Marguerite Hepton Hospital

Ann Shaw (co-author of "Children of Craig y Nos"

2011-10-28T15:40:00.000+01:00

Thank you Dorothy for sharing this very brave account of your life.

It reflects so many stories that happened in Craig-y-nos too.
Ann Shaw
(co-author "Children of Craig-y-nos"

27 October 2011 21:42

Do you have a connecton with MHH? Do you have a story to tell?

2011-09-02T09:00:00.000+01:00

I was a spinal TB patient for about 5 years (1943 to 1948), first in Wales, where my Dad was posted in the RAF (at Crossways hospital, near Cardiff), and then at the Marguerite Hepton Orthopaedic Hospital at Thorpe Arch, near Wetherby, Yorkshire. Eventually, developments in surgical techniques and antibiotics helped me recover fully.
I'm now 68, and I feel there's a story to be explored here about the hospital itself, the experience of TB patients at that time, and its effects on patients' later lives. It should be told by many voices - of patients, nurses, teachers, doctors and others who looked after us, and may be those of their children and grandchildren.
The hospital closed in 1985, became an old people's home and has now vanished under a housing development. Thanks to the Craig-y-Nos blog, about a similar hospital in Wales, and with good help from Dr Carole Reeves at the Wellcome Foundation Trust, this blog is gradually taking shape as people contact us to share their experience (See the link to the Craig-y-Nos blog on the left of the texts). We hope anyone connected with the hospital in the past will read the blog and add stories and comments, so that we can make a personal oral history.

Dorothy Davies Autobiography

2011-09-01T16:40:00.000+01:00

I was admitted to St James’ Hospital,Leeds at the age of 9 with osteomyelitis in my left femur. My life changed forever, little did Iknow at the time just how life changing this was going to be. I felt very alone there as my bed waspushed out into a corridor every day. As I was very pale, they thought it would do me good to see and feel thesun and fresh air coming through the windows.

Aftera month I was transferred to Marguerite Hepton Hospital – Thorp Arch. I was in plaster from the chestdown. I enjoyed the schoolingthere. The teacher was called MissField. It must have been quitedifficult for Miss Field as we were all different ages ( 5 – 16 years). She had to teach different programs fordifferent children.

Mymemories of food aren’t too good,I hated the rice pudding and lumpy potatoes. If you didn’t eat it a nurse would bring it back for yournext meal, and made you eat it. Once, the girl in the next bed to me was sick in her rice pudding andshe was made to eat it. You canimagine the outcome; I can’t face rice pudding to this day.

However,most of the nurses were kind. Idid see the odd acts of cruelty to some children. Although I felt helpless and very, very angry, oh so angry, Iwas angry with myself for not being able to do anything, but personally Ididn’t suffer any of this. Now Ifeel very strongly about abuse of any kind.

Itdid have huge impact on my life being separated from loved ones. Visiting was on a Wednesday, Saturdayand Sunday afternoon, 2pm – 3pm. Of course there were no phones there and we all loved getting letterfrom our loved ones. Sadly somechildren didn’t get any visitors.

Wedid have a TV (donated by a girl’s dad) but I couldn’t see it, as it was toofar away.

Weused to get pushed outside daily. I remembered playing with a colouredball. I really loved meal timeoutside as the birds were so tame they used to sit on your knife and fork!

Bonfirenight too was brilliant, as it was the only time I saw one of my sisters. She was too young to visit as she was11, and you had to be 12. That night Dad was allowed to wheel me to the gate tosee here for a few minutes used to see my other sister June as she was oldenough to visit with Mum and Dad

Wewere not allowed to keep any sweets that our visitors gave us. They were handed in and shared whichwas a really good thing. Somethings I don’t remember at all such as other patient’s names etc perhapsbecause I was flat on my back so my horizon was very limited. I do remember onegirl who was in the bed at the end of the ward opposite to me, her name wasMargret and I thought she was really old(16),she had TB of the spine and shewas really brave and kind. She had dark thick hair and a warm smile; I neverknew her second name

I remember once I had visitors out ofhours,, an elderly couple who knew my Mum and Dad. They came from quite a distance and they were allowed to seeme for 10 minutes. They gave me abox of chocolate butterflies which I hid and ate later. I did not enjoy them and feltill and very guilty afterwards. Ilearnt a valuable lesson that day.

After7 months I learnt I was to learn to walk again and go home. They took my plaster off. There was a thermometer, egg shells,dead wasp (to this day I am terrified of wasps) and lots more rubbish. There was a lump of hard skin the sameshape as my foot that came away. For some reason beyond my comprehension one of the nurses thought thiswas fascinating. I still feel adebt of gratitude to the very kind nurses.

Ithen went to Potternewton Mansion School quite near where I lived. It was a special school for handicappedchildren for the whole of Leeds. Some had learning difficulties, some behavioural problems, so it was notreally conducive for efficient learning.

Iwas in a Miss Grahams Class who was sort of a bit miserable, she was a middleaged spinster, but she was quite an efficient teacher.

Fornature studies we had Miss Clark, I used to love her classes.

Therewere two male teachers Mr Tempest and Mr Perry who very occasionally would takeus in a English and Poetry Class. Then a Mr Attack took over our class, he was a bit airy-fairy, but alovely person. The headmaster wasa Mr Paden whose main hobby was stamp collecting. I don’t know where he got them from but he seemed to getboxes and boxes of stamps.

WhenI first started there I was a bit shocked at the wide range ofdisabilities. Quite often peopledied at this school. Some childrenhad muscular dystrophy; others had a hole in the heart. These children wouldhave blue lips. They often went into hospital and you would never se themagain.

Iremember one boy, Phillip Stead 11 years old who I got very close to. Sadly he had M.D. and just before hedied he was take for a day out into the country. He brought me back 2 yellow snails; I called 1 marigold and1 buttercup. I never saw himagain.

Wehad a physiotherapy department. The physiotherapist was Mr Lewis who was also the physio for the LeedsRugby team and sometimes for the England Cricket team, when they played atHeadingly. He was a large man, who gave the impression that he was very hard,both physically and emotionally.

Swimmingwas quite a big feature of this school. Once a year we competed in a swimminggala with other local schools. We were given so many yards start. I was never a brilliant swimmer butalways enjoyed classes. Except myfirst one as I couldn’t swim and I didn’t know if I was more scared of thewater or more scared of Mr Lewis. I decided I was more scared of Mr Lewis, sogot in the pool and learnt to swim

Myclose friend at the school was Jennifer Kemp, sadly we lost touch when shemoved away.. I think she went on to be a lawyer

Theactual school was an old mansion house located on the edge of a park. We had quite a large landscaped area ofgrass and trees. There were maydifferent types of trees, a rare one being a tulip tree, and an evergreen oak.

Justbefore I left to go to a normal school we had another new teacher Mr Hyatt aJewish Vegetarian. He was verylaid back. He influenced quite afew of us to become vegetarian. Healso did a lot of charity work for the RSPCA and encouraged us to becomemembers.

Aftera couple of years I was given a chance to go to a normal school. It came as a big shock to me that somepeople just wanted to mess around and some had been over indulged byparents. There were some idiotsand worse bullies and being different I was a target for them. I found this difficult to get usedto. They used to push me aroundand liked finding ways to cause me problems. It made me realise how privileged I had been to know suchwonderful, brave children from my last school. Children who helped each other and supported each other andwho looked out for their team mates.

Iwasn’t allowed to do P.E. or swimming at the so-called ‘normal’ school.

Imust admit that I am a little nervous even to this day of falling, and lackconfidence physically.

However,after leaving school I got a job in a sweet shop locally, which I loved. The years went on and I got married andhad 3 children. Now I have severalgrand children and 2 great grand children.

Ihave had a total hip replacement, which is probably one of the best parts of mybody (no arthritis in it). I lead a normal life and I feel that I am a better,more patient person. Havingosteomyelitis has made me stronger and given me so many privileges inlife. I have been blessed to haveme such wonderful people who have taught me so many of life’s values.

Jane posting anonymous comment from someone seeking Joseph Dooker, a former patient born 1904

2011-04-22T12:13:00.002+01:00

We don't normally like posting anonymous comments, but this might be of interest to some:
"Looking for information on a Joseph Dooker born 1904 Leeds, Yorkshire and was a patient at Thorp Arch Wetherby. On the 1911 census Helen Backhouse (37) was the Head, Matron of Convalescent Home and Florence Smith (26) Servant, General Domestic Servant."

Jane to Philip Sunderland

2011-04-13T11:57:00.002+01:00

It would be great if you could share more of your memories from that time, Phil
Jane

Philip Sutherland - a patient from 1960-1963 responds to Vera Duxbury's posting on 5 February

2011-04-13T11:54:00.001+01:00

I was in Marguerite Hepton Hospital from 1960 to 1963.
I remember Mr.Clarke the consultant,Some of the patients were Steven Rouse, Peter Hooton, Tony Wrench we had a nurse Carrick, Nurse Bedford, Sister Wheelan who was very fond of Frank Ifield. I met Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, and Eden Kane at the hospital, and the nurses were ready to faint at these pop stars.
I saw The Wizard of Oz on 16mm film at the hospital and Summer Holiday with Cliff Richard. I am always grateful to the doctors and nurses who cared for me and I have lots of fond memories.
Philip Sunderland

Jane responds to Robin Watson

2011-02-22T12:04:00.000Z

Robin, I have posted your comment so that everyone can see it. I was a contemporary of yours (1944-8), though being a girl probably never even set eyes on you! I do agree with you about the debt of gratitude we owe to the nurses and doctors of that time. For ages when I was growing up, I wanted to be a nurse, but eventually went off in a different direction.
If you have any more memories to add,do get in touch, either with comments, or through the email contact.

Robin Watson (1941-48) - contemporary with Vera, acknowledges his debt to MH nurses like her

2011-02-22T12:01:00.000Z

How amazing to hear from a member of staff who was at MH in the early 1940s. I was there at the same time as Vera, but being about 6 years old, don't remember Vera or any of the other staff. However, I would like to reassure her that because of the dedication and affection she and her friends showed, in those dark days, this is one patient who went on to have a good and successful life. At the age of 74 and after 7 years of incarceration in MH, she and her colleagues helped myself and many others, to survive. In fact, the girls must have influenced me in later life, because I married a nurse!! Many thanks Vera. Robin Watson ( MH 1941-1948)

Vera Duxbury - nee Clarke - remembers names of patients and nurses, and comments on visiting rules

2011-02-07T12:55:00.000Z

I followed up Vera's contribution to ask her if she had any thoughts on visiting hours, something that all of us at Thorpe Arch during her time there had mentioned. She replied:
“I am sure I answer for all of us who worked at the Hospital then, we were greatly upset & disturbed for the children, & most certainly did not agree with the monthly visits, plus we the "front line” nurses, as you might say were the ones to comfort the children. In our defence I have to say our hands were tied, we didn’t have any say in any administration, we worked long hours, with very little money. Nursing was a vocation in those days, & the NHS did not come into being until (I think) 1945?”

Vera had also had time to dig out her old autograph book, from which she gives this list of names. How many of you recognise yourselves?
“The first was a little very poorly little boy, whom I remember quite clearly, his name John Waite, & he printed quite big & unruly, but he was quite young, another patient in large boys, Freddie, also large boys, I think about 15--16yrs, Harry & a Dennis. Doctor Jack Philips, -Sister Zoe Weddall. now nurses, along with "nick names” we gave to each other, we were not allowed to use Christian names in those days.
Nurses: Bulmer, Bully; Pendergast; Milburn, Milly; Speight, Speighty; Oubridge; Towey; Davidson, Dave; Holmes, Jaybus; Moakes, Smokey; Watson; Hibbard,Birdie; Cliffe,Kipps (in the photo); Moorehouse, (left in the photo); Smith, Smiffie; Jackson, Jackie; Dennis(not sure whether a Nurse or patient); Walls; Parkinson, Parky; Smith, Cockey, & last, my nickname was Nobbs.

Despite the war we were a reasonably jolly group, we respected our seniors, even though off duty we had to give up our seats by the fire when a senior came into the sitting room, though we were there first, & we loved our little charges & pray they all recovered.

Vera Duxbury (neé Clarke) shares vivid memories of nursing during World War II

2011-02-03T12:58:00.005Z

I still have many memories(happy & sad)of my training days at Marguerite. As you know they were the war years, which I would to share with you (Jane) although you were a very young girl(5yrs?). You must have been on Girls' Ward, you would have been too old for the babies' ward.

No, I wouldn’t have been on the photo of the lesson on the veranda. I left in 1945, to do my General training. I do remember of course, how we used to wheel your beds out on to the verandas for school lessons. This photo is of myself & two other friends in our uniforms, taken I think in 1943--4, just outside the Nurses’ Home. I would have been 16--17 yrs. I am on the right, the one on the left is Nurse Moorhouse and the middle - Nurse Cliffe. This is the only memory ‘thing’ I have kept, and my certificate.

My first memory would be the day I started, on my 16th birthday in March 16th 1943. When I arrived I was shown to Matron Downs’s apartment, & then taken to the sewing room where I was fitted for my uniform dresses, caps & collars (I had to provide all my aprons myself, being war time) all 13!! I was then taken to my bedroom which was situated in the main building to start with (under Matrons eagle eye!).

I slept my first night accompanied by dozens of black clock beetles, I had lain on several which were dead, but there were more running around in my bed. I was appalled & disgusted. I can"t recall whether I complained to anyone, I was young & shy, but as I was moved to the nurses’ home the maid who cleaned the rooms must have reported her findings.

You probably wouldn’t know the layout of the other wards, so I will explain briefly. The main building was at the head of the fairly long tree-lined drive, which Matron’s window over-looked (Matron kept an eye on all comings & goings!). At the side & to the back of the main building was the Nurses’ Home (looking to the right standing at the road end). Also to the right was Boys’ Ward, "small boys",& "large boys". Also still looking to the right at the top end of Boys' Ward was Babies’ Ward.

Attached to the right of the main building was the "stoke hole" as we called it, then there were various out buildings large & small, where we would wheel the boys to stay on the night we had dances in their ward (Matron allowed this about once a month, as in war time there was little or no entertainment available). The boys used to love it, & would ask us to go to see them dressed in our long dresses. Airmen from surrounding air bases were invited, & sailors from the "dry" ship in Wetherby (so called because the Sailors & the Wrens trained simulating a ship on water)& of course our own friends.

Night duty was rather frightening when we were either on duty on Girls’ Ward or Babies, as only one nurse was on duty there. Girls’ ward was situated in the main building, as were the kitchens, nurses’ & sisters’ dining rooms, X-ray, treatment rooms, & operating theatre.

One or other of the nurses on Boys’ Ward would have to go to the stoke hole, to stoke the boiler, & to operate the autoclave to sterilize the dressings for the following day. This was a nightmare. The autoclave had to reach 20lb a square inch, & if it went over it would blow off steam, and the first time I did it, it did. I just flew out of the stoke hole absolutely petrified!

Staying with the Boys’ Ward, I was on night duty with I think Nurse Parkinson, "Parky". The night started fairly quiet, though the planes were passing overhead, going out on bombing raids. Boys’ Ward was quite long, there must have been at least 16-18 small boys at the top end & about the same number of large boys, up to the age of 16yrs. The sluices, toilets & treatment rooms were at that end of the ward.

All the boys were in frames or plaster casts, there were no "up" patients. On this particular night, very dark, with only a very dim light because of blackout restrictions, all windows were covered with blackout blinds or curtains. Suddenly, one of the toilets at the far end was flushed. As it was so quiet, all the boys asleep, it sounded so very loud, we were so afraid for there seemed no explanation. We didn't go down the ward to investigate, so it always remained a mystery whilst we both were at the Marguerite.

Many years later about the late 1980s, my friend Dorothy Cliffe (the Nurse in the middle of the photo) & our Husbands went for a visit to the Marguerite, just to renew old memories. We were given permission to wander round all wards (the Hospital was then a home for the elderly)& we went to visit Boys’ Ward. Little had altered, just extra toilets had been added by breaking through a side wall. We spoke to some of the nurses & were told they all thought the ward was haunted. Apparently there were many unexplained incidents, so we told them our own story! We shall never know now, but….

