Anke: Royal Tunbridge Wells

The Dogter Will See You Now

How about this for a picture, a baby eating dog food whilst the dog looks on ready to give some first aid.

The ever helpful John Weeks from the NHS tells me:

"Before the NHS the hospital had to raise all its own funds to stay open it was not funded by the state. As well as subscribers, donations, and charges they had regular fund raising including collection boxes door to door and Hospital Sunday each year when a big carnival would snake through the town with floats etc., also pound days when a stall would be set up in front of the hospital when people would donate a pound of flour or sugar etc., in 1934 they had over 500 eggs donated too".

I thought I'd post it up to give you a reminder about my Postcard Blog and also the post below this one to ask what you would like to put into the time capsule at the new hospital.

Remember kids, don't eat dog food. Unless your dog is a trained medical professional.

Time Capsule

I received a rather fascinating email from John Weeks at the NHS Trust this week. It appears that a time capsule is going to be buried at the new Tunbridge Wells Hospital. Interstingly it's going to be buried underneath the foundation stone of the old hospital which has been moved to the brand new building.

The original foundation stone of the old hospital. Now in the new hospital.

What makes this rather more exciting though is the fact that you, yes you my dear reader, are being given the chance to choose what goes inside the capsule. How brilliant is that?

So, the question is then, what is important to you today that you’d like the people (or aliens) of the future to see? What piece of The Wells would you want to preserve for future generations to learn about? What small item would best describe to our future selves how we live in The Wells today?

I discovered this useful tidbit to consider when deciding what you would like inside the capsule from the work of historian William Jarvis:

Most time capsules are typically filled with "useless junk" that tells little about the people of the time. Most contain only artifacts of limited value to future historians. Historians suggest that items which describe the daily lives of the people who created them, such as personal notes, pictures, and documents, would greatly increase the value of the time capsule to future historians. Some other issues to consider include the obsolescence of technology and the deterioration of electronic and magnetic storage media, and possible language problems if the capsule is dug up in the distant future.

The capsule will be buried in late April or early May so there is no time to waste in telling me what you would like to bury. And no you can’t bury your Mother-in-Law.

The original stone in situ at the old hospital. Now moved to the new hospital.

The time capsule will be laying underneath the hospital for approximately 50 years before being opened again and more items added. Leave me a comment below and you never know, your chosen item could have people talking about you in hundreds of years time. Get commenting!

Kent & Sussex Hospital Bombed

A interesting comment popped up from Anne Wagstaff the other day regarding a memory of the Kent & Sussex Hospital being painted in camouflage colours. So I thought I would investigate.

I have just been chatting to my father, born in 1934. As I talked about the tiles a flicker of a distant memory of them came to him. He had his tonsils removed in about 1942. His main memory is of the incredibly highly polished, shiny Lino, the smell of antiseptic and, curiously, the front of the hospital being painted in camouflage paint. He is wondering if the hospital really was camouflaged or if his memory is playing tricks. Do you know?

I discovered an interesting story of evacuees being sent from London to Tunbridge Wells to help paint the hospital bright white with a giant red cross on the top of it. Alas all this seemed to do was draw attention to the building and the enemy dropped an oil bomb onto the roof just a few days after the paint had dried. So, the children were given new brushes and helped to paint the building in a drab green colour, this along with chicken wire mesh covered in thousands of strips of dyed cloth which was also covered in ranges of green paint, helped camouflage the building perfectly, or so it was thought. Branches and twigs were also stuck all over the building to further hide it from view.

Alas the camouflage failed to protect the hospital and on the 12th of September 1940 it was hit. The bomb landed on the Outpatients and Casualty departments, where the town's main first aid post was. An 11 year old paper boy was killed in the blast. You can see on this bomb damage map just how many times the site was hit but the building itself was only hit the once.

The bomb damage. Copyright to Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

Thank you very kindly to John Weeks at the Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust for his help in answering Anne's question. Look out for John's forthcoming book about our hospitals and if you want to learn more about Tunbridge Wells during World War II then check out my week-long series I wrote back in 2009.

Kent & Sussex Hospital Tiles: We Did It!

We Saved The Tiles! Yes you read that right, thanks to this blog and our Tunbridge Wells Project, the Noah's Ark tiles of the Kent & Sussex Hospital's children's ward have been saved.

After we highlighted their plight last year, all the tiles are to be carefully removed and restored. But, there is always a but, after some careful research it appears that only the large Noah’s Ark panel is unique to the hospital. Therefore the decision has been made to remove this panel and install it in the new Pembury Hospital and auction off all the other panels. It is hoped that the proceeds from this auction will cover the cost of removal and restoration of the tiles and work will begin next week.

If you are looking for a new set of tiles for your kitchen or bathroom then I highly recommend looking out for them, hopefully we can at least keep them in Tunbridge Wells.

David and I are incredibly chuffed at being such an influential part of saving these historic pieces of architecture. It's reasons like this as to why the Project was created and why we are trying to document every building in Tunbridge Wells.

It also goes without saying that we should also thank Graham Goddard and John Weeks from the NHS Trust and TWBC for getting their heads together and coming to an agreement to keep the tiles safe. Right, next stop, Save the Cinema...joking!

Kent & Sussex Hospital Tiles Update II

It was nice to see that the original blog post that I wrote on the Kent & Sussex Hospital tiles back in November, which I really recommend you read, has sparked enough debate to not only make it into the local press but to also be partly responsible for their rescue. More exclusive news on this coming soon!

Click to purchase this copy of the Kent & Sussex Courier.

Don't forget to also go and take a look at our Tunbridge Wells Project to see behind the scenes on the rest of the Hospital. David and I spent many many days photographing the hospital so you'll find many more intriguing discoveries in the galleries of the Project.