Budgies and memories- Frances Purcell 1953-54

Ann with Bubbles


Memory is a curious thing ...

Take the case of my budgies, Bubble and Squeak ( named by Dr Huppert!). The other day I spoke to Frances Heenan ( nee Purcell). We were both children in Ward 2 together yet neither of us remembers the other.
Except the budgies.

I tell her the budgies were mine. She is surprised. She says after I left it was her responsibility to look after them though she assures me that there was only one not two.

Anyway one day she didn't tie the string properly on the cage door .

And Bubbles flew away.

Frances apologises, half a century later, for the mishap.

" I am so sorry."

I am lost for words. I never ever expected to meet someone, even if only over the phone, who not only remembered my budgies but had actually been put in charge of them.

Gwyneth Davies- Frances Purcell

Frances Purcell emailed:

" I am so pleased to hear that Gwyneth recovered and
went on to become a doctor. She was such a
lovely gentle girl.

I did not achieve any thing so grand.

Some years after I recovered my mother passed
away and I looked after my father and brother and sister for years.

I did not marry until I was 38 years old when ."

Traditional role of unmarried daughter
Frances, your story is that of so many young women in Wales where it was expected that the daughter would give up her life to look after elderly relatives.
When the family trawled around relatives to care for my 80 year old grandmother living on an isolated Welsh hill farm my name came up (" Ann is not married...she can do it").
I resisted the pressure though on at least two other occasions when an emergency call came to return to help out on the family farm I did succumb, giving up my job and flat in London to return to Wales.

Only last week I heard of a friend's aunt, now in her late 70's, who said her life stopped at 34 years of age when she left her secretarial job in London to return to the family farm to care for her ageing parents.

Frances Heenan (nee Purcell)- Ward 2, 1953-54

Frances Purcell e-mailed me after googling Craig-y-nos.

She is the only one, to my knowledge, to have come forward who spent most of her time inside Ward 2. ( This is curious because most of the children, around 15-18, were in fact inside the ward with only 6-8 girls on the balcony. )


Frances wrote:

"I was a patient in Ward 2 at Craig-y-Nos Hospital from 1953-54.

The girls called me Percy because my maiden name was Frances Purcell.

I would love to hear from anyone remembers me or would like to write to me?

If so, you are very welcome to write to me at my email address: francis.heenan@ntlworld.co.uk

I very much look forward to hearing from any of you.

I was mostly in the ward but was on the balcony for some months. It was winter and so very cold, a hot water bottle froze in one of the girls' beds.

The doctors

Dr Mullhall

Dr Williams

I wonder if Dr Mullhall is still with us? ( Yes he is still alive and living near Brecon - Ann)
Both he and Dr.Williams were loved by all the girls. After their rounds we would all say who we liked the best, a bit naughty for girls so young.

Memories


Gwyneth Davies suffered from asthma and Dr Huppert put her out on the balcony during a foggy spell in the hope that it would cure her. She had a severe attack one night . Even as a young girl Gwyneth wanted to be a doctor and she became one .

"I remember the Christian names of some of the girls on the ward; there was Brenda with short dark hair, Ann Norris who was there before I arrived, Gwyneth a lovely girl with long brown hair, who had severe asthma, Marilyn who was told her mother had died, someone pulled the curtains around her and left her to cry. There was a girl with lovely red hair from Swansea, I can't remember her name. Her parents gave her a big doll. "


"The Children of Craig-y-nos" by Ann Shaw and Carole Reeves is published by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History
of Medicine, UCL , price £9.99 and is available from Waterstones and most major bookshops or from Amazon online.

"The Children of Craig-y-nos" - book

It is good to hear "The Children of Craig-y-nos" is selling in Wales.

Carole Hughes sent me the following email:

"i had my copy of the book the children of craig y nos in may at craig y nos
but my daughter and son in law went to swansea and in waterstones there they had a lot of copies of the book

but amanda and phillip then went walking in neath abbey they walk miles and philip spoke to a sister williams from craig y nos

she knew nothing of the book but sent a young man into swansea to waterstones where she had her copy

many people who were either patients or nursing staff never knew but we live so near sister williams we never seen her before or since that day."

Raymond O'Connor- Lincolnshire

Glass conservatory for the babies and small children


And still the "children of Craig-y-nos" are coming forward in search of their missing past.


Only the other day I received this very moving email from Raymond O'Connor in Lincolnshire:

" I was one of those children at Craig-y-nos along with my sister Eileen and my mother Bertha Kathlyn Mary O'Connor nee Davies who died on 30th September 1943 at Craigynos.

Her death certificate was signed by G. Richards M.B. (cause of death tuberculosis).

As I was just 5 year old when my mother died and my sister Eileen was 3, do you have any records as to when my sister and myself were released after my mother's death?


I do have 2 photographs; the first one is with my parents at the age of approximately 18 mon.ths, and the second one is my mother, my sister and myself just before she went into Craig-y-nos.


My father was away in the war.

Incidentally, I just received a copy of your book from my aunt in Swansea as a birthday
present. I will be 71 on the 1st of October and my sister Eileen will be 69 on 20th Nov.
The full story about our childhood and our adult life and the way everything affected us is
a very, very sad story."


Raymond added:
" To this day I still have dreams of the glass conservatory.

I now live in Lincolnshire."

I have to tell Raymond that all records were destroyed - that's why we tried to piece together 40 years of missing Welsh history in our book The Children of Craig-y-nos available online from Amazon or your local Waterstones.

Waterstone's Abergavenny

Just heard that a friend finally managed to get a copy of "The Children of Craig-y-nos" from Waterstone's Abergavenny though he placed an order several weeks ago.

I tell people it is quicker to get it online from Amazon

Valerie Brent and Susan Davies- surprise!

Valerie Brent ( left) with Susan Davies ( nee Evans) at her 70th birthday party

Susan, a former child patient in Craig-y-nos in the early 1950s had a double surprise the other day.

For her family gave her a surprise 70th birthday party and retired nurse Valerie Brent, the star guest presented Susan with a copy of "The Children of Craig-y-nos".

Valerie says:" Susan was unable to make the book launch but she did come to the reunion the year before. She hadn't been able to get hold of a copy of the book so I got her one and gave it to he. She was absolutely delighted."

Comment
Frances Purcell said...
I could not make the Exhibition.

I was a patient in Ward 2 at Craig-y-Nos Hospital from 1953 – 1954

The girls called me Percy because my Maiden name was Frances Purcell.

I would love to hear from anyone remembers me or would like to write to me? If so. you are very welcome to write to me at my email address: francis.heenan@ntlworld.co.uk

I very much look forward to hearing from any of you.

Kind regards, Frances

Jonathain Aitken and TB

I was surprised to hear former MP Jonathan Aitken talking on Radio 4 this morning ( "The House I Grew Up in") about his time as a three year old in hospital with TB.

The son of a wealthy, powerful Dublin family he caught TB from his Irish nanny and spent four years encased in plaster in the Cuppae hospital run by nuns.

He said his four years lying motionless on an iron frame taught him to be stoical, and time spent in this TB hospital proved useful training for his seven months in prison in adult life after being caught lying to the court.

He says he was happy there. He had become institutionalised and accepted that was the way life was. He remembers being wheeled outdoor for fresh air and how Sister Mary Finbar would order them to breathe deeply for the "fresh air treatment".

"It was all very theatrical. It was as if she was conducting an orchestra."

Life in the Dublin hospital though seems far less austere then in Craig-y-nos as our stories reveal in"The Children of Craig-y-nos". ( available from Amazon and a number of good bookshops.

Those of us in Craig-y-nos, including myself, lived out on the balconies all year round including in the snow - not wheeled out for a brief period each day.

Benefits of the "Children of Craig-y-nos" project

Just heard of another instance where an ex child patient said how much he had benefited from being able to talk about his early traumatic days as a child in Craig-y-nos as a result of this project.

"For years something that had been hidden is now out in the open. And that must be a good thing," said Terry Hunt.

Balcony boys - reunited

Roy Harry and Gerwyn Davies were both "balcony boys" in the 1940s and they have just discovered they live less than a quarter of a mile from each other in Cwmavon.

"We have never met since those days in Craig-y-nos but we plan to do so now," says Roy.

They have been in telephone contact after discovering through photographs on the blog that they were there together.

History of TB hospitals- Abergele and Craig-y-nos

Valerie Brent rang to say she is reading a book on "The History of Abergele hospital - confronting the white plague". From her description it would appear to be similar to "The Children of Craig-y-nos" but a search on the internet reveals it is out of print and neither are there any second-hand copies available.

I wonder if anyone knows of a copy? It was published in 1999 by Gee and Son, Denbeigh Printers. ISBN -0707403316.


Meanwhile I have heard from a university friend at Swansea University that Waterstones are now stocking "The Children of Craig-y-nos".

And Pamela Hamer tells me ( on Facebook) that all her friends and relatives are queueing up to borrow her copy!....

Girl Guides-Children of Craig-y-nos

This month the Girl Guides movement begins celebrating its centenary and there will be many stories of the ways it has benefited the community.


Mair Harris ( nee Edwards) centre with some of the Girl Guides on Ward 2 balcony


But there is one story that stands out, at least in the memories of girls who were living in an isolated TB sanatorium in a remote Welsh castle.

For Craig-y-nos had its own group, formed by an ex-patient, Ina Hopkins who returned as a medical secretary.( She was the captain of her local troop.)

I was one of those girls. It was our first link with the outside world , apart from monthly visitors. It gave us hope.








I remember how we used to cook sausages on an open fire on the balcony- something I suspect that would contravene today's Health and Safety regulations!




Christine Perry ( nee Bennett) is another. Christine excelled as a Girl Guider and became a leader, even representing the troop at a local event, the first occasion for anyone from the TB sanatorium taking part in an outside community event.

Nurse Glenys Davies recalls the occacion that Christine had their flag blessed in Abercrave church:

"I always remember that she was carrying the standard and Sister Morgan was always worried about the clock outside the door. ‘Watch that clock, watch that clock!’ Poor Christine was worked up and down it comes, oh dear, dear. The end of the world! It was only a clock anyway."

Girl Guides on Ward 2 balcony. Christine is on the far left back row.


Those of us who were Girl Guiders in Craig-y-nos have very fond memories of the organisation for it brought a bit of the outside world into our isolated lives.

The Girl Guide troop in Craig-y-nos is remembered with very fond memories for it was the first positive step by an outside organisation to introduce a sense of normality into lives of children removed from the outside world.


Photos from the collection of Ann Shaw ( nee Rumsey) and Christine Perry ( nee Bennett).

Children return to Craig-y-nos

Ann Shaw ( nee Rumsey) and Roy Harry beside the lake in Craig-y-nos during recent return visit.

Ann on the balcony of Ward 2, 1951



Roy on the balcony of Ward 1 (far right), 1945

Now that we have "discovered" Craig-y-nos after more than half a century some of us keep returning to renew friendships and memories of past times. I was in Wales recently for research on Sully and took the opportunity to call in at Craig-y-nos to meet up with Roy and his family for lunch.