One more memory. The Nurses at Marguerite had to do a stint on each Ward throughout the two year course of Orthopaedic training, it was a good training & I grew up quickly. As I explained previously, Girls’ Ward was situated in the main building. A long corridor ran straight from the imposing front door to a door at the rear of the building.

The Sisters’ dining room & the Nurses’ dining room, plus doors through to the kitchens, were to the right of the corridor, & the door to the Girls’ Ward to the left. There was a small ante room off this corridor, where once a week (I think on a Sunday morning) we Nurses queued up with our two jam jars & Matron would give us our rations of butter & margarine in one jar & sugar in the other (so much was kept by the cook for his baking). As you can imagine we ended up with small amounts to last us for a week! Most of us had used up our portions by about Wednesday! so when we had either a jam or a lemon curd tart for tea, we would scrape off the jam or curd, & make a sandwich, & then make another sandwich with the pastry case. We were so hungry in those days. The bread was a horrid colour but quite tasty.

When on night duty on Girls’ Ward we had go into the kitchens & put the heat on under the huge vats of porridge, at about 5am ready for breakfasts, & as soon as we put the lights on, the horrid black clock beetles would scatter away under cupboards etc.

Val Dodsworth (nee Brown) talks of her nurse training in 1970-1

2010-11-25T11:03:00.004Z

Hi there I am an ex nurse from Marquerite Hepton I was there in 1970-1 as a pupil nurse before moving on to Pinderfields to complete my training . It was a wonderful place and I learnt a lot. I loved the children with there many complex illnesses. We had a lot of spina bifida children who came for regular holidays as well as muscular dystrophy and Frederiks ataxia. I remember these children so well and know that they will no longer be with us. I could name at least 6 and one little one in particular Stevie who was moved away to Doncaster soon after I left.

I remember Sister Everett and Gerry Appleyard who was my tutor and a good one at that. I also remember matron who I saw had died recently. My year had Gillian Evans and Jane Halford in who were very good friends of mine but I have lost contact with both of them. Also there were Julie Swindells, Alison Lobley, Shelia Wensley, Carole Bennett and Anne Wilson. Nurses from Huddersfield also came for a few months amongst these were Geoff Smith, Gill Crossland, Joan Hinchcliffe and also Ann Hinchcliffe.

Please contact us using our email address if you want to renew acquaintance with Val or if you want to add your experiences of MHH

Gabrielle Childe (nee Greenwood) shares her "Campaign to keep MHH Open" document

2010-09-25T15:37:00.030+01:00

The Campaign to keep the Marguerite Hepton Orthopaedic Hospital Open

The photos and text printed here are from the original album compiled by Gabrielle Childe with the help of trade unionists Mike Harwood and Stuart Roden taken to The Ministry of Health in 1984

THE TRADE UNIONS OPPOSE THE TRANSFER OF ORTHOPAEDIC PATIENTS AT THE PRESENT TIME FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS.

a) That it takes no account of the effect on services to Leeds Western Health Authority patients.

b) That it makes less likely the rationalisation of orthopaedic services on an area wide basis, particularly the establishment on an elective orthopaedic unit, which the Trade Unions would see as an ideal option.

THE TRADE UNIONS OPPOSE THE CLOSURE AND SUBSEQUENT DISPOSAL OF THE SITE FOR THE FOLLOWING GROUNDS;

a) That it is against the policy of the present government as outlined in the booklet ‘Care in Action’.

b) That it is against the best interests of the people in Leeds to dispose of health care facilities, when there is an acknowledged shortage of health service beds and increasing waiting lists.

THE TRADE UNIONS ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IF AN ELECTIVE ORTHOPAEDIC UNIT IS ESTABLISHED ON AN AREA BASIS, IT MAY BE AT SOME POINT IN TIME BE NECESSARY TO MOVE ORTHOPAEDIC PATIENTS FROM THE MARGUERITE HEPTON TO ANOTHER SITE IN THE LEEDS AREA. IN THAT EVENT WE PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING USES FOR THE HOSPITAL AND POSSIBLE SUGGESTIONS ON FINANCE;

a) That finance for the hospital could be achieved through a combination of existing monies and joint financing with the Local Authority.

b) That the hospital be used for ‘community purposes’. This to cover a wide range of services including the continuation of outpatient facilities.

c) That the Marguerite Hepton Hospital could be used for psycho – geriatric or geriatric services.

d) That the hospital could be used for convalescent purposes. These would be available on a district or city wide basis.

THE DRIVE, CAR PARK AND RECREATION ROOMS

THE EXISTING STOCK OF HEALTH SERVICE BUILDINGS IS A NATIONAL RESOURCE WHICH SHOULD BE KEPT IN GOOD CONDITION AND ADAPTED TO PRESENT DAY NEEDS.

WARD 2

THE ADMINISTRATION UNIT

THE EXISTING STOCK OF HEALTH SERVICE BUILDINGS IS A NATIONAL RESOURCE WHICH SHOULD BE KEPT IN GOOD CONDITION AND ADAPTED TO PRESENT DAY NEEDS.

EXPERIENCE HAS SHOWN THAT THE USEFUL LIFE OF MANY OLD BUILDINGS CAN BE LENGTHENED BY UPGRADING AND EXTENSION.

THE GOVERNMENT FAVOURS SMALL LOCAL HOSPITALS SUPPORTING THE LARGE DISTRICT HOSPITALS.

NURSES HOME AND MAIN BLOCK

IT IS MISLEADING TO REFER TO THE “ALTERNATIVE USE” OF THE MARGUERITE HEPTON HOSPITAL AS A COMMUNITY HOSPITAL. IT IS ALREADY IN PART FUNCTIONING AS A COMMUNITY HOSPITAL. IT PROVIDES PHYSIOTHERAPY, HYDROTHERAPY AND X – RAY SERVICES TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY. THOUGHT SHOULD BE GIVEN TO WHAT IS ALREADY THERE UNTIL IT CAN BE FURTHER DEVELOPED.

a) Consulting rooms

b) Central office

c) Nurse’s Home

d) Operating Theatre

e) X – ray department (plus modern dark room)

f) Physiotherapy Department ( including hydrotherapy pool )

g) Three wards ( with doors directly outside to the gardens)

h) Occupational Therapy Department.

i) Dining and Canteen facilities

j) Modern Hospital Kitchen

k) Four semi detached houses

l) 24 acres of agricultural land

m) Daily visit by local GP and twenty four hours ‘on call’ duty cover

n) N Weekly visit by two consultants.

There can be no uniform pattern for a community hospital. Each must be designed to the needs of the locality; there might be an emphasis on geriatric care and rehabilitation but no need for a minor casualty unit. Alternatively, a market town might need ‘intermediate ‘casualty and minor surgical facilities.

WARD 2 AND 3 PATIO AND GARDEN

The Marguerite Hepton Hospital is well maintained and is one of the most economically run hospitals in the Leeds Eastern District.

PHYSIOTHERAPY AND HYDROTHERAPY UNIT

RECENTLY BUILT BOILER HOUSE

“EVERY DISTRICT SHOULD PROVIDE ENOUGH SUITABLE ACCOMMODATION FOR THE CARE OF THE ELDERLY PEOPLE ESPECIALLY THE MOST VULNERABLE AND FRAIL.”

The number of people over seventy – five is increasing and those who need care have often been provided with unacceptably low standards of service, particularly in some aspects of long term care.

Health Authorities must make long term plans for health care in their district, with particular emphasis placed on care of the elderly. Whilst it is preferable to provide new purpose built accommodation for health care, the government recommend that existing health buildings be adapted to present day needs.

The Marguerite Hepton Orthopaedic Hospital is already partly serving the community and would need very little adaptation for use of the wards by Social Services.

THE MARGUERITE HEPTON HOSPITAL AS A PRE – CONVALESCENT AND/OR CONVALESCENT HOSPITAL

The object of convalescence is to provide a suitable environment in which the remedy effected by acute medicine and surgery can me completed and a transfer back to independence in the community assisted. This is an essential separate function of the health service which should be preserved.

The best place to convalesce is obviously at home, however, this can only be so if there is a satisfactory home environment in terms of comfort, physical facilities and supportive care. At the present time there are patients who are discharged prematurely due to the urgent need for an acute bed and before the medical social workers have investigated their home circumstances thoroughly. These investigations can take several weeks to complete, particularly with regard to the elderly, who often need a great deal of supportive care. This results in a patient being in an acute bed which would otherwise would have been used to reduce the waiting list for surgery.

It often takes several weeks to discharge a patient home from an acute ward because of circumstances, particularly where the severely disabled and the elderly are concerned.

Unhappily, there are some patients who cannot return home and have to wait for vacancies to occur, e.g. Part III accommodation or disabled person’s home.

The Marguerite Hepton Hospital could be ideally used for this purpose and on a more economical basis that a large technology hospital.

WARD 1 PATIO AND GARDEN

The Leeds Eastern Community Health Council stated at a Public Meeting that not only did they oppose the closure of The Marguerite Hepton Hospital but they felt that at an appropriate time when resources were made available the hospital should expand the services it already provides.

According to D.H.S.S. guidelines the district is already 30 beds short of its norm. If the Marguerite Hepton Hospital should close that would make a total of 77 beds as a shortfall for orthopaedics.

So far as ordinary x – rays are concerned it should be recognised that many patients are compelled to travel for long distances for an examination that could be easily and economically; for those and the state to be treated locally.

OUTDOOR RECREATION AREA

THE CHAPEL

The Marguerite Hepton Hospital has always had excellent local voluntary support. It has not only provided the hospital with comforts for the patients, but the local people have been willing to visit patients.

PHYSIOTHERAPY DEPARTMENT

HYDROTHERAPY UNIT

WAITING LISTS

LEEDS WESTERN HEALTH AUTHORITY

The percentage of elective orthopaedic cases represents only 15% of total cases. The current waiting list, gained from the authorities own documents is 476 patients. (Effectively a seven year waiting list)

“We repeat that there are patients on this large waiting list who have waited seven years and anyone with a non – urgent remedial condition would face the likelihood of a delay of this order”. In agreement were;

E. B.Longton F.R.C.S F.F.Silk F.R.C.S

M.A.Nelson F.R.C.S M.J.Abberton F.R.C.S

LEEDS EASTERN HEALTH AUTHORITY

In the Eastern Health Authority the position regarding waiting lists is even worse. The figures obtained from the authority as at 31^st October 1983 are 701 patients on the waiting list and 115 on the day ward list. That represents a total waiting list across the city of approximately 1300 patients in need of orthopaedic surgery.

1982 Pay and Prices

Cost per patient per day

St James University Hospital……………………………………….£67.31p

Marguerite Hepton Hospital……………………………………… £4o.98p

These figures were the latest available from the Leeds Eastern Health Authority on 12.6.84

HOSPITAL AND ARABLE LAND OWNED BY NHS

This land is held by a farmer under a tenancy protected under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1948. It has been farmed by his family for over 30 years and he has no intention of willingly giving up possession. Apart from bad husbandry by the farmer, the only grounds on which he could be compulsorily be deprived of his tenancy would be id there was planning permission for development. Development of the land is not likely to be allowed. The Wetherby District Plan states:

“It is considered that this area of land should remain as open countryside in predominantly agricultural use and that development should normally be restricted to that appropriate to a rural area. As no expansion of Walton (adjacent village) into the countryside can be justified at present, the boundary to the rural land has been drawn closely round the village”.

NB
The Marguerite Hepton Hospital closed in September 1985 following a hard fought battle. It became a nursing home for a comparatively short time before it was completely demolished to make way for a housing development.

Not even a memorial plaque to say it was there. Thankfully the trees on the drive remain, which enables me to say to my grandchildren “ See that third tree on the left? That is where the granddad you never met asked me to marry him.” The buildings may have been taken away but memories linger on.

Terry Swift makes the news in Castleford

2010-09-24T15:49:00.006+01:00

Today I had a Google Alert telling of Terry Swift's stay in MHH together with a very familiar looking photo. The alert took me to The Pontefract & Castleford Express Newspaper article called Wartime Hospital Experiences where Terry tells of his time in MHH ranging from 1944 to 1947. I have since been in contact with Terry who tells me he is happy for me to add this posting. He suffered from Perthes disease and was 8 years old when he was admitted to the hospital.

His photo has an X marking his position in the group of patients, this oddly enough is the same picture we received from Robin Watson in March 2009 (see below) minus the X. Robin was not entirely sure of the photo's origin and neither is Terry but he thought it might have been taken by his grandfather, a keen photographer, nor does he remember who was responsible for the X being inked in. He was able to uncover one small mystery and that is the identity of the chap standing by the bed using crutches. He is also a patient, around 16 at the time, named Harry Batt, one of the few able to walk around. He can also recall the names of other patients, Roy Mallinson, a TB spine patient for seven years who sadly died as a child, Trevor Oldroyd, Colin Kaye (from Huddersfield) and Ronnie, Barry, Alan, Cyril and Mickey.

If your name is here or you know any of them please get in touch with us.

Can you help identify any of these patients and staff?

2010-09-18T16:23:00.007+01:00

The following Marguerite Hepton Hospital photos were copied to us by Cynthia. They are amongst some offered to her for possible use in her book (see previous post). If you can identify anyone below and help us to name them and share something of their hospital experiences we would be very pleased to tell their story.

"Big Boys" Ward 1957

Garden Fete 1965

A group of nurses

More nurses

Last Chance

2010-09-18T16:16:00.004+01:00

Cynthia has very few copies of her recently launched book "Good Food, Rest and Plenty of Fresh Air" remaining unsold and so if you want to purchase one this may well be your last opportunity.

A book launch photo with the kind permission of Wetherby News

2010-08-04T12:34:00.007+01:00

All the people in this photo have made a contribution to Cynthia's book with the exception of Amanda who represents Martin House. I could be unkind and suggest maybe one other didn't make a contribution but that would not be proper! I thought it might also be a useful photo so that faces could be added to the some of the names of those who have also made a contribution to this blog.

From left to right back row: Fred Dubber, Helen Jackson, Katharine Brown, Malcolm Benson and Wendy Garrett

Front row: Florence Gill, Margaret Bennett, Gerald Appleyard, Joan Johnson, Cynthia Coultas and Amanda Carter from Martin House

Martin House response to Cynthia

2010-07-25T23:18:00.001+01:00

Cynthia says thank you to all who attended her book launch

2010-07-18T15:37:00.003+01:00

Hi everyone I thought you may be interested to know that the book launch was a huge success. The food was good, the company excellent, and we achieved far more than we ever expected by way of remunerations for Martin House. A big thank you to all those of you who contributed either by writing your memories or by bringing raffle prizes. Many of you on the blog were unable to participate in the work as I was reluctant to steal Jane's thunder. However I'm sure she will have things up her sleeve which will need your participation. Watch this space.

We have almost sold out of books so without another print run it will soon be the end of a two year project. It's been great fun...most of the time and I have met some wonderful people I would never otherwise have known. I need to say a very big thank you to Fred Dubber for all his help and cooperation, and Jane for allowing me to use the blog to advertise my work. You may like to know that the book has now reached around the world! There are copies in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Germany, and throughout the UK. This was something I had never anticipated. I have just received an email this morning from Harry Dodgson,in Australia a contributor to the book who wants a further three copies sending over for people in his writing group. Martin House Hospice for children accepted a cheque for £566 and there will be more to add shortly.At least now Marguerite hospital will not be forgotten in a hurry.

Thanks again.

Cynthia.

See the article in the Wetherby News

At the Pax Inn Book Launch

Christine Crooks nee Clarke a Volunteer at MHH during 1981-82

2010-07-13T15:46:00.009+01:00

I’ve just been looking at your website, I had been talking to a friend on Facebook about when I used to live and work as a volunteer at Marguerite Hepton Hospital and it prompted me to go and look online to see if there was anything about the hospital and I came across your site.

