[dropcap type=”circle”]R[/dropcap]emember the Hazelwell? The new care home in Heswall? The one with the piano bar, hairdressing salon, nail bar and chauffeur driven Mercedes?
The care home built on part of the site once occupied by the Cleaver Hospital?
If you are a former member of the Cleaver staff you might like to know that arrangements are being made for a cheese and wine get-together for people who once worked there and that the Hazelwell wants to hear from you.
Originally called the West Derby, Liverpool and Toxteth Park Hospital it opened in 1902 and became known as the Cleaver Sanatorium – named after a man called H. P. Cleaver who was the driving force behind its construction.
From 1913 it was a children’s hospital. When World War Two began and brought with it the danger of air raids its young patients were evacuated to North Wales and adults took their places. The Home Guard also operated from the building.
As the Cleaver Hospital was a sanatorium – a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically tuberculosis, also known as consumption – its location on the edge of the River Dee, where the air was reputed to be pure, is said to have helped restore the health of the TB patients.
The Cleaver Hospital closed in 1983, following the opening of Arrowe Park Hospital in Upton. In 1988 the building and land was sold for £2.5million.
The hospital was demolished and the Oldfield Gardens estate was built on the site. The remaining nurses’ accommodation was opened as Cleaver Residential Home in 1989, before it also closed, sometime in the Noughties.
Now under ownership of Heswall Care Limited, a family-run business, The Hazelwell, is a residential, nursing, palliative and respite care home, built to a high standard. Its 55 elegantly appointed bedrooms all have en-suite bathrooms and its facilities also include a cinema, gym, library and rooftop terrace with views over the River Dee.
The new facility is managed by Wirral-born Liza Millington, a fully qualified nurse with more than 30 years of experience, who said: “The site The Hazelwell now sits on used to be home to the nurses’ home of the Cleaver Hospital. I believe there are many nurses that used to work here who are still based in Wirral, so we thought it would be a great idea to get all former employees together under one roof for a lovely reunion evening with cheese and wine to swap old stories and catch up. It would be the first time they have all met up in 33 years. I’m sure they would find it fascinating to see what building looks like inside now so it would be fantastic to show them around.”
Any former employees of the Cleaver Hospital who would like to register their interest in the reunion evening can call Liza on 0151 342 9654 or email info@thehazelwell.com
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