Sully Hospital

“Science is measurement” - Dr Len West

2011-11-23T12:34:00.015Z

Dr Len West ( right) with Dr Hugh Richmond and a radiologist.

I am grateful to Rosie West, daughter of Australian doctor Len West, for providing information on her father, Len West, who played such a pivotal role in pioneering medical research at Sully.

He was at Sully from 1948 until his tragic early death in 1970 from lung cancer at 59 years of age.

Rosie says:
“Like so many doctors of that time he smoked."

She recalls going to Sully on Saturdays while her father attended to work. "I also went to the children's parties."

She remembers meeting Dr Foreman, the New Zealand medical superintendent and Dilwyn Thomas the surgeon.

Dr Bill Foreman (left) and Dr Len West walking in the grounds of Sully hospital ( circa 1960s).

This obituary appeared in the British Medical Journal on 15 August 1970.

“Dr.L.R. West, consultant chest physician, Sully hospital, Penarth, Glamorgan, died on 11 July at the age of 59.

Leonard Roy West, a South Australian from a medical family, was born on 20 May 1911.

He received his medical education at Adelaide University, graduating M.B., B.S in 1935.

After some jobs in Adelaide he came to London to work for his M.R.C.P, which he took in 1937.
He had house physician posts at he Brompton Hospital and King Edward V11 Sanatorium in Midhdurst before enlisting in the R.A.M.C in 1941.

During his military service he was in Gibraltar, and joined the 6th Airborne Division, which landed in France on D-Day. At the crossing of the Rhine he was mentioned in dispatches,

After demobilization he went back to Midhdurst and in 1947 was appointed chest physician to Sully hospital, to which he devoted the rest of his life.

He was a member of many learned societies including the Thoracic Society and the Cardiac Society, and he was elected F.R.C.P. in 1967.

Thirty years of living in Britain had no effects on the Australian characteristics of Len West. He was enterprising, competent and interested in science to an extraordinary degree.

Len West and Bill Foreman with the team of doctors at Sully hospital.

“Science is measurement” was his motto and he never fell short of it, whether it was in building the first tomography apparatus at Midhurst or making the equipment for and performing the first cardiac catheterization in Wales.
Constructing highly sophisticated electronic apparatus for clinical and research investigations were among the many activities t which he excelled, and undoubtedly it was he who laid the foundations of specialized cardio-thoracic work in Wales.
In addition he was a good teacher and lecturer as well as a sound clinician.

Len West will be well remembered by his many friends for his impish humour, for his bravery, which was exemplified during his long and painful illness, and for his outstanding ability as a chest physician, scientist m an engineer.

His memory will extend far outside the immediate area of his work through the many graduates from all pats of the world that he instructed.

He leaves a wife and a son and a daughter.”

This plaque was placed on the building where Dr West and others did experiments on sheep.

Nurse -Sully 1936- 1940

2011-11-17T12:32:00.003Z

Rosemary West, daughter of the renowned Sully surgeon Len West, has supplied me with a wealth of information about Sully.

Here is a letter from a student nurse who worked there in 1936 and it was published in the South Wales Echo on April 28 2002.

Iris Deli of Tynewydd Rd, Barry wrote:
"Sully Hospital was a place of great hope for so many patients and their families.

Some of the happiest years of my life were spent there.

It was in 1936 age 18 that a lovely lady interviewed me for a position as a probationer nurse called Matron Gould, for whom I had the greatest respect.

After some initial training, I was assigned to a ward where the patients were all young girls in their teens who had come from Glan Ely hospital.

It must have been wonderful for them to come to such a lovely place.

Although most of them were terminal cases, there was always hope and they were the happiest girls I had ever met.

With the introduction of new drugs, many patients recovered.

I nursed a girl who had been in my class at in Gladstone Road School, and, until recently, was an active member of the WRVS.

We worked long hours with split shifts, during which we had to attend lectures and had little remuneration – 19 shillings (95) a month but we were happy and contended in the fact that we were to the best of our ability trying to make life a little it more comfortable for those more uncomfortable than ourselves.

During my three and a half years there, I made many friends with whom I am still in touch.”.

Steve Parker-staff (1983-1989)

2011-11-16T17:23:00.005Z

Steve in the stocks during the annual Sully Hospital fete ( 1985).

Sully Hospital - Nurses Home

Steve Parker has fond memories of his time in Sully where he worked from 1983 to 1989 as a maintenance carpenter.

“ I was only 21 years of age when I started work there.

In 1994, I moved from my parents home and into the Nurses Home. My room was 131, on the first floor of the Nurses Home, next to the lift (East Wing) and opposite the communal toilets with a view of the kitchens.

It was very tiny.

My initial thoughts were:” what have I done!”

There was loud music coming along the corridor, all-coming from different rooms and thus different tunes.

After unpacking on my first evening I sat in my chair and left the door wide open.

I had a great view of the toilets. I just sat there and drank a few tins of beer.

After two hours there were sounds of laughter and a young girl appeared in the doorway dressed in her nightclothes.

She said:“oh you’re new.
Do you want to join us in the kitchen?
We’re having a séance.”

Well, I had never been to a séance before but I thought I would give it a try.

“ Well there were about six or so students all sat around a coffee table all in their night dresses and a couple of empty bottles of wine and me.

“We were unable to contact the dead but it did change my mind about staying.

Sian Phillips was the Warden. She lived on the first floor at the very end of the West wing. She left in 1986 and the new warden Gloria Rowe, was married and did not live in the nurses home.

