Royal National Hospital Ventnor

A Memory of Ventnor.

I worked as a nurse at the hospital from 1955 to 1956 and went back for the first time in June of this year. It was really nostalgic to be there again, even though the hospital has long gone the Botanic Gardens are still as I remember some of them from being the hospital gardens. The car park is where the hospital used to be and I could still visualise the buildings, the lodge is now belonging to the cricket club but it still has got the hospital crest on it which I found remarkable.
The Nurses Home as I remember it from living there is still the same, all the years since then have not altered it in any way. It is now a residential home and I went in and the matron was so kind and took me in and let me see my old room, which was remarkable and filled me with nostalgia. We had a bunny run from the home, under the road to the basement of the hospital which we used to use to go on duty if the weather was bad and this door is still there, exactly as it was all those years ago, truly remarkable.
We would go to dances at the Winter Gardens every Saturday night in the summer months and I went in this time and the dance hall is as I remembered it all those years ago. We would walk along the cliff path back to the hospital and I retraced these steps and it was like going back in time.The sad thing about it was that I have lost touch over the years with the girls that I worked with, it would have been great to share these memories with somebody. I met my late husband at the hospital and my close friend who was nursing with me has also passed on so this was truly a nostalgic if at times a rather sad trip down memory lane.
We went to our training school at Ryde, I cannot remember the name of the house that the school was in, I recall it being in its own grounds close to the hospitel in Ryde. I particularly remember a vey kind girl who used to take me home to her family for tea, her name was Marian Adams, I think they lived at Spring Vale just outside the harbour. My time there was very enjoyable and my trip back made me feel so sorry that I had lost touch with many lovely people.
I have such wonderful memories of my time at Ventnor and nobody can take those away from me, I just wish I could share them with somebody that knew me then. I left the hospital to do my general training in my home town of St. Helens in Lancashire and sadly never got to go back until June 7th 2010.
Thank you Ventnor for being my home then and for the wonderful trip down memory land just last week, I will never forget it.