Westcliffe Hospital

I've bought a new digital camera and these are my first attempts with it.

I've used Westcliffe Hospital as my initial trial.

The hospital is very close to my home and is used for the care of the elderly.

I worked there as an auxiliary nurse in the early eighties.

Formally it was the Wolstanton and Burslem Poor Law Union and Workhouse.

Opened in 1894, it remains a most impressive building.

Across the road from the building is the site of the burial ground. A few of the plain headstones can still be seen, rectangular in shape and unmarked. They are mainly covered in green moss. The perimeter was originally  iron railings and a hedge. Most of the hedge has survived but now is overgrown in many places.

The photo on the left clearly shows two of the rectangular headstones each side of the tree.

Above are another group of four. Two can be seen in the upper left of the frame, covered in moss. The best one is on the right .

A plaque outside the burial ground, across

 from the hospital, was laid in 1992. It reads:

City of Stoke-on-Trent

Plaque unveiled by the Lord mayor of Stoke-on-Trent

Councillor Alan Jones 6th October 1992

To commemorate the opening of

Scotia Valley Reclamation Scheme Phase 1

Incorporating the former burial ground of the

Wolstanton and Burslem Union Workhouse

REST IN PEACE

 These are the first few photos of the area. Other areas that I will be cataloguing soon will be Chatterley Whitfield colliery, Ford Green Hall, Oatcake shops, bottle kilns, Mollie Lee's grave and Trentham Mausoleum, but not necessarily in that order.