Eventually the porters got fed up of letting locked out students back into their rooms, and I became unofficially the deputy warden as I had a set of master keys (part of my job).
Anyway, most of the time I was out with the students.

There were lot of parties in the nurse’s home and only a few ever got out of hand with the warden having to put a stop to it.

Another regular event was the ritual walk to the Sully Inn on a Thursday night for a few beers and to listen to a singer.

In the summer we had beach parties with a BBQ.

Most of the students did not take to the social club in the grounds because; it was a bit run down and was mostly frequented by employees of the hospital and locals.

The students preferred to go to the students union in Cardiff or into Cardiff itself.

Life in the nurses home was not all fun and at times it got very quiet especially in the summer holidays when there would only be about 6 of us in the home.

There were some doctors who were from overseas attending residential courses. Most of these doctors were from Africa or Asia.

I remember a Dr Ali, a nice chap from Africa who was trying to get the cooker to work and he asked me asked for assistance, he was trying to light the cooker using a lighter but could not understand why it was not lighting.

The cooker was electric.

Then there was the doctor from overseas boiling his underwear in a large saucepan.

He forgot about them.
The fire alarm went off, which it did from time to time, and we ignored it.
Suddenly there was smoke in the corridors and we found what remained of his clothes glowering and smouldering in the pan.

As usual the fire brigade turned up with half a dozen fire fighters crammed in the kitchen. We never did find out which doctor did it they

Whilst I was staying at the nurses’ home I did my bit for charity.
I did two parachute jumps to raise money for a new special bed, and I took part in a charity football match played at BP social club Sully, where all the hospital staff dressed up as nurses, including myself.

I think I gave a few people a bit of a shock for I rode through Sully on my motorbike in a size 12 staff nurses uniform, well endowed of course, complete with fishnets stockings.

My rent was only £8.40 a week! The students paid more than I did.

The students were allocated their rooms by occupation that is to say that the Occupational and Physiotherapists were allocated the first and second floors whilst the dental hygienists and Ophthalmologists were given the third floor. In my last year there ambulance cadets also stayed at the nurses home. As well as myself there also were several other members of Sully hospital employees who also lived in the nurses home.

Christmas at Sully was mixed for me, the atmosphere in the hospital itself was great with parties going on here and there some even had small quantities of alcohol, and of course the staff Christmas dinner was a fine meal.

However, the nurse’s home was once again quiet, although I worked in between Christmas and the New Year more often than not.

It was December 6th 1988, when I was asked to assist a nurse who had finished her shift and was unable to start her scooter.

I tried everything that I could think of but it was not having any of it. I told the nurse that I could not fix it.

Just as I was putting away my tools a voice from above said, “Steve do you want to come to a party?”
“I am still in my working clothes,” I said.

“Come as you are.”

To this day I’m not sure who invited me but when I walked into the first floor West kitchen a party was trying to get going, mostly girls and just a few lads.

I was chatted up by this short blond student, seven and a half years later we were married, and still are.

My wife said that there was not much competition and so she made a move first before anyone else did.”

Steve got married at Craig-y-nos Castle in 1995 and now lives five miles from it.

Sully hospital- editing

2011-11-04T10:37:00.004Z

Finally, the research is almost complete and I have started editing the book. It will have two sections: my own account of my time there and another part based on this blog.

Once this is complete I will explore the turbulent waters of e-publishing. Here the publishing world is changing so fast that a month is a long time.
Not only are there numerous e-book formats available but new electronic reading devices are coming on the market all the time.
Think I will stay with my trusty ipad which at two years of age is already looking incredibly dated.

Which route to go down?...

Joyce Jones (nee Cole ) Sully 1951-53

2011-10-13T11:40:00.017+01:00

( Caption – from left to right)
Betty from Swansea,Naomi Llewellyn Seven Sisters, Neath.
Cynthia Klase, Pontllanfraith, who was married to an American.
Ella, who died at Sully and the other patients were not told what happened.
Joyce Cole, from Tredegar now living in Sussex and Jennifer.

I received an email from Liz Owens to tell me that her mother Joyce Jones had been a patient in Sully for two years in 1950.

She suggests I give her Mum a call.

“How did you find out about my Sully blog?” I ask.

“Well, we have got a new laptop,” replied 83-year-old Joyce.

“ And I googled Tredegar- that’s where I come from – and after that I tried Sully.
And up popped your blog.”

Joyce has never revisited Sully or seen its transformation into up market flats so I tell her about it new status and she shares with me some of her memories of Sully when it was a state-of-the-art TB hospital.

Inside Sully

“Every bed had a sea view. It was an amazing building,” said Joyce who was taken ill just before her twenty-first birthday.

Medical treatment
During her two years there she had two partial lobotomies, (removal of a lobe from each lung.)

I tell her of the beautiful grounds which I got to walk for the first time when I revisited it last year even though I spent six months there as a teenager.
Joyce, it turned out, had never been outside either.
“ Most of the time I was too ill. The first 18 months were spent in bed.”

She had streptomycin and PAS, the life saving drug, which was still relatively new. The first trial of the drug took place in 1948 in the UK and Sully was one of the hospitals chosen for the study.
“ I vomited my heart out every other day- always at night. I can still recall the taste of PAS.”

Staff

She has fond memories of the staff in Sully in particular a young German nurse called Gerda who later visited her at her home in Tredegar.

