MEDICAL CENTRE

This lovely old house forms part of the village medical centre.

It is a Grade 2 listed building and was originally a Rectory. The patron was The Bishop of Durham. The date on the plaque above the door is 1713. It is actually quite a distance away from the church.

In 1920/21 the Rectory was vacated and the building was opened as a Cottage Hospital in 1922. It had wards for inpatients and a small casualty department.

However it had to close in1985 due to lack of funding. Locals fought against the closure and raised some money but not enough.

In 1986 the building opened as a private school and nursery.

When the school moved to different premises the building underwent extensive building work and a new extension was added. It opened as a medical centre in 2002.

Whilst I was waiting in there today I had the time to flip through one of the magazines left out for patients - the date on the magazine was May 2010 - ever so slightly out of date.