Display to celebrate 150 years of town's hospital

An exhibition celebrating 150 years of a hospital is set to launch on Saturday.

Stroud Community Hospital, in Gloucestershire, opened its doors on the Trinity Road site in 1875 after more than a century of providing healthcare in the town in various forms.

To celebrate the anniversary, Stroud Hospitals League of Friends will unveil a display with old photos, actors in Victorian clothes and a slideshow of how the hospital has evolved over the years.

The Museum in the Park will host the exhibition from 11:00 BST on Saturday.

Dr Susie Weir, from the Hospitals League of Friends, told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: "There has been some form of healthcare in Stroud since about the 1740s.

"Initially it was just a dispensary where you could get all sorts of herbs, treatments and potions.

"There were a few doctors in the town. They used to see patients in the back room of a pub [or] in the front room of their home.

"Eventually it became more formalised."

Over the years the hospital changed and moved locations throughout the town to cope with an increasing population and need.

"When they first built the casualty hospital, when patients were waiting to have surgery they used to have to wait outside in the open air," said Weir.

"There was no building for them. It was very basic really."

The town's MP Simon Opher was due to make a speech at the opening ceremony for the exhibition.

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