Remembers after she had her second operation coming around in post op to find a wreath on her chest.
“ I thought I had died.”

A young nurse happened to be carrying a wreath when she heard ward Sister Cole call out to her and she was in such a hurry to answer that she dropped the wreath on the nearest bed she was passing.

“The poor nurse got an awful row from sister and I felt sorry for her.”

I must admit though it did give a fright. I thought I had died and passed over to the other side.’”

Christmas
Each Christmas the wards would select a representative to go into Cardiff to do their Christmas shopping.

“Well, I was asked to do it one year just before I left and I was so thrilled. But Sister stopped me. She said I was not fit enough. I was so disappointed.”

“On Christmas Day the surgeon Mr. Dillwyn Thomas carved the turkey. We had a great time.”

Segregation
“Yes I remember how men and women were kept segregated. I never heard of them mixing except once when we had some famous cricketers come in to talk to us and we were all allowed to mix in the recreation room. That is the only time I recall.”

“ But then you did not even mix with women from other wards.”

(Strict segregation between wards was part of the national policy at the time for treating TB patients for fear of cross- infection.)

Sugar and chips
Joyce recalls the incident when one patient, fed up with not getting “seconds” of chips because the staff kept them for themselves got hold of a packet of sugar and sneaked into the kitchen after the trolley had finished its rounds of the wards, and poured sugar on them.

They got their “seconds” after that.

Sully food
“ The food was not awfully good though there was plenty of it. I used to get an uncle to bring in a flask full of bacon, sausages and tinned tomatoes and I would share it out with the others in the ward afterwards.

Death of Ella
Joyce remembers Ella from Ammanford who shared her four-bedded ward.
“She never came back from her operation. Her name was never mentioned though you know she couldn’t have got well and gone home in such a short time.

“ A few of us asked what happened to her we were put off.”

Visiting
Visiting was allowed every weekend. On Saturdays Joyce’s parents would take the bus from Tredegar and on Sundays, Pryce, her boyfriend made the weekly journey to Sully. He wrote to her everyday throughout her two years there, except on Sundays.

Once during very bad snow he left the house in Tredegar at 9 o'clock in the morning to get the bus, but it broke down in the snow and didn’t get into Sully until the bell was ringing for visitors to leave.
He asked for special permission to pop up to the ward to say “Hello” to Joyce.

But permission was refused. He did not get home until after 10 o'clock that night.

Marriage
Joyce and Pryce did marry after she came out of Sully and five years later their daughter Elizabeth was born.
“I remember being told not to breast-feed her”.

They enjoyed 52 years of happy marriage until his death a few years ago.

Life today
Joyce’s health is not so good these days, for she suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis.

But her laptop offers her a window to the outside world and to memories of a world long past.

Contact
If you were in Sully in the early 1950s and would like to share your memories with Joyce she would love to hear from you.

You can contact Joyce on email through her daughter, Elizabeth Liz Owen

Chips with sugar

2011-09-29T12:48:00.002+01:00

Just when you think all interest in Sully has petered out – even the Facebook group is about to be archived through lack of interest- up pops an email from the daughter of an ex-patient.

Liz Owens says:”
My mother (Joyce Jones, nee Cole) and I have just been looking at the Sully blog, and were very interest.

Mum was a patient there from 1951 to 1953; she had two operations for TB, which were done by Dilwyn Thomas. She was in Dyfed Ward, where every bed had a view of the sea, in fact every patient in the hospital did.
The staff were wonderful, and especially Gerda who was German and went to visit mum's family in Tredegar one weekend.
After 1953, no more treatment was necessary and mum is now 83; after 60 years, she is always grateful to the wonderful staff at Sully.”

Another email follows with a Sully story:

"Mum tells a tale that none of the patients were ever offered second helpings if there were chips on the menu - the staff used to eat them instead. The patients got fed up with this, and one of them sneaked out to the kitchen and covered the leftover chips with sugar. The staff of course could not complain."

Well, I have interviewed Joyce and she has some interesting stories to tell. As soon as I get her photos I will put it up on this blog.

Originally from Tredegar Joyce now lives in Sussex with her daughter.

Warren Lewis- childhood photos from Sully hospital

2011-05-27T22:26:00.009+01:00

Warren Lewis has sent me some photos of his time in Sully hospital.

He belongs to both the Sully Facebook and the Tetralogy group.

Says Warren:

" I was in Sully in 1971, when I was 7 years old.

I was born with Fallots Tetralogy in 1964. I then had the operation in 1971 in Sully.

I was on Morgannwg ward and I still have a present the nurses gave me when I was there.

The present was a poster of Donald Duck and all the staff had signed it."

Thank you Warren for sharing these memories with us.

Howard Richards -child patient

2011-05-06T22:25:00.002+01:00

I got a phone call this afternoon from Howard Richards who had a heart operation as a ten year old in Sully hospital.

He says:" My mother kept saying that there was something wrong me and eventually a surgeon confirmed it. I had a heart murmur."
He was to become one of the first children ever to be operated on using the new heart-lung machine.

I have asked Howard to write his own account of his memories which he says are still "very vivid".

Now in his early 60's and recently retired he still has his hospital appointment book and he would over to make contact with the surgeon who saved his life. His parents were told that he would be dead by the time he was 13 or 14 and if he did have the operation then there was only a slender chance that he would survive.

What a dreadful decision for his parents to be faced with! Well, they took the chance and Howard survived and went on to lead a very healthy life.

Now he would like to say a big "thank you" to that surgeon who saved his life.

