Help with finding a place known as The Manor, Dorchester, Dorset?

[andymr1]

My relative (15331 Sgt H Hackett Grenadier Guards) spent some time at a place referred to as 'The Manor, Dorchester, Dorset' in 1915. I have a few pics of him with other soldiers while he was there recovering from injuries sustained in Flanders. He also dabbled with poetry while he was there and sent some verse home to his wife (maybe it was used as some kind of distraction/therapy?).

I've contacted a hotel called 'The Old Manor' Kingston Maurward, but the owners have no recollection of it being used by the military in WW1.

Would be great to locate the place as it would be another piece in my jigsaw.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks all.

Andy

[tom compton]

Cant help you Andy. But welcome.Tom

[HERITAGE PLUS]

Andy

There were VAD Hospitals at Colliton House, Dorchester and in Church Street ,Dorchester.

There was a VAD Hospital in Buckland Ripers a hamlet near Dorchester. Interestly there is a Manor House in Church Lane, Buckland Ripers. However I have no evidence that connects the two.

Dave

[CGM]

Hello Andy,

Welcome to the forum.

I have some non-information for you ( ) but it could save you and others some time!

There's a very long thread on the forum which is gathering information on every GW hospital in the UK and I have done a search for Manor and Dorchester, sadly without any success.

List of Hospitals

Regards

CGM

[CGM]

I have also searched for Dorset, in the Hospitals thread, also with no luck.

Regards

CGM

[andymr1]

Many thanks all, I will keep digging away.

Andy

I have also searched for Dorset, in the Hospitals thread, also with no luck.

Regards

CGM

[Peter Woodger]

Hi

The building that was a hospital in Colliton Park is usually known as Colliton House but a soldier not used to the town could well have thought of it as a Manor.

It was the larger hospital by far when compared with the one in Church Street.

I attach two photos of the house and the tents used whilst it was a hospital in case they are the background of the photos you have

Peter

[andymr1]

Peter

This info sounds very promising. The pics just have gardens in the background (plus a dog on one of the chaps laps) so the building isnt shown. I'm waiting for some info from the Grenadiers Archivist, perhaps this may report where he was sent to to recover.

Just to check would you say there were just the two VAD's you mentioned in Dorchester? If so then its onbiously one or t'other.

Many thanks for your help.

Andy

Hi

The building that was a hospital in Colliton Park is usually known as Colliton House but a soldier not used to the town could well have thought of it as a Manor.

It was the larger hospital by far when compared with the one in Church Street.

I attach two photos of the house and the tents used whilst it was a hospital in case they are the background of the photos you have

Peter

[Peter Woodger]

Andy

I have asked around amongst Dorchester folk (having only been around here since 1978 I am foriegn) and no one has heard of a house in town called the Manor.

I believe that there were only 2 VAD hospitals in the town. The Asylum at nearby Herrison took extra inmates in order to free others to be military hospitals.

The tents in the grounds of Colliton house were for the "open air" treatment of TB and Gas victims.

Peter

[Moonraker]

I agree with Peter's suggestion, above, that a stranger may well have referred to Colliton House as a "manor". I have a comparable case in Wiltshire, with differing references in Canadian war diaries to a large house in the Lavington area being used as an emergency hospital.

I've briefly checked Kelly's Directory for Dorset, 1915 edition, and can spot no reference to "Dorchester Manor". You may care to double-check here

One could also check the local Dorchester papers for the Great War period, where there would also certainly be references to local buildings being taken over as hospitals. Less laboriously, there may be references in the town's history books, which the library's Local Studies Unit may be willing to glance through.

Moonraker

[GunnerBill]

Hello everyone,

i have some information that might be of interest. Colliton House was, indeed, one of the VAD hospitals in Dorchester, Dorset. There was also a smaller one in Church Street and one was set up in the Freemason's Hall, in Prince's Street.

Before the war Colliton house was the home of Denzil Hughes-Onslow and his wife, a well-known Dorchester family. On the outbreak of war he loaned the premises to the Red Cross as a hospital. Denzil was a Captain in the Dorsetshire Regiment and was killed in action on the 10th July, 1817. While he was serving at home, in Wareham, Dorset, he got wind of the fact that one of the German POW's at the local camp had been admitted to his house as a patient, suffering from spotted-fever (cerebo-spinal menegitis). He wrote a most indignat letter to the local newspaper, contending that the hospital should only be used for allied troops.

Brian Bates