Image courtesy of Cambridgeshire Collection (ieaj813842)

Cambridge Union Workhouse, Maternity Hospital, Ditchburn Place, Mill Road, Cambridge

The oldest surviving building on Mill Road

The Cambridge Union Workhouse, opened in 1838, is the oldest surviving building on Mill Road.

According to the 1959 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments Survey of Cambridge the original building was of two storeys. In 1836 the Poor Law Commissioners ordered that the fourteen parishes of the Borough should be united for the administration of the laws for the Relief of the Poor. Only six of the existing parochial workhouses were retained and a new Central Union Workhouse was designed to take 250 inmates. Designed by John Smith, occupied in 1838, the site cost £480.

Read part 1 of the complete building report (1838-1939).

Watch Ian Bent talk about the history of Ditchburn Place.

A place of shame

You went to the workhouse if, for example, you were a widow with no means of supporting your children; a man who lost his job and was penniless; an unmarried woman about to give birth; an orphan. Once there, the regime was harsh and prison-like.  On arrival, families were split up, men in one half, women in the other, adults separated from children, and no contact allowed.

Tramps’ cells

in 1879, new buildings were constructed along the Mill Road frontage for ‘tramps’, people of no fixed abode.  Tramps queued on the pavement, were admitted around 6pm, given a piece of soap for washing, night clothes, a meal, and a bed for the night.  after breakfast, they were required to do four hours’ work, usually breaking up stones, and sent away.  These tramps were forbidden to return for several days, and so walked to the next workhouse.

Change and Development

All workhouses closed in 1930, and the building became the County Infirmary.  In 1939 it was used as a wartime emergency hospital, receiving the first wounded soldiers from Dunkirk in June 1940, and also victims of the London Blitz.  When the NHS was formed in 1948, it became the Cambridge Maternity Hospital, where many local people alive today were born.  In 1983, when the new Rosie Hospital was built, it was redesigned as sheltered accommodation for the elderly, openings its doors in 1988 as Ditchburn Place.

The Hosegoods of the Cambridge Union Workhouse

Thomas Luke Hosegood was born in 1831 at Poughill in Devon. His wife Mary Ann was born in 1830 at Carisbrooke Castle in Hampshire and after their marriage they moved to Dunkwell Abbey in Devon where two of their sons, Thomas Luke and William Henry, were born.

By 1870 they had become responsible for the running of the Cambridge Union Workhouse in Mill Road. Luke Hosegood, a cousin, was employed as schoolmaster.

The Workhouse was home to over 160 inmates, some of whom were lunatics, and strict discipline was enforced. The Punishment Book (held at the County Records Office) lists whipping and solitary confinement as penalties for offences such as ‘assault with a knife’, attempted ravishment’, drunkenness and theft.

To serve the fourteen parishes of Cambridge and maintain their poor, the Workhouse was built in 1838 at a cost of £480. The original layout consisted of four courts with porter’s lodges, tramps’ cells, bedrooms and offices, master’s and matron’s rooms, day rooms, dormitories, baths, workshops, chapel and mortuary. It was immediately found to be inadequate in size and extensions were made.

At 3 am on the 8th April 1883, a disastrous fire broke out in the infirmary and, but for Mr Hosegood’s prompt action, many lives would have been lost. He checked his list of inmates and found that four were missing. he entered the smoke-filled room and saved three at the first attempt. The fourth, ‘a very decrepit old man’, lay helpless among the bedsteads and Hosegood, groping on the floor, pulled him out. For his gallant action, Luke Hosegood was presented with a testimonial and £5 by the Royal Society for the Protection of Life.

The Hosegoods continued as Master and Matron of the Workhouse until their retirement in 1913.

