Woodhurst 1962

A Memory of Pease Pottage.

I was a pre nursing student in1962 at the South London Hospital for Women. As part of our course I was sent to work at Woodhurst for 6 months, prior to beginning my S.R.N training.
Woodhurst was the convalescent home linked to the Sooth london hosp. Ladies were sent there for a couple of weeks to recover from surgery. They had excellent care from the nursing staff & the local GP called regularly to monitor progress.
The beautiful grounds & gardens were a great place to recuperate.Visitors were allowed at strict visiting times at weekends. When discharged the patients were transported back to London by ambulance.
As staff, we were very well treated. We lived on the upper floor (servants quaters). We had our own private garden. I well remember camping out in the garden on a warm summer night, as the rooms were small & hot.
There were several of us P.N.S students there at the time, as well as the permanent staff. One of our jobs at weekends was to remove the small wooden blocks under the feet of the beds & wash them in carbolic & replace them. No MRSA then!!
I understood that Woodhurst was owned by Anna Pavlova & not Dame Margot Fonteyn as Wilkepedia states! There was a room on the ground floor known as the music room as the ceiling had carvings of musical instruments on.
In an outhouse/garage we found a working pionola (not sure if correct spelling) complete with paper scrolls of music, we were in trouble for playing them as they (so we were told)belonged to Matron.
Matron always had a small dog in tow. (yappy thing I remember).
I went back to S.L.H. to train & qualify as S.R.N. then as a Midwife. I made Midwifery my career & retired in 1999 after 30 yrs as a midwife.
I have often driven past Woodhurst & reflected on time spent there. I have several photos of my time there, & was interested to see the photo's C1950 taken there.