Our Speaker, Gillian Waugh Pead was trained as a nurse, educated in public policy and has a keen interest in Bridgnorth’s local history.

Today’s Bridgnorth Hospital has its origins in a pre-Victorian infirmary founded in the ancient market town in 1836. Based on detailed, original research, Gillian's book tells the fascinating story of the infirmary and the characters involved, from its founding in the nineteenth century up to the advent of the National Health Service in 1948.

In so doing the book presents a microcosm of the many developments that took place nationally in medicine, nursing, hospital design and public health during this period, as well as providing a unique window onto healthcare in a Shropshire market town in the nineteenth century and beyond - on those who were responsible for that care, and those who received it