Tom Doig / Enid Tillson 1984

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1895

Cambridge Independent Press 13.9.1895 p.8: BURGLARY AT THE WORK-HOUSE. Cambridge has enjoyed immunity from burglars for almost twelve months. Any sense of security arising from this fact must be rudely upset by the daring burglary which took place at the Workhouse, Mill-road, during Tuesday night. The visitor was evidently intent on breaking fresh ground, for it not often a burglary occurs at a workhouse—the associations of a workhouse are generally regarded to be such that not much booty can be reckoned upon there. It is conjectured that entrance was obtained to the grounds from the back of Gwydir-street. There was no difficulty in effecting this. A pane of glass in the window of the visitors’ waiting room, which almost faces the main entrance, was smashed ; this enabled the burglar to unfasten the window. Even when it was open it was not very easy to get in, for it is only about 18 inches wide. Once inside the building, the proceedings of the burglar show that he had first hand knowledge of the place, and the habits of the Master. The Master’s office, which adjoins the waiting room, and which was unlocked, was entered, and desk and secretaire were forced open. From the latter a cashbox, containing about £5 in money, a gold watch and chain, a gold albert, and other articles were obtained. A large letter weight encased in leather, which is usually kept on the desk, had accidentally been placed inside ; this was found ripped open. The burglar, finding it, doubtless anticipated good haul, and his disgust may be imagined on finding that it contained nothing more valuable than leather and iron. It was thrown down in the corner. The Board-room, which is on the other side of the Hall, was also visited, but nothing has been missed there. One of the windows was found open ; undoubtedly this served as an exit, being more convenient for such a purpose than that by which the place was entered. The robbery was discovered early the following morning. The Master (Mr Hosegood) on coming downstairs had his attention drawn to an empty cash box which was found in the dustbin. An examination of his office, which he had left between nine and ten o’clock the previous night, apprised him of the fact that a burglary had been committed. He at once communicated with the police, who have been actively pursuing their enquiries. We understand that the money was the property of the Guardians. 

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19 February 1909 – James Gray, a Cambridge veteran of the Crimean War and Indian Mutiny, died in the workhouse and was buried at Mill Road Cemetery. Captain Heal sent a large Union Jack for his coffin, and four members of the Territorial Force volunteered as pallbearers, but mistakenly assembled at Newmarket Road Cemetery and reached Mill Road only after the funeral had ended. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 19 February 1909.

April 1909 – The floor of the day nursery at Mill Road Workhouse was reported to be unfit for children because loose earth beneath the floorboards had caused fungal growth. A wood-block floor was considered the best solution, although the overseers were reluctant to incur the expense. Gifts to the institution included illustrated papers, books and a rocking horse sent by Mrs Ridley of St Barnabas Road. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, April 1909.

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1911 census

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30 June 1911 – A 76-year-old man escaped from a first-floor window of Cambridge Union Workhouse, climbed down a steep roof and dropped ten feet into the garden. Workhouse officials, neighbours and police searched for four hours before finding him collapsed in Mill Road Cemetery with a fractured shoulder. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 30 June 1911.

25 April 1913 – Mrs Emma Hosegood, who had served as workhouse matron for 36 years, was remembered for devoting her life to maintaining and improving standards at the institution. She had begun as Miss Porter, schoolmistress at Caxton Workhouse, before moving to Cambridge, marrying schoolmaster Luke Hosegood and becoming matron at Mill Road. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 25 April 1913.

15 June 1924 – The death was reported of Luke Hosegood, who had served for 37 years as master of the Mill Road Workhouse. Appointed schoolmaster in 1870, when 150 children were educated within the workhouse, he later became master. During a serious fire in the men’s infirmary in April 1883, his bravery and self-possession prevented any loss of life and earned him a testimonial. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 15 June 1924.

23 September 1926 – A Gwydir Street resident complained about filthy black smoke pouring from the Mill Road Workhouse chimney. She said it penetrated every room, made her delicate daughter ill, damaged flowers and blackened washing. The Workhouse Master attributed the problem to the steam coal that had to be used. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 23 September 1926.

