Redevelopment
Two of the old hospital buildings on the east side of the hospital site were demolished in the autumn of 2006, but the bulk of the demolition did not take place until the following summer.
Surprisingly, the maternity block (which was less than 20 years old) was also demolished - despite earlier plans for it to be converted into a care home for elderly people. However, an arson attack on the building in February 2007, combined with the extensive vandalism and theft of metal, affected the building's condition and would have increased the cost of keeping it for other uses.
However, some of the older buildings at the site - including the clock tower - were retained due to their listed status, and are being converted into flats. The first residents moved into new houses on the site during August 2008, and all new housing was virtually completed by the end of 2011.
A new facility at Ridge Hill Hospital was officially opened on 18 October 2006 by local MP Ian Pearson. Some of the original Ridge Hill Hospital buildings are still in use, although others were demolished in 2007 and several are still standing disused. The road link to Wordsley Hospital was severed when the bulk of the Wordsley buildings were demolished in 2007.
12 homes on Ashdown Drive, which had been built in the 1960s and houses doctors and nurses at the hospital until its closure, were finally put up for sale by the local health trust in December 2010, nearly six years after the hospital closed.
Read more about this topic: Wordsley Hospital