Haydn Beynon- deceased July 16 2009

Haydn on the boys balcony, age 7, 1931


I have just received the following email from Gillian Beynon:


"I thought I should tell you you that my dear father- in- law passed away during the early hours on 16 July rather suddenly - he was 84 and had been enjoying our son's birthday only hours before his passing.

I would like to thank you on behalf of all our family for including him in your book and for the enjoyment he took in the reunions and helping you to gather information to put your findings in print.

The book is remarkable thanks to the testimonies of people like my father in law and many others and you have done them proud by setting the record straight and producing a book to be proud of and be of interest to many for years to come.

His experiences like others will live on in print and the book is a marvellous keepsake for us all."

Extract from "The Children of Craig-y-nos", Haydn's story:

"My bed was on the balcony and I can remember sitting up in bed with pyjamas on and my mother and father with overcoats and scarves and hats on, the snow and the rain coming in, and they'd be shivering. It was cold but you didn't feel it after a while.

...You were given four squares of Cadbury's chocolate, and I didn't qualify because if you didn't eat your afters, you couldn't have chocolate. I can remember vividly...every few days the curtains would go around a bed and porters would wheel somebody away who had died. I was only a youngster but it seemed that there were lots of people dying at that time, like every other day.

Craig-y-nos was monotonous, one day after the other. The difference between Highland Moors, where I went in 1932, and Craig-y-nos is that there you were encouraged to play."

"The Children of Craig-y-nos" by Ann Shaw and Carole Reeves, published by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, UCL, price £9.99p is available online Amazon.co.uk or from any good bookshop, Brecon museum, Val's newsagent in Ystradgynalais and through the Welsh Book Council.

Craig-y-nos Tearoom

Paul Brandon outside the former gardeners shed in Craig-y-nos

Last week while in Wales I met Paul Brandon in Craig-y-nos.
He runs a specialist food company called Unusualfoods based in Ystalyfera and he also has a tearoom out of the former gardener's shed in Craig-y-nos Castle.

Now that brought back memories! for that was the place that we "balcony girls" from Ward 2 used to go and sit and talk to the gardeners while all the time Sister Morgan and Dr Hubbard thought we were walking around the grounds filling our lungs with fresh air. Instead we were ensconced in a warm smoky fug sharing tea and biscuits with the men.

Paul tells me that many ex-patients come into his cafe for refreshments and since they heard about the book
"The Children of Craig-y-nos" they want to buy a copy.

" I don't know what to tell them because we don't sell books, neither do I know where they can get a copy from. But there is clearly a demand for it and I would be happy to stock it if I could find it."



From next February Paul will be opening a much bigger tearoom and Welsh Craft Centre within the Craig-y-nos Country Park Visitors Centre and he will be stocking books there.

Meanwhile I have put Paul in touch with some suppliers who may be prepared to let him have some copies as a "one-off" until his new premises are up and running.

Welsh Book Council - "The Children of Craig-y-nos"

Dafydd Jones of the Welsh Book Council tells me that they will be stocking"The Children of Craig-y-nos"" so museums and shops specialising in Welsh literature and crafts will in future be able to order direct from them.

The glitch seems to have been over the fact that the book is "print-on-demand" and wholesalers are still trying to figure out a business role model for dealing with it.

The book is, of course, available online from Amazon.co.uk, price £9.99 or from any good bookseller.

Comment:
Delyth Morgans said...
Thank you for your cooperation with the Welsh Books Council. The book is now available on
www.gwales.com

Brecon museum and "The Children of Craig-y-nos"

Brecon museum: Caroline Gorman (top) and Helen Weeks with copies of "The Children of Craig-y-nos"

Call in to Brecon museum to see how "The Children of Craig-y-nos" is selling and am horrified to find that the museum have not been able to obtain copies from the Welsh Book Council though we had been assured they would have it. Neither is it available from their on-line site.

Fortunately I had a couple of copies with me so I was able to let the museum have them.

The demand for the book followed a review in the Brecon and Radnor Express some weeks ago.

"Children of Craig-y-nos" - Surrey and Glasgow

Receive phone call from Surrey.

It's Mary Davies who was in Craigynos as a toddler.

" I am ringing to say I have just bought the book ( I ordered it through my local bookshop) and I would like to say how pleased I am with it."

A friend rang from Glasgow also rings to say she loaned her copy of the book to a Glasgow doctor who was one of the "balcony boys" in the days when sanatoriums ringed the city.

He too is fascinated by the Craig-y-nos story.

Cerwyn Davies one of the "balcony boys" - 1945

Gerwyn Davies and other boys on the balcony , 1945

Book launch of The Children of Craig-y-nos
Cerwyn Davies brought along some photos , including this one, to the book launch/reunion and he says he found it a "memorable and very poignant occasion".

Cerwyn tells me that one big memory that stands out from his time in Craig-y-nos Castle is the occasion that:

"My uncle brought me in some records for the gramophone and I threw them like flying saucers over the balcony into the bushes. One of the gardeners reported me and I got put in a straitjacket."

He had an older brother who used to come along to the castle for the monthly visiting but had to stand out in the courtyard or go to the cafe opposite and his brother remembers an outside lavatory with a photograph of Adelina Patti in it.

" I gave my brother a copy of "The Children of Craig-y-nos" to read and he got very upset. I told him "You weren't the one in there having tubes pushed down your throat or tied up in straitjackets!"

But my brother says it brought back all the memories of those days."

Roy Harry, age three and a half , 1945-46

Roy Harry rings to tell me he is the boy wearing glasses. He had never seen this photo before so I am putting him in touch with Gerwyn Davies who sent the photo in.

Book launch - May 1st Craig-y-nos Castle

Caroline Boyce ( nee Havard) and her husband Paul volunteered to register everyone attending the book launch of "The Children of Craig-y-nos".

Like many ex-patients the day was particularly emotional for Caroline because she had not returned to Craig-y-nos since she left as a child in 1950.



On the balcony of Ward 2, 1950 (from left to right) Mary Davies, Ann Rumsey ( in bed) and Caroline Havard




Ann and Caroline in Scotland


Today Caroline lives in Scotland - about fifteen miles from my home! something we only discovered through this project.

"My lost childhood" -Bobbie

Main entrance to the Adelina Patti sanatorium, Craig-y-nos Castle

Barbara Glover, known to her friends as “Bobbie, felt as she approached her 70th birthday a desire to find out about her missing three years of childhood.

All she knew was that she had spent it in a Welsh sanatorium a place she was put as a three year old in 1943 with TB of the bones and she was to remain there until 1946.

“My one big memory was of American soldiers marching past and throwing sweets on to our beds which had been wheeled out for the fresh air.

“But my parents never talked about my time there.
After they died I went through their papers hoping to find some clues.
There was nothing,” said “Bobbie”, speaking to me on the phone from her home in Peterborough.

The eldest of 9 children her Irish parents had emigrated to Birmingham in the late 1930’s. But she had no idea why she ended up in a Welsh hospital “ unless we had been evacuated there during the war”.

“ All I know is that my parents could only afford to visit once a year at Christmas time.”

Another big memory is the day she left.
“ These two strangers came to get me, they were my parents, and I screamed and screamed because I didn’t want to leave the nurses and the other children. When I got home to Birmingham I had to learnt walk again because I had a calliper on and there were these other children there- my brothers and sisters whom I didn’t know and my mother was expecting again.”


The Glass Conservatory, used for babies and toddlers*


At a recent family gathering she was talking about these early memories, when her daughter, Karemah, picked up her laptop and said:” lets find out!”

She typed TB sanatorium Wales into Google and up popped the “Children of Craig-y-nos” blog.
“ I was amazed when I saw the photos. It fitted in with my memories.”

“Bobbie” is thrilled to discover her missing past and I have given her the names of people who were there at the same time as her.
She now plans to visit Craig-y-nos.

Looking back over her own life she says it has “had its ups and downs”.

“I married at 18 and my first husband died of cancer when I was 26 leaving me with two young children.
Five years later I met another man who wanted more children.
“But on the day I came home with the baby he announced he was leaving me for a woman he had met in the office.”

The story has a happy ending though for Bobbie met another man and they have been happily married for twenty years.

And so the story of “The Children of Craig-y-nos” continues….

*The Glass Conservatory has recently been refurbished into a function room for the Castle which specialises in weddings and ghost tours.

Boys on the balcony - 1945

Gerwyn Davies has sent in these photos of his time in Craig-y-nos. He was there for 14 months up to 1945. We are still trying to put names to the children.

Do you recognize anyone? If so email :annshaw@mac.com

"The Children of Craig-y-nos" by Ann Shaw and Carole Reeves is published by The Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine, UCL, in paperback, price £9.99p and available from most good bookshops or online from Amazon.co.uk

TB Survival Project

I wonder how many of you know about the TB Survival Project? a former colleague of mine gave me this link.
n The Herald newspaper , where I worked for over 20 years, in Glasgow.

Sadly she died recently from TB.
TB Survival Project

Mary Davies- how the internet reunited the "lost children"

Mary, age 9 , Ward 2 balcony, 1951


Mary Davies ( nee Morris) with her grandson, Stephen, at the book launch of "The Children of Craig-y-nos".

Often it was the children and grandchildren of the original "children of Craig-y-nos" that made the initial contact with me like Stephen (above). This is his original email on behalf of his grandmother:


"I was in Craig-y-nos in 1951. The photo shows me holding a teddy bear taken in September it was a present from my family for my 9th birthday in August. I don’t remember much about my stay only that I was out on the balcony and when I was rainy and windy they had to put tarpaulin on top of the bed to stop it getting wet. While in Craig-Y-Nos I made 3 good friends one was called Mary Jones one Jeanette Wakeham but I cannot recall the name of the 3rd one, we had a photograph taken but I can’t find it but will keep looking for it, and post it up on here when I do. I also remember doing lessons much to my disgust!



When I had a bungalow built I named it Craig-y-nos after my experience of the real Craig-Y-Nos.

I have been married for 46 years have 3 children and 4 grandchildren. The thing that sticks out in my mind was my parents were only allowed to see me one weekend a month. They only came one day as it was to far to travel as we lived in Rhayader in Mid Wales."


Mary still lives in Rhayader and, at our first official reunion two years ago, she was the first to arrive having driven alone for over two hours through the mountains.

This video clip captures her emotions on that momentous day:
Mary Davies


"The Children of Craig-y-nos" by Ann Shaw and Carole Reeves, paperback price £9.99., available from Brecon museum, Amazon.co.uk or most good bookshops.

Brian Richards - Bournemouth

Brian Richards travelled all the way from his home in Bournemouth to attend the book launch of " The Children of Craig-y-nos".

Now a retired baker, he was in Craig-y-nos along with his two brothers.

