page_title: Standish Hospital
section_title: Private house
hierarchical_section_title: Standish Hospital / History / Private house
caption_attribution_description: English: Right of way above Standish Right of way ascending the hill above the site of the former Standish Hospital.
context_page_description: Standish Hospital was a specialist orthopaedics, rheumatology and respiratory care National Health Service hospital, located in the hamlet of Standish, Gloucestershire, England. The building was originally a private country house. After it closed as a hospital in 2004, proposals were brought forward for redevelopment of the site.
context_section_description: Below Standish Wood, which together with Haresfield Beacon was acquired by the National Trust in 1931, lies Standish Park, which has existed since the 16th century. Originally part of Standish Court, the Park covered 250 acres (100 ha), and was part of the estate of the Baron's Sherborne of Gloucestershire. Developing the Park as a country retreat, Standish House was constructed on the property.
  In 1853, James Dutton, 3rd Baron Sherborne leased it to Gloucester-based businessman Richard Potter, son of Radical MP Richard Potter, then a director of timber merchants Price & Co., later the managing director of the Great Western Railway. Potter lived at the house with his wife Lawrencina, daughter of a Liverpool-based merchant, and their nine daughters. Three were born in the property, including later sociologist, economist, socialist and social reformer Martha Beatrice Webb, Lady Passfield.
  Potter developed the gardens along with managed Victorian era principles, building extensive heated greenhouses to allow the family to eat well. It eventually provided a ready supply of grapes, plus a dedicated mushroom house and watercress beds. A drilled spring provided a steady year-round stream, which was landscaped to provide a pond by the construction of a brick wall dam. Beneath the dam there was an ice store, allowing year-round supplies of ice.
  In 1882, Lawrencina died and the remaining family members moved out, with Richard moving to Box House in Minchinhampton, where he died on 1 January 1892.
  On 24 June 1884, Mrs. Annie Poole King of Kensington House, Brislington, Somerset leased Standish House on a contract term of 21 years from Edward Dutton, 4th Baron Sherborne, at a rate of £150pa. The widow of a shipping magnate, she moved in with five children, plus a house staff of a coachman, cook, housekeeper, and gardener. A member of the Berkeley Hunt, at the time the house had a stable block capable of housing 30+ horses.
  The outbreak of the Boer War reduced global shipping rates, and particularly the rand, which greatly affected Mrs. King's income. In 1897 the family left the house, and downsized with their entire staff to Newark Park at Ozleworth, Wotton-under-Edge.
caption: Right of way through Standish Woods, located above Standish Park and Standish House
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