I was there from September 1981 until January 1982, then moved back to the North East. I really enjoyed my time there; I still have a couple of photos of me with some of the nurses there.

Maureen, Eve, Christine, unknown

Maureen, Eve, Chris Weightman, unknown

I’ve been able to remember some of the staff though mostly just 1st names, the nurses I can remember are:-

Christine Weightman (know as big Chris and I was little Chris!! probably sounded better than old and young Chris)

Carol Drake

Pam (possibly Monks)

Judy

Maureen

Karen

I think Sister was called Woof!! For some reason that name is springing to mind but cant be 100% sure and I can remember Jerry Appleyard.

One of the domestics was Eve but can’t think of the other ones name.

We always used to be on the same shifts together all the time, so can’t remember any of the nurses who worked the times we were not there as we used to just see each other at change over time.

The other volunteer was called Carol she arrived a couple of days after me, she was from Durham.

I have had another look at the plans on the website and by time I worked there ward 3/4 was the women's ward and ward 1 was men's.

Next to the hospital was a home/school which I think was for bad boys, plus a bit further down on the other side of the road was an open prison.

Her is a bit on how I ended up at MHH

I left school in April 1981 and saw an advert on tv for community service volunteers, so I got in touch with them and went for an interview and discussed what sort of work I would like to do, they then found a place for you to go and work, and I got to go to Marguerite Hepton Hospital.

I started in Sept 1981, I had arrived there on a Friday feeling bit nervous at the thought of starting my 1st job and living away from home, I needn't of worried though as everyone made me welcome, especially Chris Weightman, who the 1st weekend I was there took me to stay at her house so I wouldn’t be at the nurses home all by myself as Carol wasn’t arriving until the Monday (there was only me and carol and one other person who lived there but the weekend I arrived the other person was away for the weekend)

The plan when I got there on the Friday was to be shown around, have the weekend to settle in them start work on the Monday. I got picked up from Wetherby bus station and taken to the hospital; they showed me around etc and met those I would be working with. As I was there first they asked if I wanted to be on the women’s or men’s ward, I opted for the women’s as we had spent more time looking around and talking to staff there (though I did end up occasionally helping on the men’s ward if they were short staffed). I was left on women’s ward to chat to staff and they said rather than me being alone on the weekend did I want to go in and help out to give me something to do which I did as I think it would of been awful being by myself in nurses home all weekend.

I loved it straight away, staff and patients were great, though they had a job at first understanding my geordie accent!! Most of the patients were old people but we did used to get a few young ones in. As the patients were sent from St James to recover from ops etc they were usually with us quite a while, so even though we were pleased when they were finally discharged it was still sad to see them go. I wrote to one of the patients for a few years after I left then I got a letter from her daughter to say she had died.

The types of jobs my volunteering entailed were

make the beds,

feed the patients if they needed help,

assist patients to toilet

help with bathing patients in bathroom also with bed baths

help staff when changing dressings.

I also used to do some shopping for the patients in Wetherby on my days off.

I’ve found one photo of me in the grounds at the back and you can see the same wooden toy in the background that is in one of the photos on your site!

Pity I didn’t have any more photos of the actual buildings, I saw the photo of the nurses home and saw my old bedroom, it was the end room on the right on the top floor, I think the photo of me and Carol was taken at the doors of nurses home. (Christine is in the cloak)

I really enjoyed my few months at the hospital, my placement there was only for 6-12 months but I left early because my mother was unwell so had to go back home to Northumberland.

Colin Welbourn has even more thoughts

2010-07-12T22:29:00.004+01:00

I have had a long read through all the entries on the site – there is certainly a lot to read – and I have just a few miscellaneous thoughts and observations which may be of interest.

First of all I have found the only photograph of me at MHMO. I am on the big boys ward and it is obvious that it was taken on visiting day. You will see I am in mobile traction and so it is to the end of my stay and I can’t be sure whether it is in the late summer of 1946 or around May in 1947 as I don’t know how long that period of treatment lasted. I had yet to learn to walk and as I went home in mid July 1947 it can’t be later than say June of that year. I don’t know for certain who the chap in the next bed in the foreground is, it is probably John Schofield but I can’t be sure. Our parents became good friends and I met up with John a few times after I left Thorp Arch. The boy on the other side looks as though he has a fretsaw at his shoulder. We used to do fretwork as one of our leisure activities, I remember sawing out model beds for a large model of the hospital which was being made for an exhibition of some sort.

In the background there is quite a good view of the small boys ward, with the sunblinds down.

I was very interested in the photograph in Fred’s photostream, number Robin 4-1. As it was taken in 1946 I will be in the picture, but I am not sure if I can identify myself but I rather think I am the boy in the bed behind the man. Incidentally, I can’t recollect a male teacher being on the scene at any time and I think that this is the local vicar from Thorp Arch who came to see us about once a fortnight. His black clothes support this theory quite well.

I loved Judith’s drawing of the small boys ward. Although it is the drawing of a child, it is amazingly correct according to my memory and it stirred more memories in my mind. I had completely forgotten about the fans. The fans blew cold air in summer and warm air in winter and you can see the supply pipes in the drawing. The pipes were suspended from the ceiling and we constantly tried to get paper aeroplanes to fly over them. One other thing we did was to roll up a comic, fold it in half and tie it on a piece of string. We would then throw the comic over the pipe, tying the other end of the string to our bed and we could then have a game of tennis using a book as a racquet – a sort of vertical swingball!

The bricked area at the end of the ward had a central corridor running through it with three rooms on either side – again correctly depicted with the three windows on Judith’s drawing. You can see these windows in the background of the photo ‘Malcolm in Thorp Arch 59/60’. On the front of the building the room next to the ward was the nurses’ office – it had an internal window overlooking the ward so that they could keep an eye on us, although there was a blind which was pulled down at night so that the ward was kept in darkness. Next to that was the treatment room where we were taken for our baths and for the dreaded changing of extensions. The room at the end was, I think, an isolation room. I know that we had one boy – I don’t know if it is right to give his name - who had TB and it got the better of him and he died in that room. Nothing was said to us but the undertaker took him away late in the evening, probably to avoid any distress to us, but several of us saw it all, I don’t think much escaped our eyes!

On the other side of the corridor was a store room, the sluice, and I think, the kitchen.

Douglas Quarmby’s entry is particularly interesting as our stays crossed but our ages are such that we never met as Douglas would have been in the big boys ward when I was admitted to MHMO and he would have left before I moved up from the small boys ward. The wartime hostilities had turned in our favour when I was admitted, and we never saw any enemy action but the aircraft in the sky and barrage balloons are all very familiar.

Douglas recalls a girl who didn’t have any visitors and I also recollect a boy – I won’t name him, who didn’t have any visitors either. Visiting parents would often give him something and have a chat with him but it can’t have been much of a consolation. A nun visited him periodically and she sat very quietly by his bed whilst we wondered just what was going on. Obviously the lad was a Catholic but we knew nothing about the differing religions, something we probably had to learn about once we were home and back to school.

Some other recollections of the various activities we got up to. We were all interested in nature subjects and were quite keen birdwatchers. The sparrows were quite tame and would perch on the end of the bed from time to time. I remember the teachers bringing a bat in for us to see and also a mole. One of the activities we went through was a phase of breeding butterflies. We had a box–shaped frame covered in muslin with a large hole in the bottom which allowed it to pass over a jar of water holding the plants on which the caterpillars fed. We bought the caterpillars of privet hawk moths by mail order and watched them go through the chrysalis stage into moths, which we duly released.

My pal and I also had a go at bee keeping, or so we thought, but in fact I think that they were mostly wasps! We made an intricate cage from cornflake packets and we caught the wasps with a trap made from Meccano. We fed them on jam from our sandwiches, but after a couple of days they got extremely angry and we had to keep cementing holes up as they ate the cage away. A nurse found them and promptly dropped them in the fire bucket and that was the end of that experiment!

There are mentions of patients being taken from MHMO for surgery, but I remember operations being carried out there. They were carried out on Saturday mornings, we waited for the surgeon – generally Mr Broomhead – to arrive and the atmosphere was always very subdued that day. The operating theatre was in the admin building along with the general office and the matron’s office. We could smell the anaesthetic, which scared us and we were always told to be very quiet.

There was a library trolley on the big boys ward and for a time it was kept next to my bed. I had the run of it and I became a bit of a bookworm and was always sneaking a book from it to read at night. I found the books written by Arthur Ransome and became an ardent fan as I have always loved boats and boating.

One mystery to which I would love to know the answer was that every Sunday afternoon at either two or three o’clock, two very old double-decker buses went by the hospital. We waited for these and gave them a wild cheer when they passed. They were always empty and always seemed to be going at quite a speed away from Boston Spa. They returned, I think, around six. We never found out where they were going and what for and I would still love to know!

I went back to the hospital, I think it was around 1998. I stood at the top of the drive, looking at the buildings. Not a lot had changed, the ward buildings all seemed very familiar although the flat roof on the small boys ward had been replaced with a conventional pitched roof. It was eerily quiet, there were no cries and shouts from children as it was now a nursing home. I couldn’t bring myself to go any further and just walked away taking my memories with me. I am glad that I saw it before it was demolished as I had spent such a great part of my formative years in there and I would have been sad to find out that it had all been torn down without my having the opportunity to see it for just one more time.

Finally, I remember the prayer we said each day at the end of school. The words are:

Lord keep us safe this night
Secure from all our fears
May angels guide us while we sleep
Till morning light appears.

It’s childish, I know, but I still use it!

Michelle Jones (neé Jackson) remembers Thorp Arch girls' ward in 1971

2010-06-28T19:42:00.000+01:00

My name is Michelle Jones. At the age of 10 in 1971 (Easter Saturday to be exact) I broke my femur. After 2 weeks in St James's Leeds I was shipped out to MHH and stayed there for the next 5 months. 4 of those months I was on traction and therefore confined to a wooden cot like bed.
I can remember the girls' ward at that time seemed to be directly next to the operating theatres. There were only around 5 or 6 of us in the ward at the time. 3 of my companions seemed to be there long term. One was a girl of about 18 who in retrospect had some sort of brain tumour. Another was a nice girl called Laraine Henshaw (I think) who had some neurological wasting disease which affected her speech as well as her mobility and then there was Karen Henry, a mixed race girl who must have had congenital dislocating hips and was on bed rest. I remember being wheeled out on to the veranda as it was summer time and we had 2 nice ladies who came to give us lessons. We had a record player and TV and lots of comics and books so even though I was desperate to go home there was lots to occupy me. I can remember the summer fayre that was held there every year and Karen was chosen to the the "queen" and got to wear a tiara and cloak. Once I was off traction I had to undergo painful and scary physio from a very strict lady whose name I can't remember but I went twice a day and she used to shout at me when I couldn't walk to her satisfaction. I enjoyed going in the hydro pool though.
The highlight was the weekends when mum and dad were allowed to visit and they'd bring a my sister and school friends to come and see me. We had permanent staff there but student nurses from Seacroft hospital used to come for around a month at a time. I can remember getting very attached to one young nurse but I can't remember her name. There was a particular staff nurse who seemed to work every night who was very strict with us all.
I once went back to the grounds after the hospital closed and all the buildings were still there but obviously deserted. It was very weird. My stay there seemed to go on forever and it had a huge impact on my life as I was growing up. I don't know why I suddenly decided to google MHH but have found the pieces people have written and photos fascinating and wish there were more people who were around in the early 70's when I was there. I was called Jackson then and my Dad, Charlie, used to go round to the boys ward and talk to all the kids there and make them laugh.
I have now been a physio myself for the past 25 years and sort of understand now why the physio then was so hard on me!
If anyone wishes to contact me I can be found at michelle@mrandmrsjones.net
28 June 2010 16:56

Cynthia publishes a history of MHH and invites you to its book launch

2010-06-25T11:28:00.001+01:00

Book cover

Should you wish to buy a copy of Cynthia's book (£10 plus p&p) she can be contacted via this blog's email address.

Cynthia's Invitation

Dear All,

I do hope that you will be able to come to the launch of the book, ‘Good Food, Rest, and Plenty of Fresh Air’ at the Pax Inn, Thorp Arch on July 15^th at 11am to 2.30pm to meet up with other friends and contributors to the book. Please feel free to bring your spouse or a friend!

It would be good to arrive before midday, a buffet lunch (menu enclosed) will be available to purchase from 1pm if you require. Amanda Carter will be present to represent Martin House Children’s Hospice and receive the first cheque for the Hospice from sales of the book and I have invited a reporter from the Wetherby News to take a photograph. Should you have anything suitable for a raffle prize it would be gratefully received, again to go to help the Hospice.

Jane Freeland, who organises the MHMH online blog along with Fred Dubber, also intends to be present.

I am looking forward to seeing you and having a good old natter!

Many grateful thanks for your participation.

Kind regards,

Cynthia (Coultas)

Location

View Larger Map

MHH site using Google's Street View

2010-03-29T15:30:00.011+01:00

Jane has suggested that we add a link so that you may browse around the site of the former hospital using Google's Street View. I found attaching Google Map's page directly on to the blog complicated the Street View option so I opted for this link instead.

Google Maps link

For those of you unfamiliar with Street View follow these simple instructions:-

1. Click on and hold mouse button down onto the yellow figure on the top left.

2. Drag the yellow figure to the place you would like to view part of the scene from at street level. (note: you may only view the scene from within the blue lines appearing along the roads as you move the yellow figure around.)

3. Use the left and right arrow icons to rotate the scene and the + and - options to zoom in or out.

4. The aerial view in the bottom right corner shows the direction you are looking in, via the green pointer below the yellow man.

For those of you interested in Potternewton Special School here is another Street View image

View Larger Map

Brian Todd tells of his time in MHH during 1954

2010-03-24T22:25:00.005Z

I have just found your web sight for Marguerite Hepton Hospital, I was also a former patient at Thorp Arch Hospital during 1954 for approx 6 mths, I was also there a couple of years earlier but can't remember the dates. My consulting Surgeons were Mr Clark and Mr Pain,(not both at the same time.) I will always remember Mr Clark as he used to park his Jaguar near the ambulance bay at Leeds General Infirmary, It was racing green , and I have had a thing for Jaguars ever since.

I was in Thorp Arch both times for Osteomylitis in my left knee and had to wear a Thomas splint for most of the time.

After my second stint in hospital I was put into a caliper and had to wear that for quite few years, After leaving hospital I had to go to a Special School for the disabled, that was my first Introduction to Potternewton Mansion School. Mr Tempest (Teacher) Mr Wiggins (Physio) Ms Hearfield (Headmistress). I also remember some of the students like Tommy Swindles, Joyce Parker and Winnie Megson, I sometimes wonder what they are doing these days. I also became a Boy Scout while at the school and Mr Tempest was our Scout Master. Myself and three more of our scout troop went to a Jamboree for disabled scouts (an Agoonoree) at Gillwell Park, somewhere in the south of England in approx 1956 or 57.

When the Caliper finally came of after a few years my left leg had completely stiffened up, so Mr Pain decided to do what he called a Tendon Transplant, He had never done one before but had seen them done so after much discussion we decided to go ahead, Thankfully it was successful.

I am now 67 years old living in Queensland, Australia. and had to have an Arthrodeses on my left knee due to Osteo-Arthritis, so after all these years my left leg is permanently stiff again.

Going back to my recollections at the hospital, I don't remember many names except for Winnie Megson (whom I later got to know at Potternewton Mansion School) also a girl named Nancy both on the girls ward across the road. I also remember two of the nurses names they were nurse Whitehead and nurse Foxcroft, there was also a nurse we used to call Marilyn after (Marilyn Monroe) she was a very attractive blond nurse, I remember I used to give her my pillow when she was on night duty so she could get some rest, When I became more mobile I used to go into what I believe was the treatment room and roll bandages on a funny wooden frame.

