John Passmore Edwards
Passmore Edwards Holiday Home for Children, Clacton
Page 2: Military Headquarters and Rehabilitation Centre
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" I have done certain things for the good of my fellow men for others to emulate" John Passmore Edwards, 23 June, 1899 |
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During
WW2 the building was used as the headquarters for the Royal Artillery
Ack Ack gun sites situated along the sea front, a situation that
would not have been to Passmore Edwards liking considering his views
on war. At the end of the war negotiations were commenced with the
Essex County Council to purchase the home and these were completed
by 1947/8 when the home finally closed and was reopened, in September
1950 for the treatment and convalescence of TB patients. By this
time the National Health Service had been created and the Regional
Hospital Board that acquired the building, spent £11,000 on
the repairs necessary following its occupation by the troops during
the war.
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The National Christian Education Council, formerly the National Sunday School Union,opened the Children's Convalescent Home, Broadlands, Broadstairs, in July 1948 following the closure of the home at Clacton on Sea. |
| As the scourge of TB was eliminated the need for the hospital at Clacton reduced and work began to convert the Passmore Edwards building once more, this time to provide a Rehabilitation Centre. By March 1960 the adaption of the building was complete and the first patients arrived in April 1961. |
| Enid A Walsh, writing in the Essex Countryside Magazine in 1974 said that "This lovely house situated on the East Cliff with large lofty rooms, almost all overlooking the sea, built facing South proved a perfect choice". An additional block of single storey buildings was constructed in 1964 for physio and occupational therapy. Under the directorship of Dr J B Millard and the rehabilitation Officer, Mr Maxwell Reid, 100 patients could be treated simultaneously. Patients were admitted when they no longer needed nursing care but would benefit from therapeutic treatment. A self contained unit existed where patients, disabled, perhaps from a stroke, could learn to care for themselves once more. 70% of the patients that left the Home were capable of returning to employment. Later a special unit was created to develop the supply of artificial limbs. |
| The Passmore Edwards Rehabilitation Centre finally closed in 1985 and the building demolished in 1986 to be replaced by residential flats known as Hestletine Court. Built in dark yellow brick with red metal work balconies the design was far from the inspirational architecture of the Passmore Edwards era. However, local old folk still refer to that point along the sea front as "Along by Passmore Edwards" |
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© Dean Evans 2004
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February 21, 2005
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