ROWLEY BRISTOW HOSPITAL, PYRFORD: RECORDS

The main series of records comprise:

6248/1/ ST NICHOLAS' AND ST MARTIN'S ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITAL, PYRFORD, MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE 1917-1950

6248/2/ ROWLEY BRISTOW GROUP HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE 1950-1969
The Rowley Bristow Group Hospital Management Committee was under the jurisdiction of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.

6248/2/ Rowley Bristow Group Hospital Management Committee 1950-1962

6248/2/ Woking and Chertsey Group Hospital Management Committee: Rowley Bristow Orthopaedic Hospital House Committee 1962-1969
The Hospital House Committee replaced the earlier Management Committee, and reported to the Woking and Chertsey Group HMC.

6248/3/ HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION 1922-1988

6248/3/ Hospital admission books 1943-1953
The contents include date of admission, where admitted from, name, address, age, ward in hospital, diagnosis, police or military service particulars if relevant, where discharged to and date of discharge.

6248/3/ Registers of deaths 1958-1988

6248/3/ Report books 1946-1956
These volumes contain, for various wards of the hospital, daily reports made day and night by nursing staff recording the medical condition and treatment of named patients.

6248/3/ X-ray register 1949-1950

6248/3/ Dangerous drugs book 1949-1953

6248/3/ Inventory nd [1930s]

6248/3/ Staff 1924-1939

6248/3/ Visitors' book 1922-1971

6248/4/ HOSPITAL SECRETARY 1927-1964
The following papers consist of the files of the chief administrator, the Hospital Secretary, at various stages in the history of the hospital.

6248/4/ Annual reports 1952-1959

6248/4/ Hospital Management Committee papers, membership and administration 1938-1959

6248/4/ Finance 1937-1963

6248/4/ Buildings 1927-1963

6248/4/ Medical and other equipment 1935-1960

6248/4/ X-ray equipment 1939-1963

6248/4/ Patients 1932-1959

6248/4/ Staff 1937-1961

6248/4/ Nursing staff 1938-1957

6248/4/ Trade unions 1946-1953

6248/4/ War and civil defence 1938-1957

6248/4/ Superannuation 1948-1961

6248/4/ Chaplaincy 1939-1958

6248/4/ School 1938-1957

6248/4/ South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board 1946-1962

6248/4/ British Hospitals Association 1931-1949

6248/4/ Central Council for the Care of Cripples 1938-1958

6248/4/ Central Bureau of Hospital Information 1940-1941

6248/4/ Hospital Economies Association Limited 1939-1940

6248/4/ Surrey County Council 1950

6248/4/ Printed material relating to other hospitals 1942-1963

6248/5/ HISTORY OF THE HOSPITAL 1947-1993

The Church of England Incorporated Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays, later known as the Church of England Children's Society, was founded in 1881. Through the work of its Children's Union it supported crippled and other children in the Society's homes.

The original main buildings at Pyrford were erected by the Society partly in 1907, with a later building in 1915, for housing crippled children. The first part was known as St Nicholas' and the second part as St Martin's (which had previously been the Home for Crippled Boys at Surbiton). The two homes on the Pyrford site were administered separately until merged to form the St Nicholas' and St Martin's Home in October 1923. The organisation later became known as St Nicholas' and St Martin's Orthopaedic Hospital. After the 1914-1918 war Mr W Rowley Bristow, an orthopaedic surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital in London, became connected with the work of the hospital. Under his leadership and surgical skill, the character of the institution changed rapidly from homes to a hospital, and many children were successfully treated.

Facilities provided included open air wards, open on one side, for the treatment of surgical tuberculosis. Between 1920 and 1937 there were further additions of open air wards, an operating theatre, heated swimming baths, and the establishment of Special School status for the education of long stay children. In 1937 adult patients were first admitted. On the outbreak of war the majority of the hospital's beds were taken over by the Emergency Medical Service for service and civilian war casualties.

Following the death of Rowley Bristow in November 1947, the hospital was renamed the Rowley Bristow Orthopaedic Hospital in his honour. The Church of England Children's Society arranged for the hospital to be transferred to the National Health Service with effect from 1 April 1950, when it came under the control of the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board (minutes Jan - Mar 1950 p37). The Rowley Bristow Group Hospital Management Committee was formed to administer the hospital. On 1 October 1962 the Rowley Bristow Group HMC was dissolved and the hospital became part of the Woking and Chertsey Group. Four members of the Rowley Bristow Group HMC were invited to serve on the Management Committee of the Woking and Chertsey Group. A new House Committee comprising the members of the old HMC was formed to administer Rowley Bristow Hospital (minutes Apr - Sep 1962 p40).

The hospital closed in 1990 and its functions were transferred to St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey.

Minutes and administrative records are closed for 30 years. Patient records are closed for 100 years. Staff records are closed for 75 years.

Deposited under the Public Records Act 1958, in 1992 and 1994.

An item level description of the archive is available on the Surrey History Centre online catalogue

For architectural plans of the St Nicholas Home for Crippled Children, Pyrford, 1907, see CC64. Other material relating to the hospital is held in the archives of the Church of England Children's Society.

For correspondence and patient case studies, 1925-1949, see 6730. For photographs and other collected records of Rowley Bristow Hospital, (1907)-2011, see 8912/1/-. For papers and collected photographs of the Rowley Bristow commemorative project, 1999-2003, see 9918. For records of the Rowley Bristow Hospital School, later St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, teaching centre, 1914-2004, see CC1179. For photographs and biographical notes relating to Alan Graham Apley (1914-1996), consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital, 1968-1997, see Z/492.

The Children's Society Records and Archives Centre, Edward Rudolf House, Margery Street, London, WC1X 0JL holds St Nicholas' and St Martin's Home administration and correspondence files, some annual reports and children's case files, 1909-1940s (refs: TCS/F/02/022/- and TCS/CF/-). Their catalogue can be viewed at www.hiddenlives.org.uk/including_the_excluded.