St Wulstan's TB Hospital

St Wulstan's TB Hospital (1950's)

Following its period as a US Army Hospital, St Wulstan's became a TB hospital. Tuberculosis has been a disease suffered by humans for thousand of years. The introduction of the sanatorium cure in the mid 1800s was the first major step in the fight against TB.

Sanatoria found throughout Europe and the United States provided a dual function: they isolated the sick and the source of infection from the general population, whilst the enforced rest, the proper diet and the well-regulated hospital life assisted the healing processes.

Between 1945 and 1960, a remarkable development was made and more patients were cured using the new antibiotics. With the disease under control, less and less beds were needed and many sanatoriums started to close in the early 1960s. By the middle of the 1960's, there were only a few beds left for patients suffering from TB.

Prior to this, treatment would consist of the lungs being artificially collapsed and then refilled. It was hoped that it would somehow rest the infected lung. Ping pong balls were sometimes inserted in to the collapsed lung to keep it deflated. On some occasions, ribs were removed and this allowed pressure to be taken off the infected lung.
The archive project is gathering information about the treatments at the St Wulstan's TB hospital. We also have some photographs from Irene Rootes and Chris and Rachel Adams who all who spent time living at the hospital as a children in the 1950s. Irene's father was an assistant engineer at the hospital and they lived across the road from the Crescent bungalows. Mavis and Arthur Wadley remember many buses with visitors coming past their garden each week.

Bronwen Williams, Volunteer Archivist
St Wulstans Local Nature Reserve History Archive
June 2007

A personal view

We're grateful to Irene Rootes for getting in touch with us and sharing her stories and pictures. Irene lived at St Wulstan's from 1954 until 1957 when she moved to Canada aged 11.

"The house we lived in was number 6. It was one of the buildings that had been converted into homes. Ours was joined end to end with another one. Some were single as they were smaller. The houses themselves had a long corridor with all the rooms running off it. It was located on the right hand side of the road as you were facing the hospital across from the crescent where the bungalows are. It had a garden in the back and as you can see, my dad built us a playhouse.

I can remember my brother Peter and I playing somewhere where there was a stream and a little bridge going over it. There were two huge holly trees that looked gorgeous when they were covered in berries.

My sister Elizabeth was born there. A midwife delivered her at home. She was only two when we came to Canada.

My mom, Olive Constantinides worked in the hospital for a time as a nurse's aid on the night shift. She said that there were stories about the hospital being haunted.

My dad, Leo Constantinides was assistant chief engineer.

Peter would spend a lot of time talking to the gardener as he worked. He grew vegetables for the hospital.

I remember that there was a wooded area where Peter and I would go, but I am not really sure if it was on hospital property or private land. I just remember that in the spring it was full of bluebells. It was blue as far as the you could see."

As you came into the hospital grounds was where Dr Lloyd and his family lived. A number of people that lived on the crescent were the office manager, a doctor, the head gardner, a lab technician, the chief engineer Mr Gimberts (who had a television that Irene and Peter watched once a week).

Irene's mum, Olive, died in 2001, and her ashes were scattered on the Malvern Hills. Irene says that the hills were always home to her.