Isolation in Loughborough

As we are all aware we are currently living through some difficult times, but I shall keep

Isolation hospital on Ling Road

going on here for as long as I can. I'm very conscious that some of us are glass half full people, and others glass half empty, so some of us will find seeing pictures of things we enjoy - spring flowers, summer beaches, family gatherings - exciting things we can look forward to when we emerge from these hard times, or things that just upset us even more. I'm just gonna have to take the plunge and, as usual, blog about things that I think are interesting, and hope I don't lose any of you along the way.

Pestilence Cottage in Woodhouse

Way back in October 2017 I wrote a few posts about the plague in Loughborough, starting with one about disasters (plague and fire), then about disasters and plague houses, and finally about plague and Dead Lane.








On a more cheery note (I jest, of course) last summer when we went to St Ives we managed to catch a show at The Minack Theatre (as we do most summers). It was called 'Roses of Eyam'. Now, this almost seems like a portent (that and the Year of the Rat, and the health warning that came with that - as a Rat myself, I found that a little bit disconcerting). We went with the usual travel company from St Ives, so that we didn't have to travel around the narrow Cornish roads late at night, but it did mean that while many people went home at the interval, we sat it out in the pouring rain, which actually made the play even more atmospheric and deeply felt. It was the Stamford Shoestring Theatre Company that delivered the play, and they did it so well. I probably took some pictures, but here are some on The Minack website.

So, the villagers of Eyam basically closed off their village and isolated themselves during the plague. There's a good article in The Guardian that explains it far better than I can and a nice article on the BBC website.

Back here in Loughborough, at one time there was apparently an isolation hospital on Cross Hill Lane, and children with infectious diseases would be taken there by horse-drawn cab. Later, from about 1901 there was an isolation hospital on Ling Road. Diseases that were around in the early 1900s included, typhoid, which was often fatal, and amongst other things, smallpox, diptheria, scarlet fever, and chicken pox. Into the 1930s and it was scarlet fever and diptheria that were most prevalent, and required isolation.      
In the county, there were other isolation hospitals including one at Nanpantan, Markfield and Melton Mowbray. Markfield have a great local history page on the web where you can find out more bout their hospital, and if you'd like more information about former hospitals in Leicestershire pop over to this site.    

That's all for this week.

Keep safe and strong,

Lynne

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2020). Isolation in Loughborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/03/isolation-in-loughborough.html  [Accessed 22 March 2020]

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Lynne