Craig-y-nos Castle : "the past is a foreign country"

“The past” said L.P.Hartley ” is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

I am reminded of this as the story of Craig-y-nos Castle, the former children’s TB sanatorium unfolds.

Not only is it half a century back in time but the whole regime was so unusual, and because of the taboo surrounding the “white plague” little spoken about that only now is the true story beginning to unfold.

It is one of incredible optimism in the face of a bleak medical scenario. Until the event of drugs there was a 25 per cent death rate.

Technology is helping to piece together those memories of people who were there as patients, most of them now into their 60,70s and even 80s.
Their children, and grandchildren, are helping them gather up photos tucked away in family albums from this era and transmit them to me either by email or CD.