Search is on to put festive nurses in the frame
IT is Christmas 1967. Top of the charts was Hello, Goodbye by The Beatles.
Four nurses posed for a picture in front of festive decorations at Park Hospital - later Trafford General - the birthplace of the NHS.
Now the search is on to find them. The wonderful picture was taken by George Shepherd, who this year has won huge recognition after his daughter Angela collected 1,000 photo negatives from his home.
They had gathered dust for 50 years and were in an Asda shopping bag, about to be put in the bin.
She painstakingly checked each one and discovered a lost time - captured forever by her father.
The black and white images were all taken by George in the late 1950s and 1960s in Salford.
Eighty of them were displayed in the tiny Eccles Community Gallery in May. Nearly 1,800 people went to see them after they were featured in the M.E.N.
The response from the public was so positive, an exhibition of more of the photos will go on display at Salford Museum and Art Gallery from December 12, 2020 until April 2021.
Another two of George’s shots was selected to be displayed at the Glasgow Gallery of Photography.
Angela said: “My mother, June, spent Christmas 1967 in Park Hospital. She was three months pregnant with me and had a slipped disc. They put her on traction - not sure they would do that nowadays.
“My dad took the photo of the nurses who looked after my mum during her hospital stay. It was one of the negatives I found in my dad’s back catalogue and has never seen the light of day until now.
“My dad and I want to find the nurses so we can present a print to the hospital. I take my dad there every month for his eye treatment and while we’re there always go to the cafe and admire all the photos they have up on the wall - pictures from the 1940s when it turned into the first NHS hospital. I think my dad’s print would look at home there.”