Winwick Hospital, Warrington - personal reflections.

I worked and trained at Winwick from 1968 to 1974 first time around. I stumbled across the Winwick website with the intention of spending only a few minutes browsing. However, two and half hours later I am still recalling the many happy memories of all the gang (male and female) who lived as skint students and surviving on disgusting food ( I think it was food) given to us all after grafting for hours on Eight Down.

Tales which make me laugh even to this day came flooding back; all the trouble we got into. I remember Mr. Moss calling me to his office after I had flooded his office after leaving and forgetting about the bath running. I stood in front of his desk (as we all did from time to time) - he looked me in the eyes and uttered those words I will never ever forget: "My f****ing carpet has shrunk six f****ing inches, and look what you've done to my suit (which was hanging on the wall rail). It's f****ing ruined".

I remember thinking at the time, "This is it. I'm down the drive". As Mr Moss was ranting and raving at me I looked to one side and observed Bill Templeton and Arthur Critchley trying to control their laughter. Happy days.

Having worked at Winwick on two occasions, I worked at a top security hospital in Maghull, Liverpool and then moved to Billinge Hospital for a number of years, where I meet up again with Terry. Following that I then moved to Making Space Skelmersdale Day Centre, where I am employed as Manager and have been in this position for the past 25 years, waiting for retirement.

I found the website most interesting and very informative, and obviously a lot of hard word has gone into it. Congratulations to all involved.

From time to time the website receives enquiries about patients who died at Winwick, and whether they might have been buried in the hospital cemetery.

Thanks to Frances Holcroft and Geoff Moon, I now have photographs of the memorial garden to mark the passing of patients from 1901 to 1971. However, we are still trying to discover where the burial records are kept. Please email us if you can shed any light on the subject.

I came to Winwick, from Anglesey, in December 1967 and started work as a Nursing Assistant. My decision to come to Winwick was the result of a recommendation by the Minister, Rev. Idris Jones, in my home village of Llanbedrgoch. Mr Jones had been a Chaplain at Winwick either during World War 2 or shortly afterwards.

I think it was Ted Wright I first met in the office and John Molloy who showed me to the room that would be home for the next few years. I seem to remember acquiring some extras to make it more homely thus incurring the disapproval of Sid Nobbs and Edie Smith. They weren't happy about the beer mats on the ceiling either and I think Bill Templeton was involved in their eventual removal. My abiding memory of Sid Nobbs is his warnings about staying in the bath too long: "People have drowned in there you know".

The first ward I worked on was Male 9 down. Sam Street was the Charge Nurse and Arthur Straw one of the deputies. I think Bob Sutton was working there too, as well as Joan Banks and Jean Buckley. I also recall a couple of patients who were brothers and suffered from Huntington's disease as well as a dear old chap who was always anxious about the whereabouts of his "little doggie".

My time on 9 down was a good grounding for what was to come. Arthur, Bob and Joan stick in mind as being particularly supportive to a 17 year old lad far from home. I didn't even think badly of Arthur when he tricked me into getting thoroughly soaked in the sluice!

I started PTS in January 1968 along with Betty Whitaker, Annie Sutton, Pat Bromham, Louise McKenzie, Joe Massey, Trevor Dunn, Sean Henderson, Sam Bennett and a Dutch gentleman named Henry. There may have been others in that group but unfortunately I can't remember their names.

At some point, probably in my second year, I worked on Male 8 down with your good self. After qualifying I worked on Male 8 down, then Male 4 up as Deputy opposite Ken Mather and Carl Breslin who was Charge Nurse. I was seconded to Warrington General from 1971 to 1973 to do SRN training. On my return I think I went to 8 down or Male ICU but not 100% certain of that.

It was great to see the photos on the site. I am in the March 1972 photo, fourth from the right on the back row between John Cummings and Joe Massey.

I haven't changed much but this is only based on my Grandson's ability to identify me when I showed him the photo! I had lost my copy of the photo but came across Lynda Kennedy (formerly Piers) about 14 months ago whilst doing some agency work in Warrington and she let me have her spare copy.

Lynda is fourth from the right in the third row (apologies if you already remember this). We could name most of the people in the photo but sadly some names escaped us. When I came across Lynda she was running a care agency; unfortunately I've lost her phone number.

Like Eddie Newall I remember the Reliant and I still have mixed feelings regarding Noddy. I also recollect that a Reliant could hold a lot of people and still be driven! However I'm no longer sure if that particular memory involves your Reliant or the one belonging to a chap I worked with at Tameside.

