Our exhibition was so well attended with excellent reviews and many disappointed that they could not visit we are opening again next month.
Please continue to support us and bring along your photos, memories and any artifacts related to the hospital.
Programme of Events during the Exhibition week
Monday 7th March – Whitchurch Hospital 1908 – 2016:
A General History
(A talk by Dr. Ian Beech, Academic Manager for Mental Health, Faculty of Life Sciences and Education, University of South Wales, Pontypridd).
At: 12:30 to 13.30pm. (Limited spaces. Please arrive early to avoid disappointment)
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Tuesday 8th March – Whitchurch Hospital 1915 – 1919:
The Hospital During WWI
(a talk by Dr. Ian Beech, Academic Manager for Mental Health , Faculty of Life Sciences and Education, University of South Wales, Pontypridd).
At: 12:30 to 13:30 pm. (Limited spaces. Please arrive early to avoid disappointment)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Both talks above will take place in the Lecture Theatre, opposite Ward East 2, Whitchurch Hospital
Monday 7th and Friday 11th March,
WWI Tablecloth Display
An opportunity to view another important artefact of the hospital’s long history.
The embroidered tablecloth, bought in Jacob’s Market, Cardiff, in 1981, and dated ‘1917’, was made by WWI military casualties recuperating at the hospital. It includes the names of numerous staff and soldiers there at the time. It is now preserved at St. Fagan’s Museum of Welsh Life, who has kindly agreed to display the tablecloth).
(10:00 am to 1:00pm)
Appeal for Photos and Artefacts
An interesting article from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34089790
Rare finds – including works of art and a trolley used to transfer wounded soldiers in World War One – have been unearthed in Swansea and Bridgend hospitals.
The artefacts came to light after Abertawe Bro Morgannwg health board embarked on a project to catalogue items held in storage.
Some have been stored away for more than a century.
Photo: Test tubes full of seeds from Glanrhyd Hospital
Once a digital catalogue is completed, the board wants to put them on display.
It hopes to secure a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the exhibition, which will tell the story of health care in Wales.
As project lead Martin Thomas explained, the idea came about through a chance conversation.
“My day job, so to speak, is manual handling advisor for the board and I was approached about what to do with an old wicker trolley which was getting in the way,” he said.
“When I started to investigate it, I realised that it had been used to transport wounded WW1 soldiers from Clydach train station up to the war memorial hospital.
“It soon became clear that we have hundreds of items like this.”
I wonder what will be unearthed during the search of Whitchurch Hospital?
This event is hosted by Hidden Now Heard / Clywed y Cyn-Cuddiedig on the 23rd of October at 11:00 until 14:00 at the Cardiff Story Museum (The Old Library, The Hayes)
Have a look at their facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/474304409412579/
The Hidden Now Heard project invites former staff and residents from Ely or Hensol Castle Hospitals to Cardiff Story Museum to bring objects, pictures and stories from their time at Ely Hospital.
As well as hearing from you the team will explain the Hidden Now Heard project and explain the oral history interview process as we would like to conduct oral histories with former residents or their relatives and former staff from the hospital.
The oral histories, objects and images may appear at an exhibition about Ely and Hensol Hospitals on the Hayes in March 2016.
We will have some images from Ely on display along with researches who have been looking for documents and material from Glamorgan Archives and the National Archives in London.
Thanks to Paul Hunt for this post
As of earlier this week we now have a Twitter account:
Please follow and tweet
Thank you
Apologies for the lack of posts on the website for the last number of months.
As some of you may be aware, Whitchurch Hospital is due to close at the end of April 2016
There are a number of events planned to mark the closure of the Hospital:
7th – 11th of March 2016 planned as a week of events similar to the week we had to mark the Centenary of the Hospital in 2008
As part of this week we would hope to have an exhibition in the main hall and a party for staff members both past and present.
On Friday the 11th of March a staff ticketed event is being planned, more information to follow.
Please keep an eye out for further details which will be posted as they are made available
If you have any ideas, suggestions or artifacts/photos for the exhibition please get in touch through this website
Thank you
Verandah at Whitchurch Hospital during WW1
Richard Berry during the 1920s
Whitchurch Hospital Chapel during WW1
Back in August a comment was left on the website by Jon Langley:
Hello,
I could not find a contact e-mail on your website but would you like a scanned picture of the Hospital taken I think around 1916? The shot is of the Verandah and is entitled M.I., Military Hospital, Whitchurch, Glam. I also have a shot of the Church.
Jon
Jon’s mother recently passed away and in her photo collection were a number of postcards that his grandfather, Richard Berry, had left to her.
Richard Herbert Berry was a solider in WW1 and was invalided out of the service at the end of 1915. Jon believes he may have spent some time recuperating at Whitchurch as there are 2 postcards of the hospital and 4 of the city. Richard was a Mancunian and a member of the 7th Bn Manchester Regiment:
http://www.themanchesters.org/7th%20batt.htm
It would seem logical that’s how he came to have the postcards, but they are not annotated.
Jon does not believe his grandfather is in any of the pictures.
According to his military records, he returned from Egypt on the 5th February 1916 and was discharged from the service on the 26th May 1916. If he spent time at
Whitchurch, it was possibly during that 3 month period.
Jon’s grandfather’s full name is Richard Herbert Berry, born 17th February 1879. See photo above of him taken around 1920.
If anyone has any information about Richard, we would be grateful to add it to his family history profile.
I wonder if the soldiers at Whitchurch and maybe other hospitals were given postcards as a memento of their time or possibly the Hospital sold them?
Does anyone have any further information?
Thank you so much to Jon for this post and photos and a special thank you to Richard Herbert Berry for keeping the photos
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