AN HISTORIC hospital with a price tag of £150,000 is to be sold at auction.

Lluesty Hospital in Holywell closed in 2008 when the new Holywell Community Hospital on Halkyn Road opened.

The hospital, which started life in the 1830s as a Victorian workhouse, will now go under the hammer on Friday, February 18, at a London auction house.

Jean Saunders, who worked as a ward sister at Lluesty Hospital in the 1960s, said she is pleased it was being sold at auction.

“It’s starting to look neglected,” she said. “It needs to be bought and redeveloped.”

The hospital and its surrounding grounds on Old Chester Road have been allocated for the development of 70 houses.

The original workhouse is a listed building and looks out across the Dee Estuary, offering views across Holywell to the Wirral.

A guide price of £150,000 has been set by auctioneers Lambert Smith Hampton for the site.

Legat Owen has been marketing the property on behalf of Welsh Health Estates who are managing the site for Betsi Cadwaldr University Health Board.

Stephen Wade, director at Legat Owen, said: “The site has been allocated for residential development, part redevelopment of the old building and part new build.”

Mrs Saunders, 70, added: “There’s good stone work there, it’s a good site for it. There’s good access to Holywell and the view is wonderful.”

Mrs Saunders and her husband John, 71, set up The Good Companions of Holywell Hospital while she was working at Lluesty.

“It was a very happy place but there were no curtains round the beds,” she said.

“I used to come home upset because it was degrading for patients so my husband got fed up and we decided to start the Good Companions.

“There were 50 beds on a ward when I worked there and we had about 160 beds in total.”

The couple, from Carmel, have been running The Good Companions since 1964 and have carried on fundraising for the new Holywell Community Hospital.

“Since the new hospital was set up three years ago we’ve raised £95,000,” said Mrs Saunders.

“We’re fundraising for a bladder scanner at the moment. There will be several fundraising events over the next few months. We’re thinking about a barn dance, a coffee morning and a sponsored walk – there’s always something going on.”

– To donate to The Good Companions of Holywell Hospital contact Mr and Mrs Saunders on 01352 713652.