Oaklands Hospital
The Daresbury Hotel was built on the site of a house called ‘Oaklands’. It was in the style of a Scottish baronial mansion, similar to The Beeches, in Moore. Oaklands was owned by the Greenall family and used as a military hospital during WW1. It was staffed by the Daresbury division of the Red Cross.
One of The Oaklands nurses, Mabel Earp, kept a diary. Chester Military Museum has given us permission to use it in our work. Mabel made notes and sketches and also included those of her patients. Private J Simpson, of the Northumberland Fusiliers, wrote her a poem.
Nurse Earp is sweet and gentle
From ? she has no thought
And when in pain you’re lying
She gives consoling words.
Her voice is like a nightingale
From bed to bed goes round
And words that are so soothing
Makes pain grow still and cold.
The parish magazine of June 1915, tells us that local farmers had been very generous in providing potatoes for the hospital meals. At a childrens’ service on June 6, the Sunday School children were asked to make offerings of eggs.
A young girl from Latchford, regularly visited soldiers at Oaklands and she kept an autograph book. This is held by Warrington library and can be viewed there.