Isolation Hospital

In Wales, especially in mining and quarrying regions the Welsh National Memorial Association ran isolation hospitals which were at least partly contributory, unless you were already paying regularly into a scheme,

Isolation hospital facilities were required by Acts of Parliament (1893 and 1901) and used for three groups of conditions, the first, Chicken Pox, Measles, Mumps and Whooping cough were isolated in the patient’s home, the second included TB and Smallpox for which special facilities were sourced as required. The third group was, Scarlet Fever, Diptheria, Enteric Fever (including paratyphoid), Puerperal Fever, Pneumonia, Erysipelas, Poliomyelitis, Encephalitis Lethargica, Typhus Fever, Cerebre-spinal fever and the ‘more exotic’ Cholera, Plague, Relapsing Fever, Continued fever, Dysentery, and Maleria which required isolation hospitalisation.

The 1910 OS maps shows a ‘smallpox’ hospital’ along the lane (a part of which is now Bryn Awelon) leading to Argoed Farm. It is likely that this building was dismantled and eventually re-erected on Bailey Hill. It continued to be referred to as an ‘isolation hospital’, no evidence has been uncovered to suggest the building was used for this purpose on Bailey Hill.

In 1913 an isolation hospital was moved from Argoed Farm to Bailey Hill, however it is not clear whether this was ever fully erected on the hill. Flintshire Observer Mining Journal and General Advertiser for the Counties of Flint Denbigh 9th July 1913:

Councillor T. James asked when the re-erection of the building formerly used as an isolation hospital at Argoed farm, would be completed on Bailey Hill. At present the Hill was in a dilapidated condition with the portions of the dismantled building lying about. The walks, too, were all over the place and fences down, and the remains of the hospital were lying all over the Hill. The Surveyor stated that the re-erection would be completed in a week.

The Section 13 of the Isolation Hospital Act of 1893 dictated that every isolation hospital be provided with an ambulance and “shall, so far as is practicable, be in connexion(sic) with the system of telegraphs”

Mold council documents (1930-34) detail that with a population of 5100 people it was decided that St Asaph and Dobshill would provide the necessary beds on demand. The act acknowledged that patients could now travel some distance to hospital given the new means of transport that were becoming available. Mold however would not gain its own ambulance until the 1940s, a few years before the formation of the National Health Service in 1948.

There is a reference to an isolation hospital structure within Bailey Hill Park that is no longer present. In documents relating to Bailey Hill under the view of CADW it says “in the 1950s a large black corrugated iron isolation hospital was erected near the site of the current playground (and on the presumed site of the original castle gateway)”. There is no reference to this facility in medical officer reports over this period however - Mold at the time used isolation facilities in St Asaph and Dobshill.

However, Mold council records suggest that the building was in fact earlier than this. In summer 1938 the Government Evacuation Scheme (Wikipedia) was developed by the Anderson Committee and implemented by the Ministry of Health. The country was divided into roughly equal population zones, classified as “evacuation", "neutral", or "reception", with priority evacuees being moved from the major urban centres and billeted on the available private housing in more rural areas. Not all neutral areas escaped bombing.

In July 1941 council records describe two evacuated families no longer being eligible to stay in the Bailey Hill building consequent on their husbands returning to live with them, the building is referred to as the ‘old isolation hospital’. In September 1941 the building was described as inadequate accommodation but that people continued to live there. In January 1942 an entry suggested the building was still technically owned by the hospital board but being used as emergency accommodation. In August 1942 a London evacuee was refused permission when he requested to move his family into this building which by 1945 was successfully predesignated a scout hut and subsequently a tea room licensed by the ‘local Food Control Committee’ (one of 1500 such committees established to oversee rationing and distribute ration books.)

A CADW review dated 1989 mentioned the removal of a wooden and corrugated iron building - and included a line drawing of the site which shows a building located A where it is planned to extend the current children’s play area B (which currently lies to the north of this location at the south western corner of the motte), the Bowling Green C and a ‘chalet’ D -presumably the bowling pavilion?

Local residents recall the building painted green and used as both a tea room and a store for mowing machinery and tools.