Fleet Hospital, Fleet Road, Holbeach, Lincolnshire
This building was originally the Holbeach Union Workhouse. It was built between 1836-7 at a cost of £4,830. It was built for 386 inmates. The architect was Robert Ellis Junior who designed the building based on Sampson Kempthorne's Hexagon plan (or Y-plan) as published by the Poor Law Commission in 1835. The workhouse had unwelcome publicity in April 1882 when the master was found guilty of the manslaughter of an inmate. The Derby Mercury reported 'The man (inmate) had been suffering from a skin disease, and was placed in a fumigating box used to disinfect persons suffering from infectious disease, and was apparently forgotten. His cries at length attracted attention, and he was released, but not until he had been so terribly burned that skin and flesh fell from different parts of his body. He died a few hours afterwards'.
