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| Ancestor Gateway Forum - STAMFORD MEMORIES GATEWAY (Lincolnshire England) used as PRIDE and PREJUDICE FILM SET | New Topic | Search |
| Thread Topic: STAMFORD HOSPITAL IN the 50s and 60s Topic Originator: Mike Laughton Post Date February 7, 2017 @ 1:04 PM |
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| Mike Laughton |
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During the early years of the NHS the Stamford and Rutland Infirmary was a major teaching hospital that trained hundreds of nurses. The hospital had a nurses home housing the young trainees that was always filled to capacity with student nurses in the 16 to 21 age group. Some of the trainees would have been local girls who had formerly been members of Stamford Red Cross or St John's Ambulance Nursing Cadets. A few came from Commonwealth countries but the majority came from Ireland. Indeed many of the Irish girls married local men and settled in the Stamford area. The Hospital had men's and women's surgical wards, a children's ward, a maternity ward and Hurst Block which was for patients with non-surgical illnesses. The Geriatric wards of St George's Home were also a satellite of the main hospital. The Matron was an Irish spinster Miss Coyne, who was very strict with her students, and she had a deputy matron who had two experienced nursing sisters as her deputies. Each ward had two nursing sisters, fully qualified staff nurses and trainees of varying levels. The dances at the Nurses Home were great evenings with music provided by a record player. Many of the dances were popular Irish folk dances like The Siege of Ennis. All the nurses were very professional and took their work seriously but there were moments when humour shone through and the nurses could play jokes on people. I worked at the hospital as an 18-year-old night porter during the summer of 1962. Halfway though my first shift, one of the nurses asked me to run an errand for her. I was only too willing to oblige and she asked me to fetch something from another ward. She handed me a scrap of paper saying: "I've written it down so you will remember what to ask for." And for the next half-hour I was sent from ward to ward to ward asking for "A FALLOPIAN TUBE" I can't remember all the nurses who were on duty that night but I know one was my good friend Janet Walton who later became a much loved district nurse in Stamford. Janet is still alive and well and living in Stamford. |
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| Mike Laughton |
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Something I forgot to mention!!!! At the end of my search for a fallopian tube I was given a long rubber tube with a funnel on one end and a piece of glass on the other which was used for giving enemas. Of course all the nurses had a great laugh at my expense. PS. Nurses were very poorly paid in those days. They didn't get what we would regard as a living wage until they reached staff nurse level. |
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| Phil |
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Quite a few years ago I had a lady in Devon who repainted the names and numerals on clock dials for me.After a while she asked me why clocks from Stamford and I said I was born there. She said her husband was a doctor there and they were married there in 1956. So I lent him my book on Stamford hospital..When I received it back written inside it was. I qualified as a doctor in June 56 and my first job was working for the local surgeon at Stamford Hospital,Rex Thompson whom I had known at St Thomas' Hospital London. My bedroom window was above the Hospital entrance and I could see and hear when an ambulance arrived. The very aged Marquess of Exeter having devoted 59 years to his local Hospitals well being insisted also on dying in Stamford Hospital,so he passed away in a room beneath my bedroom and I issued my first death certificate. The first Sunday l was in charge of the hospital I saw the ambulance arrive and was asked to examine the man inside. I saw a fully dressed cricketer lying in immaculate whites still wearing his pads and his bat laid along side .He had apparently collapsed running between the wickets . And even after all these years I can remember his name it was Bull.I had a very happy time working in Stamford and rapidly acquired a wealth of experience and responsibility which would have taken much longer in a larger hospital I can also remember that day to like it was yesterday as can most of the older people in Stamford as we were all so shocked ITS A SMALL WORLD. |
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| Betty Haddon |
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My mum,Jess,was nightcook at Stamford Hospital during this period,she cooked meals for staff and patients,including special diets and private ward requests.Everything was freshly prepared-meat,fish,vegetables and puddings.She also cooked for Matron Coyne's dinner parties.I think Sister Palmer was assistant matron- known throughout the hospital as Plum'!. I also remember a Sister MacIlroy, she was Irish, I was allowed to attend the dances in the Nurses Home and loved to see the traditional dancing of the Irish nurses.Matron was very strict and woe betide me if she or Plum caught me near Greenwood Ward sneaking a look at the newborns through the glass! Children were not allowed! All the staff worked hard, long shifts,but I know Mum enjoyed her time there. |
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| Mick Lynas |
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Phil after reading your comments you brought back to me something I have never forgotten. As a young sixteen year old I was playing for a cricket side called Nomads a team from Stamford School organised by a Master, Squibs Bowman. We used to play local village sides. One weekend we were playing against Burghley Estate workers team. They used to have a pitch in front of Burghley House. I was bowling and as I ran in the Gentleman batting collapsed and regrettably died. The match was abandoned naturally. I never knew who the man was, but it was an incident that never left me. Most probably the one you refer to. |
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| Stuart Taylor |
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Do you remember my mum, Josephine Taylor? |
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| Peter Leatherbarrow |
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Like many Stamfordians, I too was born in Stamford Hospital, though my parents were living at Bisbrook at the time (we moved to Stamford about two years later). I had two eye operations done in there by Mr. Barling who lived on the First Drift, Wothorpe. Years later I attended as an out patient with a blind physiotherapist who treated me with electrodes attached to my shins to cure flat feet. |
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