Seagulls in the wards at Sully

2011-03-29T12:05:00.001+01:00

Steve Dorkings tells the story:

"My father was a patient at Sully in the early 60's.

I was about 9 years old and rarely allowed in to visit him (over 13's only). Despite serious illness over many months he still recounts happy times as a patient, including coaxing the seagulls into the ward from the balcony, much to sisters annoyance!"

Steve Dorkings -retired biomedical scientist - Sully

2011-03-29T11:25:00.005+01:00

Just when I think I am going to give up on trying to put together the Sully story something happens to encourage me to persevere.
Like this email I received from a former scientist who trained at Sully.

Let Steven tell it in his own words:
" I started my career as a Junior Medical Laboratory Technician in Pathology, training to diagnose disease by laboratory methods at Sully Hospital. (The profession is now known as Biomedical Scientists a branch of the many little recognised Healthcare Scientists).

The Pathology department was then quite small unlike the modern automated laboratories of today.

I was there from 1968 to c.1972. I was taught everything from collecting blood on the wards for Haematology to diagnosing TB from sputum examination. There were several trainees, pathology then just on the verge of great breakthroughs, nothing was automated, and made very good friends.

I met and married my wife there, she was a junior nurse who later went onto be involved in ECG. It was a great place to work with the staff all knowing each other by first names from the coal boiler stoker “Ginger” to the hospital superintendant Dr “Bill” Foreman. I was there when heart valve replacement and perfusion was being pioneered. On call for Biochemistry I had to monitor the Na, K and blood gasses of such patients from table to ITU, sometimes on the hour every hour all afternoon and night. In Haematology we had to perform prothrombin and clotting times and cross match blood. In those days X matching 20 pints of blood for a open heart patient through wasnt a bad day!

Despite individual patient sad fortunes it was a great place to work and the staff had a terrific camaraderie and genuinely cared for the patients. Sully put me on a career which I pursued across Wales, Scotland and England contributing to many pathology laboratories in the NHS. I have just retired after 42 years as a biomedical scientist specialising in medical microbiology and can honestly say the years spent at Sully were the best years of my career and equipped me with a passion for my subject, the NHS, its staff and most importantly, the patient. I learnt much more than just the science. Thank you Sully Hospital.
Steve Dorkings CSi, FIBMS, Cert.NHS Man."

And thank you Steve for sharing your story with us.

Before the advent of high tech laboratories guiea pigs were used. If they were lived you knew you were cured.

Jenny Hicks - ex patient

2011-03-21T14:40:00.003Z

Just when I thought I would have to abandon this project through lack of ex patients coming forward I get a phone call this morning from Jenny Hicks.

She has had a long association with Sully starting with having her lung out as a 12 year old in 1962. She suffers from non cystic fibrosis and a rare skin disease called Steven-johnson syndrome.

The latter condition was brought on as a six year old when she had a severe reaction to antibiotics.

Despite over 50 years of ill health and daily pain she is remarkably cheerful, yet another example of the power of the human spirit often in the face of great adversity.

Her memories of Sully are vivid and fond.
" I still dream of the place."
Jenny has agreed to do a full scale interview which I hope to do later this week.

She lives in Cowbridge. " The doctors told me I would never work or have children. I defied them. I did both."

She is a survivor and I look forward to hearing more of her story."

Facebook- Sully

2011-03-04T11:34:00.002Z

We have a discussion group on Facebook and so far a few ex patients have turned up. Mostly though it is ex staff and relatives of ex staff including one retired nurse who is now living in one of the Sully apartments!

What is noticeable though is that everyone speaks very highly of the days when it was a hospital, very much at the cutting edge of medicine with pioneering work in the treatment and management of TB then of heart surgery.

Sully and Craig-y-nos

2010-12-02T17:32:00.001Z

Craig-y-nos and Sully – punishment regimes

Craig-y-nos Castle, former children's TB sanatorium and home of opera diva Adelina Patti

Sully hospital

Philip Cox recalls the different punishment regimes he experienced as a child patient in both Craig-y-nos and Sully during the 1950s.

“In Craig-y-nos they tied you to the bed. In Sully if you got out of bed and you weren’t supposed to, then they took your pyjamas trousers off you. I hated that!”

He went into Craig-y-nos in 1953 as a three and a half year old and later transferred to Sully for his lung operation.

He was amazed to discover the blogs the other day while trawling through the internet.

“ I couldn’t believe my eyes. Any minute I expected to come across a photo of myself!”

Now he has sent away for a copy of the book, “The Children of Craig-y-nos” from Amazon.

Despite his poor start in life he went on to become a rugby champion in school and won numerous medals for sport including throwing the javelin.

Philip lives in Pontypool with his family.

Changed times: to-day Craig-y-nos Castle is a hotel specialising in weddings and Sully has been converted into upmarket apartments.

Stephen Parry - 1964- child heart patient

2010-11-12T15:10:00.002Z

I have just received this email from Stephen Parry who was in Sully as a child:

"I've had a look at the blogs and it brought back memories.

I remember the long trek to the hospital with my mother from my home in Cwmbran, which involved about three buses as we didn't have a car. And the long walk past a plastics or chemical factory which we had to take when we missed the bus that dropped off outside the hospital. I can still smell that factory now.

As I already mentioned I was ten years old and didn't understand how seriously ill I was or indeed how ill the other children on the ward were that became my friends. It wasn't until many years later that I was told that most of them had died either in hospital or soon after discharge.