I have just seen a photograph (mwward2jpg) on your web sight, and after looking at old photo's and speaking to my mother, I believe the boy third from the far end on the right side of the photo is me. (Brian Todd). We also had entertainment I think you had just got your first Television, I also remember a dark coloured trio called the Mills Brothers, and also sometime later I believe there was a cowboy on horseback who used to sing and play the guitar. In fact looking back, for me thing's weren't all that bad in hospital.

Its amazing what you find out by asking your parents questions, It seems my Grandmother on my dads side (dad's mother) first went into service at the age of about 13yrs old as a kitchen hand at the Heptons residence. When she saw the name of the Hospital when she first came to visit me, she said that lady taught me how to bake, My grandma was so small when she first started her service there she could not reach onto the bench to knead the bread, so the bowl was put on the floor.

Her name was Sarah Maria Grinrod and she started work there between 1893 & 1895 approx.

Douglas Quarmby's memories of MHMOH 1939 to 1945

2009-12-23T15:25:00.005Z

I have read with interest the various accounts of ex patients of MHMOH which became their home not by choice but a valued necessity for I too was a patient there with spinal TB in the years 1939 - 1945 - the war years. Thoughts and memories crowd my mind some sad and some glad in that period of my life which affects me to this day. A lump had started to appear on my spine when I was five in ‘39, thought to be the result of a fall from a tree in a coppice in a little village called Clifton a year earlier. The doctor, a Dr Heseltine, diagnosed TB of the spine and I became a patient of the Marguerite Hepton Memorial Orthopaedic Hospital. Although I was approximately six years there, I haven't many visual memories structure wise of the hospital as I was supine in a half plaster cast with a mirror above my head to view around. No doubt the cast would be changed as I grew. I do remember the avenue of trees so colourful in the autumn and the sunny days outside on the terrace. It’s strange but I cannot see any wet days in my memory or the pain I must have gone through, just an acceptance, a boy who knew of nothing else but that present time. Over the span of time I was in hospital my body was subjected to various ailments as the disease progressed. Boils on my back to be burst through the application of linen boiled in a cloth, the water wrung out then hot the linen applied to the ripe heads, near mastoids in the ear and a stay in Killingbeck hospital when I caught Scarlet Fever. There was no quick remedy for TB and no antibiotics at that time.

A year before I came home a decision was made to operate which required my parents blessing as its success rate was 50%. The surgeon who performed the operation was a Mr Payne, a wonderful consultant and very strict (my mother would tell me afterward). I think the operation was done in Leeds and can still remember the pad and chloroform being put on my face. When I think back, I have nothing but respect and admiration for Mr Payne. He cut away the diseased bone of my spine around the spinal cord and replaced it with fresh bone from my left shin to make a new vertebra. He certainly saved my life.

Various incidents do spring to mind whilst at MHMOH, as being the war years I remember the dog fights high in the sky in daylight, (the airfield at Church Fenton was not far away), planes circling beyond the trees trying to bomb the underground munitions bunkers across the road. Of boys from an approved school going round picking up the shrapnel after the all clear.

Not all raids, however, were done in daylight, for many a night we would be pushed in our beds to wooden huts away from the hospital in case the hospital was hit during a night raid. On one occasion a cone shaped fire extinguisher fell of its hook due to the explosions and landed on a bed, was activated and soaked the poor lad under it. Though it was dark I could see the sister or nurse, a cape over her shoulder, a silhouette in the doorway lit up by flashes, on guard, an assurance to our young minds all would be well.

On good days we enjoyed the sunlit air away from cover of the veranda, the sun lighting up the silver barrage balloons, one occasionally drifting off as it broke free of its moorings. From the mirror above my head I watched my father climb the steps to the entrance to disappear then to re-appear at my bedside. Dad was exempt from doing national service because of his job as a lorry driver at Walker Bros in Brighouse. Those times were special as it was midweek and he had managed to make time to visit me. Normal visiting was once a fortnight and on a weekend, travelling by bus from Clifton to Leeds then by train to Boston Spa in all weathers and maybe having only ten minutes of visiting time left.

Being a lorry driver, Dad had contacts and knew where to buy toys difficult to get hold of. A dye cast searchlight I would shine on the ceiling in the night. Black faced luminous watches would glow under the sheets; I had quite a few of them over the period I was there, for as, even with the searchlight, they seemed to ‘disappear’.

One particular and fond memory I have of my stay at the hospital concerned a little girl called Ruth Tutin who never seemed to receive any visitors. Like me she was fitted with a half plaster cast and a mirror above her head and most times she would remain unnoticed, alone in a corner under the veranda. This concerned Dad and Mum who upon enquiring why she was aside out of the way and not with the others outside, would be told ‘she has been naughty, soiled herself’. ‘Poor beggar, bring her outside with the others’ dad would say, and made sure she received a present on visiting days along with a bit of TLC. Ruth would often call father ‘Dad’ and many is the time I wondered what became of her when I came home in February 1945. Dad did make a few discreet enquiries later, and heard she had gone down south.

I am now in my 76th year. My spine bears the scars of a time when there was little technology as we know it today but the skill was there. My doctor said later, had penicillin been available then, the possibility of a cure in six months was not beyond the bounds of probability and I would have been taller. Losing 3ins in height has suppressed the capacity of the lungs making me short winded at times, but I count my blessing over and over that I have led an active life and still do God willing.

The breathing exercises I was advised to do long ago have come naturally with singing. Singing to His glory in church and concert platform and oratorio works.

Looking back I cannot thank the staff at MHMOH enough for their dedication and care. The love and devotion my parents gave to me is ever before me as I reach the eventide of life. Marriage to a loving wife and the added blessings of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren is living testimony to their dedication.

Think of me when you are happy, keep for me one tender spot. In the depth of your affection, plant me one for-get-me-not.

The seed was sown long ago.

Christmas Present

2009-12-18T16:35:00.005Z

Around this time last year Jane added a post wishing everyone Seasonal greetings so I guess this time it is my turn. But first a confession, Jane added a photo of Father Christmas which I had offered to her for the blog but it was not a photo taken of the real Father Christmas. It was in fact my neighbour, a local artist, who was kind enough to add beard, red suit and a significant amount of padding to entertain the children at our village primary school. I took his photo en route (but not really passing the reindeer). This year he has very kindly made an appropriate contribution of his own to add to our blog in the form of the above seasonal painting.

Since adding a counter to the blog last February we have had over 13000 hits which gives us something of a warm feeling, knowing that so many of you are taking an interest. We haven't had much to add in the last couple of months but then we had a similar lull this time last year. So if you have anything to tell us about your MHH experiences we would love to hear from you, perhaps after you have got over the coming festivities.

But for now a very happy Christmas and very healthy and perhaps wealthy new year wishes too you all.

PS If you would like to see more of Eugene Conway's work visit his web site at www.imagefromthevillage.co.uk My apologies for the shameless advertising!

Christmas Past

2009-12-18T16:30:00.002Z

At this time of year I often have brief glimpses of Christmas in MHH, I had three Christmases there but time and my memory of almost 60 years ago have turned them all into one.

It is funny but the things I should remember which must have occurred such as Father Christmas and Carol singers stir the grey matter not one bit. The things I do remember include a Christmas tree (or trees?) being brought in to the ward and being dressed, paper chains being made and other decorations being hung around the walls and Disney characters being stuck on the many windows.

We prepared for a nativity play, dress rehearsal involved, in my case, brown face paint and a small wicker basket of oranges, one of which I was afterwards allowed to keep. I don’t remember tea towels, or any other dressing up nor the performance we must have given or to whom we gave it, but I suspect it may have been our parents during Saturday visiting.

One evening we were wrapped up and wheeled, in our beds, across to the big girls ward where the hospital staff put on a pantomime. I don’t remember what the pantomime was; just a couple on stage singing “Walking my Baby Back Home” and “How Much is that Doggie in the Window”. Strange how those two tunes have stayed with me for so long. Maybe because they were the first songs I had ever heard performed live. However neither song is much help in trying to work out what the pantomime was!

Another piece of entertainment we had was a conjurer and the one trick that stays with me, mystified me, and come to think of it still does, is the interlocking of solid metal rings. There must have been many others but they have all disappeared into the fog of my memory.

But I suppose the most lasting impression had to be the presents we found on and around our beds on Christmas morning. As well as those received from home there was always a collection from anonymous benefactors and to this day I don’t know where they came from. I’m guessing they were donated from local charitable organisations and friends of the hospital. I do remember wondering how they came to be on my bed but the thought was lost in the excitement of opening them all. 60 years on I guess it is too late to say thank you but perhaps the knowledge that they had made lots of children very happy was thanks enough.

I don’t ever remember feeling sorry for myself not being home for Christmas such was the efforts and dedication of all the hospital staff to keep us all happy and I can only say that at least in my case they all succeeded splendidly.

We would love to hear of any Christmas memories you may have of MHH.

An addition to Fred's search for Thorp Arch Grange

2009-10-09T10:08:00.004+01:00

It seems many of us have tried like Fred to find the old hospital building, though not with such scientific care – thanks Fred. It’s also good to have more information about what has happened to Potternewton Mansion School, Leeds. Many contributors to the blog have good memories of this place - it obviously did a very good job of helping kids back into normal school life. As someone who got plunged in very much at the deep end, I must say I've envied their experience.

What Fred writes about his search for Thorp Arch Grange reminded me of a very interesting document I found while googling some years ago – after failing to locate anything resembling the hospital on a trip to Newcastle. This is a Thorp Arch Village Plan, apparently approved in 2004. It seems to be used still as the basis for planning decisions. I’ve often thought of putting some extracts from it onto the blog, so now seems a good moment.

The plan starts with a history of the village, going right back to the Domesday book. It has pictures, too. The whole document shows clearly how the places and buildings we all knew have been adapted to new uses, and partially or wholly disappeared in the process. No wonder it’s hard to find anything!

About Thorp Arch Grange it says: “A new boarding school for young gentlemen [!!] was built at Thorp Arch Grange in the 1840s. The school later went through a number of uses until it eventually came under the control of Leeds City Council and was used for young people in local authority care. It was then sold to a builder who developed it as office accommodation. Leeds United Football Club became interested in the playing fields in 1993 and bought Thorp Arch Grange to create their football academy.”

I wonder what purpose it serves now - is it still the football academy? and who the new “driveway owner” is that Fred mentions.

The history section of the plan also mentions the Ordnance Factory that comes up in so many contributions to the blog: “Of the 13 ordnance factories built during the war, Thorp Arch is the only one where buildings and blast berms can still be preserved as a historical site. The site was used to store surplus war material between 1945 and 1950 and reopened for munitions manufacture during the Korean War (1950-53). After that war the site was partly decontaminated. A local entrepreneur bought the site in the early 1960s and developed the Trading Estate and the Buywell shopping centre. The site, now employing some 2500 staff in 90–100 commercial enterprises, is currently owned by Hanover Properties who plan further development including up to 1500 new homes, subject to planning consent. The National Lending Library for Science and Technology occupied part of the site, in Walton parish, in the 1960s. It became the Lending Division of the British Library in 1973, steadily growing and now employing some 2000 staff. It, too, is looking to expand its floorspace.

“In 1950, near the main entrance to the munitions factory, a remand centre was
built to house about 200 young offenders; a third wing was added in 1980 to house
a further 100. It was converted into a Category C prison for adults in 1988 and a fourth wing added in 1996. In 1995, the Thorp Arch Category C prison and the
open Rudgate Category D prison next to it were merged to form Wealstun Prison. It
now holds 750 inmates and there are expansion plans to increase the number to 892”.

There are two pictures of these changes, showing the “Thorp Arch trading estate new buildings” and “evidence of historic ordnance factory". Unfortunately, I can't add them to this posting, as I don't know how to save them in a suitable format for the picture-adding facility!

Finally, it has this to say about “The Marguerite Hepton Memorial Home”.
“Mr Arthur Hepton provided the site for the Memorial Home to the Leeds Invalid children’s Society in gratitude at the recovery of his daughter, Marguerite, from
tuberculosis. Opened in 1910 as a home for up to twenty children with tubercular
related orthopedic problems, by 1942 it accommodated 80 children and thirty
seven staff. Its final use was as an old people’s home and a children’s nursery.
The owner closed it in about 2000 because it was claimed to be uneconomic.
In 2003, following an appeal against refusal of planning permission, the Public
Inquiry Inspector found in favour of the developer and allowed development of 7
flats and 55 houses on the site”.

The whole report is worth a look - especially for the pictures! It can be seen still on the Internet, on the Leeds local government site at: http://www.leeds.gov.uk/files/2005/week20/inter__1d21e022-e7bd-4d28-bdcb-19d168189d65_538d8f76-a1aa-497b-bf6b-22105f86973b.pdf

The simplest way in is to google for “Thorp Arch Parish Plan”. About 8 options down the list comes ‘Village Design Statement’ which leads you to the document.

In search of the Hospital site

2009-10-05T15:54:00.011+01:00

On a recent trip to Leeds I decided to take time out to attempt to find the original location for the hospital. But what is there to go on? My starting point was Jane’s photograph of her being given a ‘lesson’ by one of the nursing staff. In its background is the building thought to be the “Thorp Arch Approved School” now known as Thorp Arch Grange.

The building has a unique square tower which I assumed, should it still exist, would be somewhere between Walton and Thorp Arch. Google maps gave me a lead producing a satellite image of a large building which from close observation of the shadow a square tower looked possible. Just to the north is Walton Chase, a likely contender for MHH driveway.

Google Maps link

So one sunny afternoon I found myself on the Walton to Thorp Arch road where Thorp Arch Grange came into view together with the very tower I was looking for. I drove into its entrance marked with signs stating “Private Road” “no public access”, Not the most welcoming but the aspect of the building did not match the photograph of Jane’s so there was no need to linger.

Travelling back towards Walton I took the first turn left into Walton Chase, a cul-de-sac with fairly modern housing. I stopped at a point where I estimated I would have a view of the tower similar to the one in the picture but sadly the whole of the grange was obscured by trees. Moving further along the cul-de-sac the Grange came clearly into view. As the neighbourhood was very quiet and devoid of people I parked my car, blocking a driveway, and took a photo of the Grange. At that very moment the driveway owner returned from the school run and my parked car and me apparently taking photos of his property did little to improve his mood. Fortunately my apologies and explanation seemed to be enough to remove his suspicions and he promised to have a look at our blog as our history has now become part of his too.

Looking at the Grange from this angle didn’t quite match Janes photo but then I had moved further round the top of the building looking from further west.

Driving back towards the main road I became aware that the cul-de-sac is very probably located where the hospital drive used to be. Sadly there is no longer a row of chestnut trees along its borders.

An afterthought: I came back to this posting to check out the "Google Maps Link" and found another unnamed entry just above Walton Chase. A case of I couldn't see the wood for the trees? This one is tree lined and leaves me wondering if it could have been the hospital driveway. Pity I never thought to look further along Walton Road when I had the opportunity.

The following day after my success at finding MHH I decided to visit Potternewton Mansion School in Leeds. This was a school that a number of ex-patients were transferred to prior to resuming normal school life. This proved much easier to find and I recognised the building relatively quickly. It hasn’t withstood the ravages of time very well but is still a school, now operated by a sikh organisation. I would have tried to enter but it was closed up.

There is a plaque mounted on the wall overlooking the park telling something of its history.

The building is now surrounded with by heavy metal railings and has vandal proof mesh over its windows. Gone is the virginia creeper covering the walls where I watched a blackbird make a nest, hatch and rear its brood all from the first floor class room window. Also gone is access to the park that was the school playground. A really sad place to visit actually but it did bring to mind some fellow pupils from 1953. I wonder where Linda Tate, Georgie Howland and Ann Spence are today?

