Frances Purcell

Frances - are you the middle girl in this photo? the one in bed is me  (Ann) and the girl standing next to you is Mair.

I was checking out my blog the other day when  I came across this comment from Frances Purcell.
"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 reagard, Frances "

It jogged my memory. Now I remember you. If you want to get in touch email me at- annshaw@mac.com

Patients Reunion - 2012

This was a truly amazing evening - thanks to Roy Harry, Sylvia Moore and a team of helpers.
 Even BBC Wales turned up to film this reunion of "the children of Craig-y-nos”. For Craig-y-nos was one of the rare children’s TB sanatoriums and along with medical historian Carole Reeves we reconstructed 40 years of missing Welsh history in the book The Children of Craig-y-nos.
Tonight some of those children now in their 60s 70s and 80s gathered together in this remote castle, former home of opera diva Adelina Patti, for their third reunion. 



Far from interest diminishing in the castle and the children it is stronger than ever. I sat between a Hungarian filmmaker and a BBC scriptwriter and there was another writer at the table busy working on a script too. 


Suddenly the story of The Children of Craig-y-no’s is "hot”.

Over 70 people turned up and there was a presentation to Nurse Glen too.

Patient Reunion this coming Thursday evening at Craig-y-nos Castle- if you are interested in attending then ring the castle to book a place.

Brian Collins- Craig-y-nos 1946

Children at pantomine in the Adelina Patti theatre

I received this letter the other day from Brian Collins who lives in Glasbury-on-Wye, near Hereford: " I was there for twelve months as an eight year-old before being transferred to Highland Moors in Llandrindrod Wells. Reading your book brought back many memories, some sad, some happy, some angry, some frustrating.

I have a couple of memories you might like to hear about. on my first day in the castle I was given a bed-pan to use. Having never seen, let alone used, one before I placed it on the floor to use. The onlooking boys thought this very amusing and made real fun of me. Not the best first impression! It was interesting to note tht other patients had vivid memories of the infamous Dr Hubbard!

Two stand out in my mind. As my mother had died of TB I was visited once a month by my Auntie Sal who, on one occasion, brought along a gift of a "pop" gun. For some reason this was confiscated by Dr Hubbard. When it was returned eventually by a nurse I was devastated to find that the cork had been eaten by a mouse and it no longer 'popped'. On the day of my transfer to Highland Moor by Dr Hubbard she stopped the car for a meal at the Cafe Royal in Brecon leaving me alone in the car! I also remember being placed in "restraints"to tie me to the bed. I found I could wriggle out of the four ties so they would put me in the 8 ties- one each side of the bed and two to the back of the bed. I could not turn over. It was to stop me getting out of bed. That ws Dr Hubbard again. I don't think that would happen now."

"The Children of Craig-y-nos" by Ann Shaw and Carole Reeves published by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, price £9.99p available from Amazon.co.uk

Filmmaker planning film about Craig-y-nos

Craig-y-nos Castle, viewed from the lake.

I have just had a long chat with Hungarian filmmaker Tamas Tatai about his project. He is interested in making a film about our book, “The Children of Craig-y-nos”, * based on Craig-y-nos Castle, a children’s sanatorium in mid-Wales, documenting forty years of lost Welsh history. The book is with a screenwriter who is also fascinated by the account of how children were removed from their parents and “imprisoned” in a castle for years on end. It was done on health grounds based on the same principle of treatment for leprosy i.e. remove the infected person from the community and isolate them in remote areas.

I was one of them.

Children have endless capacity for adapting and we did not think it in any way abnormal that we slept outside on open balconies in winter with beds covered in tarpaulin to protect us from rain and snow.

*The 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 from Amazon.