Uses of the Sanatorium

When the Together Trust moved to Cheadle in 1920, it took over a site, which formally belonged to the Milne family. The purchase of the estate, which cost £5,700 (around £125,000 in today's money), included 22.5 acres of land and Belmont House along with an assortment of farm buildings. Originally, the estate was supposed to consist of ten homes but in the end only four were built. Along with Belmont House these housed 120 children. By 1927 a Sanatorium was also built in order to cater for the children if they got sick. A rummage in the archive the other week revealed some statistics for the Sanatorium in its early days. 

Sanatorium

The Sanatorium was used for two reasons: 

• To cater for any minor illnesses caught by the children who lived on the Belmont Estate.

• The first port of call when young people were admitted to the homes. This was to ensure no infectious disease was brought to the estate. The building had an operating room as well as two isolation rooms. 

Minor illnesses were recorded as shown on this table from 1928:

And 1930:

It appears the isolation rooms worked to some degree. There is no appearance of an outbreak of disease at the homes, with the Sanatorium mainly being used for minor operations. The above record shows eight instances of T&A for example. This stood for tonsillectomy with adenoidectomy, a surgical procedure performed to remove the tonsils and adenoids. There were a few cases of chicken pox but this seems to have been mostly contained to the Hayes Shaw homes.

The Sanatorium helped take the pressure off the local hospitals in the area. In those early days the Belmont Estate used the local schools and church for the children on the site but otherwise tried to have most facilities on the estate. Brownies and Cubs for example came to the estate and sports were all played onsite. Over the years, however it was deemed necessary for the children to be more involved in the community and the Sanatorium was closed as a hospital in 1954.