Sir Astley Cooper - Church Plain, Great Yarmouth, UK
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member Master Mariner
N 52° 36.645 E 001° 43.622
31U E 413806 N 5829731
This Great Yarmouth & District Archaeological Society blue plaque, to the surgeon Sir Astley Cooper, is attached to the Old Vicarage that stands just outside the gates of Great Yarmouth Minster.
Waymark Code: WMQ0CQ
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/22/2015
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member Norfolk12
Views: 1

Wikipedia has an article about Astley Cooper that tells us:

Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet (23 August 1768 – 12 February 1841) was an English surgeon and anatomist, who made historical contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology and surgery of hernia.

Cooper was born at Brooke Hall in Brooke, Norfolk on 23 August 1768 and baptised at the parish church on 9 September. His father, Dr Samuel Cooper, was a clergyman of the Church of England; his mother Maria Susanna Bransby was the author of several novels. At the age of sixteen he was sent to London and placed under Henry Cline (1750–1827), surgeon to St Thomas' Hospital. From the first he devoted himself to the study of anatomy, and had the privilege of attending the lectures of John Hunter. In 1789 he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at St Thomas' Hospital, where in 1791 he became joint lecturer with Cline in anatomy and surgery, and in 1800 he was appointed surgeon to Guy's Hospital on the death of his uncle, William Cooper.

In 1802 he received the Copley Medal for two papers read before the Royal Society of London on the destruction of the tympanic membrane; and in 1805 he was elected a Fellow of that society. In the same year he took an active part in the formation of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, and in 1804 he brought out the first, and in 1807 the second, part of his great work on hernia, which added so largely to his reputation that in 1813 his annual professional income rose to 21,000 pounds sterling. In the same year he was appointed professor of comparative anatomy to the Royal College of Surgeons and was very popular as a lecturer.

In 1817 he performed his famous operation of tying the abdominal aorta for aneurism; and in 1820 he removed an infected sebaceous cyst from the head of George IV. About six months afterwards received a baronetcy, which, as he had no son, was to descend to his nephew and adopted son, Astley Cooper. He was subsequently appointed sergeant surgeon to George IV, William IV and Queen Victoria. He served as president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1827 and again in 1836, and he was elected a vice-president of the Royal Society in 1830. In 1821, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He died on 12 February 1841 in London, and is interred, by his own desire, in the crypt of the Chapel of Thomas Guy, St Thomas Street (on the site now shared by King's College London and Guy's Hospital). A statue by Edward Hodges Baily was erected in St Paul's Cathedral.

Cooper lived at Gadebridge House in the market town of Hemel Hempstead. Due to his influence, among others who were also residents of the area, his vigorous lobbying ensured that the London to Birmingham main railway line was constructed to the south of the town instead of through it, a more natural course. This led to the citizens of Hemel Hempstead having no railway station in their town, instead being obliged to use the one situated at Boxmoor.

Today, Cooper is remembered in the area with a number of local street names (Astley Cooper Place in the village of his birth, Brooke, Norfolk), (Astley Road and Paston Road in Hemel Hempstead), and The Astley Cooper School, formerly Grovehill school, being renamed after him in 1984. The grounds of his former home are now a public park.

Sir Astley's greatest contribution has probably been in the field of vascular surgery, particularly on cerebral circulation. He was the first to demonstrate experimentally the effects of bilateral ligation of the carotid arteries in dogs and to propose treatment of aneurysms by ligation of the vessel. In 1805 he published in the first volume of Medico-Chirurgical Transactions his attempt to tie the common carotid artery for treating an aneurysm in a patient. In 1808 he tried the same with the external iliac artery for a femoral aneurysm and in 1817 he ligated the aorta for an iliac aneurysm.

The Old Vicarage is a Grade II* listed building with the entry at the Historic England website telling us:

Vicarage, converted to offices. Early C17 rear wing, facade dated 1718, extended 1781. Restored 1983 by and for the Paul Robinson Partnership (architects). Flint and brick rear wing, red brick facade. Roofs of black-glazed pantiles.

EXTERIOR: main 1718 front of 3 storeys, 8-window range, in 8 bays. Door of 1983 in 5th bay (from left) with an overlight and a floating shell hood of 1718 set on scrolled brackets. Sash windows are C19 unhorned replacements with 9/9 glazing bars set within flush frames under gauged skewback arches. Attic sashes have 3/3 glazing bars. The left 3 bays are covered by a late C19 single-storey bay window extension fitted with 9/9 and 6/6 sashes under gauged skewback arches; balustraded parapet. Platbands between the floors of the main elevation. Low parapet rebuilt after bomb damage 1942 has a plaque recording construction in 1718 by the Corporation and repair by Wm. Fisher, Mayor, in 1781. Gabled roof. South gable formerly shaped, but rebuilt to east slope. To left of elevation is a 2-storey extension probably of 1781. Full-height canted bay window rebuilt after 1942: sash windows have arched glazing bars and multiple panes. Modillion and dentil eaves cornice. Red pantiles to roof, which is hipped to the north. North return with one replaced tripartite sash each floor. Rear C17 wing of 2 storeys. South side with a rendered ground floor and a C20 casement inserted after outshut removed late C20. Two 6/6 horned sashes to first floor. Gabled roof. North front with a full-height late C19 outshut fitted with 6/6 sashes.

INTERIOR: the C17 wing to rear has 3 bridging beams with sunk-quadrant mouldings and tongue stops. Remains of a fire canopy at east end. Roof of this part retains 2 pairs of early C17 upper crucks and 2 tiers of butt purlins. Late C19 front extension enlarges an existing room fitted with late C19 large-framed panelling in C18 style matching the C18 panelling in the ante-room immediately south. The south room to the facade has mid C18 large-framed panelling, a dado rail and a shouldered and eared overmantel. An early C18 closed-string staircase with turned balusters and a moulded handrail rises to the first floor. An early C19 staircase with turned balusters continues to second floor. Roof of front block of simple rafter and purlin type (original blown off by bomb in 1942).

Blue Plaque managing agency: Great Yarmouth & District Archaeological Society

Individual Recognized: Sir Astley Cooper

Physical Address:
The Old Vicarage
Church Plain
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk United Kingdom


Web Address: [Web Link]

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