Dr. Goodeve and Cook’s Folly

Dr Henry Goodeve was a distinguished Victorian physician who made his reputation in British India. Cook’s Folly was a seventeenth century building which stood on the Bristol side of the Avon Gorge until it was pulled down in the 1930s.

Before they set out to India, Goodeve and his wife had visited the Folly and formed an ambition to make it their home. Goodeve’s very successful practice in India enabled them to fulfil this dream and live there for the rest of their lives.

Their story links a study of the practice and teaching of medicine in mid nineteenth century India to the social history of a Victorian professional family.

About the Author

Michael Whitfield was Senior Lecturer in General Practice in the University of Bristol. In retirement he has devoted himself to the history of medical practice and practitioners in eighteenth- and nineteenth- century Bristol, and is the author of many ALHA books.