Cruel Hornsea Children's Convalescent Home Remembered

A Memory of Hornsea.

I was at the children's convalescent home in 1960, when I was 11. Dad had passed away when I was 8 and I was diagnosed with a nervous breakdown 3 years later. So off I was sent to convalesce at Hornsea. The regime was brutally cruel and the matron in charge seemed to enjoy this. I can remember one day coming back after a lovely day in the sun. We were accompanied by a nurse who treated the six or so children very well. We visited some tennis courts and fooled around with some grass cuttings. When matron found out supper was cancelled and we were locked in the dormitory and the lights switched off. When I was older I found this place; it had a very distinctive balcony right around the first floor. Some time later I saw a headline in one of the "red top" newspapers which proclaimed "cruel children's home closed". The picture in the article clearly matched my memory of the building where I stayed (it had the balcony). Thankfully when mum saw my tearful distress promised that I would never have to return.