If you think this information is inaccurate please e-mail corrections to Hertfordshire HER .

Summary

Emergency Medical Services Hospital in use from 1939 to 1946; demolished in the 1980s

Monument Types

• GENERAL HOSPITAL (1939-1946, World War II - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Associated Events

• Evaluation of land SW of Ashridge House, Berkhamsted, 1999 (Ref: ASC/M/ALG99/3)

Full description

In 1939 Ashridge House [1074] was offered to the Ministry of Health for use as an Emergency Medical Services Hospital, which opened in September 1939. The house itself was not large enough, so rows of ward huts were built on open parkland just to the north. In time the number of huts grew to 31, which opened and closed as needed; each held about 40 patients. Linked by open-sided covered walkways, each building had a central stove. The huts also housed operating theatres, X-ray department, laboratories and dispensary. The hospital closed in 1946, and from 1947 until the 1970s the buildings served as the Public Records Office repository. The site was cleared in the 1980s and returned to pasture <1, 2>.
Features identified SW of the house during evaluation appeared to be vegetable beds, assumed to relate to the wartime hospital <3>.

<1> Edmonds, Rachel, n.d., Ashridge in World War II (Bibliographic reference). SHT1902.

<2> Wainwright, A P, Marshall, G, & Salkeld, G, 2009, Archaeological survey of the Ashridge estate (Buckinghamshire & Hertfordshire) Vol.VIII: The Park (including Park Farm and Frithsden lands), NT SMR 151704; p117-18 (Bibliographic reference). SHT1903.

<3> Zeepvat, Bob, 1999, An archaeological evaluation of land to the south-west of Ashridge House, Berkhamsted, Herts, RNO 595 (Report). SHT2428.

Sources and further reading

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.