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Herefordshire NHS:photo special

Marjorie Wight:forgotten photographer

Newton Farm:early days

Summer 2008Issue 9

Celebrating 60 years of Herefordshire

Did you do your doctoring or nursing in Hereford? We’d love to hear from you. Send your memories and picturesto In Our Age (address on the back page) or go to our new website www.herefordshirelore.org.uk

It took a lot of man- and woman-power tokeep the hospitals going. Arthur Radnor,from Bishops Frome, was one of theplumbers at the County Hospital in the1960s. “It was a completely different storythen,” he and colleague Cyril Shelldrake, aworks officer at the Estates Department,recalled at an event in Ross in July tocelebrate 60 years of the NHS. “There’d be 30painters, couple of joiners, plumbers, fitters,a gardening team and boilermen becausethe County Hospital had a coal-fired boiler.There were no contractors in those days.” Right, gardener Mr Carr, who managed alarge vegetable garden for the hospital,and nursing staff at the GeneralHospital with Doctor Christopher Dixon.

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Mary Harding, or Mary Margaret asshe was then, left Hope Mansell as ayoung lady determined “not to stay inthe village for the rest of my life ingumboots and smock.” It was June 141948, the nation was still on rations, thenew NHS was only weeks away andMary was training to be a nurse.

“I was emptying bed pans, rubbingpatients’ backs, bottoms, feet andelbows (to aid circulation), washingthem and using methylated spiritsand powder which was horrible stuff- like bicarbonate of soda.

“We had enamel bed pans and nosterilising units. The NHS brought instainless steel and those horrid sputummugs. We even helped cleaningwards. All this for £6 a month.”

Mary worked in London and later atthe Dylke in the Forest of Dean asSister. “I’ve seen a lot of changes. Wardsused to have a ward sister who taughtand ran the ward and we had a wardmaid and a ward orderly: they werewonderful and kept the wards clean.And there were a lot of volunteers whoused to raise money for the hospital.”

60 years of Herefordshire

Clean wards

Keeping the cogs turning

Mr. Richard Wood-Power, Doctor Wells,Consultant Physician and BernardScholefield, Consultant Surgeon celebratean NHS wedding.

Top hat and tails

Sisters Sylvia Groucott and HeatherBartlett (right) becameNHS patients on EasterDay 1968. “We werewalking in Monmouthwhen a car reversed intous.” Taken to the Victoria

Contented patientsWard at Hereford General Hospital(having been dosed with morphine tolessen the pain) the girls settled happilyin to ward life. “Although we were

strapped to the bottom of thebed, it was great fun. We gotto know all the nurses. Theservice was excellent. And ourfamily, living at Bishopswood,visited every day.”

Front cover: Hands to the plough onAylestone Hill. (Photo: Marjorie Wight)

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Most of the photos on these pages comefrom former NHS Sister Doreen Daviesfrom Leominster. Here she is (above)proudly holding twins, born at the GeneralHospital in 1946. IOA photo editor, BobbieBlackwell was astonished when she sawthe photograph: she’s convinced it’s aphoto of her and her sister Mary, wholater became a local nurse herself.

Turn to page 5 for more photos fromMiss Doreen Davies and Mary Hillary.

It’s twinsHereford’s old County Hospital, now converted into flats, beside the Wye.

Aerial view

60Herefordshire Primary Care Trust would like to thank everybody that

helped to make the NHS 60th Anniversary celebrations such asuccess, particularly those who kindly donated photographs

and other memorabilia for display.

There will be another chance to see some of that material on displayat our forthcoming ANNUAL PUBLIC MEETING, alongside other

exhibitions of the PCT’s work. This is being held on:

Thursday 25th September 2008at The Chase Hotel, Ross-on-Wye

Exhibition open from 6pmAnnual Public Meeting from 7pm

60 years of Herefordshire

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Marjorie Wight had a photographer’seye. As you can see from our front pagecover and the pictures here, Marjorie,daughter of Staffordshire solicitorHollyoak Wight, had an eye for detail. And yet we know almost nothing abouther. She was born in 1889 and died at 86on July 13 1975 after living for years at 14,Overbury Road, Hereford with her father.She’s thought to have worked for Vivian’sPhotographers, Hereford and, maybe, tohave picked up useful photographic tipsfrom Hereford’s Alfred Watkins, author ofThe Old Straight Track and inventor of theworld’s first light meter. Most of her photographs were given tothe County Archive Office, HaroldStreet, Hereford and we have to thanktheir staff for preserving this uniquepicture of Herefordshire country life. Many of Marjorie’s photos featureMordiford. But who was she? Canyou help?

Beneath the Black Mountains, an evocative picture of Craswall country life.

Marjorie left no clues to the identities of these women or where they werepreparing osiers wands, or willows, for the basket-making trade.

Marjorie Wight – the f

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Marjorie’s photo of a young lad in the hop yard (above) isreminiscent of autumn days on the hops.

Another country skill,largely lost (right), was thecraft of corn dolly making.

Peg Man

Is this Bert Morgan (below)who began peg making atMordiford as a boy? Hisfather was a cleaver andcarpenter who worked atWhitebrook, Monmouth, fashioning wooden handles for thecolliery men in the Forest of Dean and South Wales.

