Overview
Wordsley Hospital was built as a workhouse in 1903, and became a hospital after the Great War. It was substantially expanded between 1930 and 1990 and even includes a separate hospital - Ridge Hill Hospital - which specialises in learning support and social care, without providing casualty or out patient facilities.
The most recent addition to Wordsley Hospital was a maternity unit that cost £6million to build and opened in May 1988 after three years of construction work. It replaced the maternity wings of the existing Wordsley Hospital as well as the 60-year-old maternity home at Burton Road Hospital. It stood on the site of an old hospital building and tennis courts. The maternity unit was officially opened by The Princess Royal on 24 November 1988.
However, in the early 1990s plans were unveiled for Wordsley Hospital, Dudley Guest Hospital and parts of the Corbett Hospital to be closed and the services relocated to an expanded Russells Hall Hospital. There was later a change of plan which would have seen maternity services kept at Wordsley and the remaining services transferred to Russells Hall, but in 1998 it was decided to close down Wordsley completely and keep only in-patient services and Dudley Guest and Corbett.
The first phase of Wordsley Hospital's closure took place on 7 January 2005, when the maternity unit closed after just under 17 years in use and was relocated to Russells Hall. The last services at Wordsley were relocated on 22 April 2005.
The sale of the site was agreed in March 2005 (when some services were still at the hospital) when Mar City Developments purchased it for £14.75million with a view for redeveloping it for housing.
Vandalism and metal theft plagued the hospital buildings after they fell into disuse.
Read more about this topic: Wordsley Hospital