LAST week we started our feature about the history of the NHS to mark its 70th anniversary.

By 1915 wounded soldiers were being cared for at Townley’s.

In May 1917 tents were put up in the grounds to accommodate the increasing number of wounded soldiers.

It was decided in 1919 that Townley’s Hospital should be managed separately from Fishpool Institute — the workhouse — and a new path created so that patients could be treated without having to pass the workhouse.

A total of 150 beds were made available to relieve the load on the Bolton Royal Infirmary but the stigma of the workhouse site meant that beds remained empty at Townley’s and patients would choose to wait five or six weeks for a place at The Infirmary.

In 1915 electricity replaced gas for lighting.

In 1916 extensions were built and these included a maternity block and an operating block.

In 1936 Townley’s had 500 patients and the Fishpool Institution 433 inmates.

On July 5, 1948 the National Health Service was launched and names were changed.

Fishpool became Townley’s Annex. Fishpool was used for the chronic sick and the elderly but fit were moved to homes at Watermillock and Smithills Hall.

Times were changing now not only in Bolton but across the country as the health service started to take effect.

When health secretary Aneurin Bevan (launched the NHS at Park Hospital in Manchester it was the climax of an ambitious plan to bring good healthcare to all.

For the first time, hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, opticians and dentists were brought together under one umbrella organisation to provide services that were free for all at the point of delivery.

It was a scheme that would attract great envy from the rest of the World.

Health provision was provided from taxation meaning even the poorest people in society could obtain the help they needed.

Thankfully workhouses were to become a thing of the past as social care for the needy improved dramatically.

There would no longer be that fear of having to resort to the Fishpool Institution when times became too hard to cope with.

In 1951 the name of Townley’s was changed to Bolton District General Hospital (Townley’s Branch).

Fishpool became Townley’s Annex.

Fishpool was used for the chronic sick and the elderly but fit residents were moved to homes at Watermillock and Smithills Hall often having spent decades working for a living.

Many elderly people today in Bolton still refer to the hospital by the Townley’s name.

In 1952 a charge for prescriptions is introduced at one shilling which would be five pence today.

For more on the history of health care in Bolton see next week’s Looking Back.