Saxondale
Hospital Chapel

History

Saxondale is a small township and village 2½ miles south east of Shelford and 1½ miles west of Bingham. The hospital site is located on a hill off the A52, 8 miles from Nottingham and within walking distance of Saxondale village and Radcliffe-on-Trent.

Bird's-eye artist's

impression of the
hospital site, c. 1902

 Detail showing the chapel
from the north-east

Saxondale Hospital was the county asylum for Nottinghamshire and was built to replace Sneinton Asylum. The foundation stone was laid on 25 July 1899 and three years later, on 29 July 1902, it was officially opened by Lady Elinor Denison. It cost £147,000 to build and could accommodate 452 patients. The hospital complex was designed by the architectural practice of Hooley and Sander of Nottingham (E. P. Hooley was also the County Surveyor for Nottinghamshire County Council). The site included a chapel for the use of hospital staff and patients.

The opening ceremony was performed directly after the consecration of the chapel by the Bishop of Derby. Reporting on the ceremony the Nottingham Evening Post provides a short description of the chapel:

‘The chapel is of brick construction with stone dressings and tiled roof, and is designed in the early Gothic style. The interior is finished in a simple manner with plastered walls and pitch pine roof, the flooring being laid with maple blocks. Pitch pine benches are provided to accommodate about 400. The pulpit, reading desk, and other special fittings are in polished oak.’

In 1913, the main block of the hospital was extended to cater for another 148 patients. It was used as a military hospital to care for soldiers suffering ‘shell-shock’ from August 1918 to October 1919. There were further large-scale expansions in the inter-war years with two villa blocks added in 1932 and a further block in 1937.

When the hospital was built, the chapel would have been full every Sunday with nurses and patients. Male patients sat on one side and female patients on the other.

In a memorial pamphlet from 1988, Sunday services here were described as a ‘special part of hospital life’. Ken Evans was, at this time, the chaplain for the Mental Illness Unit which included Saxondale Hospital. Evans noted that attendance at church always rose dramatically at festive occasions, for example, Christmas and Harvest Time, when the interior of the building would be specially decorated.

Evans also paid tribute to the dedicated organist of the chapel, Miss Margaret Bridge. Miss Bridge was a retired headmistress from Radcliffe-on-Trent and regularly played at the service on Sundays and Wednesday evenings and at choir practice. Evans also paid special tribute to the part-time hospital chaplains (Methodist Ministers and Roman Catholic Priests) who provided pastoral support to patients and also conducted services in the chapel.

The chapel became redundant when the hospital was closed in 1988.

The residential area of Upper Saxondale was developed on the site of the former hospital by David Wilson Homes from about 1995 to 2001.

The chapel was later reopened as a place of worship. It is now home to the Catalyst Church, part of the Skylark International network of churches and a member of the Evangelical Alliance.