CHESHIRE & MERSEYSIDE


 

CHESTER  
Dr John Haygarth In 1761 the Chester Royal Infirmary was erected on open fields within the city walls on a location known as St. Martin in the Fields. The date is still visible on the building, inscribed above the main door. In 1784, John Haygarth (left), physician to the infirmary until his retirement to Bath in 1798, isolated patients with infectious diseases such as small-pox, typhus and cholera in specially designated fever wards. The hospital closed in 1993 after 230 years of continuous medical care and all services transferred to The Countess of Chester hospital in Liverpool Road. Some of the early patient records are kept in Chester's city archives, housed at the Town Hall. The 18th hospital building is current awaiting redevelopment for other use
   
   
St HELENS  
Beecham's Bar and Brewery commemorates the former premises of Beecham's pharmaceutical factory, now part of St Helen's college. Thomas Beecham, the grandson of the musician, moved from Wigan to St Helens in the 1840's and became famous for a laxative known as Beecham's Pills. He also invented some less celebrated remedies such as the Golden Tooth Tincture and the Female's Friend. His mail order business flourished and he opened his first factory in 1858. The present building dates from 1887.