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Birdsgrove House: end of an era
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Selling Birdsgrove House
Some pharmacists may be under the impression
that Birdsgrove House cannot be sold without the membership’s agreement. A provision
in the Society’s old Charter would have prevented its sale
without the approval of a special general meeting. But it is
the Charities Commission that will always have the final say
in regard
to properties owned by the Benevolent Fund, and so no equivalent
provision appears in the current Charter. |
Birdsgrove House is an imposing Victorian mansion on the edge of the
Derbyshire Dales. Built in 1852, the Grade II listed building stands
above the Staffordshire bank of the River Dove at Mayfield, near Ashbourne.
Its 11 acres of grounds reach down to the riverside.
The house became the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s convalescent
home in April 1946, but the Society had already been using it for other
purposes for several years. In 1938, as the threat of war increased,
the Society had the foresight to consider moving some of its activities
out of London. As a result, it bought the lease of the house in May 1939,
four months before the outbreak of war.
On the day after war was declared
some staff moved from blitz-threatened Bloomsbury to live and work at
Birdsgrove House for the duration of the war. With the ending of the
war, the Council agreed, at the instigation of the Society’s treasurer,
to keep the house and run it as a convalescent home for pharmacists and
their families. At that time, in the early days of the welfare state,
convalescence facilities were in great demand and highly valued.
An official opening took place in April 1946. Members and branches of
the Society donated equipment and furnishings. After a three-year trial
had established the convalescent home’s success, the Society bought
the freehold. Further donations allowed the addition of many amenities,
including a lift. Donations from members, branches of the Society and
other pharmacy organisations have continued ever since.
As letters to The Journal have testified, many members have developed
an attachment to Birdsgrove House. Even a brief visit to the house and
its pleasant surroundings is enough to show why so many pharmacists have
such affection for it.
So why does this little piece of pharmacy heaven have to close? Quite
simply, because it has become an albatross around the neck of the Society’s
Benevolent Fund, which owns it. Over the years the demand for convalescence
facilities has steadily declined and, despite every effort, the house
has become an enormous drain on the fund’s resources.
For many years the Benevolent Fund trustees (who are the members of the
Society’s Council) have tried to find ways of reducing the burden
of the house on the Benevolent Fund. In 1989 they agreed to increase
the fees (for all but the really needy) so that they more accurately
reflected the true running costs of the house.
But this had little effect, and in 1998, with use of the service continuing
to decline, they took further action. They approved measures for raising
awareness of Birdsgrove House within the profession, with the aim of
increasing occupancy. They also decided to provide an additional source
of revenue by turning the empty gardener’s cottage into a treatment
facility for health professionals with drug or alcohol problems. A further
decision was to refurbish Spring Cottage, a four-bedroom house within
the Birdsgrove House grounds, so that it could be let at a more realistic
rent than it had previously attracted.
But the losses in the rest and recovery service have continued, and the
addiction treatment service, while acquiring an excellent reputation,
has been unable to cover its costs.
The final straw for Birdsgrove House came last year following the introduction
of new legislation affecting the services offered. It has become virtually
impossible to house both convalescence and addiction treatment service
on the one site. And capital investment in the region of £500,000
would be required to upgrade either service to the standard now required.
The Benevolent Fund is a registered charity and its trustees are charged
by the Charities Commission with ensuring that the fund is secure, that
it fulfils its remit and that it provides the best support for pharmacists
and their families in times of illness or hardship. The trustees have
finally decided that continually sinking money into Birdsgrove House
cannot be seen as providing “best support” for those in need.
They believe that better use can be made of the money invested in the
house.
One major factor in their decision is that, as the need for convalescence
services has declined, the Benevolent Fund has seen an increasing demand
for help from pharmacists with problems of stress in the workplace and,
in recent years, younger pharmacists with problems of debt.
And so the trustees have finally, albeit reluctantly, said that enough
is enough. Their reluctance is not because the decision is hard to justify.
It is, sadly, easy to justify. Their reluctance is because they are aware
of the affection in which Birdsgrove House is held and conscious that
its demise is the end of a long tradition.
The Benevolent Fund’s co-ordinator, Beverly Nicol, says that the
Society is by no means alone in having to deal with such problems. As
a member of the Association of Charity Officers, she is well aware that
the trustees’ decision reflects a trend that has occurred across
a range of professional and trade charities that have tried to offer
convalescence facilities to their members.
Speaking for the trustees, chairman Hemant Patel, said: “The profession’s
role in providing benevolence to its members is an extremely important
one and the need to secure the future financial position of the Benevolent
Fund is a matter of fundamental concern to the trustees. The trustees
acknowledged that many members have a deep attachment to Birdsgrove House,
which for 50 years has been a centre for rest and recuperation to pharmacists
and their families in times of need.
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However, over the years, the demand for rest and recuperation services
dwindled while the costs have risen. In modern times, an establishment
that has served us well for many years is evidently no longer what most
pharmacists need and the cost of maintaining the house is creating a
serious and unacceptable deficit year on year. What is more, it is clear
that there are undoubtedly better ways of providing the range of help
that members need. We are now actively looking at how we can provide
a fuller range of tailored, expert help to pharmacists in need in locations
that are much more convenient.
“As trustees, we are duty bound to ensure that the Benevolent Fund
is secure, fulfils its remit and provides the very best support for our
members and their families in times of illness or hardship.”
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal