I am still trying to establish how many beds there were in Ward 2. My own memory is 16- 18. Others have suggested 14 so I was interested to hear that Rose Hunt thought it was closer to 20.
When I re-visited the derelict childrens ward earlier this year I couldn't believe it would have been possible to get so many beds into that room. I would have estimated 8, maybe ten. Now with the passing of time it does not seem such a vast room after all.
There was an occasion, probably in the winter of 1952/53, when there was only three of us left outside and it began to snow heavily.
That night there was a new young night nurse on duty and it was the first time she had seen the full -blown "fresh air" treatment. She was shocked at the severity of it.
But we didnt mind the snow. In fact we were quite cosy and had built little igloos from tarpaulin over our beds. We revelled in the snow. It added excitement to our lives.
"You poor things! I can't leave you out there!" So she wheeled our beds in. There were only three of us. We had great fun in the ward that night dancing on the table and having races over the beds, jumping easily from one to another throughout the ward.
Next morning Sister Morgan pushed us back outside saying that a bit of snow never harmed anyone.
The proximity of the beds lead to sexual experimentations by the older girls. Night sister once found two kissing behind their locker and they got a fearful row.
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