27 October 1926 – A new block was about to open as an extension to the Cambridge Poor Law Institution. The report recalled that the Mill Road Workhouse received its first inmates in September 1838, followed by married couples, elderly women, and sick and infirm people transferred from the parish poorhouses of St Sepulchre and St Mary-the-Less. The new block contained sick wards, maternity wards and nurseries. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 27 October 1926.

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1927

Maimie Blow from Whittlesey worked at the Cambridge Union in Mill Road from 11.6.1927 to 18.6.1930. She married Reginald Turner, also of Whittlesey on 18th June and after one week’s honeymoon they moved to Oundle Union in Northants until 13.11.1933.

Transcript of oral history: Work at ‘Workhouse’ Mill Road:

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27 December 1928 – Christmas at the Mill Road Poor Law Institution was described as a complete departure from the hardships traditionally associated with the workhouse. Wards and vestibules were decorated with festoons, balloons and Flanders poppies supplied by the British Legion, while Father Christmas arrived in a sleigh drawn by two Alsatians. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 27 December 1928.

18 February 1929 – Eighty-eight unemployed marchers from north-east England arrived in Cambridge on their way to London. After receiving no official recognition from the local Labour Party or Trades Council, they proceeded to the Mill Road Poor Law Institution, where staff provided Irish stew and entertained them using the institution’s private cinema installation. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 18 February 1929.

1 April 1930 – Following the abolition of the Boards of Guardians, responsibility for Poor Law work passed to Public Assistance Committees. The institution at 81a Mill Road, built in 1838 as a Union Workhouse, had become known as the Poor Law Institution. A new block had been built in 1923, and the former workhouse infirmary had developed into a 124-bed hospital with modern wards, a large nursing staff and three certified midwives. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 1 April 1930.

27 December 1939 – Christmas festivities were held at the Mill Road Infirmary for evacuees, alongside celebrations at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the Church Army Home. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 27 December 1939.

20 November 1946 – A newspaper feature reported that the County Hospital in Mill Road was by then being used largely as a maternity unit. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 20 November 1946.

7 January 1948 – During a Christmas visit, the Mayoress of Cambridge discussed maternity services with Matron Doris Ditchburn. The matron believed that mothers and babies were healthier than before the war and that extra milk, vitamin tablets and orange juice helped compensate for wartime rationing and shortages. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 7 January 1948.

2 July 1948 – At the final meeting of the Cambridgeshire Public Assistance Committee before its functions passed to the Ministry of Health, Mrs Mellish Clark recalled decisions to expand maternity work at the County Hospital, close the casual wards and transfer the nursery children to Linton. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 2 July 1948.

3 January 1949 – The Mayoress visited the hospital’s premature “miracle baby”, who had weighed 3 lb 1 oz at birth. The child had survived three relapses with the aid of an oxygen tent, blood transfusions, penicillin, streptomycin and sulphonamide drugs, and at three and a half months weighed 6½ lb. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 3 January 1949.

2 March 1949 – Triplets born at Mill Road Maternity Hospital were reported to be healthy and making excellent progress. Each had weighed more than 4 lb at birth, and they were the first triplets born at the hospital in the fifteen years since it began handling maternity cases. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 2 March 1949.

14 August 1950 – Sister Sparrow of Mill Road Maternity Hospital judged a Cambridge “Bonny Baby Show”. The report presented the good health of the babies taking part as evidence that the post-war generation was likely to grow into a strong and healthy community. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 14 August 1950.

19 July 1951 – A speaker at the Cambridgeshire Old People’s Welfare Council recalled visiting the old Mill Road Workhouse more than fifty years earlier and being appalled by the condition of its elderly women. Some had cared for babies for twelve hours a day, receiving nothing beyond additional cups of tea. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 19 July 1951.

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5 October 1956 – Mr and Mrs Ditchburn reflected on twenty-two years at Mill Road Maternity Hospital. When they arrived in 1934 it was still largely the former County Infirmary caring for elderly patients. During the following years a new wing, ward and operating theatre were added, wartime emergency medical services were provided, and annual births increased from just 56 in 1934 to 1,831 by 1954. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 5 October 1956.)