"The Children of Craig-y-nos" by Ann Shaw and Carole Reeves, paperback price £9.99., available from Amazon.co.uk or direct from Carole Reeves, Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, UCL, 183 Euston Rd., London, NW1 2BE. Phone 02076.798 135

Ellis Thomas and "The Children of Craig-y-nos"

Both Carole Reeves and myself have received letters from Ellis Thomas regarding the book: "Children of Craig-y-nos":

"Have just received my copy of the book. What a marvellous production! I was
taking a first flick through it when Ann rang, asking if I'd received it!
The book I find absorbing, to be read and re-read. I thank you and Ann most
sincerely for creating something which I never thought I'd see in my time -
and all through an enquiry on the correspondence page of the local paper!"

Thank you Ellis. It is always good to have feedback.

Margaret Madock- at the book launch

Margaret was a patient from 1951-53.

Gwanwyn Evans - 1931

Gwanwyn Evans with her brother


Gwanwyn Evans, first lady mayor of the county of Brecknock (1981/82) who was in Craig-y-nos in 1931 as a ten year old.

"I am reading "The Children of Craig-y-nos"" and I have got to page 91...it is most interesting...do you know that I think it was Nan Davies* who took my place singing in the concert. The dates are not quite correct but it is such a long time ago... I had the best voice in the ward and I was so looking forward to it. My mother had sent me in a special frock to wear and a nurse had put my hair in rags the night before so that I would have ringlets.

Then I woke up with a temperature and I had to stay in bed. I think it was the excitement. But I was so disappointed!"


Eighty-eight year old Gwanwyn, who lives in Aberyscir near Brecon, had hoped to come to the book launch and had paid her deposit but she couldnt find anyone to bring her.
"Afterwards Glynne Lowe rang me up. We have known each other for years and neither of us knew that the other had spent years of our childhood in Craig-y-nos."
If I had known I would have got a lift with Glynne."

I mention my cousin, Edna Walters, who farms near Brecon.
" Of course I know Edna! " says Gwanwyn.
"She came to the book launch too."
"If only I had known..."
"She would have been delighted to have given you a lift."

Her husband Glynne Evans, former vice-chair of Powys Area Health Hospital is also reading the book with particular interest for he was involved in the decision to move the children to Talgarth.


*Nan Davies
Her story is on page 16 of the book- how the ghost of Adelina Patti tapped her on the shoulder and told her she would go out and sing the best she had ever done.

"The Children of Craig-y-nos", by Ann Shaw and Carole Reeves, price £9.99, is available from Brecon museum. It can also be ordered from any bookshop or online from Amazon.co.uk
Or contact Dr Carole Reeves, The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, UCL, 183 Euston Rd., London, NW1 2BE. Phone: 02076 798 135.

Gareth Wyke at the book launch

Gareth Wyke as a child in Craig-y-nos...


...returning as an adult

Gareth Wyke travelled all the way from Stourbridge in the West Midlands to attend the book launch of "The Children of Craig-y-nos".

He says of his five years in Craig-y-nos from the age of 5 in 1953:

"I think my time in hospital definitely effected the person I was to
become.I relate to words and phrases such as ones you mentioned, like'lost
childhood','loner','self reliant','independant' and could also add
'anti-social[sometimes]','unloved',and 'persecution complex'.
When I arrived home I had a new sister I'd never seen before and she used
to cry and say I wasn't her brother.
However,despite having 'matchstick legs' and being teased by new classmates
I made a full recovery becoming a PE teacher and playing rugby until I was
fifty."

Copies of the book "The Children of Craig-y-nos" can be ordered from any good bookseller . The number to quote is: ISBN-13: 978-0-85484-126-4.

There are two wholesalers who will be able to supply the book. These are
www.bertrams.com and www.gardners.com

Alternatively contact Dr Carole Reeves, Outreach Historian , The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, UCL,183 Euston Rd., London, NW1 2BE, price £9.99 or online from www.amazon.co.uk

"Children of Craig-y-nos" Hay Book Festival

Emma Davies (left) and Emma Evans of the Welsh Book Council at the Hay Book Festival.

They are holding a copy of "The Children of Craig-y-nos" . The Welsh Book Council had very kindly agreed for me to display the book on their stand at very short notice and a number of copies were sold.

Children of Craigynos

We are staying in a cottage in Llanigon belonging to Pollly Rogers and she tells me that a friend of hers has a relative who was interviewed by me for the book"Children of Craig-y-nos". They want to buy a copy. A signed copy.

Archbishop of Canterbury at Hay Festival

Last night the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and Desmond Tutu attended service in St Mary's church.

We arrive late. Very late. We are ushered through to the front pew marked "reserved" along with some other late-comers.

Afterwards a Catholic priest asks who we are. (Folk think we are celebrities from the Hay Festival.)
"Sorry, we are just late-comers!"
The priest is disappointed.

The Archbishop - who was a mere 5 yards from me - spoke about love and the power of healing. Afterwards I joined the queue to shake his hand.

You just never know what is going to happen at Hay next....

Dannie Abse

Dannie Abse, Wales' greatest living poet, gave a reading of poems from his new book before a rapt audience.

One woman dares to chatter to her companion while he searches for the next poem and he whips his specs off and glares in her direction. She goes bright red and never says another word.

Afterwards I join the queue to get my two books signed.


Except in the queue I am joined by Arnold Whesker and his entourage of friends behind me. My courage fails me. No way could I begin to explain about Craig-y-nos with Whesker standing behind me.
So I wave them through.

In fact when I look at the long queue I decide to wait until the last.


Finally I am face to face with Dannie Abse.
He is charming.
He expresses surprise at the book "Children of Craig-of-nos" ( " I don't know anything about this") so I explain that it has only just been published and I show him his quote which Carole Reeves had picked to introduce the book.

He's delighted. He accepts a copy and he seems genuinely pleased to receive it.

Then he signs the two books: one for Carole and one for myself.


For Dannie Abse was a doctor, a chest specialist, before he became a poet.

Internet access

First of all a moan about internet access at Hay. It is atrocious! dont know what they have done to it but in previous years there was no difficulty updating blogs on Festival site.

Now its a hit and miss operation. Mainly miss...
So its up to the Hay Tourist Office, join queue for computer then the agonising slow wait as the computer boots up and you try to connect...all the time the minutes and money is ticking away.

Oh yes and the Tourist office closes at 5pm so no chance of using it in the evening.

Come on Hay Festival- you can do better than this! and to compound the problem I cant use Twitter either because my Iphone is on O2 and this is an orange mobile phone area.

Dannie Abse

Dannie Abse will be talking later today. Have just bought his book and will give him

a copy of "The Children of Craig-y-nos". We have a quote by him in the book:

"TB I've got
You know what TB signifies?
Totally buggered. He laughed.

His sister cried."

Mari Friend

Mari Friend ( nee Jenkins) with her husband, Peter, and Ann Shaw (nee Rumsey)at the book launch"Children of Craig-y-nos" in Craig-y-nos Castle.

Says Ann:"We were children in Craig-y-nos together. It is great to meet up with so many friends again."

Hay Book Festival

Delivered books -"The Children of Craig-y-nos"-to Welsh book stand at Hay Festival.
They have sold three today and I have more back in my rented cottage - thanks to Carole Reeves sending them in advance from London though they are intended for the Brecon museum later in the week.

Scorching hot weather in Hay. Town sold out of sunscream and the public loos next to the Tourist Information Office only flush intermittently.

The London literrati who have decamped here for the week are not amused.

Cynthia Mullan, director of the Sleeping Giant Foundation and Len Ley, local historian at the launch of the book "The Children of Craig-y-nos" in the restored Glass Conservatory of Craig-y-nos Castle

Some people are having difficulty ordering 

 'The Children of Craig-y-nos' through local bookshops.

Dr Carole Reeves has asked me to point out that:

 "'The Children of Craig-y-nos' is available through bookshops and on Amazon

(www.amazon.co.uk) if you prefer to order online. 

If your local bookshop tells you that they don't know how to order it (as happened to someone

recently) tell them to contact their wholesaler quoting the book's ISBN

number. This is ISBN-13: 978-0-85484-126-4. This number is unique to the

book and will identify it immediately.

There are two wholesalers who will be able to supply the book. These are

www.bertrams.com and www.gardners.com  

Most bookshops will deal with these

wholesalers."

(photo: Karen Howard)

Children of Craig-y-nos - a healing project

(book launch) - photo Karen Howard

Many people are telling me how they found being involved with the Children of Craig-y-nos project a healing process.

For the first time, and I include myself, we were able to talk about those experiences in childhood which had been buried deep in our minds, dark secrets from the past which we dared not talk about.  Now it has all been brought out into the open and we realise that it is no longer a taboo subject,  and we feel healed by the process of being able to talk and share these experiences with others who went through it .

"Children of Craig-y-nos"by Ann Shaw and Carole Reeves, published by The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, price £9.99p

available online through Amazon.co.uk,  as a free PDF file http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/library/craig_book

Val's newsagent in Ystradgynlais - I have just heard that they sold out of the books as they were being unpacked and they have placed another order!

Any bookshop will order the book for you. If there is any difficulty the ISBN number is : 

ISBN -10: 0-85484-126-1 

ISBN-13:978-0-85484-126-4

Alternatively, ring Carole Reeves: 02076.798 135 or write to her:

Dr Carole Reeves,

The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine,

183 Euston Rd.,

London,

NW1 2BE

PS

One reason we sold out so quickly at the book launch was that people were buying them up as Christmas presents!  in the end we had to say that ex-patients had priority.

More launch photos-at Craig-y-nos Castle

Malcolm Shaw ( Ann's husband ) who was responsible for digitising and "cleaning" all the photographs with Gwen Jones, a  family friend from Llanbedr.

Pam Hamer ( nee Osmond) who was a child in plaster duringthe late 1940s out on the balcony and woke one night to find a rat running up inside her bed. " I felt its long tail against my face I screamed and the night nurse appeared.  She told me it was Joey the pet rat from the kitchen who had come to see me."

"The Children of Craig-y-nos" is available  online from Amazon.co.uk or Dr Carole Reeves:  02076 798 135. Alternatively any bookshop will order it for you.

Ann and Carol signing books at the launch of "The Children of Craig-y-nos".

(photo: Karen Howard)

Christine and Beryl at book launch

Christine Perry ( nee Bennett) and Beryl Rowlands ( nee Richards)  at the book launch of "The Children of Craig-y-nos".

(Photo: Karen Howard)

1950s- Pat and Ann - Craig-y-nos Castle

Pat Stickler ( nee Moore) and Ann Shaw ( nee Rumsey at the book launch.*

Says Pat: " I was in the bed next to Ann when she came in.  I was told not to frighten her with ghost stories because she was too ill."

