THE Rowley Bristow Orthopaedic Hospital at Pyrford was once recognised as a centre of excellence for treatment of patients. But the main buildings were previously a home for “waifs and strays”.

Founded in 1881, with the grand title of The Church of England Incorporated Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays, it was later shortened to the Church of England Children’s Society, and today is known as The Children’s Society.

Origins of the home lay with a young Sunday school teacher and civil servant in South London, Edward Rudolf. He witnesses the effects of poverty on children and decided to do something about it.

He established children’s homes, each housing around 10 children aged five to 14 years old, with a master and matron to act as parents.

Disabled children were supported too, and a total of 104 homes opened in England and in Canada.

One of these was at Pyrford. The original buildings of what later became a hospital were erected in about 1907 and was first known as St Nicholas’ Home for Crippled Children. It provided accommodation for 110 children, instead of the 60 to 70 who had lived in a home in Byfleet. 

The News & Mail reported that the foundation stone was laid on 27 September 1907 by HRH the Duchess of Albany.

The building was designed by Mr EJ May and built by Messrs Musselthwaite & Sapp of Basingstoke and was “a plain red brick, with a tile roof, and no extravagance or unnecessary ornamentation”.

The 1911 census shows 109 children – mainly girls, and with various disabilities – lived at the home. The disabilities included: hip disease, 18; paralysis, 17; spinal curvature, 14; lost (left) leg, 11; rickets, 9; spinal disease, 7; paralysis in leg(s), 6; amputated left leg, 3; dislocation of hips or legs, 3; brittle bones, 1; deformed arms, 1; diverticulitis, 1; granular paralysis, 1, heart disease, 1; and lost left leg by gangrene, 1.

Children died at the home. There is memorial to 50 of them, dating from 1890 to 1914, who died there and those at the previous home in Byfleet. It is now mounted in the Old School Room, adjacent to St Nicholas’ church in Pyrford. The memorial may have originally been in the chapel at the Pyrford home, but the chapel was destroyed by fire in 1970.

In 1915 a second building was constructed. This was St Martin’s, which had previously been the Home for Crippled Boys at Surbiton. The two homes on the Pyrford site were administered separately but eventually merged in October 1923 to form the St Nicholas’ and St Martin’s Home.

A school was added in 1919. Three years later, an orthopaedic hospital oopened, and the organisation became known as the St Nicholas’ and St Martin’s Orthopaedic Hospital.

Mr W Rowley Bristow, an orthopaedic surgeon at St Thomas’s Hospital in London, became associated with the work of the hospital.

Under his leadership and surgical skill, the character of the institution changed rapidly from an institutional home into a hospital, and many children were successfully treated.

If you have some memories or old pictures relating to the Woking area, call David Rose on 01483 838960, or drop a line to the News & Mail.

David Rose is a local historian and writer who specialises in what he calls “the history within living memory” of people, places and events in the west Surrey area covering towns such as Woking and Guildford. He collects old photos and memorabilia relating to the area and the subject, and regularly gives illustrated local history talks to groups and societies. For enquiries and bookings please phone or email him at: [email protected]