To mark the centenary of the beginning of the First World War, the house has been transformed into a military hospital, a re-creation of the convalescent hospital it became in 1917. Dunham Massey became a place of recovery and retreat, where soldiers received vital medical care. Almost 300 soldiers were cared for here between 1917 and 1919. The Grey family who owned the house, made these men wonderfully welcome and its idyllic gardens became the backdrop not solely for medical care but for boating, croquet, cricket, squash, even 'dressing gown parades'. The transformation of Dunham Massey today is a remarkable one - just as it was then, 100 years ago. Gone are the elegant Edwardian interiors. In place of the Saloon is a 25-bed hospital ward (or 'Bagdad Ward' [sic] as it was nicknamed by the patients).

Author Biography

Susie Stubbs is a freelance writer and communications consultant. She has written for The Guardian and The Independent, has published several books with Tate Publishing and Time Out. Susie lives in Manchester and often visits nearby Dunham Massey with her children. She wrote the National Trust's Dunham Massey guidebook which was, in her words, 'a dream job'.