I also have a recollection of several of us aboard a trolley or truck careering downhill several times. This activity came to an abrupt halt when said truck collided with a lamp post. By this time Arthur Jones had been alerted and came out to investigate along with Jimmy Dagnall and others but I can't remember who. I think Ian Bond was a fellow passenger on that truck but the names of the others escape me.

It was at Winwick that I first tasted one of my favourite breakfasts - bacon and marmalade butty, introduced to me either by Albert Malee or Charlie Kettley.

Talking of food I seem to recall chips being fried in a steriliser in someone's room; it may have been Ian Bond but I can't be 100% on that.

The memories are not only of the hospital but also the club, the Swan and other hostelries. When I think of the people from those days each name evokes yet another recollection and there are so many that it would take quite a few pages to set them all down. It was great to read some of the recollections on the site. I'm sure I helped to drink the party can that Duncan mentions. Alcohol seemed to feature prominently, both bought and brewed!

I left Winwick in 1973 to work as a Charge Nurse on the Psychiatric unit at Tameside Hospital. I had applied for a Charge Nurse post at Winwick but my interview was a very short one. I was asked if I thought I was too young to be applying for the post. I replied, "If I thought that I wouldn't be here wasting your time and mine". The reply came back very swiftly, "Well we won't waste any more time then, good morning."!! I left the room red faced with a lesson learnt.

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about the training we received at Winwick and the acquisition of skills and particularly the many people who have had an influence which remains today. It's a shame I hadn't absorbed some of those skills before my interview! One particular comment that has always stood me in good stead was that when faced with difficult decisions I should think of "how it would look in a court of law", but sadly I can't recall who gave me that advice: maybe you can shed some light on its author.

Since leaving Winwick I've worked at various places: Tameside, The Wirral, Blackpool, Chester, Cumbria, North Wales, etc. and come across, or spoken on the phone to, quite a few people from those days and heard news of others: Norman Bennett, Neil Bates, Sean Henderson, Terry Keegan, Arthur Charnock (via his Dad), Lynda Piers, Dr. Ali Sayed, Tom O'Brien, Mike Collins, Phil Kinney, Richard Turner and Joan Banks. I've retired once and am probably on the verge of doing so again.

While doing agency work I came across a former patient from Winwick (who still believed he was a member of the royal family). I worked at the Care Home he was at for quite a while, off and on, and our reminiscences of Winwick helped to keep me awake on many a night shift. He died in 2005 and I later came across his niece working in a Home in Warrington so of course more reminiscing took place.

I am now living in Frodsham. During the past few months I've had a couple of stays at Warrington General. I came across people I knew and tales of others. Waiting to be anaesthetised last December I was chatting with an ODA, Dennis, and one of his comments was, "Of course you'll know Dave McKendrick"!

In the early seventies, in the company of other nurses of occasional intemperate habits, I used to visit Burtonwood Air Base. In the process of being run down, the base still had the families of servicemen living on site, and a social club, where we used to drink whisky and Seven-Up, change for which was always given in dollars and cents. If I recall correctly, at least one or two Winwick nurses struck up relationships with American servicemen, continuing a tradition begun in the Second World War, and may well have departed these shores for the USA.

Sad to see almost all traces of this piece of history gone, although a couple of the old hangars can still be seen when driving along the M62.

Listening to the news of impending influenza pandemics and the resurgence of sexually transmitted diseases revives memories of the sequelae of previous episodes.

Amongst the patients nursed at Winwick in the 60s was a survivor of the 1918 influenza pandemic, suffering from post-encephalitis lethargica. This unfortunate man had survived the decades following the influenza which had killed millions, but was left with dementia and Parkinsonism.

Also present on the wards at this time were a number of patients with tertiary syphilis, marked by delusions of grandeur and dementia.

By the 1970's these patients had died, and with them the evidence of how illnesses not fully comprehended by the general public could have such disastrous effects.

I arrived at Winwick at the end of 1966 to commence Pupil Nurse training 1967-69.

My initial reaction was the dismal corridors which were painted brown and cream and seemed to go on forever. I was given a room in the Male staff residence which over looked my first ward after PTS. This was 8 Down [C/N Dixon]- my room was quite spartan, having a single bed, three drawer chest and a wardrobe, plus washbasin in the corner.