*"The Children of Craig-y-nos" by Ann Shaw and Carole Reeves  is available online at Amazon.co.uk or direct from Dr Carole Reeves: 02076 798135

1940s Reunion at book launch

Nurse Glen with ex patient Roy Harry


All from the 1940s ex- patients (left to right) Christine Raybold, Vera Blewett and Roy Harry with nurse Valerie Brent (extreme right)


Megan Thomas ( 1941-1944) " I came out just after my 17th birthday"

Book signing - Craig-y-nos Castle

Dr Carole Reeves, Outreach Historian with the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College London and Ann Shaw co-authors of the book "The Children of Craig-y-nos" * signing copies of the book at the recent launch in the restored Glass Conservatory in the Castle.

Some of the people present had been child patients in the Conservatory.


* Book available online from Amazon.co.uk or

Dr Carole Reeves
Outreach Historian
The Wellcome Trust Centre
for the History of Medicine at UCL
183 Euston Road
London NW1 2BE

Or Val's newsagent, Ystradgynlais

Free PDF file to download from
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/library/craig_book

(photo: Karen Howard)

Launch top story on UCL site

Our book launch of "The Children of Craig-y-nos" is the top story on the University of London online site. Follow this link http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0905/09050504

Roy Harry

Roy Harry at the book launch in Craig-y-nos Castle



Roy as a child after his time in Craig-y-nos.

In the book "Children of Craig-y-nos" Roy wrote an account of his experience of having a gastric lavage.
This is the procedure whereby a child was held, often by more than one nurse, while another pushed a tube down the child's throat to extract fluids from the stomach.

This was then injected into guinea pigs. If the guinea pigs lived you were cured and could go home.

He says of his 18 months in Craig-y-nos:" I went home singing in Welsh with nits in my hair."

Free download of "Children of Craig-y-nos"

You can download "Children of Craig-y-nos" for free by clicking on the following link:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/library/craig_book

Then click on 'free download' in the text.

Or you can order a copy online from
Amazon.co.uk

A newsagent in Ystradgynlais has expressed an interest in stocking the book because so many customers have already asked for it. We will let you know when she has them.

Fifty years on: Children of Craig-y-nos- book launch

(from left to right) Christine Perry ( nee Bennett), Valerie Brent ( ex- nurse) and Beryl Richards ( nee Rowlands)

Christine has just forwarded me this photograph taken at last Friday's book launch so I thought it would be fun to put in photos of the time when they were in Craig-y-nos - over 50 years ago.





Christine in playful mode on the balcony of Ward 2 ( 1956)


Beryl with Tosca, the pony belonging to Dr Williams' daughters that the teenage patients used to ride using their dressing-gown girdles as halters- strictly forbidden of course!

"The Children of Craig-y-nos" is available from Amazon.com

Photos from Book launch

(from left to right) Dr Carole Reeves, co-author and medical historian, Valerie Brent, ex nurse who worked at Craig-y-nos for two years as a teenager in the 1940s, Ann Shaw, ex-patient and co-author, Cynthia Mullane, director The Sleeping Giant Foundation, the local oral history charity who were very helpful in getting the project started.



Do you have photos from the book launch which you would like to share?
then send them on email to annshaw@mac.com

Book launch- Craig-y-nos Castle

Dr Carole Reeves ( left) and Ann Shaw in the Glass Conservatory the day before the book launch.

Our 200 books sold out within 2 hours! Clive Rowlands opened it at noon . He told the story of his time as boy on the balcony and how he kicked a rugby wall straight throw the French windows and got put in a straitjacket .

Cynthia Mullane of The Sleeping Giant introduced Carol and myself. The Sleeping Giant filmed the event. Lots of people took photos including my friend Karen Howerd from Scotland. Angela ( my neice) and her husband Roger sold the books while Carole Reeves and I signed them.

Caroline Boyce, (nee Havard) ex patient returning for the first time in 50 years had travelled from Scotland with her husband Paul and they helped at the launch by giving people name badges.

BBC journalist Geoff Ballinger interviewed many ex patients including Nurse Glenys Davies who was looking very well.

Barbara Pye now in her 80th year was there with two friends who used to visit her when she was in Craigynos as a young woman in 1947. Barbara was among the first in Britain to receive streptomycin.

It was also the first time back for Pamela Hamer and in my
introduction I told the story how she woke up one night on the balcony to find a rat I'm her bed!

Will post photos on blog on return to Scotland.

Says Carole: " We could have sold another 100 easily."

Don't worry if you didnt get a copy on the day. This is print-on-demand so we will never run out except for a few days.
Many people asked to be put on a list and we will contact you.

Meanwhile you can always get the book from Amazon.co.uk
or ask your local bookshop to order it for you. Price £9.99

Child's plaster bed- Craig-y-nos

Roy Harry with Linda Delves and the plaster cast belonging to a relative

Here's a medical curiosity: how many people would recognize this cast as that belonging to a child with TB?

It was found in the attic of one Swansea family and Linda Delve rang me wondering what to do with it.

It belonged to her aunt Margaret Scott who was in Craig-y-nos as a toddler in the early 1940s. She was sent home as a five year old with the plaster cast and told to sleep in it every night.

Her aunt has since died.

Linda hopes to interest Swansea museum in adding it to their collection for
TB was rife in the Welsh valleys and many children spent years lying motionless in such contraptions.

Meanwhile, if you come to our book launch on Friday, May 1st, at Craig-y-nos Castle you will be able to see the plaster cast for it will be on display for a day.

Craig-y-nos - 2 nights as Christmas present!

Patricia Stickler ( nee Moore) tells me she will be staying at Craig-y-nos Castle this week.


"My husband and I will be staying at the hotel for April 29/30 as a Christmas gift from my daughter, who is a dog fanatic. Just before Christmas she found one of the dog trust sites auctioning two nights at Craig-y-nos donated by the hotel and thought it would be an ideal present -or not???

Anyway, her partner stayed up all night to successfully bid for it.

I did have mixed feelings but when I heard of your book launch I decided to go ahead."


I look forward to meeting you Patricia, especially since we seemed to have been next to each other in bed some 50 years ago!

"Tied to the bed, in a straitjacket" - Joan, age 8, 1948

Just when you think you have heard all the stories about Craig-y-nos yet another new one pops into my email box.

Wendy Dove says her mother, Joan Harris, was in Craig-y-nos for two years ( 1948-50.)

"I was brought up hearing many stories of her stay there, and I was always intrigued to know more! I will most definitely be buying your book.

"Most of her stories were quite negative. Mum was 8/9 at the time and strong minded, so I suppose she would be getting into a lot of mischief!"

So I rang Joan up. She lives in Coventry, works as a hotel manageress and had discovered this blog quite accidentally while googling her home town of Phillipstown near Tredegar.


"I couldn't believe it when I read the stories. Until now nobody would believe me when I told them the things that happened to me as a child in Craig-y-nos.

"I used to be tied to the bed on a regular basis, it was a strait-jacket they put you into and folded your arms in front of you. I used to get up to mischief. Once I threw a slipper and it went straight out of the window through the iron bars ( remember the iron bars on the windows? ) and landed in the courtyard near a nurse who was standing there with her boyfriend.

Well, I got a terrible row . They wanted to know whose slipper it was. So, back into the straitjacket for me."

"My bed war near the fire escape and I used to plan to escape. I thought if I followed the river it would lead me to Swansea to my grandmother's home."


Joan was one of nine children and the family moved to Coventry when she was 16. She is married with one daughter.


How about this for a coincidence: Joan was in the next bed to Caroline Boyce ( nee Havard) who lives 15 miles along the road from me in Scotland!...

Book launch -May 1st Craig-y-nos Castle

Just checked with the Castle. So far 95 people have booked in for lunch amd there will be two sittings.

It should be quite a party!
We leave from Scotland next Wednesday flying down to Cardiff then picking up a hire car. We will be staying in Abercraf.

Ann and Mari on the farm

Ann Shaw ( nee Rumsey) (left) and Mari Friend( nee Jenkins) at Ty-Llangenny farm.


After I left Craig-y-nos Mari used to come with her parents to visit and often she would stay on the farm.

My dog Bonnie- life after Craig-y-nos

s

My mother promised me a puppy when I came home from Craig-y-nos and this is Bonnie my Welsh corgi.

Len Ley- local historian

Len Ley

Len rang me this morning to say that he will be able to attend the launch and he will be available to do tours of the castle.

This was very popular at the last Reunion - most ex-patients just want to see where their beds were!
However, for those of us who were out on the balconies there is nothing to see because they were demolished many years ago.


The Childrens wards remain like a time warp- virtually unchanged from the days it was used as a childrens santaorium though latterly these rooms were used as a geriatric hospital.

Today the rooms form the basis for the ghost hunting tours with seances taking place in the Six-Bedder, formerly the boudoir of Adelina Patti.


Portrait of Adelina Patti , Brecon Town Hall.

Flying visit- book launch

My very good friend Karen Howard tells me that she will be taking the early morning flight from Edinburgh to Cardiff on May 1 so that she will be able to attend the book launch.

Children of Craig-y-nos book launch

Marlene ( centre) with her family in California



Marlene in Craig-y-nos 1954



Sheila Halford inside Ward 2 with Marlene's bed on blocks behind her.

This is the image that Marlene found one day when she "googled" Craig-y-nos - and that is how she discovered the "Chidlren of Craig-y-nos" project.


BBC Radio 4 want to make a programme about "The Children of Craig-y-nos" and we think will be there on the May 1st for the launch of the book.

Meanwhile sixty people have already booked in for the lunch.

And I am getting phone calls from all over the place from people anxious to make certain that they will get a copy of the book on the day.


Marlene Philibosian (nee Hopkins) rang from California. She would love to come over but she will be in Hawaii at the time ( lucky woman!). However Marlene wants a book and Dr Carole Reeves ( my co-author) has suggested she get it from Amazon.com.

It will be available online after May 1st.

Marlene was in from 1953 - 54. She says it was the experience of Craig-y-nos that took her into nursing and led her to further her studies in America - and she never returned.

"The girl in the next bed to me went on to become a doctor - Gwyneth Davies".

Many ex patients did in fact go into nursing or health related professions.

Brian Thomas- abandoned child

I have just made an amazing discovery: Brian Thomas, abandoned in Craig-y-nos as a two year old, lives less than 30 miles from me in Scotland!

During research for the book several people had mentioned that some children were left at Craig-y-nos by parents who found themselves overhwelmed by the sheer burden of poverty and disease made worse by the difficulty of getting to Craig-y-nos on public tranport.

These children moved on to orphanges but at least one was adopted locally though no-one could remember the details.

Now we have found him.

His name is Brian and he was adopted by local bus driver George Thomas and his wife Gladys.

Today Brian works and lives as an electrician in Glasgow and he tells me he hopes to come to the book launch on May 1st "if at all possible."

We look forwad to meeting you there Brian.

Margaret Scott

Receive phone call from Linda Delve in Swansea.

Her aunt, Margaret Scott, died some time ago and the family,
while clearing out the attic, found in pristine condition the body cast of five year old Margaret .

She had been sent home from Craig-y-nos with the cast and told to sleep in it every night.


