"Six-bedder" photos - 1953

June

Nurse Ritchie

It seems strange that Adelina Patti's boudoir should have acquired the mundane name of "six-bedder" but there it is, enshrined in everyone's memory, not as the bedroom of the most famous opea singer of her day, but known simply as: "The Six-bedder".

I wonder if anyone knows what Ward 2 and Ward 1 were used for in Patti's day?

Christine Thornton (nee Davies) - 1944-48 and 1952-53

Christine is nearest the camera.

I try and encourage former patients to write their own story.
This is Christine's personal account of her time in Craig-y-nos.

Going into hospital
“I was taken ill before my 8th birthday and was admitted to Swansea General hospital. I was a patient there for sometime before I was transferred to Craig-y-nos.

Diagnosis
My illness was caused by TB in the glands of my stomach. My treatment as I remember was complete bed rest.

As time went on I became aware of a pain in the upper half of my right leg especially when I was jumping around in my bed as children do, I cant remember when it was that Dr Huppert came to Craig-y-nos but I do remember her doing the rounds and when it was my turn to be examined I remember screaming out with pain because she couldn't straighten my right leg.

Iron frame
I was taken for an x-ray which showed I had TB in my hip which was quite serious. I was put onto an iron frame which I can only describe as follows:

the leg parts were similar to two callipers with a bar across the middle splaying my legs outwards, the calliper parts were attached to a straight piece covered in something like vinyl and this made up the iron frame. My legs and body were strapped down to this frame and my only movement was of my head from side to side, and both my arms were free.

Washing
It was difficult for some parts of my body to be washed and despite being rubbed with metholayted spirits. I did get bedsores and I still have the scars today.

Plaster casts and callipers
I remember being very ill with my TB hip. the dr told my mother I might not survive and if I did it was unlikely that I would ever walk again. I was quite some time on the iron frame but I did make progress and eventually I was put into as plaster cast that covered my right leg and my body up to my under arms. Then after some time spent like that I had a calliper fitted from ankle to thigh on my right leg. At last the rest of my body was free. I was taught to walk again and I eventually went home. I was 14 before I could walk without the calliper.

Two relapses
When I was 17 years of age I was once again a patient in Craig-y-nos this time with TB of the lung. I did have a relapse of TB in my lung about 3 years later but I was treated with drugs at home this time.

My working life
Despite my loss of schooling while at Craig-y-nos and the life long disability of my TB hip I did manage to learn a lot and ended up doing some really good jobs. Many people today cringe when they know of my treatment for my TB hip but its what worked in those days and I am thankful to have survived such a dreadful illness.

On the balcony in the 1947 snow“Most of my childhood in Craig-y-nos was spent out on the balcony. I was the only patient on an iron frame, two girls were on plaster beds and a few were in callipers.

We were on the balcony in the snow of 1947. We had tarpaulin sheets on our beds to keep the snow off and we had vaseline rubbed into our faces to stop us from chapping.

The nurses were wonderful, although they must have been freezing they did their best to keep us cheerful. The cold was the best cure for TB in those days.

Children dying
On occasions that I spent in the ward I remember that some patients were not in their beds in the morning and when we asked the nurses where they were they told us they had gone home but we all knew they had died and although we were all very sad they were not mentioned again. The beds were soon taken up by new patients.

Going out
I remember times in Craig-y-noss when we were taken out. Once we went to see a show in Swansea. I think it was at the Grand. They put a board over two or three seats on the bus that took us and the same in the theatre and my iron frame was laid on to this board.

Trip to the seaside
Another time I remember going to the “slip” part of Swansea Bay. I believe I was in my calliper this time and I remember lots of people gathered around us just looking and smiling.
We often had shows in the theatre of Craig-y-nos.

Death in the “Six-bedder”
The second time I went to Craig-y-nos I was in the “six bedder” and the six of us got on very well together.
One girl did die and it was a very very sad time for us.

