Children's Convalescent Home Charnwood Forest 1949

A Memory of Woodhouse Eaves.

I was three years old when I went to Charnwood Forest for four weeks to convalesce in late spring 1949. I was recovering from pleurisy and pneumonia.

My parents didn't have a car so I was collected from home in Birmingham in a black 'London' taxi. There were three children on the back seat and one boy was holding a kidney bowl on his lap because he felt sick. I sat facing them, on a little dicky seat behind the driver. There was a nurse in the front passenger seat.

Most of he nurses wore white uniforms and hats but the matron's uniform was dark blue. I slept in a cot with beds all around and I remember the balcony where I had the impression the boys slept. We ate our meals at a long table and one boy licked his plate clean so we all copied him. The Matron came to me and told me my father had telephoned and she'd told him I was eating well. We didn't have a telephone so I guessed he must have gone to our neighbours' house.

We sat outside on the grass singing songs like 'Lavender's blue, dilly dilly' and breathed the scent of pine trees all around. I can remember the cloakroom where we had to hang our coats and the corner door which was the only one we were allowed to use.

I have happy memories of my four weeks there but can't remember any names of the other children.

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