The Union Workhouse & St. Tydfil's Hospital

The Union Workhouse &

St. Tydfil's Hospital

Merthyr Tydfil

<Click On the photograph To Enlarge>

The Merthyr Union Workhouse was built in 1853.

It was built to provide poor relief for paupers. It also had an Infirmary, a Fever ward, and a Maternity ward prior to this poor relief was provided by the Parish. Doctor T. J. Dyke Medical Officer Of Health, reported in 1866"The number of poor people relieved by the Parish, decreased from 55 hundreds to 33 hundreds in 1866."

Waiting for relief outside the Workhouse in Merthyr Tydfil - 1873 - Anon.

Extract from a 1919 Merthyr Tydfil Map.

Christmas Day dinner at Tydfil Lodge (The Workhouse).

(From the Merthyr Express January 5th 1935)

Cholera

Merthyr was affected by Cholera on three occasions.

1849

1,682 deaths.

1 in every 25 people died of the disease.

Lady Charlotte Guest wrote in her diary, "Upwards of twenty people dying in one day

and eight men constantly employed making coffins"

1854

This outbreak was not so severe as in 1849.

1866

229 Deaths.

The Cholera Cemetery.

The Cholera Cemetary.

(Photograph courtesy of Wendy Wilkins)

Abstract of the first cases of Cholera in the Epidemic of 1886.

from Dr T.J.Dyke's report on Sanitary Conditions 1866

In the 1970s the Cholera Cemetary was restored and is now a garden.

St. Tydfil's Hospital - Doctor and Nursing Staff in the Maternity Ward

The Labour Ward

St. Tydfil's Hospital X-Ray Apparatus - 1946.

St. Tydfil's Hospital in the 1950's.

Nurse Lily Jones first left: Ward not known.

(Photograph Courtesy of Lily's grandson Keith Foster)

St. Tydfil's Hospital Pathology Department. 1958.

Back Row :- Clive Bates, ? Bloom, John ?,

Front Row :- Beth Rich, Louraine Dunn, Heather ?, Margaret Cook, Viv ?, Mr Cook, Sheila Lewis.

(Photograph Courtesy of Sheila Lewis now Pettigrew)

St. Paul Ward - St. Tydfil's Hospital 1959

(Photograph Courtesy of Gareth Rogers)

Nursing Staff at St Tydfil's Hospital - 1960's

(Photographs Courtesy of Gareth Rogers)

St. Tydfil's Hospital League of Friends, February 1972.

Mrs Erna Fraser is 5th from right and Mrs Alice Bradley is third from right.

(Photograph Courtesy of Robert Fraser)

The Queen Mother Visits St. Tydfil's Hospital - 1987

Cholera Cemetery and St Tydfil's Hospital - 8th July 1993

(Photograph courtesy of David Thomas)

St. Tydfil's Hospital, July 1993.

(Photograph courtesy of the David Thomas Collection)

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