Hospital site sold to developer

The final part of the giant former Corbett Hospital site in Amblecote, Stourbridge, has been sold to David Payne Homes for an undisclosed sum.

The land, which sits between Vicarage Road and the High Street, includes the original Corbett Hospital building, which opened in 1893 and was at the heart of the community for decades.

Annexes of the original hospital have already been demolished and new medical facilities built in their place, run by Dudley Primary Care Trust.

Bromsgrove-based David Payne Homes is now likely to build a number of homes surrounding the new medical centres on the land they have bought.

Dudley Group of Hospitals spokesman Suzanne Fothergill would not today reveal how much was made from the sale.

She said: "The trust can confirm that it has completed the land sale of the Corbett Hospital.

The land has been sold to David Payne Homes, however at this stage we are not able to disclose how much the land sold for. We can however say that money generated from the land sale will be allocated to improve patient care."

The original Corbett Hospital building was formerly a house built in 1736. It was reopened as a hospital in 1893 and named after Brierley Hill salt magnate John Corbett who funded much of its renovation and the equipment for the new hospital.

It was once one of Dudley's main hospitals and had its own accident and emergency department used by thousands of people a year.

It services were downgraded in later years and when it closed in 2005 it was only being used an out-patient centre.

Since its closure two-years ago, part of the old Corbett Hospital site has been used to build a new out-patient centre costing £10 million, which former PM Tony Blair visited earlier this year.