Seances
We played games like “I spy” and once we had a seance at midnight. We all got out of bed for this and the screeching of the glass across the glass topped table frightened us so much we never did did again.

Cold bedpans
We often teased the nurses and played some tricks on them and they got their own back by giving us cold bedpans which were made of steel in those days.

Graded time up
Once we had finished our course of streptomycin which took about 9 months we were allowed up gradually. At first it was half hour in the chair then toilet walk, followed by 1 hour out of bed. When it got to two hours out of bed we could get dressed and walk around and then three -four hours increasing to all day when we could go out in the grounds for a little walk.

Dusting duties
We also helped with the dusting- light duties to get our strength back before going home.

Inside Ward 2 : Summer Salads- 1950

Ann ( in bed) and girl with pig-tails.


I remember finding a live slug in my salad during my first summer there and calling the nurse over to inspect it convinced that at last I had found a reason why I could not eat my food.

She took one look at it and reprimanded me for “searching the food.”


I was told to “get on and eat it” while the slug walked around the edge of my plate.
I was 9 years of age at the time . And coughing up blood.

Can anyone remember the food at Craig-y-nos?

Putting together the story of Craig-y-nos is like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle.

Take the question of food.
What was it like at Craig-y-nos?

In theory it should have been plentiful and good after all did we have a team of gardeners who grew all the fresh fruit and vegetables for the hospital.
And a high calorie diet was deemed essential along with the "fresh air" treatment.

Well, the food was certainly abundant. In fact it was not just the patients who were coerced into eating all their food.
Nurses were expected to eat a high calorie diet too in order to build up their immune system to combat TB.

One young nurse told me that in the 1940’s the matron would threaten:”No food, no ward.”


So it was interesting to speak to one ex-patient last night who had clear memories of the food. She summed it up in one word:”Horrible!”

Looking back she says the main complaint was that it was served cold.
By the time we got our meals the food had already travelled through several corridors, and a lift to the ward kitchen on the second floor.
Here Sister Morgan dished it out on to plates which maids carried into the wards.

Secondly, most of it was boiled and overcooked.
She remembers we had a lot of boiled potatoes and tapioca pudding.

These are some sample menus:

Breakfast- lumpy porridge, hard boiled egg, cold kipper, herring.

Dinner: boiled chicken, rabbit, mousse, tapioca, salads,

Supper: fried egg

Very small children in the Glass Conservatory recall “the sweetie tin” being handed around at the end of each meal.

Christmas dinners are looked back upon with affection by those who can remember them because they were warm and Dr Williams carved the turkey from a heated trolley in the ward though one patient recalls a year when Dr Huppert dissected the bird.

What can you remember about the food?

Margaret's poem about Craig-y-nos - 1955

Craig-y-nos towers high above us
Holding memories of the past
Such as Madam Patti singing
With a glorious voice that lasts
With its walls so firmly standing
And a turret of the best
It will guard us, be our refuge
Till at last we pass the test.

Margaret Blake (nee Howells) wrote this poem while at Craig-y-nos in 1955.

Young women in Craig-y-nos, early 1950's

(top picture) Pat, Jean and May on the stag in 1953
(bottom) Iris on the bridge , taken in 1952


These are some more photos from Pat Hybert's collection.

Carol Hughes, nee Davies from Skewen - 1951

Extract from Carol's e-mail:

" I was a patient at Craig y nos.  I was admitted  there in 1951 from Sully hospital I remember sister Morgan telling my mother to leave me now  and see what the outcome would be.
  I was 5 years old at the time and my mother left crying  but I did gain weight and picked up . In 1952 I was sent back to Sully hospital to have the lower lobe of my left lung removed I was then sent back to Craig y nos for rest and fresh air.

I was on the top floor .  I just got better I never liked the food I will always remember the windows wide open in all weathers  and the bars on them.
Our teacher was Mrs Thomas. I remember singing with Harry Secombe . As I got better I was allowed out into the grounds."

