The former doctor's house in the Cotswolds, where one of the world's first vaccinations was developed, is now a popular museum. Photo / supplied
The former doctor's house in the Cotswolds, where one of the world's first vaccinations was developed, is now a popular museum. Photo / supplied
A small museum in West Gloucestershire is attracting international fame thanks to its links to a medical breakthrough, writes Simon Heptinstall
With its 200-year-old medical instruments and handwritten journals displayed in glass cabinets, the country doctor's house in a sleepy English village sounds like an attraction nobody would ever visit.
And that's roughly how it was, before Covid. The home of Dr Edward Jenner was rather embarrassingly ranked third-most-popular attraction in the tiny Cotswold village of Berkeley. It lagged behind the medieval castle and a farm park where children can pet rabbits and sheep.
Since the global pandemic, however, Jenner's country house museum has suddenly become – not just Berkeley's top attraction – but a major international tourist spot.
Artefacts line the walls inside the West Gloucestershire cottage. Photo / supplied
That's because this humble home is where the science of vaccination began. Visitors can walk into the garden shed where, in 1796, Dr Jenner gave the world's first-ever vaccination to his gardener's 8-year-old son. It's the birthplace of the invention that beat Covid.
Over the coming years this house is likely to put Berkeley firmly on the tourist map, elevating the profile of a largely neglected area between the relaxed curves of the Severn estuary and the steep escarpment of the western Cotswold hills.
It's a classic patch of unspoilt English countryside. West Gloucestershire is full of interest, but less full of tourists – despite easy road access from the M5 motorway, just 160km west of Heathrow.
The museum has seen an influx of visitors following the Covid pandemic. Photo / supplied
Local highlights range from the sturdy stone ramparts of Berkeley Castle and its grisly tale of Edward II's demise (berkeley-castle.com) to the haunting swaying reeds and spectacular flocks of ducks and geese at the huge wildfowl sanctuary on the riverbanks at Slimbridge, where King Charles is a regular visitor (wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/slimbridge).
The more celebrated heart of the Cotswolds, near Charles' home at Highgrove and Princess Anne's at Gatcombe, is unsurprisingly pricey and pretentious. This unspoilt western edge is less well-known – and almost cheap by UK standards. Try the grand old Hare and Hounds Hotel alongside a spectacular aristocratic arboretum at Westonbirt (cotswold-inns-hotels.co.uk/hare-and-hounds-hotel/) or Egypt Mill Hotel and Restaurant in Nailsworth valley (egyptmill.com).
The Salutation Inn at the village next to Berkeley is an authentic rural pub, proud of its real ales and traditional tabletop games of shove ha'penny (the-sally-at-ham.com). In Berkeley village itself an afternoon cream tea at the 16th-century tearooms is a treat, complete with homemade scones served on fine china (berkeleytearooms.co.uk).
Before your cream tea, visit Dr Jenner's house across the road. Peep into his candle-lit study behind the staircase, spotting scientific notes scratched out with an ivory dip pen. It's here he invented the word "vaccine". On the wall is a painting of Blossom the cow, a vital part of his experiments. Jenner used "vacca", (Latin for cow), to describe the mysterious process he discovered.
The homely museum now tells the fascinating story. Jenner had been concerned with smallpox outbreaks in surrounding farming communities. This was one of the most dangerous viruses humans have faced, with a death rate of around 30 per cent. Visitors can wander into the leafy churchyard next door to see many smallpox graves.
The doctor developed an early smallpox vaccination that proved so effective, local farm workers would queue at the door for the shot. Photo / supplied
One day a milkmaid told Jenner she wasn't worried about catching smallpox – because she'd already caught the much milder cowpox from her cows. Milkmaids knew that once you had suffered cowpox you never get smallpox.
Jenner wondered that if he gave this mild cowpox to everyone it would create an internal safety system to protect against smallpox. In that age of mercury purgatives and bloodletting leeches, knowledge of immune systems was still centuries away.
Jenner's guinea pig, 8-year-old James Phipps, probably had no idea what he was in for – but Jenner didn't take his contribution lightly. The boy survived the process, was thereafter immune to the deadly disease and proved a theory that has since saved millions. Visitors can walk down a leafy path from Jenner's home to see how he repaid the youngster – by giving him a house. The pretty little Phipps Cottage isn't open to the public but is marked by a plaque.
Jenner called the makeshift shed where he'd administered James' first injection The Temple of Vaccinia. Incredibly, this quirky thatched outbuilding survives. It has a unique atmosphere, perhaps because the immunisation process invented here has saved so many from diseases like smallpox (now completely eradicated thanks to vaccines), HIV and, of course, Covid.
When word of Jenner's miraculous cure for smallpox spread, poor farmworkers queued from this shed right into the churchyard next door. Jenner was in his "temple" busy giving the lifesaving jabs for free, declaring it would be 'immoral' to profit from them.
Today's visitors will potter around the creaking old house spotting his flute, books of poetry and drawings of cuckoos. Jenner, eighth son of Berkeley's vicar, appears to have been an inquisitive, altruistic and downright eccentric Georgian gentleman. The eagle-eyed will spot documents describing how he met his future wife when he accidentally crash-landed his balloon in her garden.
Venture behind the house to see how the doctor secretly stole a little cutting from Capability Brown's grapevine at Hampton Court in London. He planted it in his greenhouse, and 200 years later it fills the fragile glass structure.
London medical "experts" couldn't believe a simple rural doctor had made such a major medical breakthrough. The first-ever anti-vaxxers protested and contemporary satirical cartoons show injected people turning into cows.
The small charitable trust that runs Jenner's house almost admitted defeat during Covid when lockdown ended their revenue. But well-wishers around the world sent tens of thousands of pounds in donations to an online crowd-funding campaign to keep the museum open.
Since then the profile of Jenner's House has soared. A team of village volunteers are hurriedly repainting and sprucing up their newly acclaimed attraction ready to re-open after Christmas.
CHECKLIST: GLOUCESTERSHIRE
GETTING THEREThe village of Berkeley is about two hours' drive from London, or 25 minutes from Bristol. DETAILS For museum opening dates and more info, see jennermuseum.com
