Mildenhall, Suffolk

MILDENHALL UNION : NEW WORKHOUSE. THESE new buildings, which are grouped together at right angles to the main road leading to Bury St. Edmund's, were officially opened on Dec. 13, 1895. The grounds are entered from the main road through wrought-iron entrance gates and ornamental brick and stone piers. On the right hand is the board-room block, containing spacious board and committee-rooms, clerk's room, waiting room, and lavatory ; on the left hand and opposite this building is the porter's lodge and tramp block for males and females, with day and night cells, association wards, receiving wards, &c. Behind these is situated the main block, with the master's house in the centre, three stories high. The right wing, two stories high, accommodates the female paupers, and the left wing the male paupers, with necessary day-rooms, dormitories, attendants' rooms, &c. A range of buildings, one story high, flanking the male paupers', contains the boys day-rooms, dormitories, &c., and accommodation for married couples, with garden for each. At the back of the master's house is the administrative block, containing spacious kitchen, scullery, and stores for meat, bread, linen, clothes, and dry goods ; also a lofty dining hall, and behind the kitchen are located the boiler-house, coal-house, and pump-room. The boiler-house contains two boilers for supplying the whole of the buildings with hot water and steam for the purposes of cooking, warming rooms and corridors, and water supply to baths, sinks, and laundry. The cold-water supply is obtained from a well, and forced by steam-pumps to large tanks in the tank-room, over master's house, and from thence it is distributed to various parts of the buildings. At the back of the grounds, completely isolated from all other buildings, are located the infirmary buildings, containing nurses' administrative department, with lying-in wards at back, and right and left wings for male and female patients, with foul wards for each sex at the extreme ends, quite distinct from general wards. A mortuary is erected on the west side of the site. Airing yards are provided for each sex in the different departments, bounded by high brick walls. All the baths, closets, slop-sinks, and other conveniences are up-to-date in design, and all sanitary blocks are intercepted from main buildings by fresh-air lobbies. All the different departments in the various blocks are connected by covered ways, so that communication can be made between each without being exposed in wet weather. The rainwater is stored in a large rainwater tank near the laundry block, and all the sewerage is conveyed to a tank at the extreme end of the- site ; all necessary manholes, flushing tanks, and interceptors are provided on the most approved modern system. The buildings are all built with Suffolk white bricks and dressings, quoins, moulded courses, and other finishings in red bricks. The roofs are covered with slates. The whole of the work has been expeditiously carried out by Messrs. Kerridge and Shaw, contractors, Cambridge. The moulded brickwork was supplied from Mr. Brown's brickyard, of Braintree, and Mr. Walter Godfrey has acted as clerk of works. The whole of the buildings have been designed and carried out by Mr. Frank Whitmore, architect, of Chelmsford and Bury St. Edmund's, and county surveyor for West Suffolk. The cost of building and site has been about £11,500.