Of course heart surgery was very much in it's infancy at the time and I was something of a pioneer I suppose. My sister went on to become a nurse and discovered some time later that I was one of the first patients to use the heart lung machine.

My parents stayed in the hospital accommodation when I had the operation. It was in June 1964 ( I can't remember the exact date ), and I remember coming round after the operation in the post op room overlooking the sea. It was a moment I will never forget. It was a beautiful summer morning and the sun was dancing on the water. There were yachts as well I recall. My parents were at my side and my mother burst into tears on seeing the aftermath of the surgery.

I suppose it couldn't have been a pretty sight with stitches and draining tubes exiting my body. The surgeon Mr Harley told me later I had 63 stitches just one short of the year.

I can't remember exactly how long I stayed at Sully, but I think it was about 3 months. Then shortly after discharge it was noticed that my right leg was continually swollen and I was rushed back in with a suspected DVT. This was confirmed and unfortunately I still have it today but thankfully it has caused me few problems.

I have only returned to see the hospital once since my time there and that was just to stop and view it from outside about thirty years ago.
I would love to visit it again and walk around it but I suppose that would not be possible now.

In 2004, the 40th anniversary of my stay there I did write to a local newspaper to ask if anyone had stayed or knew anyone who had been there during my time there but I didn't get any replies. I would love to meet someone who was a heart patient there in that summer of 1964, or indeed any of the nursing staff."

Where are all the ex-Sully patients? like Stephen I feel they must be out there somewhere if only we could contact them to hear their stories. - Ann

Sully- Dr Len West

2010-10-12T19:33:00.002+01:00

I got a phone call today from Rosie West, daughter of New Zealand doctor Len West, who was at Sully from 1948 until his death in 1970 from lung cancer.
He was only 59 years of age.

Says Rosie:" Like so many doctors of that time he smoked."

She recalls going to Sully on Saturdays while her father attended to work. "I also remember attending some children's parties."

Rosie heard about my blog from her Australian cousins who are researching their family history and they stumbled across it.

Other doctors she recalls are Dr Foreman, the Australian medical superintendent and Dilwyn Thomas the surgeon.

Rosie has some photos of her father's time at Sully and she is going to send them to me.

Friends of Sully Hospital - 50th anniversary

2009-11-29T17:08:00.007Z

Ann inside the show flat one of the former 8 bedded wards.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Sully hospital in 1986 a booklet was published to commemorate the event.

I have got a copy of the booklet and it contains some interesting social and medical facts.

Sully was the last of the hospitals to be built for TB patients and it was specifically a hospital not a sanatorium. The first patients were all in an advanced stage of the disease and the deaths were unfortunately large.
In other cases, before the arrival of drugs, many patients were kept in for two to three years.

It had 300 beds and is situated on the coast between Sully and Penarth about seven miles from Cardiff facing the Somerset and North Devon coast.

The building was devised with the idea of forming traps for "sun heated air" and to provide shelter not only from the south-west gale but from the extreme heat of the afternoon sun.

Incidentally this shape has resulted in a considerable economy since it not only reduces the length of windows but also the overall lengths of the buildings.

The ward blocks are in a double "V" formation facing the sea, three storeys high and each floor accommodated one hundred patients.

In all there were six ward units each containing fifty beds

Each ward unit contained two eight bedded wards, 6 four bedded wards and ten single rooms.

Sully contained many interesting fitments well ahead of its time like built in wardrobes bed head-lights, dish washing machines , refrigerators and a steam heated kettle in each ward kitchen.

Fireplaces were provided in day rooms in addition to the central heating throughout the building.
Yet another example of how Sully, the "model hospital" differed from the traditional TB sanatorium!

Clara Gould- OBE - first matron of Sully 1936-1950

2009-11-18T11:38:00.007Z

Sully hospital

Clara Gould, first matron of Sully, 1936-1950.

Great niece Jill White, speaking from her home in Ipswich, has very fond memories of her aunt who inspired her to take up nursing.

“Aunt Clara used to dress me up in her uniform after she retired. I was only about six years of age at the time. I think it inspired me to become a nurse,” says Jill who recently retired after a career in nursing.

"Sully became her life and she loved her fifteen years there," says Jill. " She used to travel back to Ipswich in her little yellow car to visit her mother and family. This was in the days before the Severn Bridge.

"She had a flat in the nurses quarters of Sully.
Because Clara never married her family were very important to her and she was the one who kept in touch with everyone."

Jill says she never forgot her humble beginnings. The eldest of 14 children born into a very poor Ipswich family she never considered herself good enough for "Teddy" her mystery boy-friend in Sully, a person who meant so much to her but the family never met.

“I think she thought herself socially inferior. We never did learn who Teddy was but I suspect he was a doctor” says Jill.
“They were very good friends”.

When she retired she had thought of getting her own flat but was advised against it by family members on the grounds that she was not in the lest domesticated. All her life she had people to cook and clean for her having always lived in nurses quarters. So she moved into an apartment in an hotel in Surrey.

Clara retired just after the lifesaving drugs were introduced .
For her leaving presents she was given a silver tea pots tea servces, and a wealth of presents which Jill now has in her keeping.

Clara collected spoons. "Whenever people went on holiday they would bring her back a spoon," says Jill who now has that collection in her safe-keeping.

Clara Gould, first matron of Sully hospital, was a modest gentle woman dedicated to nursing . She died in 1965 having been awarded an OBE for her services.