Colin Welbourne's further recollections

2009-10-05T10:46:00.001+01:00

First, now that I come to think of it, at times there were some other girls on the ward we called ‘The Small Boys Ward’ although I seem to recollect that girls were on the ward infrequently and most of the time it was just boys. I always thought it was through lack of space on the girls ward, but I don’t know – maybe, as there was no ‘small girls ward’ any young girls were admitted to the boys ward until they were old enough for the girls ward. I can remember a girl called Pauline on the ward. The handyman – I think his name was Mr Bennett – made her a beautiful toy shop – a greengrocers – and I can remember him presenting it to her – obviously he had a soft spot for her. We all wanted one of course, but he didn’t make any more.

Like Ian’s mum’s note in an earlier entry, my Perthes started with ‘leg ache’. By the time I was five the medical people had finally diagnosed the problem but it had taken an awful long time and many x-rays for them to reach this conclusion and I didn’t know what was happening – all I knew was that I got ‘leg ache’ after I had walked a short distance. I can vividly recollect standing on the railway station on a January morning in 1943 with my father who was taking me to Leeds. I was five years old and thought I was having a day off school. He took me to the infirmary and after some chatting I was put in a cot and my father left me, saying he would see me soon, but the ‘soon’ turned out to be a long time.

After a couple of weeks in LGI, and some more x-rays, I was transferred to a hospital on the moors at Otley. It overlooked a valley and in the distance the railway ran along the other side. We took great joy in watching the trains running on it.

The hospital was a series of wooden huts – like army barracks - and apart from the one I was in, they were occupied by American or Canadian soldiers, all sporting bandages of some sort or other. They had a gramophone and played records almost continuously.

I can’t remember much more of the stay there apart from the fact that the hut was heated by a coke stove in the middle of the ward – we used to put our cod liver oil capsules on the top, they created a dreadful smell!

Anyway, six weeks later I was transferred to MHMO and again, that first day is very clear in my memory. I was taken straight to the treatment room in the Small Boys ward and put on a frame and moved out to the ward. School was just finishing and they were singing ‘Jesus bids us shine’ – a hymn I had never heard, didn’t like it, and still don’t like it!

The six weeks stay at Otley leads me to think that the frames were custom made for us and I wasn’t transferred to MHMO until it was ready. Either that or they were waiting for a bed to become vacant as I cannot recollect having any treatment at all and was able to walk around the place without restriction.

The frames were beastly things. As has been described in other contributions they were a metal frame, running from below your feet up to your shoulders and they were made to ensure that your hip joints didn’t move and that no pressure was put upon them. We laid on a leather pad – we called them saddles – and the frame kept your legs apart. Elastoplast was taped down both sides of your legs, terminating at the ankles with tape loops through which cord was passed and tied to the frame which extended past your feet. These elastoplasts were called extensions. The elastoplast must have been about three inches wide, so there wasn’t much flesh uncovered by the time it was applied to both sides of your legs. Your feet rested on upright supports which were metal arches over which canvas bags were placed (gallow bags they were called). These were pretty useless as either the metal bits (gallows) slipped down or the gallow bags tore under the pressure of our feet. There were two sets of curved bars over your body, I seem to recollect these bars were tied together with cord. Shoulder straps stopped you slipping up the frame and prevented you from sitting up and groin straps stopped you slipping down it! Our legs were first bandaged with light cotton bandages over the elastoplast extensions and then bandaged to the frame with stronger bandages to complete the immobilisation.

Changing the extensions was a time we dreaded. There was no simple and painless way to take remove an elastoplast and there seemed to be no releasing solutions in those days, so it was a sly distraction by the nurse and a quick ‘rippp’ and an instant howl!

Comments have been made about the use of methylated spirits. When the nurses bathed you they took you out of the frame and washed your back. They then rubbed meths in and finished with a dusting of talcum powder. As far as I was concerned it was very effective as I never had bedsores. But for me the smell of meths is very nostalgic – if ever I use it it brings back instant memories of MHMO!

Because of the way we were strapped down, I seem to remember that we wore either pyjama jackets or cardigans back to front, but I am unclear on this. It wasn’t the modern hospital gown, of that I am sure.

I stayed on a frame from the age of five till I was nine, when I went on to the next stage of treatment which was called mobile traction. For this, we were taken out of the frame but the extensions were kept on but this time they were tied to cords running over pulleys over the bed end and attached to weighted bags – they actually contained lead shot – great fun was had by all if one burst! The bed end was raised to allow more travel on the weights. The mobile traction got your joints working again as, with not having any physio, they had all seized up. Knees had to be taught to bend again, as well as hips, and we could learn to sit up at last and muscles slowly regained strength. The only photo of me in all my time in MHMO (which I can’t find) is of me in mobile traction.

The next step was walking on callipers which kept feet off the ground. I had them on both legs. I didn’t have problems with the calipers at all and could go at a fair rate on them after I had had them for some time. My problem was that I managed to break them quite often - I suppose it was metal fatigue.

There were no parallel bars or equipment of any kind to help you learn to walk, you relied on nurses to give you walking lessons by standing you up and helping you along. At the time I was learning to walk we got our first male nurse – it seemed so strange to us as this was really unusual – nurses were female, not male, but he was a good fellow and we all liked him. One day when my callipers had been put on me and I was waiting for a lesson he was busy so he just gave me a chair to lean on and push around rather than help me to walk – it was probably the first zimmer frame! Anyhow, this helped me greatly and I was soon fully mobile.

I went home in July 1947, the day before my tenth birthday and four and a half years after walking into LGI with my dad. He had bought cheap day return tickets to take me to Leeds as they were cheaper than a single. I found the unused return half in my mum’s belongings when she died. She had hung on to it all those years, probably as a momento of the day her son went away.

Contributors mention the food we had. I don’t remember having many problems with it despite hating scrambled egg and although I can eat porridge I simply can’t look it in the face any more. The other interesting thing is that I don’t think we ever had tea to drink – I still don’t drink it.

We sometimes had corn flakes for breakfast as an alternative to porridge. They were mainly Dalton’s Cereal Flakes which came in a red and yellow box and were truly delicious. If they hadn’t enough of them they would use Kellogs, which weren’t half as nice and we would frequently argue about who had which. The big thing about corn flakes was that they come in a cardboard box and this was super material for making things with and we always competed for the empty boxes. They stopped making Daltons flakes somewhere around 1957, such a shame as I would love to have some again!

We invariably had fish on Fridays for lunch. Sometimes it was fish and chips – the only time we seemed to have chips and which we all loved, other times it was steamed fish in a parsley sauce which most people hated.

I can’t recollect being made to eat our meals, maybe we were just hungry and scoffed everything! In school time there would have only been two hours between twelve and two for the nurses to serve lunch, clear away and clean us up and settle us down for our nap so if we didn’t eat our food there wasn’t much time to do anything about it. I don’t think we realised how difficult the food situation was outside and it must have upset nurses when we wasted food, maybe that was the cause of any food bullying but, come to think of it, all parents try to get their children to ‘eat up’, so it wasn’t any different for us.

We had a light blanket to cover ourselves with. Because it was next to our skin it was called ‘Next To’ but we always pronounced it ‘Necks Too’. This served many purposes, it covered our bodies, kept us warm, and if we dropped something we could use the blanket to drag the item closer to the bed to see if we could manage to pick it up. At night, or sleeping time (we had a nap every day after lunch) we covered our faces with it and as a punishment in the day we would be made to cover our faces with it so that we could no longer talk or play. It would have been plain for all to see if we were playing with a toy under the blanket or reading and the nurses were very good at spotting this. It was known as ‘Going down the Bed’.

The other punishment we were given was a rap over the knuckles with the nurse’s scissors – very painful! The smart boys discovered that the louder and sooner you howled, the quicker they stopped. I don’t think the nurses caught on to this dodge! However, I can truly say that I was never bullied, abused or mistreated by the nursing staff. The nurse I mentioned previously who was universally hated was just exceedingly strict, liked a tidy ward and didn’t like us talking and hated rumpled beds. We were frequently ‘sent down the bed’ when she was on duty and she made our lives a misery.

The design of the lockers was interesting. From the side they were ‘L’ shaped, with the foot of the ‘L’ being a storage box with a hinged wooden lid. The lid made a very satisfying bang when dropped and with a bit of co-ordination from everyone on the ward we got quite adept at making a machine gun sound which we loved doing and frequently finished being ‘sent down the bed’ as a result! The upright part of the locker had a shelf, forming an upper and lower compartment and these were open at the sides. The upper compartment was at bed level, making it an ideal playing arena between yourself and the chap in the next bed and this was the base for many risky adventures and you could whisper through it when we were supposed to be asleep.

Being adventurous and inquisitive boys, we got up to all sorts of things in that secret little locker area. Battles were fought, plays staged, factories, airfields and roads were built and bombed. I well remember that, following a visit by the fire brigade one evening to pump the boiler house out, we entered on a ‘boiler making’ phase. Once again, plasticine was the material we used. We made containers to store water in (we used our drinking water or took a bit from our washing bowls). Pipes were moulded by wrapping plasticine around pencils, the pipes were ‘flanged’ at each end which enabled us to join them, and we finished up by having a maze of pipes running from our boiler, ending in taps to catch the water at the end. We had a few floods, but were never caught out.

The boiler phase turned into a new phase – harbours! We built walls (good old plasticine, reinforced with pencils) at each end of the locker shelf and filled it with water and sailed model boats on it. Plasticine only floats if you make hollow boats from it, but we made quite a few good cardboard models to sail. Apparently one pair of smart lads had a pier in their harbour, complete with a battery-powered lighthouse! Unfortunately, the night nurse saw a light coming out of the locker and discovered it. A quick check of other lockers was made and a couple of others were found and a mass knuckle rapping session followed. Fortunately for me and my mate (can’t remember who he was) we had emptied ours that day and so we got away with it. We had moved on to something else by then, probably more dangerous as among other things, we went through a cooking phase using candles made from Glitterwax ( a tallow based substitute for plasticine) to make Oxo drinks!

The radio played a major part in our lives. We had school singing lessons from the radio – I vividly remember the over-jovial voice of the man who took the lessons, we used books bought from the BBC for these lessons. We listened to sports commentaries of football, boxing and horse racing. Raymond Glendinning, Eamon Andrews and Stuart McPherson were the main commentators, I think, and we would try to imitate them as they spoke so fast. We followed Bruce Woodcock, a northern boxer (?any relationship Jane?) and would get permission to listen to the commentary of any of his fights. I remember that we also got permission to listen to the serialised medical murder drama ‘Green for Danger’ and got ourselves scared stupid by it. Anyone due for surgery at that time were certainly not very happy bunnies! We needed special permission to listen to these programmes as they were broadcast after our bedtime.

We were all interested in sport. There was little interest in football - rugby league was our thing. The main teams supported by different boys were Leeds. Hunslet, Bramley Wakefield Trinity and I think St Helens, mainly of course because these teams were local to where the boys came from (except St Helens- that was too far afield). I think the St Helens or Warrington team came to visit us once and I do believe that Eddie Waring, who became a commentator on sport and ‘It’s a Knockout’ was amongst them.

We were keen enough on rugby league to devise our own version. One boy had a rugby ball bladder, which we could punt around to each other. There were metal tie rods going across the ceiling at the end of the big boys ward and the idea was to punt the ball with your hand (rather like in volleyball) to see if you could hit the tie rod. If you did, this was a ‘try’ for your team and you could have a go at converting it by attempting to punt the ball over the tie rod. The lights took a battering, but fortunately they stood up to it otherwise we would probably all had rather sore knuckles for a few days!

We devised a horse racing game which involved one boy being selected as commentator. He blocked his ears and sang so that he couldn’t hear us whilst we chose the name of the horse we would ride. When all was agreed, the commentator was given the horse names (but not the riders) and he would start the race and do a commentary from his imagination, doing the best imitation he could of Raymond Glendinning, whilst we did the best imitation we could do of riding. If your horse was said to be in the lead, you ‘rode’ that much faster, until the commentator reached the end and announced the winner. Stupid, I know, but we wore ourselves out on this one! It was our version of the real life thing, - we had our own versions of most sports.

We did a lot of jigsaw puzzles, Waddingtons , the game manufacturers, would send us a couple if you wrote to them asking them to replace the parts of one of their games, I expect they got wise to it in the end!

We were able to do these things because there were not many nurses on duty at any one time, probably two or three at most with a sister in charge whilst at night there was one nurse on duty on each ward with a sister in charge over all of the wards. There were no wounds to dress, no medicines to dish out, their duties must have been feeding and bathing us and making beds and taking temperatures – more meths to sterilise the thermometers! They were all very young I seem to remember, probably straight from their initial training course.

We spent most of our days in the open air as it was deemed to be beneficial, particularly to TB in those days. In winter we were well wrapped up and in summer we wore something similar to a loincloth (they were called splashers) but no regard was paid to the strength of the sun and there was no suntan lotion in those days. I got a serious dose of sunstroke one year and was dangerously ill with it, to the extent that my parents were asked to come and see me – the doctors must have been very concerned.

Looking back, some things come to mind which I suppose just wouldn’t happen nowadays. We left hospital totally unprepared for the big world outside. We were not very worldly and had no manners – other than an occasional ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. My parents had to sort all this out, as well as teach me to hold a knife and fork properly when I got home. We were a thankless, almost selfish, lot as we didn’t have to give much and it grieves me now to think that we never wrote a note of thanks to any of the organisations that had given us a party or sent us something – how good it would have made them feel – but I don’t suppose that we knew about such niceties. We had been in an all boys environment with no physical contact, protected from any harm or violence or cuts and bruises and we rarely encountered girls. We didn’t have to share things, although we swapped comics with each other and I don’t think we had any monetary values although I was aware that things weren’t easy for my parents. We didn’t know an awful lot about the world outside although, to a point, the radio kept us in touch with real life, and we read the papers on Sunday, but all in all it was a very closeted, almost monastic, life. Children entering the hospital younger than I was when I was admitted would have very little concept of what the world outside was like and would have had much to learn when they went home - nowadays television brings the world to you, but of course, there was no television in our time. If counselling had been around in those days I suppose we would have had endless sessions to prepare ourselves for the big world outside.

I settled back at home quite well although, after a lot of thought, I have realised that over the next few years I tried to get back all the boyhood things I’d missed in those years in MHMO, charging around everywhere and going on mad adventures. I have two elder sisters and a younger sister and brother and they seemed to accept me as though I had always been there. I went back to ordinary school when the Autumn term started and fitted in with a school class of children of my own age without too many problems but had to take a few weeks off when the time eventually came to discard the callipers and learn to walk normally again.

When I left school it was obvious I didn’t have the strength for manual work and settled for an office job. I have lived a normal life without obvious disabilities although arthritis crept in at quite an early age and I have had one hip replaced and might in time have to have the other done. The MHMO experience has left me to be quite skilled with my hands and I am quite inventive and have a dogged determination to fix things and make them work, it’s probably due to all that plasticine modelling!

50th Anniversary Brochure - part 4

2009-09-06T15:09:00.006+01:00

EDUCATION OF CHILDREN IN HOSPITAL

The hospital was first recognised by the Board of Education as a special school in 1920, and has had qualified teachers on the staff ever since that date. There are now a head teacher and four assistant teachers, who are on the staff of the West Riding Education Committee. The facilities afforded for the teaching staff cannot be regarded as entirely adequate, but it has been possible to make minor improvements for storage of equipment and for accommodating staff.

As far as possible the ordinary school curriculum is followed. A recent report by one of the Inspectors of the Ministry of Education expressed the highest satisfaction with the standard of work carried out in the school. An annual feature of the school's work is a painting competition organised by the local section of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, for which " Wilfred Pickles " and " Sir Malcolm Sargent " Cups are presented for the best entries.

Apart from the reading material provided by the school the West Riding County Council provide a library service.