Extract from Carol's contribution on the BBC MidWales site:
I was small when I was at craig y nos from 1951 to 1954 but I remember my time there we were expected to eat food.
If we wasted it we would get it back later in the day. Letters in and out were censored they all started ' dear mam and dad I am well and happy'. If I got a parcel from home some items were removed sweets and soap I never saw these when I could get out of bed I use to wander so I remember if I went too far I would get a harness put on me to keep me in bed for a few hours or our beds were pulled out in the middle of the ward in disgrace they said so Doctor Huppert would see we had done wrong.
I had 1 friend Olwen Price but we lost touch after going home.
I would love to know how she is.
It was cruel but I did go back to Craig -y -nos 2 years ago it brought back everything my missing years. It would be nice if they arranged a patients day once a year where we could all go if possible and remember our past our friends who went through the same as us.

Girls from 1955

Margaret Hughes

Anne Thomas

These girls are in the photo collection of Margaret Howells , and were taken on the balcony of Ward 2.

Do you know where they are now?

Mary Davies (nee Morris) -1951

Got this email from Mary to-day:

" Hey I would like to add to your site with my experiences.

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 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, this is a picture of the bungalow.


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 too far to travel as we lived in Rhayader in Mid Wales

Mair Harris ( nee Edwards) 1950-52 and 2007

Mair and Nurse Glenys Davies

Mair and Ann


The photos were taken over 50 years apart: all at Craig-y-nos!
They show Mair with Nurse Davies and the lower ones are of Mair with myself. ( She reminded me that I was known as "Titch").


Mair had already started at grammar school when she went into Craig-y-nos as a 13 year old. She was there for 22 months, and she has “very pleasant memories”of her time on the balcony and the teaching she received from Miss White.

“She helped me enormously. By the time I got back to school I found I was not that far behind the other children.”

Unfortunately Mair was not able to finish her education because she had a relapse. But she later went on to become a librarian.


Mair ( in bed) with friends giving the Girl Guides salute.

Pat Hybert ( nee Mogridge) -1951-53

Pat in the "six-bedder"


(from left to right) Pat, Jean and Babs

A disk full of photos of Craig-y-nos arrived this morning courtesy of Pat’s daughter who very kindly scanned them into the computer.

Pat was in the “six-bedder” as a 19 year old in 1951.
She says:”I recognise quite a few people from the photos you have put up on the net.
I remember Betty Jakes well. She was at one time living next door to me as we grew up.

"Betty was in Ward 4. I went to visit her in Morriston hospital after she had a lung removed and we kept in touch for quite a while.”
Betty now lives in Llanmadoc.

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.

Who are these girls- 1954

(from left to right):
Christine Bennett, Pam, Anne Thomas, Margaret and June. Is this correct? does anyone have any further information?

Inside Ward 2 - 1952

Both these photos were taken around the same time- 1952- and belong to the collection of Myfwany Blatchford ( nee Hoyles).
They tell very different stories: the unknown child with her bed on blocks inside Ward 2 with Norma and two teenage girls ( Mari and Florence) enjoying a walk in the ground.

Margaret Davies ( nee Maddock)-1951

Monday morning. Phone rings.
A lilting Welsh voice asks:”Are you still wanting ex- patients from Craig-y-nos?”
“Of course!”
“I was admitted in January 1951 into Ward 1."
“How old were you?”
“Four and a half. I left for Sully in February 1952."
We have a chat.
Her memories of Craig-y-nos are not pleasant.
“It was a terrifying place. I was the youngest in the ward and I only spoke Welsh. Nobody could understand me. There was a nurse, Auntie Maggie, who was Welsh speaking and that was a great help."

“I had to lie on my stomach and they put me at the foot of the bed otherwise I would not see anyone.”

She lay like that for thirteen months before being transferred to Sully for an operation to remove one lobe of her lung.

