Sully and Highland Moors- Tony Hooper

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.