As a young lad I had a number of visits to the Stockton and Thornaby hospital on Bowesfield Lane, all for various injuries received whilst playing in the street with my friends. I remember once when I was about ten years old I had been taken by ambulance to have a plaster removed from a broken toe and after the plaster had been removed I was told I could go home. I had no money and it looked like a four hour walk back to Billingham, I was standing outside looking lost when a nurse coming on duty asked if I was alright, I told her what had happened and she gave me threepence for my bus fare home, I have always remembered that very kind act even now sixty years later.
Image and details courtesy of Bruce Coleman.
In addition to the above, may I add a small item of Rememberance Praise here for the “Winterton Hospital, Sedgefield, which many Stocktonians attended as patients? Due to World War 2, this hospital changed from being a local to Stockton Asylum for the Insane into a General NHS Hospital known today as The Sedegfield General Hospital, In 1953 I spent a week there with a foot injury, I was 13 and the baby of the men’s ward. My fellow patients were a group of Durham coal miners who had been seriously injured in a pit-roof collapse. I matured and grew up that week just by watching and listening to them with great awe and admiration. A tragedy of modern-day life is the now-mostly forgotten debt we owe them and our ever so industrious and loyal forbears, In their memory, I occasionally attend from Leeds the Durham Miners Gala and ‘the big day out parade and gatherings’. God Bless all our kinfolk and former Durham Miners and their respective families.
I, like many others, remember Stockton and Thornaby Hospital with mixed feelings. I spent a month recovering from Double Pneumonia in the forties. My Doctor had told my mother not to expect me to recover as I was placed in the ambulance as it was a very serious illness in those days. As coincidence my younger brother Maurice was placed beside me in the ambulance with a rusty six inch nail through his calf. After living on Lucozade for the stay in hospital I miraculously recovered, so the Hospital got good marks for this treatment. A bit different for my next visit. I attended for Piles treatment, ‘Bend over in the kneeling Monk position’ said the surgeon, he then prceeded to puncture the piles with a sharp needle, the pain was excruciating, after the treatment I was sent home on foot, no ambulance. Luckily I had the bus fare but I will never forget the pain on the way home sitting on the Bus. They bred them tough in those days, the surgeons I mean not the patients, no sympathy or tea with them…
Gosh the photo featuring Stockton and Thornaby Hospital and Queens Nursing Home evokes memories. I and my wife were both born in the Robson Maternity Home. She in 1946 and me in 1948. As I understand it the Robson was on Bowesfield Lane. I wonder if there was a name change at some point in it’s history? I can recall that when our six children came along, they all entered life at the Stockton Maternity Hospital up at Hardwick. I can remember that on a concourse serving one of the wards, there hung a big brass bell which had been preserved from the Robson.
As a result of various mishaps in my youth, I was required to attend Stockton and Thornaby Hospital for treatment. There are various parts of my body where medical staff stitched me up with catgut thread following various accidents. My dear widowed Mum was the one who always accompanied me for treatment.
I can even remember attending there (again with Mum,) to receive treatment for a cluster of warts on the back of my right hand just below the joint of my little finger and it’s neighbour. The warts hadn’t responded to the usual treatment of painting them with some kind of solvent to dissolve them, so our family doctor sent me to S&T Hospital for treatment using X-Rays. Come to think of it now, I suppose we wouldn’t think of bombarding a youngster with radiation, but they sure did then. I had to sit by a treatment bed where ordinarily a patient might lie to have an X-Ray taken. The X-Ray machine head was lowered down from above so that the lens was just above the warts. A timer was set and everybody vacated the room. After a moment the X-Ray machine would start up and apply the radiation. A loud “click” (which always made me jump) signalled the end of the treatment. I seem to recall I had about half a dozen sessions of this treatment. I have to say the treatment worked, with the warts disappearing after a few weeks. The only down side is my right hand displays an eerie green glow in the dark! (Just kidding.)
The nice thing about attending the S&T Hospital for treatment was the visit we would make to a relative who lived in one of the streets opposite the hospital. To this day I haven’t been able to work out who she was or where she fitted in to our family, but I sure enjoyed the cakes and other treats she gave me.
I remember when I was nearly 9 back in 1963,I spent a few weeks on the childrens ward with a bone desese, ostiomylitis I think,if the spelling is correct.Every afternoon the nurse came around and gave all the children a spoonful of malt from a big jar,I thought it was great by the way,then the curtains were closed and we had to sleep for an hour or so,imagine that nowadays, and I remember it being so quiet on the ward–a big difference from todays busy hospitals.Ever tried getting to sleep in a modern hospital ? You can’t wait to get home for a rest from the noise ! Not the overworked staffs fault I know but the powers that be,holding the purse strings.
Sorry about your broken toe Bruce , I would have given you the bus money had I known. Freda, Australia
Did one of these become a maternity hospital? I’m not sure where I was born! Lol
Queens Nursing home on the bottom left, this looks like the building on the corner of Bowesfield Lane and Yarm Lane which is now a solicitors I believe. Can anyone confirm this?
Well spotted Jon, Google Streetview suggests that it is a perfect match!