Bretby Hall was the home of Lord Carnarvon who oversaw the work on the tomb
of Tutankhamun at Luxor in Egypt. Of recent years it was an orthopaedic hospital
but is now closed with an uncertain future.
Hilary Now Bretby Hall’s closed and the history is just going, it’s so sad.
Pat And again, I can remember going down there in a little dance group, and dancing, putting performances on for the soldiers there. And we used to take them sweets and chocolates and my mother also had a friend who lived there, her husband was the stoker, in the boiler house and we would go there in the summer holidays. And I can always remember they had two children and there was my brother and myself and my mother used to go and help this lady to do some wallpapering. He showed us what he said was a secret passageway and we finished up on the top and my mother came out to peg the washing out and nearly had a fit. You could have magical times down there.
Hilary Did the Hall take soldiers, was it a hospital?
Jeffrey Yes it was a military hospital, they had the blue uniforms, red ties and white shirts.
Hilary I remember they brought the horse Foxhunter there in the field opposite the Coal Board. I remember climbing up on the rails to see this horse towering above me. Because they used to use that top field for training the horses, didn’t they?
Was that the first time it was used as a hospital, for the soldiers?
Jeffrey No, it was an isolation hospital before that, when the diphtheria and TB was rife. All the wards had French windows that opened so they could all get the air.
Pat There was TB there. I trained to be a nurse, and when I married, for eighteen months we lived with my mother. And old Doctor Fraser he came to see my mother, one day because my mother never had very good health and I can always remember Jane my eldest was only about… well she was born in the November and this was January. And he came one day and I said, “Who did you want to see?” and he said, “I’ve come to see you, I want a favour.” He said, “I want you to go and work at Bretby Hospital.” And I said, “I can’t, I’ve got this baby, I’ve finished work.” Now my mother, when she was well, she looked after Jane, and she said, “Look, I will look after the baby.” He had said it was short-term. So he said, “go down and see Matron and tell her what hours you want to work.” So my father was on nights, he used to come and go to bed, and they’d got it all arranged that I worked an 8 till 2 shift And I got up and got my baby ready, and I walked and got the “brake” as they called it, it used to come up to the cottage to pick staff up. And then at two o’clock my father used to get up, put the baby in the pram, and walk to meet me. So I worked down there, and there were TB cases, but they were TB orthopaedic cases, probably TB bones. I worked from January to Easter and then I left because obviously, having a new baby, I didn’t want to work, I wanted to be with my baby. But I must admit I enjoyed it. It was a nice atmosphere down there.
When I was nursing, in the fifties, they used to have dances down there, and they used to invite nurses from Burton Hospital and also RAF chappies from Hednesford and we used to have great times there. And the Matron used to say, “You can have a room in the Nurses Home.” The hospital seemed more relaxed than a general hospital, because they were long-term patients as you found on an orthopaedic ward at Burton. In those days most of your cases were either mining or motorcycle accidents because most young boys had a motorcycle. And it was, if you can call any ward a nice ward, a nice ward to be in. I always had a soft spot for orthopaedics.
Click one of the following links for more information or to return to my Home Page:-
5,6 The Newhall Wakes / Works trips by train
7 More hardships of World War Two