The Present photograph shows all that is left of Massereene Hospital it was taken down to make way for the new Tesco store. It was originally the Workhouse and was built because of a Cholera epidemic in the town, the people who died were quickly buried far from the town in what was called the 'Spittle Field' which was between Greystone and Moylena roads. The building was called the 'Antrim Poor Law Union Workhouse' and it opened it's doors on the 19th September 1843. It had 40 beds with a further 45 beds in the fever sheds, in the first ten years they admitted 7,274 paupers of which 1,051 died there. The people where then buried in the Paupers Graveyard at the rear of the building which is now Tesco's carpark!

 

Move your cursor over the Photo to see the Past Photo.