Blood and screams at the Fever Tents
IT was so interesting to read Patricia Rubery’s memories of working at Stallings Lane Isolation Hospital in the 28th November edition.
I had often wondered about this place and I was picturing actual tents being pitched in a field, and you will see why when you read the rest of the story.
My mother, whose maiden name was Marjorie Hill, told me about the time her younger sister, Vera Hill, was taken as a child to what she called the Fever Tents suffering with diphtheria.
Struggled
Apparently while there Vera developed a mastoid behind her ear and as she could not have an anaesthetic she was taken into the fields for it to be lanced so as not to upset the other patients with her screams.
She naturally struggled, with the result that they cut too deeply, and after she was placed back in the ward, blood was found running under her bed.
At the time of the operation her mother, Mabel Hill, was cutting a salt block and the knife suddenly spun into the air. This was my grandmother who lived in a cottage at 16 Mount Pleasant, Kingswinford, who was the local unofficial midwife-cum-layer out of the dead, and she was also psychic.
When the knife flew out of her hand she knew something bad had happened and my mother witnessed this event taking place.
Apparently Mabel would tell neighbours what was going to happen to them but had to stop doing this, as they began to say she had wished things on them.
Maybe someone can remember Mabel Hill as she sold ice cream outside the Kingfisher Lido. Her brother Wilfred Darby also worked there behind the counter issuing the suitcases given out to put your clothes in. If I remember correctly he then gave you a numbered rubber band to wear on your wrist.
He was a small wiry man with bright blue eyes and a permanent tan obtained from his time spent in Australia. He also did duty as a lifeguard at the lido.
He too lived in Mount Pleasant at No. 118, which I believe was behind the Methodist Chapel featured in a recent edition of the Bugle. Unfortunately I have never been able to obtain a photograph of him.
And Vera did recover from her horrific experience at the Fever Tents.
Rita Bailey, by email: greenways6@aol. com