Patient number 07313, Sully hospital

2009-11-06T12:17:00.008Z

Ann "I am writing a book on Sully."

I have had a reply from the Glamorgan Record Office, and no they don't have a copy of my medical records.

Because of the sheer numbers of patients going through they only took samples of patients records during the period 1954-1967 of those with file numbers ending in 01 or 51.

I was number 07313.

They did provide some useful information though regarding dates. I was there for 147 days from 1st April 1960 until 26 August 1960. I was then discharged to Pinewood Student Rehabilitation Centre near Wokingham.

Oh, yes and I was in Gwynedd ward. It would be lovely to be able to contact anyone who was in Sully around this time.

If you know of such a person then email me: annshaw@mac.com

Clara Gould- OBE

2009-11-02T18:41:00.004Z

Clara Gould

Clara Gould, the first matron of Sully hospital ( 1936-1950) was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, the eldest of 14 children into a very poor family.

Despite the poverty Clara was determined to fulfill her ambition to become a nurse and she began work first as a maid in Ipswich hospital before going to London to train from 1922-25.

She died in 1965 and left all her nursing books to her great niece Jill White, who has recently retired from nursing herself.

Clara Gould- first matron of Sully hospital

2009-10-18T15:40:00.003+01:00

Clara Gould, first matron of Sully - 1936-1950

Jill White, the great niece of Clara Gould, says her aunt was totally devoted to nursing and never married though she often spoke with great affection about "Teddy" who worked at Sully hospital.

The family never met Teddy but think he was a doctor .

Jill says:"My great aunt thought he was out of her social class and that she was not good enough for him."

Sully records

2009-10-13T11:20:00.002+01:00

Unlike Craig-y-nos the medical records for Sully still exist.
However, because of the sheer number of patients involved they had to introduce a sampling procedure.

On the off chance that I was amongst those "sampled" I have sent off my request.

This is what the National Archives say:

"Due to the considerable bulk of the patient files for Sully Hospital, complete retention has not been an option. A decision was made to take a representative sample of these records.
Three different series of patient case files were generated between the years 1937 and 1967 (date when the sample ends). A series of records was started presumably in 1936 when the hospital opened. This first series begins here at number 434; earlier case notes are missing. In 1941 an Emergency Medical Services Centre opened at Sully Hospital to treat war casualties and a new series of files relates to these cases. In 1954 a new numbering system was established to cover all patients admitted to the hospital and this continues to 1967.
Earlier case files have been kept intact. The first series of records runs to 1946 (on microfilm) and from that date to 1954 a sample has been taken. The EMS files have been retained to 1947 and have then been sampled to 1954. There are gaps in these two samples where files have not survived. A representative sample has then been taken of the third series of case files. Each file ending with the digit 01 and 51 has been selected. For a full explanation of sampling procedures used, see depositors file."

Stained glass window - Sully hospital

2009-10-07T12:15:00.003+01:00

This stained glass window forms part of the atrium inside the former Sully hospital today and it reflects the very high standard of workmanship evident throughout this listed building.

Clara Gould. OBE first matron Sully

2009-10-04T11:54:00.003+01:00

I wonder how many people know that Clara Gould , the first matron to be appointed to Sully hospital in 1936 was a founder member of the Royal College of Nursing and was awarded an OBE for her services to the nursing profession?

Her great niece Jill White , a recently retired nurse , says her great aunt was totally devoted to nursing to the exclusion of all else in her life though there was a man called "Teddy" at Sully who wanted to marry her but she refused because she considered herself socially inferior to him.

Jill says they never knew the identify of this mysterious "Teddy" though they suspect he was one of the doctors.

Sully and cricket

2009-09-22T22:31:00.002+01:00

I have just received a request from Nic Lanagan, secretary of Barry Wanderers Cricket Club .

They have played at Sully Hospital (now Hayes Point) for many years and next

year they celebrate their 40th anniversary and they hope to publish a history of the club to commemorate this in July 2010.

Now they are looking for any information about the early days of the club.
Can anyone help?

So far all I know is that their playing fields are on the site of the hospital farm where animals were kept for research purposes.

Return to Sully

2009-09-03T11:51:00.009+01:00

Imagine returning to Sully after nearly fifty years

to find that it has been turned into luxury apartments...

and I get taken to view the show flat on the top floor....

imagine walking into this luxury apartment and discovering....

it's my old ward!...phew!

First matron of Sully- Clara Gould

2009-08-22T18:11:00.004+01:00

Jill White, the great niece of Clara Gould, first matron of Sully until her retirement in 1950, has just contacted me.

She says her great aunt devoted her life to her work.

"I visited Sully two years ago only to find that it was being converted into accommodation we also climbed through the barbed wire fence to get a good view!" added Jill.

Mystery building - morgue

2009-08-14T13:04:00.004+01:00

Ann standing outside morgue

Whoops! sorry...mystery building is former morgue and it is about to be converted into a bistro /cafe.

I have just returned form Wales and had a tour of Sully - courtesy of the developers- and I found the conversion of Sully hospital into Hayes Point apartments very impressive.

Mystery building?

2009-08-03T18:29:00.008+01:00

I have had a query from a resident in Hayes Point, as the former Sully hospital is known as, to ask if I had any information on why one building remains in its original state.

Initial research suggests this is a
medical incinerator
and has been the subject of
some controversy

Can anyone throw more light on this matter?