For Margaret had been put into Craig-y-nos in the early 1940s as an 18 month old toddler, uncertain whether she had TB or polio. She remained there until she was five years of age



Now the family are faced with the problem of disposing of the cast. That's why Linda rang me. I suggest Swansea museum but first, I ask, would she like to bring it up to Craig-y-nos as a medical artefact on May 1st for the mini exhibition and book launch?

Linda is delighted at the suggestion.
" I am reluctant to just throw this cast into the bin. It has such memories."

Too true.
Many ex child patients will remember the years they spent encased in similar body casts.

Book launch - invitation

If you would like to attend the launch of "The Children of Craig-y-nos" on May 1st then ring up Craig-y-nos Castle direct and book in for the carvery lunch ( £12.95).

The number is: 01639 730205.

Over 150 invitations ( an example is featured here) have already been sent out.


The invitation says:
"A celebration to launch the book

will be held at
Craig-y-nos Castle, Brecon Rd., Pen-y-case, Powys SA9 1GL
on 1 May 2009 at 12 noon

followed by a carvery lunch ( priced £12.95) at 1pm

If numbers exceed restaurant places, there will be a second lunch sitting at 2.30 pm

If you and members of yourr family or friends and colleagues would like to attend please book directly with Craig-y-nos Castle
Tel 01639 730205

Ann and Carole hope to welcome you there

There will be a limited number of books for sale at a discounted price of £8.50 ( cover price £9.99)

We regret that we are unable to accept creid or debit cards.

The book will be available through Amazon and selected bookshops
You will also be able to download copies from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed ( after May 1st).

Iris Jones - 1937

Iris Jones (front row) on the balcony of Ward 2 in 1937.


David Jones, husband of Iris, just rang wanting to place an order for the book, "Children of Craig-y-nos". He will be at the book launch so I have assured him that a copy will be put aside for him lest we run out on the day.

However, it is worth reminding people that we received over 1,200 photos and only 200 could be used in the book so we have had to do some drastic editing.

Book launch- May 1st- Craig-y-nos Castle

Plans are well in hand now for the book launch on May 1st in Craig-y-nos Castle. Carole will be sending out invitations shortly either by snail-mail or email and we are expecting a terrific response.


It will be a lunch time "do" - similar to the Reunion- and it will take place in the Glass Conservatory which has recently been refurbished and I am assured it looks magnificent - Patti would be proud of it!


The book is selling for £9.99 but at the book launch there will be a special price of £8.50.

Knots, Girl Guides and Craig-y-nos

What would Health and Safety have to say about this today?
Girl Guides teaching patients how to light a fire and barbecue on Ward 2 balcony.




Guide leader prepares a sausage for the balcony barbecue.


Every time I tie a reef knot I remember where I learnt it: as a guide at Craig-y-nos.

Therefore I have fond memories of the guides for they represented a direct contact with the outside world, apart from monthly visits from parents, so I was delighted to receive the following email from Helena Thomas.


" Next year Guiding will be celebrating its Centenary. We hope to publish a pictorial book about Guding in Wales and I am hoping you will give permission to publish some of the photographs you sent me. The Guides at Craig-y-Nos are an important part of our history. I have found out the names of the leaders who helped and the dates they were there, but that is all the information I have at present.

You have certainly found out a lot about Craig-y-Nos when it was a hospital. Our county AGM is on 24th April and our guest speaker is going to talk about Craig-y-nos."

Gwynne Arms- visiting Craig-y-nos

(From left to right):
David, my brother, unknown man, Mrs Price, owner of the Gwynne Arms, my mother and father.

The Gwynne Arms was a popular pub with visitors to Craig-y-nos. My mother struck up a close friendship with the owner, Mrs Price, throughout the four years she visited me in Craig-y-nos.

Here's a rare photo of my mother, father and brother. I never did see my brother while I was in hospital because children were not allowed in though once I did wave to him from inside Ward 2 though to be honest I had no idea which one was him in the huge crowd gathered in the courtyard before the doors opened at 2pm to allow visitors in.

I had only been in a few months and Nurse Glen carried me to the window to wave to him.

Mari Friend ( nee Jenkins), 1950-53

After Mari and I left Craig-y-nos our mothers kept in contact and Mari came to stay with me on the farm, Ty-Llangenny, near Crickhowell.

Who is this girl?

At home- Ty-llangenny Farm

Trawling through my album I came across some photos taken on the farm shortly after leaving Craig-y-nos. This is one with Mari Friend ( nee Jenkins), her father and my mother.

I am holding Bonnie the corgi my mother bought for me to come home.

Girls on the balcony with teacher- - early 1950's

This should stir some memories!

Yet another photo from Mari Friend (nee Jenkins) vast collection. Miss Thomas ( teacher) is second from left followed by Jean Shakeshaft and Mari.

In the front row (right) is Barbara O' Connell ( Paines). We don't know the names of the other two girls.

Mari Jenkins - 1951

Mari Jenkins , August 1951

Mari's son, Chris, emailed me this photo of her in Craig-y-nos which she has just found. It's amazing how, more than two years after this project started, photos are still coming in.


Thank you one and all!

What's more, Mari still has her doll....

Former nurse's story of her time in Craig-y-nos 1955

Brian Jones sent in this account from the South Wales Voice of his mother who worked at Craig-y-nos. It offers a fascinating insight into life there from the perspective of a part-time member of staff"

"South Wales Voice
29th April 1955

What it is like to be a part-time nurse

I live quite near Craig-y-nos, the former home of the famous soprano, Adelina Patti, which has now been converted into a chest hospital for children and adult women. After hearing a broadcast appeal for part-time helpers, and having several free hours every day when my husband was at work and my children at school, I applied for a position and was accepted. No previous nursing experience was necessary so I would begin as a very raw recruit, knowing nothing about hospitals except the little I had observed during the short period I had spent in one as a patient - only two weeks to be exact,

Early the next Monday morning, after I had seen my children off to school, I went to the hospital to start my new work. I was taken to the sewing room and issued with a very starchy uniform and a small round cap which reminded me of Mrs Beeton. It took me some time to master the art of getting into this uniform but eventually I was dressed and ready to become Florence Nightingale's most fervent follower.

I was assigned to Ward 4, a new building, modern in style, which was built after Craig-y-nos had been converted from a country house into a hospital. The ward was bright and cheerful with large windows overlooking the lawns and the river Tawe which, in dry weather, was a mere trickle but in the rainy season deverloped into a raging brown torrent, the roar of which could be heard clearly in the wards.

It was all quite strange and confusing at first, and I had great difficulty in remembering the names of the twentyfour patients. Most of these were young girls but there were also several young married women. They were all very charming and friendly and their gaiety and courage filled me with admiration. Their humour was all the more astonishing because many of them had to spend months, even years, away from their homes and children. They hardly ever grumbled and only an occasional one or two became depressed. Indeed, their cheerfulness was so infectious that they often cheered me up and made me see the lighter side of my several small troubles.

I soon became accustomed to the unchanging routine of the ward, Every morning, the sweeping and dusting had to be done, beds made, flowers brought in from the bathroom where they were kept overnight, and everything tidied up in readiness for the doctors' daily visits. At ten o'clock the patients had what I think was meant to be "elevenses" but which was called "lunch".

After we had given this out and collected the cups we got down to the serious business of blanket-bathing the bed-patients. This was very popular as it gave us a good excuse for having a nice long chat. Esconsed in screens, we discussed everything under the sun - books, films, fashion, radio programmes and our respective families. We soon knew all about each other and our children. My son's progress at school created enormous interest and, when he passed an exam, he had a lovely surprise when a congratulatory telegram arrived, sent by the patients of the entire ward.

Some of the other jobs I had to do were filling hot-water bottles, helping to serve meals, washing combs and brushes, tidying lockers, changing library books and, of course, there was the inevitable bed-making.

I have been at Craig-y-nos for seven years now. They have slipped past with what seems incredible speed. I have seen hundreds of patients come in ill and go home cured. It gives me great satisfaction to know that I, in my humble and insignificant way, have helped to nurse so many of them back to health. I often think of them, and I know they think of me, too, because every Christmas, the largest number of my greeting cards come from ex-patients of Adelina Patti Hospital.

Margaret Teresa Jones
Dan-yr-ogof Cottage
Penycae
Swansea Valley"

Book launch - May 1st 2009

At last we have got a firm date for the book launch. It will take place on Friday May 1st in Craig-y-nos Castle.


More details to follow but it will follow roughly the same pattern as the highly successful Reunion - folk will ring up the castle and book themselves in for the lunch/book launch.

California and Craig-y-nos...

Emails pop up from all over the world regarding Craig-y-nos.

Take this one which has just arrived from California:

"I just had to say hello because I was looking on the web for other "Ann Shaw's" to see how many might be out there and found you!

What makes it even more interesting is that during the 70's I lived for a while just north of Glasgow on the east shore of Loch Lomond, just off the road between Drymen & Balmaha.

I later found that a good number of my ancestors were Scots from the north end of the loch.

I can't tell you how many times I climbed Conic Hill.

Anyhow, I don't know if this means anything to you. I'm impressed that you survived your ordeal and then had the moxie to bring up an apparently buried subject and bring it to light. How nice that you helped others tell their stories too.

--Ann Shaw
(now in sunny Southern California)



Great to hear from you Ann!

Highland Moors - comment

The following comment has just been posted on the blog relating to
Highland Moors posted on August 8th 2008.

This is it:


"I was banged up in Highland Moors from some time in 1944 to 1944 (VE day +14 or so). Among those I remember are Bruce Griffiths (Welsh Dictionary compiler), and a friend whom I briefly met at RAF Yatesbury many years later.

I appeared to be the only Welsh speaker there until a chap from Caernarfon appeared, who could not speak a word of English, whereupon I became his official interpreter.
As my father was serving in N. Africa and Italy,and travelling from Blaenau Ffestiniog was difficult in waretime, I only received one lot of visitors in nine months, there now, times were indeed hard. "

Is this the dentist?

s




Dentist -aka "Father Christmas"- Jenkyn Evans


Now that we are in the final stages of editing and checking names for the book it is proving to be extremely useful to be able to call up ex-patients to verify certain facts and names.

So it was with the above photo. It came in with no name on it.





Christine Perry (nee Bennett) is able to tell us that it is the dentist, Jenkyn Evans who always dressed up as Father Christmas.

Christine says:

"He removed two "fangs" that had grown in my upper jaw.

The dental surgery was in the stable block.

Because of our respiratory condition, he had to use injection as an anaesthetic on us all, no gas.

It was the first time that I had had dental anaesthesia using injection."

Brenda Bates- early 1950's

Brenda Bates

Barbara Paines ( O'Donnell) is determined to track down as many girls as she can from those early days in Craig-y-nos.

After much searching through the phone book she found Brenda Bates of Morley St, Barry.

But Brenda is in a residential home. She rang her.
Brenda answered.

"I tried to speak to her about her childhood in Craig-y-nos. She has no memory of her time there."

