Cliveden Village is built on National Trust land which was in the ownership of the Astor family until 1942.

At the outbreak of World War 1 Waldorf Astor MP volunteered for the British forces, only to be refused on medical grounds. He and wife Nancy instead volunteered to the UK government to build a war hospital in the grounds of their estate. With their offer (inexplicably) refused, they made the same approach to the Canadian Red Cross, who gratefully accepted.

On the site of today’s Village, the HRH Duchess of Connaught Canadian Red Cross Hospital came into existence in 1915 and continued to operate till 1919, when it changed its name to Number 15 Canadian General Hospital, still run by the Canadian Red Cross.

In its initial phase cubicles were erected inside the indoor tennis court (still in use, adjacent to the Village), with subsequent temporary buildings erected in the area occupied by the Village as pictured above.

At the outbreak of World War 2, the Canadian Red Cross invested significantly in the site with new buildings and facilities over a wide area, using essentially the same space as today occupied by the Village, and the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital came into existence.  

Operation was handed over to the Canadian Royal Army Medical Corps on 1 July 1940 and the hospital continued under their management until 1947, when the facility was given by the people of Canada to the UK and incorporated into the nascent National Health Service as a centre for research into paediatric rheumatology.

The hospital continued to operate within the NHS for almost another 40 years, providing much needed revenue to the National Trust for the upkeep of Cliveden during that time. Additionally, a significant maternity wing was incorporated and it is estimated approximately 200,000 local children entered the world on its premises. However, in 1985 the hospital admitted its last patient and closed its doors for the final time. Over the next 20 years the site fell into disrepair, and became amongst other things an evening locale for adventurous youth of the area.

In 2006 Countryside Properties, in conjunction with the National Trust, began development of the site as Cliveden Village, with the first houses sold in 2007. The connection to its past medical purposes is commemorated within the Village by the memorial plaque above, formerly on the administration building fascia, which is now laid within the area of pleached limes.

Acknowledgment is gratefully given to the following sources for this material which are recommended references for those wishing to know more:

http://crcmh.com/abandonment.htm - a website developed by local Maidenhead enthusiasts who explored the site after it closed - to commemorate the hospital and provide further references to works by people who served at the hospital.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/features/first-world-war-at-cliveden - part of the National Trust’s history of Cliveden, referring to the graves of the World War 1 casualties who died at the hospital.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01yn8bh - a link to a radio programme by the BBC on “Lady Astor’s Hospital”, part of the BBC series of programmes commemorating World War 1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Red_Cross_Memorial_Hospital - a basic outline of events.