The Sheffield Royal HospitalA History of a City's Quest for Healthcare

A hospital's story, told from the records it left behind.

Through extensive archival research and original source material, The Sheffield Royal Hospital: A History of a City's Quest for Healthcare presents the most comprehensive account to date of the Sheffield Royal Hospital. It charts the hospital's development, its achievements and its contribution to healthcare in Sheffield.

Richly illustrated and meticulously researched, it captures the stories of the institution and the people who dedicated their lives to serving the city.

More about The Sheffield Royal Hospital: contents, details and where to buy

The Sheffield Royal Hospital began as the Sheffield Public Dispensary, founded in 1832. As the town grew, so did the dispensary: it was extended in 1860 and again in 1870, becoming the Sheffield Public Hospital.

In the early 1890s it was completely rebuilt on West Street, between Westfield Terrace, Devonshire Street and Eldon Street. The new building was opened by the Duchess of York on 11 May 1895 as the Sheffield Royal Hospital. In the 1920s the neighbouring Mount Zion chapel was taken over and turned into an out-patients department.

The hospital joined the National Health Service in 1948. In 1978 its services moved to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital and it closed. The buildings were demolished in 1981; only the façade of the Mount Zion chapel survives.

Did you work or train at the Royal, or were you or a relative treated there? Share your memories.

Glynn May is a Sheffield historian and lorewright. He worked for 25 years in NHS Management at all six NHS hospitals in Sheffield, United Kingdom, the last eight leading the Logistics team at Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust, before retiring in 2025 to research and write the history of the city's medical heritage.

His work is built on original sources: the city's newspapers, registers and archives. More about Glynn · What is a lorewright?

The Sheffield Royal Hospital: A History of a City's Quest for Healthcare is the result of that research, and tells the story of the Sheffield Royal Hospital and the people who served it.

In the early nineteenth century, Sheffield's dead were not always left in peace. The town's new medical school on Surrey Street, founded in 1828, needed bodies for anatomy teaching, and the law supplied almost none. The gap was filled by the resurrection men, who dug up the newly buried at night and sold them to the surgeons.

Sheffield people fought back. Families watched over the graves of their dead, and watch houses were built, like the one that still stands at Bradfield. When word got out that a grave had been robbed, crowds gathered, and the medical school on Surrey Street was stoned. The Anatomy Act of 1832 changed the law, but it did not end the story: as late as 1862, a scandal at Wardsend Cemetery ended in a riot.

My new book, Body Snatching in Sheffield, tells this story from the town's newspapers, court records and archives.

Can you help?

I would like to hear from anyone with:

• family stories of body snatching, grave-watching or riots in Sheffield and the surrounding villages
• old photographs of churchyards, watch houses, mortsafes or the Surrey Street Medical Institution
• letters, diaries or other papers that mention the resurrection men

Please get in touch using the form below, or email glynnmay-author@pm.me. Anything you share will only be used with your permission, and credited if you wish.