A History of County Hospital

County Hospital was opened in 1983 on the site of Coton Hill private psychiatric hospital which opened in 1854 and was demolished in 1976.

Coton Hill was built in a Tudor style and features included its own chapel, cinema and dance hall, sports facilities, gardens, orchards for growing fruit and vegetables and farm.

Commissioned in 1971, County Hospital is one of only two hospitals to be built using the Harness design method developed by the Department of Health and Social Care. This method of prefabrication adopted a 15 by 15 metre planning module arranged in chequerboard layout to form departments.

Only four original buildings from the original Coton Hill hospital remain- the privately-owned main lodge and villas, the old chapel which now forms part of the Postgraduate Medical Centre and rear gardener’s lodge which houses Hospital Radio Stafford.