from “The Daily Sketch” of July 1st, 1916 which shows one way in which College boys helped raise money during World War I for the hospital.
The running down of Savernake Hospital is already causing problems – eg. all College pupils requiring X-Rays now have to go to Swindon – and the closure of the Hospital would be a sad commentary on the way in which our brave new world has eroded and destroyed years of excellent community spirit.
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