Sully- Dr Len West

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

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

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

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

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

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

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."