Sanatorium Nab Top Marple for the Salford Corporation.

Members of the Salford Borough Council assisted yesterday in the formal opening of the Nab Top Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Marple, Cheshire.  The sanatorium has, in fact, been open four months, and 95 of its 100 beds are already occupied. It stands on a plateau almost encircled by one of the loops of the Mersey (Goyt), whose banks, well wooded still at this stage, rise abruptly the summit of the knoll.  From one side of it the Marple Viaduct can be seen, and further-west the uneven crest of the Pennines rises nine miles away. The plateau tilts gently towards the south, and the two ward blocks strung across it catch the sun. The patients' dining-room looks between them from the western side, and behind it the administrative block has been built. There is also a porter's house a laundry and engine-house within the enclosure. Shortly a house for the medical officer. Dr. Fleming, will be built.  The ward blocks are built with a nurses' room in the centre. Immediately next to it on both sides are the cubicles reserved for the more acute cases, and at the ends two small wards, set in at an angle to the front, are for children. The fronts of both blocks are open to sun and wind, though sheltered by a projecting roof, and the cubicle doors are made in the manner of half-doors, the upper part glass and lower wood. There are few occupations in which patients can busy themselves, but a piece of meadow land has been handed to them for light gardening, and the men and women who can take exercise have been stripping turf in patches to make gardens. The nature of the work is carefully supervised to fit the health of the patient—a small basket, for instance, moderates the load. Some time, perhaps, it will be necessary to build a recreation hall. The plan which has now been carried out is not a new one. Dr Tattersall, lately medical officer of health in Salford, in a speech yesterday afternoon put its origin as far back as 1901, and pointed out that with ordinary luck the sanatorium might have been built, and cheaply built, by the end of 1912. The official history of the plan goes back to 1913 when the land was purchased, and after that, follows a long chapter of accidents during which the estimated cost rose from £18,000 to £25,000. in 1914, still upwards. to £45,000 in 1919 and finally to £88,250 in June. 1920, when the contractors began work. Mr. J. Cubbon. of Messrs Sankey and Cubbon, architects, was appointed after competition in October, 1914, and was present at the formal opening yesterday.

Reference    Building News 12 December 1919 Page 494
Reference    Manchester Guardian 13 December 1919 page 6 – contracts
Reference    Manchester Guardian 19 April 1923 page 11 - opening