NURSING STAFF

Throughout its fifty years' history. Marguerite Hepton Hospital has had highly skilled medical and nursing staff, who have been able to inspire the necessary confidence in the patients. Even since the Second World War, when most hospitals have been desperately short of nursing staff, Marguerite Hepton Hospital has been able to attract staff of the highest calibre. Since 1951 it has been recognised as a training school for the Certificate of the British Orthopaedic Association in conjunction with Pinderfields General Hospital at Wakefield. A full-time Tutor was appointed in January 1952 and gradually the arrangements for nurse-teaching purposes have been improved, with provision for both theoretical and practical training. Students are enrolled at an average age of 16 and their training at Marguerite Hepton Hospital takes them up to the preliminary examination: they then proceed to Pinderfields General Hospital for the final part of the Certificate course. The hospital is also recognised by the General Nursing Council for children's training for Pupil Assistant Nurses.

CONCLUSION

In concluding this brief survey of the hospital the Committee recognise that the success of the treatment carried out at the hospital is due in large measure to the enthusiastic devotion of the staff, and take this opportunity of thanking all past and present members, who have made such a wonderful contribution to the fifty years that have passed since 1910.

50th Anniversary Brochure - part 3

2009-09-06T15:01:00.004+01:00

CHIEF SOURCES OF INCOME

In 1948, under the terms of the National Health Service Act of 1946, the Marguerite Hepton Hospital became a National Health Service Hospital administered by the Leeds (Group B) Hospital Management Committee. Thus ended an era in the life of the hospital and the record of achievement from its first beginning is impressive when it is remembered that the hospital was mainly dependent for financial assistance on voluntary efforts.

It is impossible in this chronicle to mention all the gifts and benefactors of the Society over the years, or the tremendous amount of work and time given voluntarily by members of the Committee and its many helpers. Briefly, the main sources of income during these years were from ' the Leeds City Council and the West Riding County Council in return for maintenance of patients in the hospital, annual subscriptions, donations, endowments, District Guilds all over the City of Leeds, Charity Balls, the Leeds University Students' Rag, Rotary Clubs; B.B.C. Appeals, Flag Days, Sewing Meetings, Garden Fetes, Christmas Markets and gifts of eggs (an average of 5,000 per year). A typical example of service to patients was the " Birthday Club," run for many years by the late Mrs. Stirk.

It is perhaps invidious to draw a distinction between the importance of these gifts but one deserving special mention was a gift scheme organised in 1925 by Mrs. Edward Lane-Fox, at one time Chairman of the Hospital Committee, and Mr. J. R. Cross, as a result of which 44 purses of £50 each were presented in the Majestic Picture House, Leeds, to Her Royal Highness, Princess Mary, who subsequently honoured the hospital with a visit. The final sum collected from this scheme was £3,700.

WELFARE OF PATIENTS

The visiting of' patients over the years has often been difficult, largely owing to the infrequent transport services. In the early days, visitors from Leeds attended by train; subsequently bus services made things easier, and a great deal is owed to the West Yorkshire Road Car Co., which has provided special buses from Leeds on Saturdays and Sundays and augmented normal weekday services as and when necessary. Many visitors also now come by car. Thus, visiting has expanded gradually since 1949, when two wards were opened to visitors each week, to daily visiting since April 1959. The Wetherby Division of the Women's Voluntary Service has undertaken the provision of light refreshments to visitors on Saturday afternoons.

There has always been a close association between the hospital and the Religious Bodies and the visiting Chaplains have found their work amongst the patients most rewarding. Religious instruction and services are necessarily carried out at the bedside, but in 1956 an Altar Cupboard and furnishing was fixed in the Physiotherapy Department so that more formal services could be held when occasion demanded.

The hospital, in spite of national control, has continued to enjoy support from all kinds of organisations in the district, and perhaps particular mention should be made of the achievement of the parents of patients and ex-patients, who promoted an appeal in 1954 to provide television sets on each of the four wards. £900 was raised and as a result seven sets were presented to the hospital by Mr. J. Wright, the Honorary Treasurer of the Fund. A radio relay system also operates, including headphones for the older children: as the B.B.C. Schools Broadcasts form part of the educational curriculum, the West Riding Education Committee contributed to the cost of this installation.

A sound cinema projector was given by Mr. E. Blackburn in 1949 for use of the hospital and film shows are given each week in the winter months; a good film library has now been built up, films having been purchased fr^om time to time from donations received.

Other features of the patients' social life are the establishment of a Boy Scout Troop, a Girl Guide Company and a Cub Pack, which have been run most enthusiastically. One patient, Miss Shirley Slee, was awarded the Girl Guide's V.C. in 1951. It is a source of the greatest satisfaction to know that the boys and girls continue with these activities after discharge from hospital.

50th Anniversary Brochure - part 2

2009-09-06T13:52:00.006+01:00

BETWEEN THE WARS

In 1918 the Society had to face the problem of extending the accommodation for domestic staff which, in spite of a steady increase in the number of patients, had not been altered since the Home was founded. It was decided to launch a Public Appeal and the magnificent sum of £1080 was subscribed. Just at this time, however news of the death of Lt. William Hepton, one of the Trustees, was received and Mr Arthur Hepton, his father, again came forward and offered a gift of £5000 to defray the cost of extensions, in memory of his son. This offer was gratefully accepted and work commenced on the alterations in August 1920 which were completed in 1921. An extension of the existing verandah, a new kitchen, additional bedrooms and bathrooms were provided and from the moneys raised by the Public Appeal the Committee of Management was able to add a milk room and provide furnishings and equipment. The extensions were opened on the 28^th of May 1921 by Mr Hepton.

In the same year a new sluice was added to the Riley-Smith Wing, the cost being partly defrayed by Mrs Cochrane. Mr John Halliday, the then President of Leeds Invalid Children’s Aid Society, presented a single-story building to provide bathrooms for domestic staff and an operating theatre and plaster rooms were opened.

The work of the hospital continued to expand and towards 1930 there were again accommodation difficulties for residential staff, particularly nursing staff. The night staff were living temporarily in a wooden block situated in the grounds of Thorp Arch Approved School, adjacent to the hospital. This was a most unsatisfactory arrangement and plans were drawn up for a new Nurses Home on two floors within the hospital grounds. The building was completed in 1932 at a cost of £5000

In 1936, following a gift from Mr. Hepton of land adjoining the Home for future extension and development, the Society decided that henceforth the Home should be known as the Marguerite Hepton Memorial Orthopaedic Hospital, in recognition of the many generous gifts which Mr. Hepton had made over a long period. In this year too the hospital received its first X-ray equipment.

THE DECADE BEFORE THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE

On the outbreak of War in 1939 the safety of patients accommodated in the several small hutments in the hospital grounds had to be considered from the point of view of air raid precautions and the close proximity of a Royal Ordnance Factory. It was decided to replace the hutments by a permanent brick structure and this was completed in 1942 at a cost of £5,000. This Block to-day accommodates Wards 3 and 4, but the original design was for one Ward only. The subsequent division into two Wards has made difficulties in the ancillary departments, but these were partially overcome by alterations carried out in 1958.

By the end of the Second World War the number of patients that could be accommodated in the hospital was 90, ten times the original number first catered for in 1910, and the Committee of Management realised that the facilities of the hospital should be modernised and improved to meet the present requirements. A scheme of development was accordingly prepared.

Between. 1945 and 1948 two Airey Houses were erected in the grounds to provide married quarters for the resident medical officer and the maintenance handyman. A sluice room was added to Ward 3 and a recreational building provided for the nursing staff. Plans for the provision of a new building at the rear of the hospital, to accommodate a new operating theatre, X-ray department and an emergency ward have not yet been implemented.

50th Anniversary Brochure - part 1

2009-09-06T13:06:00.008+01:00

LEEDS INVALID CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETY

On the 16thApril 1960, the Marguerite Hepton Memorial Orthopaedic Hospital reached the 50^th anniversary of its foundation. Throughout this period extensions and improvements have been in progress to meet the changing pattern of treatment which the medical staff have required for their patients and it is obvious from the progress made that there has never been a want of benefactors to make this development possible.

It was in 1910 that the Leeds Invalid Children’s Aid Society was formed with the following objects:

1. To help to provide surgical apparatus, crutches and spinal carriages.

2.To arrange and help to pay for the maintenance of crippled and invalid children in Convalescent Homes and also the Marguerite Home, Thorp Arch.

3. To provide upkeep of the Marguerite Home.

4.To visit in their homes and teach in groups or individually the crippled and permanently invalided children of the City of Leeds who were too delicate to attend normal day schools.

5. to provide and serve daily a hot midday dinner at the Clarendon House Special School for Cripples.

It is with the second object that this Chronicle is concerned.

FOUNDATION OF HOSPITAL AND ITS EARLY YEARS

The opening of the Marguerite Home on the 16^th of April, 1910, became possible when Mr Arthur F.L. Hepton of Leeds (later of Harrogate), presented the Society with a house of ten rooms at Thorp Arch as a thank offering for the recovery of his daughter Marguerite from a serious illness. The house was converted into a Convalescent Home for crippled children, and named the Marguerite Home. A Committee of Management consisting of members of the Society was appointed to administer the affairs of the Home.

Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War Mr Hepton made a further generous gift of £500 to the Society in memory of his wife, with the wish that the money be invested and interest, at least during the first few years, be applied to the improvement of the grounds around the Home, including the provision of trees.

The first expansion of the hospital buildings took place in 1915, when anew wing was completed through the generosity of Mr W. Riley-Smith of Tadcaster. The wing, known as the Riley Smith Wing, was a single –storey building and contained two wards for use as an observation unit and for the treatment of minor infections, three bedrooms for nurses, a dining room, a kitchen and bathroom. A verandah along the front of the wards made it practical for patients to be in the open air except in the severest weather. This feature of the hospital treatment has continued right up to the present time.

Mr Riley-Smith, shortly after the end of the First World War, presented to the Home the “Douglas Shelter” fully equipped. Four other shelters were presented, three by Mrs Robert Hudson in memory of her son, Colonel R.A. Hudson, who was killed during the war, and the other by school pupils. These shelters were ideal for open air treatment and isolation purposes. They were wooden in construction and of the chalet type of building used extensively in sanatoria.

Marjorie tells of her mother's experiences

2009-09-04T14:51:00.004+01:00

Since my mum died in 2007 I have found myself wanting to visit places that played a part in her life and one of those places was "The Marguerite Home" or "The Crippled Children's Hospital" as she referred to it. Mum died just 2 weeks before her 93rd birthday. I guess mum worked in the kitchen. She would tell us how she slept in huts away from the main buildings and she would be woken at 4 am by a very stern lady whose voice she would imitate when recalling the memory. She then had to go across the field to the kitchen and light the fire to heat the water and the stove. She would prepare the vegetables and I seem to remember her describing how she would skin rabbits also for the meals.

Amongst my mum's correspondence I have found a letter (see below) dated Dec 1963 from E Young, Hospital Secretary, acknowledging mum's letter saying "I was very pleased and delighted that the recording on BBC was a means of reviving happy memories for you of the Hospital....." He also enclosed a souvenir brochure of the history of the Hospital which was published for the Golden Jubilee in 1960. I note from the booklet that the name was changed to Marguerite Hepton Memorial Orthopaedic Hospital in 1936 and I calculate that mum must have worked at Marguerite Home round about 1934-5 when she was 19-20 years old. Her maiden name was Gladys Wilson.

(Marjorie has very kindly loaned us the souvenir brochure and extracts from it are to follow - Fred Dubber)

Response to Fred's posting about Perthes' disease

2009-07-13T00:13:00.003+01:00

This is Jane, in Nicaragua on a field trip, and with an unusually strong internet connection despite the rain, and time while I wait for something to charge on my computer, so I came here and read this. It's so interesting to hear about a 'modern' case of Perthes' disease - I never really understood what it was, and it's good to hear that it can now be treated so relatively easily and so successfully. Something that also comes through - so like some of the more 'old time' reports, is the importance of parents' being able to help children to get back to normality again. One of the things that strikes me about so many of our contributions is how people have taken in their stride - pun intended! - what on paper might look like quite awful experiences in childhood, but which people have not only survived but turned into good memories.
Jane F

A patients Perthes Disease treatment in 1968

2009-07-04T16:43:00.009+01:00

The following is an account of Perthes disease treatment given to me by the mother of the ‘patient’:-

At approximately 4 1/2 years Ian’s his leg hurt when walking in Snowdonia in the summer. He kept putting his hand on his hip and asking his Daddy to carry him.

On returning home his mother took him to see the doctor who said that it was normal for children to limp in summer – due to all the exercise they had outdoors. After another week of limping badly he was taken to see another doctor who suggested he should see a specialist at the hospital.

At the first consultation and x-ray nothing was confirmed but Perthes was suspected. A month had to elapse to give the bone time to ‘change’ – or not. At the second consultation and x-ray a definite change in the hip was seen. The consultant told his mother that instant wearing of callipers was necessary. The alternative treatment was long bed rest without putting the leg on the floor at all for many months. If nothing was done then the child would have a deformed hip joint and a dreadful limp. An instant decision was made to go for callipers and measurements were taken. They were ready within the week.

It was amazing how well Ian coped with the callipers and started school three weeks after they were fitted. The school wanted him to start two weeks after term started but his mother insisted he started on the same day as other children to avoid him being considered too unusual. He settled in well and took part in all school activities as far as he was able. He was taken to school in a pushchair.

The callipers were changed as he grew and he wore them for about 18 months – not as long as we had feared! After not using his leg for a time he had to learn to walk again and had prolonged exercises to do to strengthen his muscles.

No problems have been experienced since – and no arthritis!

A parental viewpoint of todays Perthes disease can be found at this Parents of Perthes Support Group website

Jane responds to Judith's postings

2009-06-28T17:34:00.002+01:00

I've been watching your postings unfolding with great fascination - and huge envy that you were encouraged to keep a diary of your experiences through the school work. They make a really valuable new contribution, and I've just emailed an early contributor (Yvonne Farrer) about it. Some time ago she expressed disappointment because no one seemed to have any detail about her time at Thorp Arch (yes, we did all call it that, didn't we). Maybe these pictures and the list of names will help.

In fact, after two years of the blog, I realise that, whilst we are all jogging each others' memories in all kinds of ways, actual 'direct hits' of memory of each other from those who are writing are very rare. As far as I know, the first one of these is Colin Welbourne's memory of me after all these years - and it was a real and rather peculiar thrill to read it.

I wonder how many contributions we'll need to accumulate before chance throws up another of these. The chances of such hits are further decreased by the way the lives of boys and girls seemed to run on parallel lines for such a long time. Colin remembered me mainly because for a while I was on 'small boys' as it was then called. So it's interesting to read that in your time there was a mixed ward. That might increase the chances of overlap.

I found your account of your father's views on the whole experience absolutely fascinating - we don't have too much information on parents' reactions, but they're so important. My own parents told me, many years later, how they had tried to object to the rigid visiting arrangements, all to no avail, of course. Like your father, mine had strong views. I found your father's resolute refusal to believe what doctors rather moving - it must have made it difficult for him to deal with your absence and treatment. However, his letter about the daft design of the lockers seem entirely reasonable - though I was interested at the ways round the problem you managed to find!

Your memory of being told by Mr Clark to ‘go and be normal’ almost reduced me to tears: I can almost hear Mr Broomhead telling me I could finally be released from my spika in similar words: “Go home and lead a normal life”. I was so excited I rushed out to where my parents were waiting, and promptly fell flat on my face – such was the stuff of normality.

As you say, being in hospital, immobilised and separated from home, must have affected all of us in some way. For a long time I was a very fearful child, though thankfully I grew out of it. I was also unable to see the joke in things like the operation sequence in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which starred Danny Kaye as a man always dreaming of himself in great roles. In this sequence, he was performing an operation, involving knitting needles and spaghetti, and I got so upset I had to be taken out! Only later, when a student boyfriend took me to see it again, did I realise how funny it really was!

I also wonder whether those of us who were immobilised during years when children pass important developmental milestones did actually manage to catch up on them, especially since we all seem to have retained a few physical limitations. For instance, I’m particularly bad at directions and can’t imagine even quite well-known routes if someone explains them to me. If anyone knows, could they please tell us?

