Friends of North Walsham War Memorial Hospital

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Tribute to life-long nurse Marie Young

25th August 2021 by Richard Batson

A former nurse who cared for thousands of patients in a 40-year career before retiring at North Walsham hospital has died aged 79.

Marie Young, who lived on Happisburgh Road, rose to become a theatre nurse, ward sister, nursing officer and at one time specialised in training, at hospitals in Sheffield, Birmingham and Market Bosworth.

Marie Young North Walsham Hospital nurse
Marie Young when working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

When she and civil engineer husband Mike moved to North Walsham Marie worked as a part-time staff nurse mainly on night shifts.

Outside of work she was a talented musician playing piano, semi-professionally, for a dance school in Market Bosworth in the evenings, having finished her shift at the hospital.

When she was younger she also played the cello, and in Norfolk she enjoyed singing with the North Norfolk Chorale.

Daughter Nicola said: “Wherever she worked, people remember her for being a real livewire, sitting at the piano and leading the carol singing.”

She was a forthright Yorkshirewoman who worked really hard – baking bread in the morning, cycling to work, then going straight to the dance school in the evenings.

Marie Young North Walsham Hospital nurse
Marie Young with daughter Nicola and husband Mike.

Marie, who also has a son Simon, a railway signalling manager, suffered poor health in recent years and was bedbound.

She caught Covid twice over the winter during spells in hospitals and battled back but sadly died from pneumonia in Heron Lodge care home at Wroxham on August 7.

Her funeral was held at North Walsham parish church on August 18, attended by some former colleagues from the war memorial hospital.

Nicola added: “Even when she was in hospital and care homes herself, she was still training the nurses and the carers – giving them advice on how to turn her over in bed.”

She thanked the staff who turned out for the funeral, where donations of more than £100 were made to the Hospital Friends.

Filed Under: Community, Donations, history Tagged With: North Walsham Hospital, Nursing

Window on hospital history

7th August 2021 by Richard Batson

A piece of North Walsham hospital history has been saved as a garden feature thanks to the Friends group.

A window and cross from the old 1929 chapel were rescued when it was demolished earlier this year due to its deteriorating condition.

Now they have been mounted in a brick memorial in the hospital garden as a reminder of the community hospital’s heritage – and as a talking point for patients, visitors and staff enjoying the grounds.

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital chapel memorial
Friends chairman Keith Jarvis and painter Kelly Yaxley putting the finishing touches to the new chapel memorial

Records show the old chapel was built at a cost of £294 in 1929-30, some six years after the hospital was opened in 1924.

Friends chairman Keith Jarvis said: “We were initially concerned when the old chapel on the entrance road was earmarked for demolition, as it was the last remaining piece of the original hospital built in the 1920s.

“But the authorities kindly saved the window and cross when we asked, and we are pleased to give them a new life in the garden which is currently getting a makeover thanks to volunteers.

“We hope people appreciate it as attractive feature which also reminds people about the site’s long and proud history of community care.”

He thanked tradesmen John Easton and Kelly Yaxley along with Daniels Aggregates and Travis Perkins’ North Walsham branch for donations of labour and building materials which reduced the cost of the project.

The garden memorial was funded and organised by the Friends, who use public donations to provide “extras” to improve the quality of life for patients, staff and visitors.

The Friends have also funded bird feeders for the garden, where they have also supported the volunteer team with gardening materials and equipment.

 

Filed Under: Community, Fundraising, history Tagged With: North Walsham history, North Walsham Hospital Friends

Booklet’s window on hospital of the 1930s

14th April 2020 by Richard Batson

We love a bit of history at the Friends – particularly about our much-loved hospital.

And with hospitals in general currently in the nation’s hearts and minds during the coronavirus pandemic,it is a fitting time to remind us of health care from an earlier age, back in the 1930s.

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet
North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet

News footage is currently showing footage of hi-tech ventilators in intensive care units, and staff wearing protective gear.

But things were different – simpler but just as caring – back in 1937 as an official booklet from the time shows.

It was just 13 years after the hospital opened, built through a public appeal after the First World War to honour the local men who gave their lives.

Inside the plain fabric cover of the 1937 there are wonderful facts, figures and phrases that capture the hospital – including sentiment about why it was built in the first place.

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet
What could be more fitting…

“What could be more fitting than that the physical sacrifices and sufferings, so nobly endured, should be remember for all time through a hospital dedicated to the healing of diseases and the relief of human distress?” it proclaims.

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet
East side of the hospital 

The introduction recalls that 1919 meeting which voted unanimously to build the hospital for a cost of £4000.

It is not just in modern times when hospitals are built, then immediately found to be too small. It happened in the first year (1924-25) at North Walsham too where the “accommodation proved inadequate” and two extra beds were put in each of the public wards.

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet
Men’s general ward

In 1932 a Premises Improvement Fund was started and in 1935-36 the two main wards were extended, while a new emergency ward and children’s ward of three cots were added.

In 1937-38 there were 400 patients admitted, 300 operations and 128 x-rays carried out. The average stay was 13 1/3 days at a weekly cost of £2 13s 8d per bed.

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet
X-ray room

The booklet says the hospital’s location has “the additional advantage of the bracing airs of the East Coast” just a short distance away.

There are pictures of the wards and operating theatres of the time with their cast iron beds and basic facilities. But letters from grateful patients talk of them appreciating “happy and cheerful” stays.

