Crawford Lane

Names featured this month are Cardew Drift, Fairbairn Avenue, Crawford Lane, Dewar Lane and Stewart Young Grove, all named after local doctors past and present.

In the early 1950’s the doctors in Kesgrave were Dr Crawford and Dr Denton Cardew. They practised in Cumberland Street, Woodbridge and in a bungalow on Main Road, Kesgrave on the corner of Cambridge Road. Dr Cardew built Chester House in Bell Lane in 1952 – it was called Chester House after his wife’s maiden name. Within the property was a surgery, waiting room and small dispensary. Patients used to come up the back path and enter a door which faced the present surgery. He left the practice in 1955 and Dr Crawford was joined by Dr Tom Fairbairn who had came from Glasgow to spend his trainee year in Aldeburgh. He lived in Chester House from 1955 until 1958. Dr Crawford became ill and died in 1958. Jimmy Dewar had been a student with Tom Fairbairn and came to Kesgrave as a locum and then to become a partner. He lived in Chester House with his wife and four children until 1964, when he decided to emigrate to Canada where he still lives. The present surgery was built in 1959.

In October 1964 Dr Stewart Young joined Dr Fairbairn after spending eighteen months as a house officer at Ipswich hospital. They were joined by Dr Hudson then Dr Simmonds and later by Dr Ashford. Dr Fairbairn took semi-retirement in 1989 and sadly died two months later. Until recently all doctors in the practice worked at both Woodbridge and Kesgrave but to give increased efficiency and service to their patients they now work at one surgery or the other. Dr Ashford and Dr Edwards now look after Kesgrave surgery, still part of the Woodbridge-Kesgrave practice. With the increase in population the surgery in Bell Lane is now very cramped. It is hoped a new surgery will be built near the Community Centre on the Grange Farm development in the near future.