So it was with regret that Barbara rang yesterday to inform me of both Brenda's discovery and her mental decline.

Girls- early 1950s

We've a problem. The girl on the back row right is said to be Norma Pearce, according to her grand-son Jerry. But Barbara Paines (middle row right- says its Pat Sullivan.
So - who's right?


Just for the record these girls are: (top row Jean Griffiths ( left) Norma Pearce/Pat Sullivan?
middle row Mari Friend ( Jenkins), Barbara Paines (O'Donnell)
front row Alice Smith

Roy and the medieval banquet

Roy Harry ( Craig-y-nos 1940's age 4 ) tells me that he and his partner Valerie were given tickets for a medieval banquet at Craig-y-nos over the festive season.

Says Roy:
"It was held in the main banqueting room which used to be my ward. What's more I was sitting three feet from where I had my bed."

Yes it did stir some memories!

The food, he says, was excellent " and plenty of it".

TV programme on TB

I received an email yesterday from former colleague Chris Holme now working with the Scottish Executive about a television programme dealing with TB:

"This is Stornoway-based MacTV’s splendid documentary which went out on BBC Alba last night and goes out again tonight at 10 pm. You can see it on iPlayer: BBCtv.alba

He goes on to say:
"This is very much in the historiographical vein of Craig-y-nos – finding patients and allowing them to tell their stories. I helped the researchers at the start of the project with contacts and background info including Craig- y- nos.

Features former Herald librarian Seonai Gordon now living in Brighton and Rhoda Macdonald, our STV colleague from the days we were all in the Scottish Media Group. Much of it is in Gaelic with subtitles but I think this enhances its appeal as film testimony rather than detracts from it."

Well, I watched the programme last night and it echoes so many of our stories particularly the social stigma and taboo surrounding the disease. If you have the time do click on the above BBCIplayer link. It is up for the next six days.

Dr Crofton, the Edinburgh based TB specialist responsible for developing the triple drug regime that led to the cure for TB was often asked to go to churches and speak about the cure because people were that frightened of being in contact with people who had been treated for TB.

Festive season

Festive season more or less over - it seems to go on for ever in Scotland what with New Year and all that whisky drinking- so Happy New Year one and all. It's back to the book. Carole Reeves tells me she has spent a great part of the holiday working on it.

And I am about to start checking names/captions.

To my surprise I got an email from a Japanese academic in Osaka who had read the "Children of Craig-y-nos" blog and found the stories very moving. ( I had met her a couple of times through my in-laws but that was years ago).

Reunion- Barbara and Mari- after 50 years!

Mari (left) with Barbara

Barbara O'Connell ( nee Paines) and Mari Friend ( nee Jenkins) met up in Swansea for the first time since they left Craig-y-nos as children over fifty years ago.

Says Barbara:"I knew Mari straightaway. She hasn't changed a bit."

Re-union - after 50 years!

Mari (left) with Florence


Barbara (centre) with Jean Shakeshaft (right) and Jean Griffiths ( left )






Barbara Paines ( nee O'Connell) and Mari Friend ( nee Jenkins) met up recently for the first time since they left Craig-y-nos over 50 years ago.


Barbara says:"I recognized Mari straightaway. She hasn't changed a bit!"

Now that's a compliment if ever there was one.

A child's letters from Craig-y-nos

Sue Baker from Bath has sent me copies of some letters she wrote to her parents while in Craig-y-nos.

She says she will be 60 on December 27th and she plans to go back to Craig-y-nos for the first time later this month with her family for a meal there.

We wish her luck.

Dulcie Oltersdorf 1948-1949

Some more photos from the collection of Dulcie Oltersdorf who was in Craig-y-nos during the late 1940s.

Unfortuantely we do not have any names.

Book- "Children of Craig-y-nos"

Dr Reeves is working ont the final stages of this book and she will be in discussion with the designer next week.

Boxes within boxes- Craig-y-nos

view of the balconies- Craig-y-nos Castle



Dr Carole Reeves


The Casco girls, Utrecht Project organizers. Mieke Van de Voort is second right. Binna Choi (far right) is the Director of Casco


street scene, Utrecht

The Children of Craig-y-nos in Utrecht

Last Thursday, 20 November, I was invited to Utrecht to participate in a project by Dutch artist, Mieke Van de Voort, developed in collaboration with Casco (Office for Art, Design and Theory). The project consisted of a three-day workshop leading up to a ‘game’ in which participants were set on an imaginary island called Orania, which had been stricken with an unidentifiable but deadly epidemic. No one could escape. The participants assumed character roles on the island – there were policemen, doctors, a mayor, as well as ordinary islanders – and had to cope collectively with the state of emergency. Over the three days leading up to the game, participants were given various tools, in the way of knowledge about the history of viruses and pandemics, theories of control and social order, self-organization strategies, notions of community, decision-making and conflict resolution. They then had to use this knowledge to deal with the pandemic and issues arising out of it.

I used the Craig-y-nos example to deal with ideas of quarantine, contamination and isolation. I spoke about how there were different layers of isolation – the location, the castle itself, the wards, the babies from the children, the children from the adults, boys from girls, ward from balcony, patients from families, children from animals, etc. Boxes within boxes was how I described it.

I gave lots of examples of individual experiences based on many of the collected memories, and included a great number of our wonderful images. I had a brilliant and responsive audience of people from all around the world including the Netherlands, Britain, South Africa and South Korea. Everyone was extremely hospitable and I greatly enjoyed my two days in Utrecht. (Dr Carole Reeves)

Boys on balcony - 1950s

boys on the balcony

This photo, taken around 1950 of boys on the balcony, comes from the collection of Mari Friend's (nee Jenkins) sister, Llywella. No names are known except that of Sister Rich.
Let me know if you recognize anyone: annshaw@mac.com

TB killed one person every 2 hours in Scotland - 1948

This alarming statistic - one death from TB every two hours in Scotland- comes from the following web-site -60yearsofnhsscotland.co.uk


which a former colleague of mine on the Glasgow Herald, Chris Holme's, was responsible for setting up.

Chris has written extensively on Dr Crofton, the Edinburgh doctor who pioneered the drug regime that was to successfully treat TB.

PS
Sorry folks this link doesn't seem to be working- just "google": nhs scotland 60 years tb

Glynne Lowe - and the ventriloquist

the Patti theatre

Six-year-old Glynne Lowe, one of the sick children confined within Craig-y-nos Castle in 1926 clutched his chair with excitement. There on stage of the Adelina Patti theatre, modelled after the Milan opera house, was a special kind of magician - a man by the name of Harry Elston.

He could throw his voice. He could become different people. Magic. Glynne had never seen a ventriloquist before.


And that concert remained etched in his mind, one of the big memories from his time in this isolated institution on the edge of the Brecon Beacons.

By a strange quirk of fate when Glynne grew up he got a job working for Harry Elston, a businessman and part-time entertainer, in Brecon selling tractors and agricultural machinery, a job he held for fifty years.

Yet Glynne never mentioned to Harry that day in Craig-y-nos when his act so enchanted him.

Why not?
“You never talked about TB …" says Glynne now in his 89th year.

Edward Telesford - put on a train, age 7, with label around his neck

Just received an email from Edward Telesford:

"Having recently come across the Children of Craig-y-nos Castle website, I'm delighted to see so many anecdotes from former staff and patients.

I don't remember where I was when President Kennedy was assassinated, but I do remember where I was the day World War 2 was declared. I was a patient in Craig-y-nos Castle and I was in the playground when nurses broke the news.

Like many before and after me, I spent time out on the long verandah overlooking a valley with a stream running through it. Occasionally, we'd be taken for walks, crocodile-fashion, and even to this day the smell of bluebells takes me back to those days.

I was later transferred to Highland Moors Convalescent Home where I spent a year or so before being put on a train and sent home alone at the age of seven, with a luggage label round my neck! I arrived safely."

The smell of Craig-y-nos

Ann at home on Ty-Llangenny farm before going into Craig-y-nos


Now the book is almost complete I realise nobody has commented on the smell of Craig-y-nos.

Indeed, even in my own account I make no mention of it though I remember it vividly when father carried me inside Craig-y-nos Castle, a vast ice-cold cave, and I am engulfed by the stench of pine disinfectant.

Dr Carole Reeves, Craig-y-nos and Utrecht

Dr Carole Reeves

Dr Reeves has been invited to speak at an international conference in Utrecht next week on "The Children of Craig-y-nos":

"I'm flying to Utrecht next Thursday morning, presenting in the evening, and
returning next day. It's part of a three-day workshop which will include
performance, art, medicine, photography, etc. So 'The Children of
Craig-y-nos' will fit in well with the theme of the dynamic of infectious
disease and its social, political, individual impact."

She adds:
"This is yet another example of the impact of our project on groups worldwide."

Whoever would have thought that our stories about growing up as sick children in Craig-y-nos Castle would have aroused so much interest?

The book, by the way, is almost complete.

Adelina Patti and Craig-y-nos- some little known facts

Patti with her god-daughter on the lake at Craig-y-nos.

Here's some facts I have just discovered:

Did you know that Patti's father and godfather were both professors of music in Madrid? and that her family came originally from Sicily in the south of Italy?


Patti bought Craig-y-nos when she was in her mid or maybe even late 40's. After parties the local lads were invited to come to the castle kitchens with jugs to collect food left over.

Later the castle became a sanatorium and Patti's boudoir was used as a private room for TB patients. This became the Six-Bedder.

During the first year it opened as a sanatorium there were only two members of staff- the matron and Sister Phillips, assisted by
one maid.
Mr Christie was appointed as the first hospital porter and he lived in rooms above the former stables.

( Sources: biography of Patti and a taped interview with Sister Phillips done by her son)

Glyne Lowe - 1920s in Craig-y-nos

Christmas 1928 - Thomas Edward Isaac, centre, blowing a trumpet. Although this photo was taken two years before Glynne was in it gives some flavour of the place.
Is this the Patti theatre or the Glass Conservatory? Both boys have different memories. Can anyone confirm? Glynne thinks it is the Glass Conservatory.


(Both Valerie Brent, a nurse in the 1940s in Craig-y-nos and Glynne Lowe are adamant the above photo is taken in the Glass Conservatory not the Patti theatre- Ann)

I have just spoken to Glynne Lowe, now 88 years of age, who was in Craig-y-nos as a six year old. He used to sell tractors for a living and tells me he often visited my home, Ty-Llangenny Farm, where Dai Price an agricultural contractor, used to keep his equipment. He knows several of my cousins around Brecon too. 'Tis a small world...


Here's his story:

"I made the long journey from Bronllys via Brecon to Craig-y-nos as a six-year-old in 1927. At Pen-y-cae station an ambulance was waiting to take me to the hospital. I have no memory of treatment, apart from lying in bed, though I do remember having red sores on my legs and I still have the marks today. I don’t think my mother came to visit me but cousins from Aberdare did. I have no memories of the food although I recall eating at a table at one end of the ward.

