Landmark hospital
Butleigh Hospital was a hugely distinctive building, designed by an architect who was also responsible for many of the leading landmarks in and around Street.
The hospital's foundation stone was laid by the wife of the then High Sheriff of Somerset, Julia Neville-Grenville on March 6, 1882.
It had been funded by a donation of £5,000 from Sir George Bowles, a former Lord Mayor of London, after whom the building was initially named.
Designed for just eight patients it was the work of an architect from Norfolk, George Skipper who got his professional big break from his work in and around Shepton Mallet.
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Skipper, who was famously described by the poet John Betjeman as the 'Gaudi of Norwich' was renowned for his flamboyant style and elegant chimneys, being as much an artist as an engineer.
Commissioned by the royal family to work at Sandringham he moved to the West Country to work on the hospital.
Butleigh was opened to patients on October 18, 1883 and although records from the time are sketchy was is known is that just six years later it was battling an outbreak of the then fatal illness, diptheria. Now virtually eradicated, the respiratory tract disease was much feared and the hospital was under enforced quarantine. Just three years later the disease returned.
The hospital was renamed Butleigh shortly before the creation of the NHS in 1948, when the original buildings were expanded to include a quarter for nurses and several operating theatres.
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