Hawick Cottage Hospital

Description

The B-Listed Hawick Cottage Hospital on Buccleuch Road in Hawick was opened in 1885 and is a beautiful building with an imposing position on a tree-lined hilltop. The history behind the different wings is something out of Hollywood with Lady Violet Astor, of the Astor Fortune, donating £2,250 (over £33,000 today) herself to build a new children’s ward in memory of her brother, Esmond Elliot (younger son of the Earl of Minto, Viceroy of India, who was killed while serving with the Scots Guards, aged 22, at the beginning of the Passchendaele Offensive in Belgium in WWI). The Prince of Wales himself laid the wing’s foundation stone on December 3, 1924 which is unbelievably still present at the site.

The site has transferred owners a few times, with residential plans being the most common theme, but nothing to date has brought this site back into use. The site has so much potential, but has had substantial damage done to it due to a complete lack of maintenance or protective measures.