[1] A purpose-built isolation hospital was built by Solihull and Meriden Rural District Councils in Henwood Lane, Catherine-de-Barnes, and opened by 1910.

[3] In 1978, Janet Parker, the last known victim of smallpox in the world, was treated and died at Catherine-de-Barnes Isolation Hospital following an outbreak that originated at the University of Birmingham Medical School.

[3] Janet Parker's father, 71-year-old Frederick Witcomb, had died at Catherine-de-Barnes Hospital a week before his daughter after he had suffered a cardiac arrest while visiting her.

[3][4] In 1981 the Department of Health and Social Security decided to close six other isolation hospitals around the country and spent £150,000 on maintenance at Catherine-de-Barnes.

However, keeping the unit running at a cost of some £38,500 a year was seen as an expensive precaution,[3] and after the World Health Organization had declared smallpox extinct, the decision was made to mothball the Catherine-de-Barnes Hospital.