They kept sweets there, and we were given sweets after dinner. I don’t remember being cold - you don’t feel the cold when you’re a kid.

Christmas was a highlight. I remember being entertained in the Adelina Patti theatre by Harold Elston, who was a ventriloquist, and Mr Whitney, a butcher who did conjuring tricks. At the end of the performance there was a big box of sweets thrown to the children. We may have had lessons but not many. I remained at Craig-y-nos for seven months. I didn't like it much. It was a miserable damn place. I was transferred to Talgarth ( … sanatorium) for a further five months where I enjoyed the camaraderie - they were quite a bunch of boys. I sometimes wonder if I really did have TB. I’ve had pernicious anaemia for forty or fifty years and I think my illness might have been a sign of that.

I started work at fourteen as a motor mechanic but after an accident, which smashed my toes, I sold tractors.
In the course of my work I would pass Craig-y-nos and would go into the forecourt to look at the goldfish in the pond.

Texas and T.B.

Patti from Texas tells me that she finds the story of "The Children of Craig-y-nos"

" touching and even a bit intriguing because none of us have had to witness a victim of TB in our life times. We take the funny little test at the doctor's office, get an injection and that's all we really know of it."

I am amazed.
Most people I know in Wales will have known at first hand of a friend, relative or have suffered from TB themselves.

Craig-y-nos and Texas

“The Children of Craig-y-nos” story– of sick children locked up in a remote haunted castle for years- has touched people around the world.

Take this email I got yesterday from Texas:

I am almost ashamed to tell you that I first heard of Craig-y-nos through a book I happened to buy last weekend entitled "Ghosts of the World". I bought it on a lark, as I had been sick and unable to participate in our usual "Haunted House" outings we take during the Halloween season.

Anyway, I happened upon a story about Adelina Patti and her castle. Although it was very brief and vague, it mentioned the ghostly sounds of children giggling and playing in various parts of the castles...remnants of an era when the castle was a hospital for TB patients. Captivated by such an intriguing collection of stories for one castle, I decided to research the castle online. What I found was so much more than I would have ever expected! All the stories and photos of the people, mostly the children, who were treated in this “hospital”, captivated my heart.


More than anything else, I wanted you to know that your story has touched me so that I plan to share this with my friends. It is not a whimsical look at "sick kids in a castle" or even for the rush of telling ghost stories. My parents gave me the special ability to give appreciation to human life and the stories we can gain so much from.

I am so glad I found this story. Thank you for all your hard work to share this almost lost moment in time...and THANK YOU for sharing it in a way that it even reached someone like me...all the way in Houston, Texas, USA.

Most respectfully,

Patti Abbott-French

Who are they? - circa 1950

Can anyone remember the names of these young women? again the possible date is around 1949-52.

Craig-y-nos and Iceland

I guess there can't be many folk around who have lived in Craig-y-nos Castle and Iceland.
But I am one of them. I was four years in Craig-y-nos and one year working in Iceland.
So what's the link between the two? a love of a cold climate.

So, with Iceland in the news every day and images of Reykjavik flashing up on the telly screens most night I am agog.
It is my old stamping ground many years ago and I am eager to see how it has changed.

Carol Hughes( Davies ) - 1950s

Carol Hughes (Davies) from Skewen writes on the BBC Mid-Wales web-site:

The nursing staff at craig y nos treated us the best they could but the place was not the best to treat children in the rules were hard to keep i remember the best ones auntie maggie, sister morgan, nurse glenys davies. I was often tied to my bed i can remember once i was on bed rest i called a nurse who was in the ward to say i wanted to go to the toilet she ignored me so i got out of bed ran to the toilet for this the nurse caught me and gave me a good shaking and i had restrainers put on to stop me getting out of bed. I was 6 years old at the time i was also in sully hospital that was like a luxury hotel compared to craig y nos but credit must be given to the young nurses, many people would not come near us. TB was something to fear then i went to the exhibition in swansea museum and i found people wanting to know more because there are no records and they even gave me a hug which is a far cry from the 1950s.

Night-time in Craig-y-nos

The memory of being woken in the early hours of the morning by night sister’s torch flashing in my face, when I was still coughing up blood, came back to me with a jolt as I read through children's accounts of those days.


Many have spoken about waking up in the morning to find the bed next to them empty.

John, then aged 9, recalls:
“Sometimes the person you had been talking to one day was not there the next day just an empty unmade bed! This happened too many times. It was a scary lesson to learn for someone of a tender age.”

Or June, age 4, who woke morning and put her hand out to touch the girl in the next bed on the veranda to find she was not there and Sister Morgan telling her that she had “gone home in the night because she was missing her mother.


Going to sleep was associated with dying in many young minds.
Rosie, age 6 at the time, says:

"I was aware of people dying there. That's why even to this day I don't sleep very well because I was afraid to go to sleep because the nurses used to say oh she died in her sleep. I used to think well I don't want to die and I was afraid to sleep.I was terrified of going to sleep because that is when people died”.



Myfwany, a teenager, added :

“My father's brother died in Craig-y-nos as the clock struck midnight.

Well, when it was my turn to go in this thought was in my mind and every night it was me fighting to stay awake until that clock had struck midnight. And then I could sleep.”

Girls - early 1950's

These are the only names known so far:
top row (right) Norma Pearce
Mari Jenkins ( middle row left) and Barbara Paines ( middle row- right).
Does anyone know the names of the others?

Comment
Hi.
Thats my Mum in the top right - Norma Pearce - Lewis for the last 40 odd years.
Mum really likes knowing additions to this blog.
Well done & Kind Regards
Jerry

Adelina Patti theatre, 1901

Dr Carole Reeves found this poem in the archives at the National Library of Wales. It’s not attributed to anyone so perhaps there was a court poet in the castle! The accompanying photograph shows the Patti Theatre at the same date.

From limestone ridge and mountain crest
The landscape seems a vast unrest.
Disturbed the face of Nature shows
The rocky vale where Tawé flows
With leaps and bounds – ‘mid storm and spray
It rushes on its noisy way.
The lofty skyline bounds the scene
With rolling uplands in between
The river’s marge, the hill’s recess
With verdure deck the loveliness.
The stately Black Rock rears its head
Above the river’s rugged bed.
The winter scene more grandeur shows
Than Summer, but when sunshine glows,
The vales with green and gold are fair,
And cool and sweet the mountain air.
Yet Nature in her wildest mood
Can best be read and understood
By force of contrast – look, ‘tis Art
Has played an open-handed part,
And raised amid this glorious space
A lordly house of light and grace –
A gem of art in nature set
That one shall see and ne’er forget,
Upstanding in its stately pride
It dominates the countryside –
A palace in the wilderness,
A feudal keep in modern dress
That Merlin’s magic wand might raise
Had he been living in these days,
Or fairies building in a night
Had brought this beauteous place to light.
And yet enchantment reared the walls,
And filled with luxury its halls.
The power of a voice achieved
More than magician e’er conceived,
And raised a castle high and strong
By aid of music and of song.

(This looks like a poem written by Ethel Rosate-Lunn, former maid to Adelina Patti who became known as the "poetess of the Tawe". I may be wrong. Does anyone know the author? - Ann)

Unknown patient- 1950?

This photo comes from the large collection belonging to Mari Friend,( nee Jenkins). It is from her sister's album( now deceased).

Would anyone recognize this woman? We believe it was taken around 1949-51.

Sisters Morgan, Outram and Powell

Dr Carole Reeves writes:

By looking in the staff registers and journals of the Welsh National Memorial Association, I’ve managed to fill in some gaps in our knowledge of these three ladies remembered by many ex-patients. All of them would have been born around the turn of the 20th century.

Sister Winnie Morgan first came to Craig-y-nos as a staff nurse on 12 March 1923. She had previously worked at Glan Ely Hospital, another of the Association’s TB sanatoria, near Cardiff, from 1919 to 1921. Her starting salary as a staff nurse was £60 a year, which increased to £70 when she was made a night sister on 1 March 1924.

Sister Ethel Outram was appointed staff nurse to North Wales Sanatorium on 14 November 1921 and became a sister on 1 April 1922. She developed TB and was admitted as a patient shortly afterwards. Although she returned to duty after a few months, she seems to have had sick leave on and off for the next three years. She was a sister at Glan Ely Hospital before transferring to Craig-y-nos in 1930 at a salary of £75 a year. Nurses who’d had TB were welcomed in sanatoria but found it difficult to get jobs in general hospitals. I discovered a number of cases of young student nurses (none relating to Craig-y-nos) who had caught TB and tried unsuccessfully to claim compensation from the Association.

Sister Elizabeth (Bessie) Powell was a student nurse when she was appointed to Pontsarn Hospital, a TB sanatorium in the Brecon Beacons, in 1919. She remained there (promoted to sister in 1927) until going to Craig-y-nos on 1 October 1936.

I have a list of staff appointed to Craig-y-nos during the 1920s so if you think a member of your family might be among them, please let me know.

The bird tamer - "Ann on Blocks"-1957

"Ann on Blocks" feeding blue-tit on balcony.



Ann Peters, ( nee Williams) known as “Ann on Blocks” because her bed was raised on 12-inch blocks, was known as “the bird tamer”.

From her bed on the balcony she would entice robins, blue-tits and sparrows to hop on to her hand by saving crumbs of bread for them.

“They used to come in and sit on my hand.”

Life on the balcony was cold, with the temperatures plummeting below zero in winter yet on clear nights it could be very beautiful:
“We used to watch the Northern Lights from our beds. We had tarpaulins on the bed to keep the snow and rain off. Yet it was very enjoyable. At the time, it didn’t seem as if there was anything wrong or hard about it. We were all in the same position and nobody complained.”

Ann’s father had died of TB at home when she was “ about five years old” and her two brothers and sister had also been in hospital.

Ann says:” One would have it, come home, and then the next one would have it. It seemed to go on forever.”
So, when the time came for her to go into Craig-y-nos she knew partly what to expect.

“I know it might sound silly but it was really enjoyable there. We had visitors every weekend. My father’s sister was in at the same time as me. She was on Ward 1. She died, unfortunately.”



“ I wasn’t allowed to sit up. I was on my back for sixteen months.
I was caught sitting up once by Dr Huppert.
Oh, gosh! She told me that if she caught me doing that again, she’d put me in plaster of Paris so that I couldn’t move. It was for my own good, I know, because I was so ill.
She said that she’d put me in the room next to her so that she could watch me all the time.”
Ann laughs as she tells this story.
“It did stop me sitting up, I can tell you.
Dr Huppert told my mother that when I went in it would be twelve months before they’d even know if I was out of the woods. Those were the words she used.

“Dr Huppert was a lovely person. It’s just that she was so very abrupt. She was nice to me.
As I say, I never felt ill. I used to think, why on earth am I here? I don’t think any of the girls really felt ill.”

After eighteen months Ann was allowed up.