 

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet
Private ward
North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet
Operating theatre

There is a list of officers and staff, including chairman Dr CD H W Page and matron Miss R J Sampson.

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet
Hospital officers

And some fabulous adverts show the traders of the time including Rackstraws “high class grocer and provision merchant”, Oliver and Griston surgical and medical suppliers, W F Leeder (printers, bookbinders and paper bag merchants), and Fayers “the hygienic bakers”.

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet

We hope you enjoy looking back at the hospital’s earlier days. The Friends are continuing to provide support for the hospital with regular goody parcels for hard working staff during this unprecedented time, and will be tackling projects such as some new outside wall art and an overnight room for patients’ relatives once the Covid-19 crisis is over.  

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet
North Walsham War Memorial Hospital 1937 booklet cover

*This copy of the booklet is held at the Norfolk libraries service archive in Norwich. The publisher and copyright owner of the book is untraced but it appears to be by the hospital officials of the time, so we hope it is ok to publish a snapshot of it here, as a reminder of the hospital’s fascinating past and strong community support.

Filed Under: history Tagged With: North Walsham Hospital Friends

Laying the foundations for hospital’s proud history

5th September 2019 by Richard Batson

An historic moment for North Walsham War Memorial Hospital happened 100 years ago this month.

A foundation stone was laid which marked the start of a hospital which has brought treatment, care, and comfort to generations of patients – and a bevy of babies into the world.

North Walsham Hospital Friends foundation stone
Friends secretary Angie Batson recreates Lady Suffield’s laying of the hospital foundation stone 100 years ago. Picture: Richard Batson

The hospital’s Friends group has recreated the moment to remind people how vital public support was at the beginning of its proud history – and still is today.

Friends secretary Angie Batson taking the role of Lady Suffield who performed the ceremony on September 17 1919. Mrs Batson wore an Edwardian-style outfit supplied by The Community and Theatre Wardrobe at Sheringham.  

Recreating the laying of the foundation stone.

Friends chairman Keith Jarvis said: “We didn’t want this important centenary occasion to go un-noticed, so we thought we would make it happen again.

“The hospital was built using funds and land gifted by local people, after a public meeting earlier in 1919 voted unanimously to provide a hospital in memory of the men who gave their lives in the First World War.

“Although today’s rebuilt hospital is run by the NHS, it still has a big place in the hearts of local people because of the care it provides. And the Friends continue to rely on public support for funding the ‘extras’ the NHS cannot provide. So the bond between the hospital and the community is still strong today – which is something we want to celebrate. “

 

Work on the hospital did not start until 1923 while the funding was completed. It was opened in August 1924 by Princess Marie Louise. Over the years it has carried out minor operations, and provided post-operative and rehabilitation care – as well as a maternity unit.

It was demolished in 2011 to be replaced by a new unit the following year. The original site is now a wildflower meadow.

Over the past decade the Friends have provided “extras” worth around £400,000, ranging from a new training suite, and refit of the day room, to presents and carol singing to cheer up patients at Christmas.

FLASHBACK TO 1919

Edwardian VIPs wore their Sunday best for the foundation stone laying, a cutting from the Eastern Daily Press on September 18 1919 reported.

Ladies are seen sporting their best hats and long skirts, gentlemen a mixture of bowlers, trilbies and big caps.

Lady Suffield at the 1919 ceremony. Picture EDP news cutting

 

Lady Suffield did the honours with a silver trowel, and said simply: “I declare this stone to be well and truly laid, and I trust that the hospital which is to be erected on this site will have a very prosperous and successful future.”

Guests included war memorial committee chairman John Dixon, and high sheriff Mr F H Barclay.

A string of speakers stressed that the hospital aimed to complement rather than rival the Norfolk and Norwich, and the crowd was told that it would cost £4678. Prayers were said and schoolchildren sang a hymn. The day finished with a tennis tournament which raised £5 for hospital funds.

Filed Under: Events, history Tagged With: North Walsham Hospital Friends

Friends work, and hospital history, on show at archive event

15th August 2019 by Richard Batson

The history of North Walsham War Memorial Hospital, and the work of its current day Friends, were showcased at a major community archive event in the town.

North Walsham War Memorial Hospital Friends archive exhibition
The Hospital Friends stand at the community archive exhibition

The Friends manned a stand at the three day exhibition at the Atrium.

It showed pictures of the old hospital, its First World War predecessor run by Red Cross volunteers, along with information about the Friends’ work.

Friends members enjoyed chatting to visitors, who were interested in the hospital’s modern day role, and how the Friends support it – channelling public funds into “extras” to enhance the lives of patients, visitors and staff.

Thanks to the North Walsham and District Community Archive for inviting us to take part.  

Filed Under: Events, history Tagged With: North Walsham Hospital Friends

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Chairman

Keith Jarvis
15 Primrose Close
Trunch NR28 0QH

Tel: 07788 889853

Secretary

Angela Batson
30 Beechlands Park
Southrepps NR11 8NT

Tel: 07775 557381

Treasurer

Carol Willgress
6 Rayna Loke
North Walsham, NR28 0FJ

Tel: 01692 402018

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© 2022 · Friends of North Walsham War Memorial Hospital, Yarmouth Road, North Walsham, Norfolk NR28 9AP. Tel: 01692 408000
Registered charity number 298857
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