8 October 1969 – A new premature baby unit opened at Mill Road Maternity Hospital, strengthening its reputation as Cambridge’s principal specialist maternity centre. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 8 October 1969.)

11 November 1974 – Following the death of former Matron Doris Ditchburn, tributes recalled how she and her husband had transformed the former County Hospital into a respected maternity hospital after arriving in Cambridge in 1934. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 11 November 1974.)

6 April 1977 – A critical report described the hospital’s cramped and outdated accommodation, calling conditions “appalling” despite the high standard of medical care. It recommended replacing the hospital with a new 100-bed obstetric unit at the New Addenbrooke’s site. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 6 April 1977.)

17 May 1977 – A further report praised the hospital’s staff and neonatal care but highlighted overcrowding, poor facilities and the difficulty of accommodating increasingly sophisticated medical equipment within Victorian buildings. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 17 May 1977.)

28 September 1979 – An investigation described the hospital as functioning in conditions “little better than a clinical slum”, arguing that only the dedication of its staff prevented serious consequences for mothers and babies. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 28 September 1979.)

27 November 1979 – A further feature examined overcrowding and inadequate facilities throughout the hospital, while emphasising the exceptional standards achieved by its nurses and doctors despite the ageing buildings. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 27 November 1979.)

14 December 1979 – Attention was drawn to the lack of mortuary facilities, with still-born babies being transported by taxi to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, illustrating the inadequacy of the existing site. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 14 December 1979.)

24 May 1980 – Ministers acknowledged that the Mill Road buildings were inadequate, although financial constraints meant a replacement hospital remained several years away. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 24 May 1980.)

13 June 1980 – Government figures confirmed that Mill Road Maternity Hospital had become one of Britain’s leading specialist maternity units, handling around 4,000 births each year despite operating from outdated wartime buildings. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 13 June 1980.)

19 April 1983 – Regional health authorities placed the Mill Road Maternity Hospital site on the open market, disappointing proposals that it should be retained for local public use. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 19 April 1983.)

24 January 1984 – Cambridge City Council successfully purchased the former maternity hospital site, intending to redevelop it as a major housing scheme while investigating temporary educational uses for some of the buildings. (Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 24 January 1984.)

25 November 1985 – The former Mill Road Maternity Hospital was identified as one of two major sites, together with St Philip’s School in Thoday Street, which were to be converted to provide further accommodation for elderly people. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 25 November 1985.

4 September 1986 – A retrospective feature again recorded the career of midwife Phyllis Baker, who began training at Mill Road in 1940 when the hospital principally served geriatric patients but also had a maternity ward occupied by pregnant evacuees. Staff were compiling a photographic album of the 2,001 babies she had delivered. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 4 September 1986.

23 June 1988 – The first residents moved into Ditchburn Place, the former Mill Road Maternity Hospital. The development was being converted into approximately 100 flats and houses for young single people and elderly couples, with some accommodation for people leaving psychiatric institutions. Plans also included a laundry, restaurant, coffee bar and day centre for frail and elderly residents. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 23 June 1988.

20 December 1989 – Ditchburn Place celebrated the transformation of the former Mill Road Workhouse into housing for elderly people and a meeting place for the wider community. Mike Petty Archive: Cambridge Mill Road Scrapbook 1897–1990, 20 December 1989.

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2007

In 2007 Cambridge Untold magazine interviewed many Mill Road people including Denzil Gordon who worked as a chef in the Ditchburn Place kitchens.

Further reading

• Part 1 of the complete building report (1838-1939)
• Historyworks’ story of the Cambridge Union Workhouse
• Oxford Archaeology’s Test Pit report conducted with the Mill Road History Project in 2015 and 2016
• George Francis Clark born 1/2/1837
• Leonard Davidson born14/9/1888
• Workhouse to Housework, Cambridge City Community Arts Team, 1991
• ‘In and Out of the Workhouse’ EARO 1978.