Horton General Hospital celebrates 150th anniversary

The hospital opened in 1872

Staff and patients at a hospital are celebrating its 150th anniversary.

Banbury's Horton General Hospital in Oxfordshire opened in 1872 with 12 beds across two wards. Its first resident surgeon was not employed until 1926.

The hospital now employs 1,000 members of staff and saw more than 100,000 outpatients last year.

Anniversary celebrations for the hospital started on Friday and patients have said it is the "community feel" that makes it special.

Laura, Lucca and James Beadle raised £12,000 for a virtual reality headset to keep patients entertained

Parents James and Laura Beadle said hospital staff saved their son Lucca's life and were "phenomenal" when he suffered coarctation of the aorta.

They have recently raised £12,000 for a virtual reality headset to keep patients entertained and said they would "forever be grateful" to the hospital.

Mrs Beadle, from Hook Norton, said: "It was terrifying, it seemed like a scene on Casualty or something, when you're the distressed parents, saying, 'What's happening to my baby?'

"The staff were phenomenal. Our little boy wouldn't be here today without this hospital and the staff that worked that evening. It means the world to us."

Staff attended an anniversary party on Friday to celebrate 150 years since the hospital opened

Hospital staff attended a party to mark the anniversary on Friday, and BBC Radio Oxford has teamed up with the hospital's own radio station, Radio Horton, for a simulcast on Monday evening.

The station was founded by Banbury Guardian journalists, Ted Hanson and Graham Wilson, in 1964.

Sam Smette, chair of Radio Horton, said: "They started with one programme a week, which they recorded from Ted's front room, and over the years we've obviously evolved and we now broadcast 24 hours a day."

The Radio Horton team will go live for a simulcast with BBC Radio Oxford on Monday

Diane May, a sister in the hospital's outpatients department, said of the anniversary: "The Horton is unique, it's like no other hospital I've worked at. It makes you feel proud to work here."

Outpatient Jennifer Upton, added: "This is my lovely little hospital, I love it. When you're here, you're somebody, you're looked after, it's a beautiful community and I wish I was young enough to party with them."