Bramcote Hospital

A Memory of Bramcote.

I was there in 1982 or 83 (can't remember that clearly) for maybe 6 months. I was 8. I have similar memories to other commenters of the people who stood out there. There was a school on site. The P.E. teacher, made us run around the local roads, every day, around the army barracks. I remember coming out of there a lot fitter than when I went in. They also had a weight lifting machine which I had never seen the like of before. I remember my parents used to visit once a week and I was instructed to use the payphone to call home inbetween as well (putting 10p in the box). We had a games room there with a pool table and ping pong and a vending machine. I shared a room with a kid called George, and we were all in a long ward with individual shared-by-two rooms with hospital beds and locking cabinets where I used to use my pocket money buying sweets and pop and hiding it in there.
We were sent on holiday a couple of times, once to some kind of outward-bound type place where we did canoeing, climbing and horse riding. Another time we went to the seaside somewhere in an old minibus with two slippery wooden benches in the back and no seatbelts (think it was also before the driver had to wear one). We were in this bus with the teacher driving, I recall he made a very sharp braking manoeuvre and we all went hurtling into the back of his seat, making it arch up and he banged his head on the windscreen, which shook us all up a bit.
I remember making good friends with the other boarders. We used to get taken swimming at the pingles, I do remember the bloke others have commented on and he did like to humiliate you. I remember wanting to keep my pants on under the swimming trunks and he forcibly removed them in front of everyone. I remember having to do 'solitary' a lot.
I see the place is now demolished and replaced with houses. I wonder if any of the other people I remember are still around.

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