A Brief History of Rushden House and its subsequent use

The house was built in 1870–71 for the Currie family and after the death of Mrs Currie in 1901 the house, with its twenty-five acres of land, was purchased by Mr Browning who lived there with his family until he died in 1914.

Rushden House was then bought by a Mr George Henry Lane, leather merchant of Kettering.  He never lived in the house.  The war had just begun and he obviously had misgivings about the purchase which was reflected in a conversation overheard in 1915 in the offices of Marriotts, the builder.  “Guess what?  I’ve bought Rushden House.”  “What for?”  “I’m going to turn it into a Lunatic Asylum, and I’m going to be the first patient.”  Although the terminology is no longer appropriate, one cannot help thinking of his remarks in relation to the present change of use nearly upon us.

In 1915, with some agreement between Mr Lane and the Government, the whole area was used as a German prisoner of war camp and continued to be known as Ploughmans Camp until the end of the war when the prisoners were repatriated.

Now the 1914–18 War had seriously hampered plans to provide accommodation for patients suffering from tuberculosis in the county of boot and shoe workers where the disease was rife, and the Administrative Council for the County of Northamptonshire were quick to realise the potential in Rushden House which was lying empty.  A purchase agreement was quickly drawn up and in 1919 the house and land was acquired for less than £7,000.  The next requirement was to erect wooden, hutted accommodation for the less acutely ill patients in the grounds adjacent to the house.  Four large living hutments and two large huts for recreational purposes were acquired from Houghton Regis Army Camp.  The acutely ill patients, male and female, were cared for in the house itself.

In September 1921 the first patients were admitted into Rushden House Sanatorium.

Times were hard and treatment even harder but at least the ‘White Plague’ in Northants was being combated, a very interesting era but nevertheless another story.

The first major change occurred between 1934 and 1940 when three of the old wooden huts were replaced by four ultra-modern brick buildings purpose-built to provide much more comfort for nursing patients with Tuberculosis and considerably better working conditions for staff, and as recently as the 1960s a fourth hut was removed in order to provide a car park, leaving only two of the original six wooden huts standing.  Of the new brick buildings there were two twenty-bedded wards and two fourteen-bedded wards.  The two larger wards (20 beds) were on the periphery and were used for convalescent patients and the two fourteen-bedded wards were linked by corridors to a Treatment Centre where most of the curative measures pertaining to Tuberculosis were carried out.

Tuberculosis was on the decline and in 1957–58 a Dermatological Unit was opened in the large house comprising eleven beds.

In the early 1960s, because of a further decline in Tuberculosis, it was decided to admit patients suffering from other chest diseases such as lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, asthma, spontaneous pneumothorax and the like, and the District Chest Service was born.  It seemed also appropriate at the time to rename the Hospital because of its connections with the past and instead of Rushden House Sanatorium it became just plain Rushden Hospital.  At that time there were eighty-three beds.

In 1968, because of the difficulties experienced by parents of children with Mental Handicap who had to travel to Pewsey in Wiltshire for assessment and treatment affecting their child, Colton Ward was partially converted in order to receive twenty such patients of various ages and varying disabilities.  At the same time a link corridor was built between Sharwood and Hensman Wards so that all chest patients would be under cover to and from the Treatment Centre where chest X-rays, bronchoscopies, chest aspirations etc were carried out.

In 1971 bed occupancy became very low and a suggestion was put forward regarding G.P. beds.  This was accepted and with effect from December 1^st 1971 four beds were occupied under the medical control of the local General Practitioners.  This number then increased to six and finally to ten on October 24^th 1975.

In 1975 the local General Practitioners were asked to contribute to suggestions in regard to their difficulties, the result being that a Psychogeriatric Day Hospital was built and named, at my suggestion, Rushden House Day Hospital, thereby bringing back at least one reference to the central building, namely Rushden House, whose name had been lost in the former renaming of the Hospital in the 1960s.  The first patients were admitted for day care on November 3^rd, 1975.  The medical management was entirely provided by the General Practitioners.

On May 8^th, 1979, Crane Ward was closed and the female chest patients were transferred or readmitted to the General Hospital as part of a deal to satisfy Dr Shahid’s appointment promise of chest beds in the General Hospital.  The ward remained closed until June 7^th 1979 when the Dermatological Unit moved from the house to Crane Ward after a small conversion.

In the house the area originally vacated by the Dermatological Unit was designated on a joint funded venture to Social Services and under the name of Cordwainers Day Centre received the first patients on November 10^th 1980.

Named after Dr James Henry Crane.  First Medical Superintendent of Rushden House Sanatorium, 1921–1940.