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The Metropolitan Hospital had been left a sum of £10,000
to be used "exclusively to maintain good Samaritan Societies
or Convalescent Homes. Since the Hospital did not, at that
time, have an associated Convelescent Home it was decided
that they should ask Passmore Edwards to provide one. Passmore
Edwards readily agreed but after delays in finding a suitable
site he told the Hopsital that if they could not agree on
a site then he would have to withdraw his offer. Mr T S Cornwallis
offered a suitable site of 35 acres at Cranbrook, near Staplehurst.
Charles Grieve was appointed as architect and the Foundation
Stone was laid, by Mrs Cornwallis on 14 October 1896.
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| At the accompanying ceremony, Lord
Battersea, the Treasurer of the Hospital said that The Metropolitan
Hospital served an area occupied by the poorest of London's
residents. Sailors, either injured in the Docks or returning
home from foreign shores, went to the Hospital for medical help.
He hoped that the residents of Staplehurst would take an active
interest in these patients when they came down to the Home from
the hospital. |
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| The Home was opened in July 1897 by Princess
Louise who travelled by special train to Staplehurst Station.
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| Whislt many local people were employed at the Home it does
not appear that they took Lord Battersee's plea to heart as
there was concern that the patients from London would bring
with them diseases that would affect the local population. At
around the turn of the centuary the London County Council converted
the Home for the use as a convalescent home for children recovering
from TB. |
| In the 1940's the Home was used as a remand home for errant
boys. |
| In the early 1980's the Home was sold and converted into a
residential home for the elderly. |
| Today the home is divided into individual private residences. |
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