But it is the friendship of the other girls that remains in her memory:
“They were smashing. We had loads of fun there.
Even though I couldn’t sit up and do things, they’d position me where I could watch the telly. (Later I went out on to the balcony). I wasn’t allowed to do anything, only read. The girls would all come around to talk to me.
I started off in the centre of the ward and then I went up near the window, and if I had a mirror in my hand and I held it up I could see who was coming in and out. “

Eventually she was moved into the Six-Bedder, Adelina Patti’s former bedroom
“That was a very posh! It was very hard to get in to there.”

When she was allowed to get dressed she says some of them bought orange trousers.

“I don’t know why.
We could be seen for miles. We couldn’t escape anywhere, with these bright orange trousers on. We used to go over the lake, the boating lake. We’d fall in a couple of times. Then we’d go down, over the bridge to the woods, to the end of the Craig-y-nos mountain. The grounds were lovely.

I remember a Mary Williams. She was at death’s door when she went in. She had a terrible, terrible cough. Every morning they would have to bring her over the bed and thump her back to get rid of what was on her chest.

We had schooling in Craig-y-nos, very elementary stuff.
Someone bought me a typewriter, I don’t know where it came from, and I learned to do shorthand out of a “Teach yourself” book.

“We had a lot of fun. We used to go down to the basement and they had ‘Jimmy the skeleton’ down there.
We used to go down there and frighten the life out of one another.
One of the girls used to have an empty bottle and blow into it so it made an eerie noise. We used to be awful. We’d frighten all the new girls that came in.
I know it’s a terrible thing to do.
We used to have a lot of fun there.”

She remembers settling well into the sanatorium regime:
“No problem at all. It was a very enjoyable stay.”


“And it’s never bothered me to say that I’ve had TB and been in Craig-y-nos.”

To-day Ann, a mother of three in her sixties with four grandchildren, has restricted mobility and gets around with the aid of two sticks.

“I’ve had both hips replaced and has been on sticks for four years.

It has left one leg two inches shorter than the other one. As long as I can get about I’m happy.
It’s painful all the time. It hasn’t stopped hurting from the time I had it done.
But it’s part of me. I don’t notice it too much.”

May Bennett ( nee Snell)- 1955-1956

May Bennett (née Snell) wrote to Dr Carole Reeves:


"I went to see the exhibition in the museum in Swansea yesterday (Tuesday 29 July). It really was like walking back into the past. They conjured up so many memories, both happy and sad. You and Ann have worked very hard to bring back and hold onto a very important chapter in the lives of ‘the inmates of Craig-y-nos’!

I did see my photograph - blushes in embarrassment! (May – we love this picture), and I also recognised myself in another photograph, which I haven’t seen before, with Pat Curry (that was) from Abercwmboi, and one of the orderlies."

May Bennett ( nee Snell)- 1955-1956

Mary Snell

By the time May Snell, age 13, entered Craig-y-nos in November 1955 the strict sanatorium regime had become more humane , with for example visiting changed from monthly to weekly, due to the successful introduction of antibiotics.
TB was no longer the killer disease though going to Craig-y-nos still aroused fear in peoples minds. Some people still thought:"If you went there you never came out again."


May says:
“Dr Huppert came in one Saturday morning and said, ‘From now on, you’ve all got visiting every weekend.’

But we weren’t sure that our parents would get the message in time for the present weekend. There was a lady in ward 4 engaged to a man from Penclawdd, so I wrote a letter to my parents and asked Nurse Glen if she’d give it to them.
I wrote, ‘Dear Mum and Dad, visiting every weekend starting from today. If you can, come up tomorrow, just jump on the bus.’ I was still in bed then. I remember on the Sunday, the girls by the window used to watch the buses coming up and wait for the Swansea bus to come.
On that Sunday, they said, ‘Here’s the Swansea bus coming!’ One said to me, ‘May, your dad’s there. He’s hanging on the pole and waving!’ My aunt and uncle came as well because Nurse Meikel had told them.






First impression of Craig-y-nos
“I remember looking up at Craig-y-nos Castle and saying to my mother, ‘Are we in the right place? This is a jail!’ -- because of all the bars on the windows. It was a bit of a culture shock.” ( the bars have been removed from the windows because Craig-y-nos Castle is now a hotel )


Despite being put initially on strict bed rest she quickly adapted to the teenage culture inside Ward 2.

’ Some of the girls like Christine Bennett had been there four years, I was lucky really. I was only there for a year but when they’re telling you these things, you think, ‘Oh gosh.’ It was like being in another world. You were in a world of your own, you realised then. You were a bit upset to start with to think you’re not going to see your parents, but you get used to it.”

The visiting tortoise:
“ Astrid’s mum brought a tortoise for her to see one Saturday and my uncle, who was visiting that weekend wrote it up for the local paper.
It said ‘George, the tortoise comes to visit’. It was quite a big piece, a nice piece, and put the hospital in a good light, nothing nasty.


Dr Huppert

Well, the following week, Dr Huppert walked into the ward demanding to know who had done it.


She really went on the rampage. She’d said, ‘Nobody’s going to have visitors until we know.

‘Well,” I said “ I think it’s my uncle that’s done this.’
He had to go and see her the next weekend he came and she wasn’t very nice, she wasn’t very pleased about the tortoise coming in.

Dr Huppert inspired fear not only among the children but their parents too.
“I think all the mothers were terrified of her.
I’ve seen many of them come out in tears. Terrible. I remember once, my hip played me up at one time because I’d had displacement of the hip when I was five, and I was in plaster for a year all down my left leg and up to my chest. Well, they must have given me an X-ray, so she called my mother in to see her and she said, ‘You’re a funny woman, you’re a funny mother because you didn’t tell me about this.’ Well, my mother didn’t. She gave her a list of all my illnesses but that was something she’d forgotten.”
Dr Huppert was also a tough disciplinarian. If she heard children talking after lights out“your bed would be pulled out into the middle of the ward next day as punishment.”


Nurse Glen

But May has fond memories of the nurses:” They were lovely. You had Nurse Glenys Davies and Auntie Mag – Maggie Williams – she was lovely. And Nurse Mair Williams. I remember her doing the Can-Can.”


Auntie Maggie

The only food she can remembers are the burnt sausages, porridge, semonlia and tapioca.
Once a month an aunt would send a little food parcel
“ sweets, a packet of cream crackers, farm butter and a knife.“
Every Saturday my mum would bring me a fish from Belli’s fish and chip shop Swansea it’s not there now, and pickles because I loved pickled vinegar.”
May had visitors every weekend, unlike some of the children.
“Perhaps their parents were too far away or whatever. Well, you shared your visitors. My mum and dad would go and speak to the others, so really I suppose, we were like one big family because I remember Christine’s gran, Mrs Bennett, she was a character. Two of the girls got confirmed there, in the Madame Patti theatre.




The teachers, Miss Thomas and Miss White

Schooling, recalls May, was minimal.
I came from Gowerton Grammar school. They didn’t have all the books in Craig-y-nos. Miss White was the teacher. You didn’t really have lessons like you should. I remember children in maths saying, ‘Can you show me how to do this?’ She’d be the whole lesson doing this. The others then, they didn’t care if they didn’t do anything.

On a Thursday afternoon, we used to have Miss Thomas with music. I remember ‘Nymphs and Shepherds’ and ‘Oh for the wings of a dove.”

“I didn’t go back to grammar school. When I went home the following year, the doctor in Grove Place (TB clinic) said, ‘There is no way you can go back to grammar school because it would be too stressful.’ I would have such a lot to catch up on that I wouldn’t be able to do it and I had to be careful. When you come out of a TB hospital, you’ve got to watch and go to bed by certain times and all that. So, I went to Gorseinon Technical College to do a commercial course for two years. I became a shorthand typist.

Like so many other girls May found it a strange experience going back home especially to a small terraced house after the high celings and vast rooms in the castle”
“You really felt as if the ceiling was going to come in on you. Also you
. did miss the company. You missed the routine.

I’d only been away a year but that year felt like ten. You really did feel as if you were on another planet. You were in a different world.
You were allowed to go out into the grounds but only to certain places..
I remember the Ystalyfera Band. I’ve got a photograph of the Band down in the grounds.
We weren’t allowed to go upstairs to the little ones and neither were we allowed to go into the six-bedder.”
Despite this strict segregation some friendships did form.

You used to go down for X-rays every so often and I remember going there once and Mary Cullen from Swansea was there, so we were speaking. She said, ‘Oh, well, I’m next door to you in six-bedder.’ They weren’t allowed to come in to our ward really, and we weren’t allowed to go in there. Of course, they were older and they had visitors every week.
Mary started sending me then some little cakes and things in from the weekend, with a little note saying, ‘From your X-ray pal, Mary.’ I’ve got a photograph of Mary that she gave me and she’s got on the back, ‘From your X-ray pal.”

Sign language.
Like a number of other teenagers around this time May learnt sign language from Joan Nicesro, the deaf and dumb girl. “Her mum lived in a trailer in one of the fields in Gower. She was a traveller’s child.”

May used to put fruit in her pocket for the weekly weigh-in:
“I was very light and Dr Huppert said, ‘Oh, you can’t go home. You’ve got to put weight on.’ I So I put fruit in the pockets of my dressing gown.
But they sussed that out. ‘We don’t think you’re that heavy. Let’s have a look.’

Times change.
“Years ago they would say: ‘You go to Craig-y-nos and you don’t come out.’ I was there in the 50s in the streptomycin era so it was bed-rest and strep.
There was a lot of camaraderie in the ward once you got to know everyone. It was a bit strange to start with because it was quite a big ward and you had people on the balcony as well but you soon got to know them. I think we were all good friends really. There used to be Girl Guides.
you made your own entertainment. You’d sing.

Life after Craig-y-nos
I’m sixty-five now. I’ve got a son of forty-four and a daughter forty-three and four grandchildren.

I did ask, before we got married to see whether everything would be alright to have children and they said, ‘Yes, it’s fine.’




I can’t say that Craig-y-nos harmed my life. I suppose I was one of the lucky ones because I only had a shadow on the lung and it did clear up with the bed-rest and antibiotics.

On going home
I remember leaving a lot of stuff behind, and what I did bring home was fumigated.

On reflection

You just accepted your way of life there because you didn’t know anything else. You were in a place that wasn’t home but you had to make it home.
You’ve got your sad memories but on the whole, it was a happy time.
When you think of it, it was a beautiful place to be in. It was just that when you went there, the first impression was the bars on the windows.

If it wasn’t for Dr Huppert, it would have been like paradise!”

BBC radio programme

If you missed the BBC Wales radio programme in which Roy Harry Betty Thomas and Valerie Brent were interviewed don't worry: the producer is going to send me a copy on CD which I can put on the web.

Exhibition finished today!

Whoops! sorry about this but there seems to have been some last minute misunderstanding. Larry Perry and Christine tell me that they went there today at lunch-time to find the staff finishing packing up the exhibition.

Still we have had a very good run and over 700 people have signed the Visitors Book.