ARTHUR BELL

I WAS TAKEN INTO THIS HOSPITAL WITH SCARLET FEVER THEN CAUGHT DIPTHEREA WAS IN KM WARD ABOUT 1928 AND 1930 THEN LIVING IN SHADWELL LEEDS NOW 91 YEARS OLD ALONG TIME TO REMEMBER THAT FAR BACK MERRY XMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

25-Dec-2009

arthur.bell824@ntlworld.com

B Hallam

So many children of the 1940's and early 50's - including me, knew this devlish place as The Children's Hospital where they were taken to have their tonsils ceremoniously removed at the age of seven, heaven only knows why such barbarism was deemed necessary. The hospital's original purpose, along with its neighbour Killingbeck (now gone), was as the culmination of the need to constantly relocate infection treatment centres as far from the relentlously expanding city as possible. Seacroft - built on the vast rural Manston Estate, was at that time, a coach & horses ride from Leeds. Many other such 19th Century hospitals, located in 'then' similar rural areas but much closer to town, had gradually been replaced in the process. It is sad to have to remind ourselves that these establishments were meant mainly as protection from the sufferers of Smallpox, Cholera, and Tyfus, rather than their welfare. A stinking poultice being probably the most they could expect. Of two such previous hospitals, one sat in a rural area known then as The Burmantofts - called The House of Recovery, it was on Beckett Street, but should not be confused with the later conversion of The Moral and Industrial Training School into the famous 'Jimmies'. The other 'Smallpox Hospital' was where the Burton's factory would later be built, even closer to Leeds' - and indeed the Nations' first, Municipal Cemetery. We have much to be grateful for nowadays.

11-Jan-2010

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