CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Hertford County Hospital

hospital in England

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ5744684 ↗
Source-derived summary

Hertford County Hospital is situated in the town of Hertford, county town of Hertfordshire, England. It is managed by the East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust.

History

The origins of the hospital lie in the General Dispensary which was established in one room of Hertford Castle 'for the relief of the sick poor by affording them gratuitous advice and medicine' with permission from the Marquess of Salisbury, Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, in 1822. The foundation stone of a new purpose-built hospital was laid by the John Kaye, Bishop of Lincoln on 17 July 1832 and the General Infirmary, as it became known, opened to in-patients on 3 July 1833. Beer was brewed and served at the hospital until 1834. In the late 19th century the hospital was supported by funds from local people including Earl Cowper. The facility became Hertford County Hospital in 1908 and, following a substantial reconstruction of the building that took place in 1916, it joined the National Health Service in 1948.

A further re-development of the site, which cost of £8.5 million, took place in 2003; the scheme, which involved the construction of new facilities and the release of the older buildings for residential use, was completed in November 2004.

References

Further reading

Heath, Cyril (1983). 150 years of Healing.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Hertford County Hospital” as hospital in England. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hertford, County and Hospital.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1822, 1832, 1833, 1834—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1833-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Hertford, County and Hospital providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Hertford County Hospital”, the useful work is to connect “hospital in England” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5744684. Authority coordinates are 51.796, -0.089. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1822, 1832, 1833 and 1834.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Hertford County Hospital”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Hertford County Hospital primary sources, Hertford County Hospital archive and Hertford research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hertford County Hospital”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Hertford County Hospital” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.