At least they did us proud with the schooling – nearly everyone comments on how easily we were able to fit into normal school. So I’ve always been one for the quiet pursuits – and though I suffered terribly from homesickness at school (I was sent to boarding school about 2 years after I got home from hospital) I’ve now got a terrible travel bug (which still induces homesickness when I’m off on work travel alone!

I was interested that you’d become ‘a sort of medical ghoul’ who could relieve people’s pain. For a long time, I toyed with the idea of becoming a nurse – I wasn’t good enough at sciences and maths to be a doctor – but the Walter Mitty problem didn’t bode too well for that, and it faded away gradually. But it would be interesting to see how many of us went into jobs with some sort of social service element to them.

Jane replies to Colin's memories

2009-06-28T16:01:00.003+01:00

I'm amazed by how complete your memories are, Colin - even down to car registrations, and a clear enough sense of the layout of the place to be able to contrast it with Fred's! As you'll see, there's some interesting discussion in earlier parts of the blog about how few of us can remember names in particular. There are only about three of you who do - you, Judith, in the posting immediately before yours, and Margaret Vicars, rather earlier. I wonder how much it has to do with our age on admission. How old were you?

It was also thrilling to read about someone who actually remembers me at that time! I think this is something all of us hope the blog will bring - that actual link to a named someone who remembers us. The segregation between boys' and girls' wards was so complete as a rule that we seemed to live parallel lives. Actually, at the time I assumed that being moved from 'small boys', as we called it, was something to do with growing up! I remember there were several of us there for a while, and I think we all moved together, more or less.

My parents did have a car, though I'm not sure what it was. Many times my Mum had lifts with kind friends with cars, when my Dad, who was in the RAF, couldn't get away (she didn't drive). What a pity they aren't still around to enjoy the link with me - though I think if I'd asked more questions while they were alive I'd have had a lot more to contribute to the blog now.

Thanks also for detailing the precise mathematical logic of why every so often we had to put up with a 3 week gap between visits. It sums up perfectly the kind of regimentation that characterised our time there. I think one of the most interesting aspects of the blog is the way it shows the changes in thinking about children in hospital, separation from parents, and so on. I've done some reading of reports conducted around that time which influenced considerable changes, and am hoping to add some summaries to the blog, though it may have to be later in the summer.

Your memories of the Duggie Hut really jogged mine. I was absolutely terrified of that skeleton, so perhaps I suppressed the memory! I think in my mind it linked up in a scary way with the X-rays they took of us! And I remained terrified of pictures of skeletons, hospitals and so forth, for quite a long time.

But if there was no physio - and my memories of learning to walk also suggest there wasn't - where did we go for those terrible early walking efforts between parallel bars, with legs weakened by years of disuse? I'd imagined a kind of gym, or something, but only to explain the dream-like vividness of the memory.

And I also have fond memories of plasticine play - we girls used it a lot, too. I seem to remember lots of figures of people, some in beds just like ours, others doing the sorts of things we imagined ourselves doing when we went home - riding horses, dancing (I was going to be a famous ballerina in one of my fantasies!) you name it. But my impression is that we weren't allowed to be nearly so boisterous as the boys.

So please do have a further think and add any more information you can think of - it sounds as though there might be quite a lot. I'm particularly curious about how immobilized boys contrived such highly mobile games as horse races and rugby!

Did you have brothers and sisters left at home? Do you remember how your hospitalisation and your home-coming affected them at all?

Colin Welbourn was a patient from early 1943 to July 1947 and remembers many names

2009-06-28T15:42:00.006+01:00

I have very strong memories of that period of my life and wuld like to add some more information to the website.

Firstly, I do believe that Jane Woodcock and I have crossed paths at MHMO. For a short while (if I’ve got the right person) Jane was on the boy’s ward, I believe through shortage of beds on the girl’s ward. It was then that my parents became friendly with Jane’s parents. If I am right, Jane’s folks usually came by car – probably a blue Riley type, and they would often take my mum part way home when visiting finished.

Visiting day was the first and third Saturday of the month from 2 to 4 pm. If there were three Saturdays in the month then it was tough luck – you went three weeks before you saw them. Visiting was restricted to two persons per bed, no children allowed. The only exception to the Saturday visiting rule was Boxing Day, which was a visiting day irrespective of when it fell. This posed a bit of a problem for most visitors as there was, and still is, a race meeting at Wetherby on Boxing Day, so travel was difficult as the buses were crowded, but, from what I remember my mum saying, people realised that some were visiting the hospital and were allowed to go the front of the queue. Not so going home though!

The plan of the hospital on the website shows a later state of development than when I was there. There was no physio at all during my stay and no physio facilities. We had no visits from the dentist or barber either. The nurses cut our hair, often badly and frequently painfully, until a barber was employed towards the end of my sojourn. There were no buildings on the other side of the drive, a house for the Doctor was built about 1948 after I left. The main long ward was divided – by space and not partitions - into the babies ward and the small boys ward. It had glazed sliding doors along the whole of the front which were opened as often as possible to let the fresh air in. These glazed doors were protected throughout the war years by massive brick blast walls, so there was no view out of the windows. The walls were taken down shortly after the war, men came with a motorised hammer drill and we thoroughly enjoyed watching them smash the walls down as anything out of the ordinary was something special in our lives.

The big boys ward was, in theory, two wards, as the oldest boys lived outside under the verandah all the time. The weather had to be extremely severe before they were brought indoors, if it rained or snowed heavily then waterproof sheets were draped over the end of their beds. Their bedtime was later than the boys sleeping inside, and they had a late supper which we younger souls really envied.

The place on the plan named ‘Plaster Hut’ was known to us as the Douglas Hut (or the Duggie Hut as we called it). Presumably someone by that name donated it to the hospital. In my time it was used for a number of purposes, one being sunlamp treatment. We were wheeled across in our beds and given goggles, stripped our clothes off, and were treated to a sunlamp session. This obviously was in winter as sunshine was deemed to be a big factor in TB treatment, hence our being outdoors as often as was possible.

The Duggie Hut was also used by the Lecture Sister, who came about once a month to train the nurses. I know I will sound nerdish, but I can remember the number of the Austin Seven she drove – AVH 183! There was a skeleton hanging up in the corner of the hut, covered by a canvas bag. We took great pleasure in having a sneak look if ever we were put near it and tried to scare each other with it.

Until almost the end of my stay, there were mainly three types of patients in the hospital – those with TB on the spine, those with TB on the hip and those with Perthes diseased hips. Towards the end of my stay we started to get some polio patients, but not many and I think they were kept isolated.

Mr Broomhead was the specialist who cared mainly for the TB cases, whilst Mr Paine dealt with the Perthes patients. I had Perthes on both hips and so Mr Paine was my man and I remember him well as I saw him for many years after I left MHMO as an outpatient at Leeds Infirmary. I recall that he was rather a fierce man and quite loudly spoken. I was about 19 when I last saw him. I remember that on his visiting day (about every three months on Thursday afternoon) we had clean sheets on our bed (the sheets were normally changed every Wednesday but if you didn’t have them changed that day you knew you were down to see the Specialist), the beds were turned down with military precision, with your papers, notes and x-rays in a precise spot at foot of the bed. You hardly dared move, and certainly everyone was in awe of Mr Paine when he appeared.

Dr Maloney was probably the GP – I think he lived in Boston Spa and we only saw him when we had a general health problem.

I can’t remember the names of many nurses. I remember Sister Egan and Sister Weddall (I wonder if she got promoted to matron when Matron Downes retired as I see there was a Matron Weddall in later years). I remember a nurse from Wales who was a real dragon – I won’t give her name, but she was quite cruel and universally hated. I remember Nurse Mallory, Nurse Hickling and Nurse Winley. The last two took a special interest in me (every nurse seemed to have a favourite on the ward). I was always interested in ships and the sea and Nurse Winley bought me a book – ‘A Cavalcade of Ships’ which I still have to this day, complete with the inscription she wrote in it. I tried to trace her some years after I went home, but had no success as I didn’t know where to start. She will be in her nineties now if she is still alive.

We had school lessons in the normal school term times. We had two teachers, Miss Kathleen Donnelly and Miss Margaret Budd. Looking back, they were simply fantastic and I am sure that nowadays they would have appeared in the Honours list for the wonderful work they did. They gave up much of their spare time for us and I don’t suppose we were grateful in the least. The morning lessons were the general reading, writing and arithmetic, whilst the afternoons were more handicraft based. Although we were boys and not supposed to do such things, we did embroidery on Monday afternoon and knitting on Tuesday afternoon. I hated knitting and never managed to make anything other than squares which were sewn together to make blankets. Wednesdays was plasticine modelling and Thursdays I think was reading whilst Friday was art. We were outside in our beds in all weathers except rain and in the winter those two teachers must have simply froze! We were all right, snugged in our beds with balaclava and gloves. We wrote on clipboards as we were all strapped down in bedframes or plaster casts, and handwriting was not easy. I had appalling handwriting when I left school, so much so that I decided to teach myself a better hand when I started work.

It is a tribute to their teaching that when I did get home and went back to school I fitted in academically with those of my own age.

Miss Budd took us for Scouts on Monday evenings in term time. We had two patrols – Bulldog and Eagles, I was in the Eagles. I earned my Tenderfoot badge but was exempt from the fire lighting bit!

I can remember the names of a good few of the boys who were inmates at MHO. I remember Albert Fretwell, Brian England, Malcolm Dawson, Ronnie Ackroyd, Norman Holmes, Jeffrey Gresty, Michael Hawksworth, John Appleyard , Kenneth Inkpen, Cyril Gamble, Kevin Jacques, Norman Foster, Malcolm Faulkes, Michael Grainger and John Schofield.

Michael Hawksworth was probably the oldest of the boys and I suppose that if he stayed in much longer he might have had to be transferred to an adult ward in another hospital. Ronnie Ackroyd had probably been in the longest – I think he was admitted as a baby and was still there when he was about nine years old.

Michael Grainger was one of my best buddies. His father was a watchmaker I believe, and Michael had his father’s skills in being extremely good at model making. We were all continually making things but he made some fantastic models from anything he could lay his hands on and I remember him making an exquisite miniature suit of armour from a toothpaste tube!

John Schofield was a great mate and we had some good adventures together. I kept in touch with him after leaving MHO, but lost contact in late teens and though I have tried to find him in later years I have failed to do so.

We were given a film show about every three or four months, a highlight of our lives. The films were mostly cowboys – what better for boys – although we could make requests to see a special favourite. I recall that we asked for, and got, the Ghost Train and also All Through the Night. We were scared stupid by Ghost Train! The films came on several reels and the showing stopped at the end of each reel and a new reel was mounted to allow the show to continue.

Although we were all bed bound it did not stop us playing games and we had, among others, our own versions of tennis, rugby, horse racing, hide and seek and boxing. We even had our version of the marathon! On visiting days in the autumn our parents picked up conkers in the drive and we played conkers for many weeks. In winter when the snow was on the ground we would have snowball fights, collecting the snow by throwing a box tied on a piece of string onto the snow and dragging it carefully back up to our bed.

Plasticine was probably the most popular plaything and we all became pretty handy modellers. Once we had seen something that took our fancy we would immediately make plasticine models of it. Batteries and bulbs were popular too as we could make torches to read by after dark. We made cardboard cinema projectors and would give displays on the ceiling of slides made from toffee papers. I never look at a box of Quality Street without seeing the famous soldier and his lady being projected on to a hospital ward ceiling! We all loved comics and swapped them after reading so that we saw just about every comic that was issued. Paper airplanes were popular too and we had many competitions, much to the displeasure of Mrs Hegarty the cleaner and Mr Lister the groundsman/caretaker because of the litter we created. Both were very understanding though and Mrs Hegarty would take our letters to the post and would shop for us for comics and Dinky cars.

After the war there were bonfires in the central driveway on Bonfire Nights. The boys from the borstal next to the hospital were allowed to come. They stood, one at each bed and we didn’t know what to make of them at all, they probably felt the same about us!

The Bramham Hunt would pay us a visit about once a year prior to setting off for their hunt, riders in all their hunting pinks and the full pack of hounds were there too.

Christmas was a very special time for us. The nurses put up decorations and there were massive cheers when the Christmas tree arrived. Various organisations came to give us parties, I can only remember St Johns Ambulance, but there were others and, of course, each party culminated in the arrival of Father Christmas. The nurses put on a pantomime for us, a special stage was brought in for it and I remember the local civic bigwigs attending.

We all tried to stay awake on Christmas Eve to see Father Christmas and to work out who was beneath the beard. Most of us fell asleep though and only one or two managed to be awake when he arrived, but one year the whole ward was awake - and noticeably so - and his arrival was re-scheduled to the late hours of the morning.

The nurses held a dance at the hospital every few months. There were always a lot of American airman in attendance. The dance was held in the small boys ward and all the patients were wheeled to other parts of the hospital for the night. Some went to the big boys ward, some to the girls ward and some the Douglas Hut. I can remember being in the strangeness of the Douglas Hut, falling asleep to the strains of the dance band. whilst on another occasion I was on the girls ward – I seem to remember that they sang a lot!

The war didn’t seem to affect us much. We often saw large bombs on trucks passing along the road from the munitions factory. The workers often chalked slogans on them, mostly ‘All for Hitler’. I don’t recollect any air raids although we often saw bombers coming home, one, I recall, with engines on fire, and we once saw a Spitfire firing its cannons at a wayward barrage balloon, but nothing at all that scared us. We took a great interest in the war and I can remember one morning the nurse drawing the curtains and saying ’Wake up children, the war is over’. There was a VE or VJ party – I can’t remember which, and parents were presented with a teaspoon to commemorate the event. My mum kept that spoon special for the rest of her days, I don’t know what happened to it when she died.

I have many more memories but will stop here, otherwise I will never finish. I will write some more another time.

Names of fellow patients and staff mentioned in `Judith's diaries and in the order they featured.

2009-06-17T17:30:00.002+01:00

(I accept no responsibility for truth, accuracy or spelling - I was only small.)

1962

Susan - must have been a good pal as features a lot. Used the pool (the only mention of the pool – was it really there then?).

Michael Reeves - off frame & onto traction Dec 62.

Charles Carter

Ian Britton - age 6, the Ian who rocked his frame? Off frame and sitting up. Might go home if he can walk (this latter 03/12/62).

Stephen Hill - age 6. His sister Diane was admitted later.

Ruth

Jackie

Derek Fell - his brother Peter arrived later. Derek was home by early 64. A Derek went ‘to live in Doncaster’. Was it this Derek?

Stephen Rouse

Cynthia - had her pots off. Didn’t get the caliper she was going to but went onto traction.

Elizabeth - aged 4.

Moira

Julian - had operation.

Michael Delvin - at his birthday party his mum brought lucky bags for everyone.

Joshua - arrived Sept 62?

Michael Sweeting - aged 8 when new patient. Came back for a party once home.

Mary - aged 12 when new. Pot off Dec 62. Pot back on 63. Operation 63. Came from a farming family (?) - they had hundreds of sheep at home.

David Tester.

Lesley - came back for a visit with Edward in Jan 63.

Edward

Pat - Lesley & Pat were in the paper 21/10/62. Home Dec 62.

Paul Hiskoe - walking outside Dec 62. Operation Feb 63 & home April 63 (or these could refer to a different Paul).

1963

Mark - learning to walk Feb 63, home 63.

Ann - aged 12 when new. Operation & pot.

Graham Steel/Steele?

Tony Bennett - was still in MHH when I left.

Stephen Gelder - operation.

Steven Woods - was still in MHH when I left.

John - aged 9 when new in Jan 63. Left hospital then returned.

Raymond - new Jan 63. Home later 63.

Susie - home in April 63.

Peter Fell - Derek’s brother. On a frame.

Coralie - on frame. Aged 9 in 63.

Shirley Radcliffe/Ratcliffe - on Balkan beam. Had physio.

Joy - new in April 63. Wore a ‘collar‘.

Robert - on Balkan beam.

Jane - had physio.

Carol

Diane Hill - sister of Stephen. New May 63. On frame then off frame and onto calipers by Nov 63. Home by early 64.

