Chiswick House, London
Maison Dieu, Faversham
Liverpool School for the Indigent Blind, Liverpool
Langdon Down Museum of Learning Disability, Teddington
The Royal School for Deaf Children, Margate
Guild of the Brave Poor Things, Bristol
St Saviour’s Deaf Church, Acton
Grove Road Housing Scheme, Sutton-in-Ashfield
I have always been interested in history, and so much raw data from sometimes centuries ago sits in archives, unconsidered. And it's personally important to me to see the stories of deaf and disabled people told over time - if we understand the past better, it also helps us shape the world in the present.
Ann Newman looks at the case notes of a female patient of Chiswick House, finds evidence of Victorian attitudes percolating into 20th century medical thought, and discovers more loose ends than satisfying conclusions…
Ann continues tracing almshouses beyond the medieval period, and discovers what happened to pilgrims who fell mortally ill.
Other medieval hospitals near the pilgrimage site of Canterbury help us build a picture of care during the period.
Religious houses offered sanctuary to disabled people and those with illnesses. Ann Newman puts some names and occupations to those who stayed there.
Centuries before the NHS, monasteries were a refuge for the sick. Ann Newman is researching the records of one such place, St John’s Canterbury.