Marjorie Wight captured this harvest scene, looking across to Mathon and the Malvern Hills.

forgotten photographer

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Nursing Times It’s been Carry On Nursing in Herefordshire for 60 years

Trophy Girls: Ward Sisters dress up as Hereford United for Matron’s New Year’s Daytea party. (Photo: Miss Doreen Davies)

Staff of ’65: Cheerful celebrations onMaypole Ward at the General Hospitalin 1965. (Photo: Mary Hillary)

The Healthy Outdoors: To aid convalescence the Hewitt Pavilion outdoor wardat the General Hospital was built so that patients could be wheeled out into thefresh air. (Photo: Miss Doreen Davies)

Cultural Exchange: Visiting DoctorAlbert from Ghana made a greatimpression on student nurse MaryBlackwell, left. (Photo: Mary Hillary)

Nurses’ Home: When Doreen Powell,born into a farming family at Newton StMargaret, trained at the GeneralHospital in 1947, she lived at the Nurses’Home at Saram House in Hereford. “Wehad to be in by ten at night . . . but itdidn’t matter because you had so muchstudying to do.”

Life had changed a bit by the ‘60s asthese nurses (above), including GillAppleton, Stasia Dzierza and MaryBlackwell, show.

Send your memories andpictures to In Our Age

Kath Jasper from Skenfrith recognisedthe location of the library van (IOA 8,page 7). It was pictured outside OrcopHill Post Office and Corner shop in 1948.The shop was run by a kindly Miss Evanswho presented Kath with a box ofgroceries when she married in 1960.

Orcop’s Corner Shop

Hereford MP Paul Keetch was persuadedto buy a copy of A Slap of the Hand by ourRosemary Lillico (left) at the South WyeBig Event in July. With Paul is the newLiberal contender, Sarah Carr. (Thanks toHelen Greenway, Herefordshire Housing,for the photograph.)

Slap of the Hand

YOUR NEWS AND VIEWS

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Congratulations to Longtown and DistrictHistorical Society on the publication oftheir local histories. In The Shadow of theBlack Mountains was published in Julyand will be followed by more memories ofthe district including one on the winter of’47. Titles cost £5 each. 01873 851782.

Do you have a history group or a newpublication? Send us details:info@herefordshirelore.org.uk

Longtown

Daphne Ibbott of Vineyard Roadpicks up on Howard Evans’ thoughtsabout water running down the insideof the electricity generating stationtowers in the Market (IOA 8, page 7).“I remember water running down theoutside,” writes Daphne, “and itlooked like a small cataract.”

And she kindly corrects our spelling:“It was Isobel Baillie (not Bailey) andHeddle (not Hedal) Nash” (IOA 8,page 3). “During the War I used to seeand hear Myra Hess playing piano atthe National Gallery in TrafalgarSquare, London after I had eaten awonderful lunch provided by theWRVS for service personnel.”

Cooling Towers

Daphne also restarts the discussion onPassey and Nott (auctioneers or cornmerchants?). “I have several Guide booksto Kington where their advertisementstates: ‘Corn and seed merchants’: nomention of auctioneering there.” LionelYoung says much the same: “My uncleBill worked for them. They had an officein Newmarket Street near theWheatsheaf pub and a warehouse inWall Street.”

Passey Nott

“I’m researching the history of the 1stCheltenham Scout group, founded in1908, and led by Arthur Godfrey untilhe moved to be head at Canon FromeSchool,” writes Felicity Cleaves.Felicity wonders where Godfrey and hiswife Phyllis went after Canon Frome.Write or email us if you can help.

Canon Frome

Newton Farm

Cows gambol through the meadowsthat now lie beneath the southHereford housing estate of NewtonFarm. Above, Ken Powell ploughs theground while the farm lorry sets outfor market.

In Our AgeHerefordshire Lore PO Box 9, Hereford HR1 9BX

M: 07845 907891 E: info@herefordshirelore.org.ukwww.herefordshirelore.org.uk

Editor: Bill Laws Pictures: Bobbie BlackwellDesign: pinksheep design, Lisa Marie Badham

Herefordshire Lore: Eileen Klotz, Mary Horner, RosemaryLillico, Stasia Dzierza, Marsha O’Mahony, ElizabethSemper O’Keefe, Sandy Green, Sarah Laws, Harvey

Payne, Liz Rouse, Betty Webb, Lennie Williams.

Subscriptions“Why do you offer a £10 subscription, yet give IOA awayfor free?” asks one bemused reader.

We don’t want anyone to go short of IOA because they can’t affordit. That’s why it’s free at the libraries, tourist information centres,museums and council offices. Herefordshire Lore, a voluntary,not-for-profit organisation, spends £6,000 a year on IOA.

We depend on grants and your donations to keep going.Send your £10 subscription to IOA and have your

magazine mailed to your door.

Strange Customs: Listed as a ‘Maypole’ thisdecorated tree is another picture from theMarjorie Wight Collection. But what’s it all about?

On an errand

Lionel Young of Redhill, Hereford recalls his days as an errandboy at Mr Carver’s grocer shop in Eign Street opposite SteelsGarage. “I was officially employed through the local educationauthority and had a badge – No 28.” Working from 4 p.m. to 5.30p.m. weekdays (“except Mondays, my day off”) and 9 a.m. to 12noon and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. On Saturdays, he delivered groceriesin Whitecross for ten shillings a week, paid on Saturday evenings.“I took my wages home to my mother and she would give me twoshillings back. My father also gave me a shilling so with threeshillings pocket money, I felt like a millionaire. Saturday eveningswe’d listen to In Town Tonight before lighting the candle at nineand going off to bed with a book and a cup of cocoa.”

Here are two city views (above) that Lionel would well remember.But can you? Send your answers to IOA.

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