IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Gaol Road, STAFFORD, ST16 3JZ

The Friends' Meeting House [Quakers]in Stafford dates from 1730 and is still in use.

Stafford Prison on Gaol Road

Looking from Foregate along County Street towards the main gate of Stafford Prison.

On the Stafford Ring Road near Gaol Square

Gaol Road looking south towards Stafford town centre, Crooked Bridge Road is off to the left beyond the petrol station with Stafford Prison dominating the area.

This small Meeting house dates from 1730, and was Grade II* listed https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101211911-friends-meeting-house-stafford-coton-ward#.YZPz-GDP3IU & https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1211911 in 1951. It retains many of its original interior features, and is described as "Well preserved...best in Staffordshire" in the listing.

The gable wall on the other side of the road has a rather good example of a ghost sign advertisement. The words "Wills's Gold Flake Cigarettes" are obviously most prominent, but the older wording at the top also has the words "tobacco" and "tobacconists" in it, which suggests there may have been such a business in the premises for quite a while some years ago.

The rather impressive western perimeter wall of the prison, which were built in the 1790s, altered in the 1950s (turrets in a number of angles were demolished) and Grade II listed https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101211998-perimeter-walls-to-west-and-north-of-hm-prison-stafford-coton-ward#.YaQD9NDP3IU & https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1211998 in 1971.

Stafford General Infirmary was founded as a Voluntary Hospital in a rented house on this site in Foregate Street and opened for patients on 27 June 1766, making it one of the oldest hospitals in the country. It was funded through subscriptions and bequests. According to the Staffordshire County Archive Service the Hospital had a paid apothecary, a matron and a porter but local doctors gave their services for free. The infirmary was funded by voluntary annual subscription, patients were admitted on the recommendation of those who made donations. An infirmary cow supplied milk and fruit was provided from the surrounding orchards. The building shown is the second hospital. It cost £3,000, which was raised by public subscription, and was designed by Benjamin Wyatt. It opened in 1772 and in 1776 a Dr Erasmus Darwin of Lichfield was appointed 'physician extraordinary'. He was Charles Darwin's grandfather. The hospital building substantially restored and enlarged in 1897 and a nurse's home, built by the shoe magnate David Hollins was added in 1911. The hospital was then much extended and altered over the years until it was replaced by the Stafford District General Hospital in 1981. The hospital itself is now offices, and all the surrounding buildings were demolished in 1999 and are now a business park.

An area of open gardens and civic space, left at the site of the medieval North Gate entrance to the town, which is also seen in Image