‘Under construction’

"I went to see Brian Adams, a local Quantity Surveyor, and asked if he knew an architect who would be interested in designing a hospice. Without hesitation, he suggested Nigel Dees. An inspired choice; he and Brian proved to be an extremely enthusiastic and committed design team.

A number of sites, in and around Hereford, were considered. We visited Bartestree Convent early on, and received a wonderful welcome from the Sisters. We had a fascinating tour of the convent and its grounds, but had started to think that none of it was going to be suitable. Having, as we thought, seen everything, we were standing in a small orchard at the rear of the building, and were greatly moved by the serenity of the place and its amazing view. It seemed the ideal site for the Hospice. From that moment, none of the other venues could match the one at Bartestree. It was agreed that we should lease the land from the convent for 5p a year for 99 years. We enjoyed a very warm relationship with the Sisters until they were sadly forced to leave the convent in 1992. (The Hospice now owns the freehold of the land on which it stands.)

The Chairman during the planning and commissioning stage was the late Dame Margaret Shepherd. She helped achieve an interest free loan of £400,000 from West Midlands Area Health Authority. It was this loan that finally made the project financially viable and, without it the Hospice may never have been built. A local builder, H Vaughan & Sons, was engaged to build the Hospice and construction was completed in the summer of 1982. The total cost was £750,000.

It was agreed, quite early on, that a name was needed that reflected the important spiritual dimension in the planning and day to day running of the Hospice. ‘St Michael' was felt to be particularly appropriate as he represents the eventual triumph of good over evil (Revelation 12:7) and is said to accompany the dying on their final journey.

Richard Miller, (Co-founder, St Michael's)