Sully and Highland Moors- Tony Hooper

2009-07-23T12:58:00.008+01:00

Sully

Highland Moors

Tony Hooper says:
"I was an inmate (!) at Highland Moors-1947-48- remember it with no affection at all.
At age 7 to be called by a number (No 20 in my case) was not a pleasant childhood memory- the winter of 1947 up there was very harsh.

The food -I realise it was just after the war- was grim even by standards of the time- bread and marge -or bread and jam for tea (never bread+marge+jam!) - The odd times my parents on their monthly visit managed to find a few fresh eggs from a farmer on the way as a treat resulted in my getting scrambled eggs at the next meal - made from powdered egg.'They got broken when we took them to the kitchen' was the standard excuse. In the time I was there I lost nearly a stone in weight.

A few years later I was an inpatient at Sully several times- this would have been 1952-1954. A completely different experience- good food, caring staff and a wonderful situation- it would have made a great resort hotel!

Did it affect me? That's a hard one. I guess all experiences feed in to one's personality but I can't say that it traumatised me- though the level of harshness and impersonal relationships with staff made me very keen to be at home when possible. So never was one for after school activities etc.
I now live in Bath.

Internet
I found the site when I was looking up mid Wales towns for a day trip that I am planning shortly and when I saw Llandrindod Wells was impelled to see if there was any information on Highland Moors."

Sully and Facebook

2009-06-02T13:09:00.002+01:00

Have had an email form Carol Hughes who tells me she has come across a guy who was in Sully .

Nothing unusual about that except that he has met up with the surgeon who removed part of his lung -through Facebook!
Now I am hoping that he will contact me.

Sully re-visited

2009-05-15T21:48:00.008+01:00

Ann Shaw ( nee Rumsey) in the grounds of Sully during a recent visit to the area.

Says Ann:

"Sully hospital has been converted into upmarket apartments.

Today it's a gated community with no access allowed into the building.

However, I had a good walk around the grounds ( I just ignored the "keep out" signs) and discovered that Sully is adjoining the shore. From my ward on the third floor I had always thought it was perched on top of a cliff. It came as something of a shock to discover that the hospital was in fact next to the beach!

I was there for six months in 1960 but never went outside so I was glad to have the opportunity at last to walk around the grounds. "

Comment
The second time i went to sully in 1957 i spent many happy hours in the lovely grounds there and i did sneak onto the beach even though this was not allowed there was a gap in the hedge the beach was all pebbles but it was lovely all the same carol hughes nee davies

Carol Hughes ( nee Davies) - Sully 1957

2009-04-08T12:53:00.002+01:00

Carol says:
"This is a photo of me in 1957 Sully hospital with the baby I used to walk in the pram. His mum is with him. His name is either Kevin or Kelvin."

Temp staff- Pam Stephen - 1954

2009-04-02T12:39:00.002+01:00

I have received this email from Brian Stephen's whose sister Pam was there for six months:

" SULLY HOSPITAL circa 1954

I remember enjoying a spell ‘temping’ in the medical records office of Sully Hospital. I had just returned from a year in France as an au pair, when I found myself on the same bus as Pat Edwards, who asked me what I was doing at that time. So it was that I found myself working with her in Medical Records at Sully Hospital, where she was the senior secretary to the Medical Superintendent, Dr Foreman – affectionately known as Father Foreman. (His PA and office manager was a Miss Skinner, from Dinas Powis. Her niece, Bunty Skinner, and I were in the same class in Penarth County Grammar School for Girls.)

Some six weeks later I developed infective hepatitis (having had a clear Mantoux test three weeks previously) and was off work for six weeks. I later learnt that two of the theatres had been closed because of the virus - suggesting that the needles used for my test had not been thoroughly cleaned! Anyway, I returned to work and liked it there very much because it was a very happy place and Pat was such a very pleasant person. I well remember that she and I used to sing together a lot, which caused much amusement when overheard.

I can’t really tell you much about Sully Hospital, as I was there for not much more than six months. I do remember it as a very happy and caring place with lovely views and friendly staff. ( I also remember that if I missed the bus in the morning, I had to get on my bike and pedal like mad to get there on time!) It hit news when it was the first hospital in the country to do a ‘blue baby’ heart operation: it was really a general thoracic hospital and very much up-to-date at that time. The Medical Superintendent, Dr Foreman, was a lovely man and well-respected for the work he had done in a prisoner-of-war camp during an outbreak of typhoid, and for which I believe he got a gong. I think he was an Australian. His office adjoined medical records and he was on friendly terms with all the staff.

When the Medical Superintendent at Glan Ely Hospital was looking for a personal secretary/PA, he put my name forward – and, there I was! Glan Ely was a general TB hospital – bones and joints as well as thoracic treatment.

The diminishing role of both these first-rate hospitals began some 2-4 years later when mass x-ray examinations picked up TB in its early stages and hospitalisation was no longer needed.
The person who can really give you the gen here, is Pat Edwards. She was really conscientious and knew the place well."

Comment
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Names of wards

2009-03-25T11:57:00.003Z

I have been trying to remember the names of the wards in Sully and Carol Hughes ( nee Davies) who was there as a child on three ocasions tells me that:

"They were named after Welsh counties. I know I was on morganwg.

The floors were all different dyffed gwent glamorgan powis and the wards on each floor were A TO Z ".

Thanks Carol!

Where are they?

2009-03-13T11:59:00.002Z

So far my research to find ex-patients at Sully has been unsuccessful.

