Gorse Hill was originally part of the Stratton St Margaret parish until 1885 when expansion of the area and the building of St Barnabus Church in Cricklade Road meant that it became a parish in it’s own right. The first streets to be built were Avening, Chapel, Hinton, and Bright Street.

During 1883 the first school opened in an old iron church, which was located off Cricklade Road, opposite what is now known as Tydeman Street. Twenty pupils attended the school, but continued expansion of the area meant that the number of pupils quickly rose. In 1877 a new school was built in Avening Street. Gorse Hill Infant and Junior School still occupy this site today.

St Barnabus Church Hall was built in 1889 and has been used by many local community groups over the years including mother and toddler groups, scouts and guides and the St Barnabus Players. During the war a kitchen was constructed and the church hall was used as a British restaurant.

The Carpenter’s Arms, now renamed the Swiss Chalet, was originally opened as an Off-licence in 1874 and was run by a local carpenter named William Penny. The pub was demolished in 1964 due to a road widening scheme and was rebuilt a short distance away in Chapel Street. It has since been renamed the Swiss Chalet because of it’s distinctive architectural style.

Gorse Hill Isolation Hospital

TODAY hundreds of people visit the Hawthorn Medical Centre, a busy doctors surgery in Cricklade Road, Gorse Hill and then pop into the nearby Hawthorn pharmacy for their medication, but how many of them realise that an Isolation Hospital was built there in 1893?

Gorse Hill Isolation Hospital was designed by the architect HJ Hamp and was built as a joint project by Swindon Local Boards and Highworth District Council. The hospital replaced the old "Pest House for infectious diseases" which was built in Old Town during the 1800s.

Hospital staff included a Matron, Charge Nurses, Assistant Nurses and Probationers, who worked for the board for a two-year period. The Hospital, which was taken over by Swindon Corporation in 1900 and expanded, had an isolation block that could accommodate up to 12 patients suffering from diphtheria and typhoid, diseases that often erupted into epidemics and were related to the poor living conditions of the 19th century.  Contaminated drinking water was a big problem throughout the country at this time and a cause of spreading infectious diseases.

In 1936 the Isolation hospital served the Borough of Swindon and the rural districts of Highworth, Cricklade and Wootton Bassett, but also took patients from other parts of the country when accommodation for infectious diseases became overstrained. The hospital grounds included an Administration block for staff, a discharge block, stores, steam laundry and a mortuary.

A medical report written by the Medical Superintendent, F.E.Streeten, states that there were 36 beds at the hospital for treating patients with Scarlet Fever, a disease widely known as the scourge of the 19th century which killed thousands of people across the country. The disease caused devastating pandemics and many people died. Children who caught Scarlet Fever often had their bed linen and toys burned for fear of spreading the infection and were kept in Isolation Hospitals for weeks. The disease, which is named after the bright red rash that occurs in sufferers, often resulted in complications with patients suffering from secondary diseases such as pneumonia and rheumatic fever.

Figures from the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Heath show that during the 1936 there were 86 cases of patients with scarlet fever admitted to Gorse Hill Isolation hospital.