In 1918, the Cambridgeshire Tuberculosis Colony, consisting of 17 patients, moved from the nearby village of Bourn into Papworth Hall, which was vacant following (financier) Ernest Hooley's departure. This event was to have a profound effect on the future of the village. With the Hall went the village and most of the land in the parish. Under the energetic and capable management of Dr (later, Sir) Pendrill Varrier-Jones the Papworth Colony rapidly expanded. (In the early twentieth century, before effective drug treatments became available, TB was not only a potential killer for the victim but also had devastating consequences for the whole family who were often evicted from their home, sacked from their employment and generally ostracised from friends, family and community).
Although there were still many deaths among tuberculosis patients, even at Papworth, the aim was to rehabilitate sufferers by arresting their disease, by giving them appropriate work, and by allowing their families to come and live in the village with them. Papworth ultimately offered free medical care, excellent housing, schools, recreation and a chance for the TB patient to rebuild their life.
The Hall soon became too small and a new hospital was built in the grounds. In all, about 300 new houses were built for TB patients and their families, first along Ermine Street and then on the Pendragon Hill/Ridgeway Estate. Baron's Way, to the East of the playing fields, was built in the early 1950's. Factory buildings were constructed in the 1930's - replacing earlier workshops - and a shop was provided.
During the 1940s antibiotics became available that would cure TB. In the late 1940's, the hospital passed to the newly formed National Health Service and became the East Anglian centre for chest and heart medicine and much pioneering work has been done. Papworth was one of the very first hospitals in the country to undertake open-heart surgery and in 1978 Sir Terrance English undertook the first of the current series of successful heart transplants in Britain. Later, the first combined heart and lung transplant in Europe was carried out at Papworth.
COMMENT:
Papworth Hospital is to be rebuilt in Cambridge by the combined firms of BOUYGUES SA in Paris and SKANSKA AB in Solna.
Papworth also takes PAYING PATIENTS.