Oh yes I know plenty of people who say:
"I knew "so and so" who was at Sully" only to add" But he/she died there."

And that is the problem. Until the advent of drugs you only got sent to Sully if you were seriously ill.

Hospital radio- DJ David Roberts

2009-02-23T17:50:00.001Z

Some more memories from David:

"I remember being allowed to work with two other patients on the hospital radio service (D.J.ing with huge BBC-like equipment) down in the basement.(Next to redundant X-Ray machines destined for the third world, I was told.)
The basement was also the venue for the hospital staff giving the patients a special show before Xmas (I remember their rendition of "Just one more cigarette" vividly).

I also remember befriending a number of sheep held in the field adjoining the hospital who's purpose there was, apparently, for scientific research."

Comment
i can remember that hospital so well i remember small animals rabbits and a goat
i was there about 4 months 1952 and 1957 about 6 months -Carol

Councillor Anthony Ernest - Sully

2009-02-19T11:07:00.003Z

I am grateful to Councillor Anthony Ernest for supplying the following information:

"Sully Hospital is now a massive new apartments development, utilising all the existing 1936 buildings plus more. It is of course Listed.

The Friends of Sully Hospital nationalarchives published a booklet some years ago to mark its half century, and I am pretty sure that I donated a copy of that booklet to the Glamorgan County Archives office in Cardiff last year. You could e-mail them for confirmation that it is in the "Ernest Papers of Penarth" entry.

The apartments have been developed by a Cheltenham based company by the name of Galliard, and you will find them on the web. You can currently rent one brand new !

My own father ended his days at Sully Hospital in 1991, so I have a certain interest.

Later, of course, there was a masssive campaign by my constituents to stop it becoming a Holding Camp for Refugees under plans by HM Government. (see BBC website), which were eventually rejected.

Kind regards,

Anthony Ernest (County Cllr.]"

David Roberts- ex-patient

2009-02-13T12:17:00.002Z

David Roberts emailed me to say:

" At the age of 19, I spent 6 excellent months at Sully with a "shadow" on the lung.
Initially, in line with your experience, I felt a dread of what I was about to experience. (My dread and my mother's shame when the house was fumigated on the basis that people might consider me to have been neglected, despite being the most well fed and cared for lad in the village).
After a few days, an "hotel" experience began, once I had come to terms with the prospects of 6 months confinement.
Quickly, "confinement" became a relative term and, along with two other new friends, trecked regularly along the rocks to enjoy a few pints at the Sully Arms.
We always used the bar area, presuming any staff from the hospital would more likely choose the lounge.
Other regular trips in the afternoon (post stretmosin injections), were undertaken to Barry High Street and the Docks. On one occasion we were driven to make a quick exit from a shop in the High Street on encountering the "battle axe" Sister England. (The same Sister that banned me using a short dressing gown on the basis of it being a smoking jacket.)
All in all, it was a wonderful experience and a productive one too. The Friends of Sully funded a Book Keeping correspondance course which later proved invaluable in business and, following a period of boredom, an arrangement was made for me to work in the records department on a part time basis. (Try that today under the Data Protection Act!."

2009-02-09T12:52:00.000Z

We have all got our memories of Sully. I have just posted this account on the BBC Southeastwales web-site in the hope of stimulating interest in this project..
You can view it at:
Sully hospital

Sully. The word conjures up many meanings - depending on your age. If you are young today it represents a luxury upmarket apartment block overlooking the sea, somewhere you aspire to live in.
"But those of us with older memories, going back 50 years and more, remember it for what it was originally built for in 1936 - a state of the art model hospital for TB patients.

"I was one of those, a teenager in 1960, sent to Sully and I remember the fear and dread it cast in my mind. Having as a child spent four years incarcerated in Craig-y-nos Castle - the children's TB sanatorium at the top of the Swansea valley, former home of opera diva Adelina Patti - we had lived in fear of Sully.
"It was where they sent you to die. It was where you went to have 'the operation'.
"So the news that I was being sent to Sully - instead of teachers training college in Bristol for I was in the Sixth-form at St Michael's convent, Abergavenny - plunged me into a state of total despair.
"For in the weeks waiting for a place in Sully I slept with a bottle of aspirins beside my bed. I looked at them longingly each night. My world had been destroyed. Again. Should I or shouldn't I?
"I'm glad I didn't. Within hours of arriving in Sully my fears dissipated.

Dazzling
"The sheer dazzling brightness and warmth of the place lifted my spirits immediately; so bright was it that I found myself blinking unable to believe it. And the view from the second floor overlooking the sea was breathtakingly beautiful. Immediately I felt better.
"I had left behind a lonely, cold damp farmhouse outside Crickhowell. Now I was in a ward that bustling with life. And it was warm.
"Gone were the old sanatorium ways of treating TB with its emphasis on isolation and coldness with visitors once a month. Instead they were replaced with drugs, warmth and weekly visitors.
"I was to remain there for six months. And it remained a pivotal moment in my life, one that changed the course of my life for the better.

"But how did other people fare? What memories do others have? I have just finished a book on The Children of Craig-y-Nos - co-authored withDr Carole Reeves of The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine University College London - and it got me thinking about Sully.
"Has anything been written about our stories, our memories of time spent there? Nothing so far as I can find.

"So I am beginning the search for other people who may have spent time there, or had relatives who were there, with stories to tell.
"My story is written. Now I would like to hear other people's experiences with a view to publishing it either on the web, or if we have sufficient interest, as a print on demand book."