This postcard, dating from around 1915, shows the smallpox hospital that was once situated at the far end of California Lane (see map).

In the 1890s a small isolation hospital was built for Upton-on-Severn on the Upton to Welland road, intended for patients with infectious diseases such as measles, diphtheria and scarlet fever.

It was felt that an additional site for dealing specifically with smallpox cases would be useful and so this corrugated iron structure was built on a lane that went nowhere around 1905.

Smallpox vaccination was made compulsory in England and Wales in 1853 but it did not cease to be endemic until the 1930s. In the event, the Welland hospital seems never to have been needed for this purpose and it closed around 1944. A private house now occupies the site. To date we only know of one individual who was nursed at the Welland hospital: Ethel Hadley passed away there in 1919 from pulmonary tuberculosis.

Note the title of the postcard is ‘The Sanatorium’, perhaps slightly less ominous than ‘Smallpox Hospital’!

Corrugated iron buildings of this type were popular in the early 20th century for use as churches and community halls. Several examples survive locally, e.g. at Coombe Green, Hollybush and on the Upper Hook road.

We would be pleased to hear from anyone whose relatives are known to have been patients or staff at the smallpox hospital.

Photo: Peter Roberts – The Sanatorium, Welland