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Leigh Road - Military Hospital (former workhouse)

The Leigh Poor Law Union formed in 1837 and built a new workhouse on the east side of Leigh Road in 1851 to accommodate 400 inmates. The workhouse was such a brutal, unforgiving place that when it later became Atherleigh Hospital in 1930 many local people were still afraid to be admitted there. So when the War Office suggested using Poor Law facilities as war hospitals there was a public outcry that soldiers would be treated as paupers and the hospitals had to be given new military-specific names such as The Lord Derby War Hospital at the County Lunatic Asylum in Winwick. Leigh Military Hospital received its first convoy of wounded soldiers on the 24th May 1917. It was to be the final stage in preparing soldiers to return to the front line so, unlike the pauper patients who were given porridge for breakfast, the soldiers were given bacon or eggs five days a week and jam with their tea. Local residents, employers, clubs and associations also provided them with gifts of games, books, newspapers, tobacco and cigarettes and arranged events and outings for them.

However, an invitation to a Hotpot by Firs Lane Conservative Club was considered a step too far as ‘against Army Regulations’! War Office Funding did not cover all the costs so the Leigh Union of Guardians had to provide support from the Poor Rates. However, they refused to accept financial or actual responsibility for mentally unstable soldiers resident in the Leigh Union. This was not due to a lack of sympathy but because they didn’t want them to be labelled as ‘pauper lunatics’ rather than as men who were war-disabled. They had to fight the War Office over this but with the full support of the Leigh public and their MP, Alderman Raffan, they won the right for the men to receive a service pension and a military style burial. Fortunately, out of the hundreds who passed through the hospital only three died and this was due to the Spanish Flu rather than their wounds. The Leigh Military Hospital closed in 1919 having done its bit towards the war effort. We will now continue down Leigh Road to see the home of a family who did more than their fair share.

Image of wounded soldiers visiting Howe Bridge Mills

Click here for a map of this part of the tour