During this time she learnt to speak English and she recalls the ghost stories about Adelina Patti told by the older girls, often with the intention of frightening the younger ones.
“For years afterwards I slept with the sheet wrapped around my head.”

We share memories.

“I still sleep with a sheet around my head unless I am with my husband,” I say.
So powerful were those stories imprinted in my mind.

Like many of us Margaret has no recollection of Christmas or birthdays though she does recall going to see Harry Secombe in 1952.
“ My bed was wheeled down to the theatre. This was the only time, apart from x-rays, that I ever left Ward 1 in the 13 months I was there.”

She can’t recall any form of heating:
“ It was always cold and windy.”

Despite having lost nearly four years of schooling Margaret passed the 11 plus and went to grammar school leaving after her ’O’ levels to take a secretarial course.
After marriage and the birth of her daughter she worked as a practise manager for her local health centre in Penclawdd for 23 years.

(extract from longer interview)

"Auntie Maggie" on Ward 2 balcony

"Auntie Maggie" with Christine Bennett (right) on the balcony.
The two names that keep recurring in photos and stories are nurse Glenys Davies and "Auntie Maggie".
They are remembered with a great deal of affection by ex-patients for their kindness because they helped "humanise" the "Craig-y-nos" sanatorium experience.

Mary Davies ( nee Murphy) Craig-y-nos and Sully - 1951-52

Mary was only a toddler when she was admitted to Craig-y-nos in 1951.

She recollects being in the glass conservatory, ( the ward used for very small children) and her tears when her mother left.

“There was a black nurse and nurse Glenys Davies. I remember them. They were very good to me.”

Her father, a naval officer, had died of TB and her mother was told that she was unlikely to survive: “at one stage I was given 24 hours to live.”

After 14 months she was transferred to Sully for an operation. She still looks back upon the sharp contrast between the two hospitals.
“Craig-y-nos was dark, cold and close to the mountains. Sully was light, warm and near the sea.”


She recalls having to be reintroduced to her family when she did eventually get home.
“It was two years out of my life at a very young age”.

Mary is interested in finding out how other children survived the “Craig-y-nos experience because it was so unusual.”

Today Mary, age 56, is an art teacher, married, and living in Leatherhead.

She is the niece of Bridie Ronan, already featured in this weblog.

Nurses on Ward 2 balcony -mid 1950's

(Left) Nurse Faith Brown and unknown sister.

By this time the balcony had been enclosed . If you look carefully you can see the windows . True to tradition though they are wide open! I understand that the covering in of the balconies was the first stirring of "parent power".

Parents, so I am told, complained as they sat there with their hot water bottles that if they were cold then their daughters must be too!
All I can say is that they were lucky to get hot water bottles....

Your age and the sanatorium regime

I thought at first that as the Craig-y-nos story unfolded there would be a noticeable change, a relaxation in the rules, in the sanatorium regime as the decades rolled by and this would be reflected in peoples stories.


True, the discipline was much more severe in the 1920’s and 30’s yet the regime remained surprising intact well into the 1950’s.

The crucial factors determing the kind of experience you had at Craig-y-nos was not the decade you were in but your age, and the stage of the disease, on admittance.

The younger you were the more upset you would be.


Yes I know its blindingly obvious to us today but in those days nothing was known of the psychological trauma children could suffer when removed from their families and placed into what would appear to a small, sick child as a cold, hostile, isolated environment.

I was reminded of this today when a woman rang up who had been in the children's ward ( the glass conservatory) as a 14 month old baby. She remembers forming a strong attachment to nurse Glenys Davies and a "black nurse" . Later she was told that her
mother was distraught because the child no longer recognized her. This was 1950.

Girls on stag - 1953

(back) Myfwany and Florence
(standing from left to right) Valerie and Mari.

The stag was a popular venue for taking photographs and it also marked an important step in your progress.
Your first five minute walk outside was between the two stags.