Page 149 - Redditch People

Redditch People

Mount Street. These housed 20 people and today are put to good use by a Housing
Association. In Alcester he donated £4000 for their Smallwood Almshouses.

The Redditch Almshouses were opened on the day of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee -
22nd June 1897.

In total William donated £50,600 from Edwin's will and his own money. This is equivalent
to well over three million pounds in today's money.

William died in 1901 at the age of 91. Without his and his brother's most generous gifts
of large sums of money it is likely that Redditch would have had to wait well into the
twentieth century before getting its own hospital.

With additional money donated by William (see William Smallwood) the plans for a new
hospital went ahead. Building started in November 1893 and it took 18 months for the
hospital to be completed. An Opening Ceremony took place on 25th May 1895 and Lady
Windsor of Hewell Grange officially declared the hospital open. There were large crowds
at the opening and an official dinner was held at the Public Hall on Church Road after the
opening.

However, it was to be another 30 years before the first hospital for Redditch opened.
There was a lack of money for such a big project.

Smallwood Almshouses soon after they
opened in 1897

Smallwood Almshouses today Page: 149
© RLHS 2015