I was talking with some old friends from St Edwards I hadn't seen for some years the other day. We ended up recalling memories of the "Big House". Of course we ended up in stitches: it was then I realized that all those individual memories were in danger of being lost.

So I had the idea of setting up this Website for everyone who had worked there or knew the place. Somewhere where they could share their memories and experiences, keep in touch and rekindle old friendships, or just to go back for a little while to what now seems (to me) much happier and more relaxed times.

I hope that soon there are enough submissions to maybe publish them in a book. So send me your old photographs and memories and lets see what happens.

Here are some of mine.

I first went to "Chedd" in 1982 to start my training as a psychiatric nurse. If you played Cricket or a musical instrument, or were a relative of someone that worked there; you were "well in". Anyone who was from Newcastle or Stoke-on-Trent were affectionately known as "Pot-herbs". 

The place had the feeling of a large, close knit community. The corridors were full of patients going about their business or propping up the radiators in the corridors. Everyone seemed to be smoking.

The male nursing staff all wore two piece suits. These were grey wool, quite scratchy when they were new, and all made to measure, (you had to go to the Sewing Room to get measured up). If you were lucky enough, you got a blue raincoat to wear as well. On the wards, we wore long white coats, with epaulettes to denote your grade. When the coats came back from the Laundry, they were so stiff with Starch, they would stand up on their own. The female staff wore blue checked dresses with different coloured belts and silver buckles, and nurses caps. Some of the old Sisters had proper frilly starched caps, but most wore stiff paper ones that they had to fold themselves. They were all issued with black capes to wear when it was cold and only allowed to wear black shoes.

There was plenty for the patients to do if they wanted to; apart from the activities on the wards, some patients worked in the gardens or in the Laundry. There was a patients "canteen" where activities and trips out were organised called "The Hole in the Wall" run by a good friend of mine Mick Machin. It was always busy with both patients and staff and usually a blue haze of cigarette smoke hanging in the air. You could buy food, drinks and cigarettes from there as well.

Across from the canteen was the I.T.U. (Industrial Therapy Unit) where some of the patients worked during the day. I remember spending two weeks there as a Student, packing pipe-cleaners and putting little screws into electrical fittings.

Just across from the I.T.U. was the School of Nursing, a new building at that time, as I believe the old School had been situated in the Male Nurses Home. The Senior Tutor was called John Leonard. He had the broadest Irish accent I have ever heard. We all found it difficult to understand him, but he certainly knew his stuff.

There was a Hospital Social Club near the male nurses home, where staff and their families could go for a drink if they wanted to.

Every year in the Summer there would be a Hospital "Gala Day", there would be stalls and tents selling things and eveyone would come from the surrounding areas for the day. One year I ran a "wheel of fortune" stall for the ward I was working on at the time.

There was a Cinema show one day a week on a large screen in the Main Hall, I think it was on a Tuesday afternoon: I remember one week it showed "Rosie Dixon Night Nurse" I think someone must have made a mistake because we normally had films like Gone with the Wind or Jungle Book: but the patients didn't seem to mind at all!

At that time, the Nursing Staff  worked a two shift system. There was an A, and B shift, both doing 12 hours a day. "A" shift would work all day Monday Tuesday and Wednesday morning, and "B" shift would work the Wednesday afternoon, Thursday and Friday. "A" shift would then work the weekend and the cycle would start over again. The only time the two shifts ever met was on Wednesday afternoon. Some people said it was like two different wards on the different shifts, even the patients acted differently. It was nice to have Wednesday afternoon off though, as it was market day in nearby Leek, and the pubs stayed open all day!

Working on the wards was for most of the time relaxed and fun. You were allowed to smoke on the wards at that time, and sometimes sat in the office, writing the day or night reports or "The Kardex" with a Pen in one hand and a Fag in the other. Many of the long stay patients had been there since way before the War, they were all very well looked after. The food was very good. I remember when we made tea, we used put the milk and sugar into the teapot. The patients loved their Tea.

On the long stay Wards, many of the patients were nursed in "Buxton Chairs". The patients  slept in dormitories, though there were a few siderooms, which I believe the staff used to sleep in when they lived on the wards. On some of the wards, the beds were that close together you could step from one to another if you wanted to. The toilet and bath area was known on every ward as "The Backs". Most of them had a row of sinks where the patients washed and shaved, the floors were red "Quarry" tiles and you had to have a key to turn on the bath taps.

Most of the Wards had access to a courtyard with a summerhouse where the patients could sit out in the Summer.

On duty during the day and night were Nursing Officers, who were all responsible for their own wards. If you were sitting down and a Nursing Officer came onto the Ward; you were expected to stand up immediately.

As a student or pupil you got to see most of the places in The Hospital as you were given lots of errands to do and moved to a different ward every 12 weeks. You could also be moved to any ward that was short of staff on that day.

Occasionally one of the patients would go missing from their ward. After searching the Hospital, any spare members of staff would meet by a dark little room under some stairs off the main corridor near Ward 14. They would be issued with a pair of wellington boots, a whistle and a "Walkie-Talkie". You would then be allocated an area on a map to search, until the patient was found, or came back of their own accord, which they usually did.

When you were working on the wards, you were given a big heavy iron key that fitted all the heavy oak doors on that side of the Hospital. They were known as male and female keys as the key would only work in one half of the Hospital: this was because the Hospital was originally separated down the middle into male and female halves.

Anyway, all that was nearly 30 years ago and no-one can argue that things haven't changed immeasurably in that amount of time, but I always think, "where we are today" will be somebody else's "good old days" one day."

Dave Thursfield 2006.

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