Donald

Keith - new May 63. Picking conkers outside autumn 63.

Philip - home autumn 63.

Leroy Matthews - new Oct 63. Family from Jamaica. Operation. Pot off Dec 63.

Guy Grimmet - operation. Had chicken pox. Home by early 64.

Stuart - had pot.

Alan Ferry - Operation. On crutches. Home autumn 63 but back by early 64.

Neil Maclumpha (spelling!?) - had chicken pox.

Peter Hogarth - age 7 when transferred from Boys Ward in Nov 63. Operation April 64.

David - splint then walking by Dec 63.

1964

Annette Robinson - transferred from Babies Ward. Operation. Walking pot. Pot off Jan 64. Operation April 64.

Christopher

Trevor Wales - home early 64.

Joseph Blackesbourgh (spelling?) - transferred from Babies Ward aged 5. His birthday cake had a picture of the Beatles on it.

Philip (another Philip?) - operation early 64.

Karen - aged 5 when new.

Yvonne - operation Jan 64. Home April 64.

Jeanette - new April 64.

Diane Burrows - was still in MHH when I left.

Linda - knitted a carpet for the Dolls House on Babies Ward.

MHH Staff

Sister Gough - nicked my ear when she cut my hair!

Sister Lodge.

Mrs Cooper - teacher.

Mrs Western - head teacher.

Miss Lupton - no idea who she was but she went on holiday to Hong Kong in July 62.

Father Walker - gave out palm crosses on Palm Sunday.

Mrs Johnson - put the shades up and down.

Mr Johnson - swept up the leaves.

Mr Dennis - took all the wheels off the lockers.

Mr Williams - measured me in Feb 64 (must have been for calipers?).

Mrs Parker - was ‘back on our ward’.

Nurses - Hickling, Newton, Hanson, Bose (her brother was one of the firemen who came to see us), Shepherd, Row, Lash, Hemsworth, Welner and Warden.

Further Recollections of Judith

2009-06-17T16:47:00.007+01:00

I knew that other children had different things wrong with them and my diary is chock full of everyone’s medical notes. ‘Going to Leeds’, X-rays at Seacroft, ‘pots’ and ‘walking pots’ coming on and off, calipers, traction, Balkan beams (for suspending limbs high above the bed), physio, operations, splints and crutches. There are lots of wistful comments in my diaries such as, ‘Susie is going home on Wednesday’, and ‘I might be coming off my frame in three weeks’.

Time passed, marked by regular celebrations like Christmas, Bonfire Night and a succession of birthday parties which Dad said the parents were expected to organise and provide for. And every July there was the Summer Garden Party in the grounds with stalls, Punch & Judy and one year, a fancy dress competition. I had a lemon net butterfly outfit - a top with wire & plastic wings and antennae headress - made for me by what must have been a bemused dressmaker in Armley (“Has got to go on from the front, waist up only and wings not to be crushed by frame”).

Judith in Fancy Dress

Judith with cousin Jean, Mum and Auntie Lily

Judith and Jean

Judith, Mum and Coralie in the bed on the left

We also had regular film shows (Lady and the Tramp, Tommy the Toreador) and concerts. I do vaguely remember Billy Fury and Marty Wilde coming, as mentioned by Margaret Bailey, but I think maybe it happened somewhere else in the hospital and I didn’t go. I’ve a feeling The Bachelors came and sang their 1964 hit ‘Diane’ to a Diane who was on our ward. In my diary I mention visits by a ‘skiffle group’ called Barry Corbett and the Mustangs who seemed to visit at least once a year.

Eventually, I think in March 1964, I came off my frame and some calipers were made for me. This is where the bad memories start. The calipers, exactly as described by Fred, were horrible things and the leather rings upon which all my weight rested, rubbed up painful blisters despite a ton of talcum powder. Also, I spectacularly failed to walk in them despite having physio and trying to walk between bars. You were supposed to fling each caliper forward in turn, the bits of useless jelly that were your legs hanging down inside them, all the while attempting to maintain your balance. I remember being made to feel that I should have just been able to hop out of bed and walk and that I was failing because of my own idleness or lack of application. By leaving day I still couldn’t walk and Sister Lodge had to carry me out to my uncle’s car.

My parents had moved house (to a ground floor flat) since I’d been admitted, and once home, I just dragged myself around the floor or got lifted around by Mum. I immediately started at Potternewton Mansion School (along with quite a few ex-MHH patients), travelling by taxi, and at some point I abandoned the calipers and learned to walk with a mini-Zimmer frame. I was at Potternewton for a whole academic year before moving to my local primary school.

I’d been told by Mr Clark to, “Go and be normal”, but I felt I never quite achieved this. I had a shorter left leg, a slight limp, restricted movement in my hip joints and little strength or stamina for school sports or long walks. Despite my treatment, my femoral heads were mushroom shaped instead of spherical, and I developed osteoarthritis at 25 (imagine what Dad said) and had hip replacements at 42. (I loved Jane’s comments about learning to walk for the third time! I never thought of it like that before.) The replacements have mostly been great. My gait is shocking and I use a stick but I’ve done a hell of a lot of walking with my husband over the last 10 years and that’s been fantastic.

Personality-wise, I don’t know how such a long hospital stay at such a young age could not affect you. After MHH, I always wanted to go on school trips etc, but once I got there I suffered terrible homesickness and was deeply miserable. Now, I like my own company and have mainly solitary interests - art & crafts, reading and writing (thanks for everything, Mrs Cooper) - and I don’t feel that I mix well with groups of strangers, being hopeless at small talk. I’m also a complete homebody - my home is my refuge from the world and whenever I leave it I’m always secretly wanting to come home.

Oh, and I became a medical ‘ghoul’ of sorts - a State Registered Chiropodist - and spent 20 years trying to relieve my patients of their pain.

Judith on Visiting and Her Dad's Views

2009-06-08T17:09:00.003+01:00

The comments on the blog about separation from loved ones and normal family life, highlight how devastating it was to have children in hospital long-term and often at some distance from home. Visiting, as other people have pointed out, was hugely important and when I was in MHH it was every day and, I believe, at tea-time/early evening. We lived in Armley, Leeds, I was an only child and, to cap it all, my parents were totally blind (I wonder if Sister Lodge remembers Mr & Mrs Best - 2 blind parents can‘t have cropped up that often).

Dad visited at weekends but Mum visited 5 days out of 7, accompanied by her sister, my Aunty Clara who lived with us, and sometimes other aunties and uncles too. They had to get 3 buses to Thorp Arch except when the hospital bus ran (was this just Sundays?). There was great camaraderie amongst the parents on the bus and they used the trip as a kind of ’user’s group’ to get support and swap information. Mum visited me for 2 years 10 months and in all weathers including the harsh winter of 1962-63. Looking back, I’m amazed and proud at her dedication but at 5 years old I was pretty aggrieved that she didn’t come every day.

During weekend visiting, Dad used to get incensed that the TV, which was high up on the end wall, was switched on. He thought that visiting was for conversation, not for families to sit and stare at the box together. He repeatedly asked for it to be turned off, making himself rather unpopular, not least with me once Dr Who started.

I should point out here that my father held strong opinions and could be an extremely difficult man - intelligent and articulate, but difficult - and we had a fraught relationship later. He was a great complainer and letter writer (he could type) and had a particular loathing for the medical profession. He referred to the doctors as ’ghouls’ and thought they were experimenting on us children for their own dubious ends. My consultant was Mr Clark and every 3 months I had an X-ray and he saw my parents to say, “Perthes not run its course yet - see you in another 3 months.” Dad just didn’t believe they knew what they were doing (doctors then wouldn‘t have discussed what was happening to my bones in the detail he wanted) and such was his rage that he stopped attending the consultations and let Mum go on her own. As “2 years” had been mentioned at the beginning, when 2 years arrived and Mr Clark was still saying, “Not over yet,” Dad asked for a second opinion. I went to Leeds Dispensary to see Mr Fitton who echoed Mr Clark’s view and Dad got the chance to fume, “They’re all the same.” Both doctors though, could no doubt see from my X-rays that my bones weren’t sufficiently recovered to allow weightbearing so knew I had to rest for longer.

Years later when bed rest and frames had given way to home treatment, Dad was convinced that they’d known all along that hospital stays were unnecessary. Personally, I believe that the 1960’s doctors were giving me what they thought was the best treatment possible according to the knowledge they had at that time. Ideas change - that’s progress.

A letter Written by my Dad to the Evening Post.

A resident child psychiatrist! He was ahead of his time.

Judith's Drawing

2009-06-08T16:47:00.004+01:00

I don't know whether there was some kind of extra block on the end of Small Boys with an aerial on the roof, but the rest of the drawing clearly shows Small Boys with the TV high up on the wall. And Babies Ward adjoining with the high sided metal cots. The stripy things also high up near the ceiling are the ventilation fans. One of my diary entries mentions a bird getting trapped in one of the fans and Mrs Cooper has done a little drawing of her own (as she sometimes did) of the stripy fan and a flying bird.

Judith at "School"

2009-06-08T16:16:00.002+01:00

My memories of the two ward sisters, Sister Gough and Sister Lodge (now Mrs Ibbotson!), and the succession of nurses, are that they were largely kind and caring. But the person I really adored at MHH was our teacher, Mrs Cooper. She taught us English and Sums and got us to keep our News Books. I only kept these in term time - there are gaps for the school holidays.

Mrs Cooper was always bringing us nature and weather reports and updates on what she‘d seen in her garden. She made us a tin & string telephone, painted scenes on the windows at Christmas and when new boy Leroy arrived, whose family came from Jamaica, Mrs Cooper taught us where Jamaica was and how Columbus had bumped into the West Indies while looking for India.

If I didn’t have my diaries to jog my memory, the only other children I’d remember would be: Coralie (best friend for quite a while, but no idea what her surname was), Steven Woods (he lived near us in Armley), and Joshua (his mum used to pass a comic or sweets to my mum at weekend visiting to give to Joshua every Monday with the hushed words “Our Joss Monday”. This became a catchphrase - “ArJossMundy”.) Of all the patients and staff I remember though, I can’t actually visualize any of them – they’re all impressions rather than faces.

An extract from my Diary

Judith Jones (nee Best) Patient 1961 to 1964

2009-06-08T16:00:00.003+01:00

These are part-memories and partly lifted from the diaries (News Books) which I kept at MHH from 1962-64, and from a memoir written by my dad.

I was a patient in MHH (which we called Thorp Arch) from August 1961-June 1964, aged 4-7, with Perthes in both hips. I’d been limping and complaining of pain in my legs and Perthes was diagnosed by Mr Payne in Leeds. Mum said it was the nearest she’d ever come to fainting with shock when he said that I’d have to go into hospital for 2 years otherwise I’d be unable to walk by the time I was 30 and in a wheelchair by 40.

I don’t remember arriving at the hospital or being upset for the first week as my dad said I was. He said I cried every time they left, locking my fingers behind Mum’s neck and begging her not to go. Then, after a week, I ’accepted my fate’ and hospital life became normality.

I found it heartbreaking to read some of the accounts of other patients on this blog, especially Rowland’s, but I have to say that my memories of MHH are almost entirely happy ones. I can still picture the long, long ward - Ward 3, Small Boys Ward (actually a mixed ward) - with the rows of wooden beds which were constantly being moved around. ‘I’m next to Susan’, ‘I’m in the middle of Stephen and Diane’. The beds were pushed outside a lot in fine weather and the ‘shades’ (must have been those pull-out awnings on some of the photos) constantly being put up and down.

I was on traction for a couple of weeks while my frame was being made – were they bespoke? The frame was metal with padded leather bits for my head, body & legs, straps and a metal bar across my chest to stop me sitting up. It was raised above the mattress so a bedpan could be slid underneath. You just had to ‘go’ and hope the bedpan had been well positioned. Some of the lads used to rock their frames from side to side, building up momentum so that it was possible to crash over the side of the bed and onto the floor. Needless to say, this was a terrible crime - ‘Ian is in a cot because he has been rocking on his frame’. The cots on Babies Ward had high metal sides.

All our toys, etc, were kept in our bedside lockers, frustratingly just out of reach. I had a small suitcase full of comics, crayons, etc, which was mostly wedged between the frame and the side of the bed so I could get to my stuff easily. I wrote a lot about ‘playing with’ the other children and swapping toys around.

Bryan, my husband has called this photo 'Swinging Judy'. Well, I remember being desperate to go on the swings (fat chance) so asking my uncle to push the bed under them before taking the photo.

Yes - I was on traction briefly, then the frame for what felt like ever, then calipers which I never managed to walk on. Hideous things - gave me blisters. And Ward 3 was definitely mixed - probably as many girls as boys, although staff still referred to it as the Boys Ward, not Small Boys, even though there was another Boys Ward. Confusing.

A plea from Margaret Bailey

2009-05-26T17:53:00.002+01:00

The following is a copy of an Email sent to the blog and is published in the hope that someone remembers Margaret Bailey

"Hello

My Mum Margaret Mitchell nee Bailey was a patient in the hospital from roughly 1962 to 1964 due to ostemylites.

My Mum can remember the caravan in the fields and in 1962 Billy Fury and Marty Wild came to see everyone. Eden Cain also came.

There were only 3 of them that were able to walk and we were wondering if you have had anyone else (staff or patients or teachers) from this era, contact you . . . . .?

If so my Mum would love to make contact and see how people are doing, after all this time.

If you have any information we'd be very grateful.

Many thanks

Phillip and Margaret Mitchell"

John Holdsworth Rescues Old MHH Photographs

2009-05-26T17:08:00.012+01:00

Our thanks go to John for having the foresight to recognise that these photographs would one day be of interest to many and also for saving them from being destroyed and bringing them to our attention.

His words follow:

I work for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust which, as you know, is the successor to the Leeds Eastern District Hospitals Group which oversaw Marguerite Hepton Hospital. I have an interest in history and photography and in a discussion with a hospital manager a while ago, I was informed that there were a number of sets of old photographs of now demolished Group B and Leeds Eastern District Hospitals in an old store room and that I could have access to them to scan them for my collection.

Robin Watson adds to his comments on Mr Broomhead's photo

2009-04-05T15:44:00.008+01:00

My name is Robin Watson and I was a patient at The Marguerite Hepton Memorial Hospital between 1941 and 1948. I was born on 11th December, 1936, in

Leeds. So I must have been about five when admitted from Leeds General Infirmary.

In about 1943/44 I was sent home for about 9 months and then went back after the T.B. hips flared up again. After a long time of immobilisation (standard treatment) and operations, I finally had a career of nearly thirty years in the nursing profession. A case of prisoner turned warder!!

The next photo is a mystery to me, it wasn’t taken on a visiting day, because we would have had more space between the beds and our lockers would have been there. Furthermore, since we were church-mouse poor, there wasn’t a camera in the family. Perhaps a nurse took it, and gave it to me. It would be nice if someone new came along and shed some light on the matter.

As it is rather difficult to join in an established conversation half-way, I thought I would throw in random memories as they occur. Perhaps the first thing to mention is the names that I remember. Patients: Kenneth Inkpin, Michael Hawkesworth, Michael Grainger, John Taylor, John England, Geoffrey Gresty and Malcolm Dawson. Remembered because we all went on to Potternewton Mansion Special School after MHMH. Although the boys and girls were kept apart, I did know Delia Shaw on the girls ward because we were pen pals. [Note from Jane; Some of these must be in the photo of the ward posted on March 26th. Does anyone recognise themselves?]

Does anyone else remember having a pen pal in the hospital? Other individuals include those already mentioned; Matron Downs, Miss M.A.Budd (Headteacher), Mr. R. Broomhead, Mr. A.B. Pain and Mr. Clarke (Consultants)

The book prize in this photo is entitled "How to see Nature" by Frances Pitt, who broadcast on the Home Service. The first line reads "The best way to see nature, is on one's feet". It wasn’t until years later that I saw the humour of that; at the time I was learning to walk again wearing a leather spica on one side and a steel caliper on the other side!!