The Orchard Hospital was an isolation unit built on Dartford Marshes in the early 20th century. Bombing, fire and demolition have destroyed much of the hospital, but traces remain.
On Joyce Green Lane, just past Joyce Green Farm, several dirt bike trails lead from the road into the dense vegetation on the right. These lead to and around the hospital, built in 1902 on a former fruit orchard.
The Orchard was later used as a WW1 military hospital and in 1918, the complex housed more than one thousand Russian refugees, who had been in contact with smallpox.
The hospital was initially built to manage patients until the nearby Joyce Green Hospital was completed. Joyce Green has now been demolished and lost under recent housing development.
Destruction of the Orchard Hospital
During WW2 the army made use of The Orchard, up until D-Day. Shortly after their departure in 1944, almost half of the wooden hospital buildings were destroyed by enemy bombing and fire. Some accounts say the damage was caused by an early V1 flying bomb.
About a dozen, single-storey brick buildings survived. These were subsequently reused as part of a pig farm, serving the nearby Joyce Green Hospital. These overgrown buildings are now deteriorating, and the entire site is naturally rewilding.
Although the hospital’s wooden, barrack-like huts are completely gone, their concrete foundations support lush growths of mosses, lichens and small plants. Trees and brambles have colonised the spaces between, creating tall barriers.
The hospital paths, including the line of a tramway, remain. They are mossy underfoot and hemmed in by nature.
The Orchard Hospital – useful links
https://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/orchard/orchard-introduction-2/
workhouses.org.uk/MAB-Orchard/
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