This added bit about your later visit to the hospital is also very interesting - it always struck me as curious that such a little place as Thorpe Arch incorporated a children's hospital, a munitions factory, then a prison and the British Library (which I think is still there). I wonder how much of that was due to re-using buildings that already exist.
I was surprised to hear that you had to be quite so assertive about staying with your son when he had his operation - I thought by then it was almost commonplace for parents to be allowed to be with their children, but obviously it all took longer than I thought, or at least did so in some places. I've read quite a lot of stuff on how
I would have liked to be able to 'walk the place' as an adult, as you did, not only lay ghosts – more to conjure up a few, especially as I have such vague memories of the actual physical aspect of the hospital. So I was sorry it wasn't there any more when we finally got around to going (in about 2005, I think). At the same time, I can understand your feelings about obliterating it. A similar hospital at Craig-y-Nos (I've mentioned their blogspot a number of times, since it inspired ours) was housed in a castle, which is now a luxury hotel, and rumoured to have at least one ghost of a child. Presumably new-build houses won’t have any at all.
