Exeter, Devon and Exeter Hospital c1955

There was always the ghost stories...

In 1973 having just left school that summer, I started my State Registered Nurse training with tutor Miss Wilmot at this Southernhay Hospital.
Being a 'young lady' from Bristol my new colleagues and I were expected to live in the Nurses Home with a larger than life home matron Miss Hermitage. The Nurses Home was behind the hospital between Wynards Lane and Southernhay Gardens where there was an access lane. It was a red brick 4 story building that you could see the back of Southernhay and some of the multi-walkways and verrandas linking the many buildings such as the casualty block to the corridor towards the childrens wards and theatres. I remember being shown around one of the theatres that had a filled in fireplace at an angle in the corner of the room space!
In the Home there was large shared bathing rooms of 6 that you could screen off your bath while bathing. They were the most enormous cast iron white baths that when full of water you could completely dunk down in, and after a shift with the Bedpan Sterilizer in the Sluice, you would want to.
At this time everyone was getting excited about moving to the 'new' Wonford hospital on Barrack Road, sadly already gone and replaced after my time there.
Southernhay was a friendly old place that was missed by everyone who remembers working within the high ceilings, mercury-soaked floors, drafty windows and squeaky dark corridors.
That brings me to the 'Grey Lady', and as a young impressionable trainee scared me, and still does! In those days the staff were friendly but the ward sister was boss and unquestionable when it came to job allocation.
The Night shifts were busy and punctuated by 'rounds' with the Night Sister who wanted 'Name Age and Diagnosis' of every patient at least once each shift. On one of the bottom wards Summerhays we had a quiet night, relatively so, and thats when I heard of the Grey Lady. As you can guess other nurses had other and slightly different tales to tell and be told.
My initiation was on a windy night, adding to the sinister atmosphere, and darkened by the nightlights in the corner of the ward with whispering so the night sister wouldn't hear. The Grey lady was supposed to be a young nurse who having found she was pregnant by her soldier fiance, jumped off the balcony after receiving word of his gruesome death on the battlefield. It was supposed that the wind was her wailing in anguish and falling, and it was said every windy night you may catch a glimpse of her as a grey misty figure floating along the balcony on the upper floors before suddenly dissappearing from site!
Yes, I was spooked and I expect a lot of other people have seen her and after being told their own version. Perhaps you were one of them? My saving grace was Miss Hermitage who was probably used to soothing scared trainees. She wisely said she had never nursed or even heard of anyone being hurt by a ghost, so what was there to worry about! Curiously she didn't deny there was a Grey Lady but I only thought of that after being reassured. Actually the most scarey thing in the old hospital was the Malaysian nurses choice of music. They were needed to boost numbers [even in the 70s] and many were homesick. My neighbour had one vinyl record to play, 'Jingle Bells' that sounded like the Goons 'Yingtong Song' in Chinese, repeated again and again and again. We all used to sing along to cheer her up but it got a little cringeworthy morning noon and night!

Snow snow and more snow winter 1946

1946 was a very bad winter, we were snowed in for weeks.The promised Christmas pantomime visit to the Theatre Royal in Exeter never materialised. It always seemed to happen like that in those days. The winters were very hard and my parents told me that when they were young they could remember the River Exe frozen solid and market stalls set up on them. Getting out of bed with the frost patterning all the windows and the linoleum on the floor freezing cold was a nightmare. If I got half a chance I would go to bed with my vest and liberty bodice on to avoid some of the cold in the morning. People don't know that they have been born these days, with their central heating and fitted carpets, and they still moan that they are cold in the occasional cold snap.

The Wakely Family

I was born in Lower Shillingford (Shillingford Abbot) in 1939. My grandparents Francis and Jane Wakely lived in Rectory Cottage, Higher Shillingford (Shillingford St George). My grandfather was gardener at the rectory. He was also the sexton at the church, gravedigger, bellringer and caretaker at the church.
At Christmas time we would walk from Lower Shillingford to Higher Shillingford a distance of about three miles to attend the midnight service at the church on Christmas Eve. My grandmother would not attend the service as she was stone deaf. She looked after my little brother instead while we were at the service. It was always bitterly cold and I remember starlit nights and chattering teeth. The church furnace was lit early in the day and it was warm and bright with the light of the many candles saved for this occasion .It was  full of holly and ivy that my grandfather had collected to decorate the church. I loved this service and often think about it even now. After the service we walked home and by the time we got home we were very tired and slept very well. I think that my parents had an ulterior motive for we were never up early on Christmas morning

Cann Family History

My Great Great Grandfather was born William Honey Cann.   Born: March 12, 1845 in Topsham, England son of John Cann and Jane (Hill) Cann.  (William Married - Ann Pidgeon, from England also!).  Looking for more information on Cemeteries in this area.  John Cann was the son of Samuel Cann & Charity (Arscott) Cann.  Looking for information on location of where they lived in Topsham, or worked.

The River

My family moved to Brampford Speke in 1972 when I was two and we moved away in the summer of 1977 to Bristol. We lived in the bungalow opposite the village pub. I went to the village school and spent most of the time down by the river. I learnt to swim in the river too. I remember the hot summers when everyone would go by the river, also the Silver Jubilee when we all went in fancy dress, playing skittles in the pub and looking for grass snakes in the churchyard! I still visit Brampford Speke as often as I can get down and still see some of the friends and familiar faces from when I lived there. I will always think of this as my home and have great fond memories of it. It is such a lovely place to live.
Alison Flannery (nee Dodd)