My only possessions at the time were a papier-mache tray-which still survives and an electric kettle! We were allowed 1/4 tea and 1lb sugar per month- meals were free - this was prior to 1970's "pay as you eat" !! I was the only Pupil Nurse on the corridor - but this did not stop me from acquiring new friends who were student nurses - those friends remain today almost 40 years later - Terry Flaherty, John Molloy plus many others. We had some great times and I remember vividly one evening being asked to share a large party can of beer with the other lads on the block to celebrate Neil Bates 21st birthday. During the drinking session, one lad; I think it was Paul Matthews decided to go for a bath, but returned shortly afterwards having left the bath tap running.

One of the Assistant Chief Male Nurses, I think it was Mr Critchley came upstairs and asked "what the hell did we think we were doing" as Mr Moss' carpet was floating in his office directly underneath!!!

Seems like yesterday that quite a few of us were in his office the following day!!!

Much has changed- Winwick now closed still figures significantly, I still have photographs- my Yellow/Silver hospital badge and many fond memories of the staff I came in contact with during my time there.

I left in Dec 1969 and continued my nursing career first to General Hosp/ Infirmary to do 2 1/2 years for S.R.N then various posts both in hospital and community before leaving the Health Service in 1995 - I am now semi-retired , doing 3/7 a week in Derby.

Around 1970 the hospital, like many such, was in the throes of change. Scandals in several large institutions had led to the creation of the Hospital Advisory Service to facilitate change in psychiatric hospitals and a move from institutional to more personalised care.

One initiative at Winwick was the creation of an aviary, supervised by Geoff Moon, in what was previously a bandstand in Male 4 Down airing court. When set against the myriad problems facing the hospital in instituting change this drew a rather cynical response from two of the staff, as set out in the following lyrics (to the tune of the 'Eton Boating Song').

Thanks, Roger Bruton - we enjoyed writing it, even if it was refused publication in The Standard. He who laughs last, laughs best :) DMcK.

Eddie Newall - Post-registration student nurse and staff nurse, 1969 - 1971.

This Warrington lad completed three years SRN training at Warrington General Hospital and Warrington Infirmary in 1969. It was during this time that I first met David McKendrick and other Winwick nurses who were doing 18 months general training after doing their RMN at Winwick. I decided that as soon as I had finished general training I would apply to Winwick to do 18 months psychiatric nurse training. Working with the Winwick students at Warrington General gave me a good idea of what to expect.

Soon after arrival at Winwick I was greeted by Andrew Moss, the Chief Male Nurse. One of his deputies issued me with a set of keys - a large key for the doors and a small key for the window shutters; many of the wards were locked, intermittently or permanently. At some stage I was issued with my male nurse's uniform - a grey suit which I think included a waist coat, plus a white jacket for wearing on the wards. My sister, Brenda Newall, whose married name later became Holt, also started her 18 months post-registration training with me at the same time. We worked a three-shift system; days were 7 till 2 and 2 till 9, and nights were 9 till 7.

The hospital had a male side and female side; male nurses staffed the male wards and female nurses staffed the female wards, although this was beginning to change. Some wards were very large with overcrowded dormitories, and lacked privacy and space for patients' own possessions. Most patients were long stay and wore communal hospital clothes - shirts, ties, trousers, underwear, socks, shoes, hats, ties, overcoats and nightshirts. Crates of bottled Guinness were delivered to the wards, which some patients could drink before meals. Most patients seemed to smoke and would repeatedly ask for a cigarette, or a light, in-between searching the corridors for discarded fag ends which they could turn into a roll-up with a Rizla paper.

Toilet and bathing facilities were primitive; the Victorian-style buildings were probably designed by the same architects who designed the prisons. On the very large wards patients seemed to get a bath once a week, when their turn came around. Patients who could be trusted would work on the farm and some worked in the Industrial Therapy Unit (ITU). I spent a couple of weeks in the ITU and remember sitting with patients and helping to paint plastic figures of Noddy. Patients were often sans teeth or dentures, hence the need for a 'soft food' table on many wards.

Many patients appeared to have recovered from their original illness, only to become incapacitated due to institutionalisation; some of the nurses seemed also to have developed this affliction. Some patients were ex-servicemen whose war-time experience had precipitated a nervous breakdown. Some were prone to putting their fist through a window, or would throw a snooker ball through; many wards had full size snooker tables. Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) was in common use; the main medication I remember was Modecate, Kemadrine, Largactil, Melleril, Haloperidol, Amytriptylline, Lithium and various anti-convulsants. We sometimes gave paraldehyde which had to be injected using a glass syringe, as the recently introduced disposable plastic syringes would start to dissolve on contact; I seem to remember that paraldehyde is excreted via the skin and lungs, but once smelled is never forgotten. Epilepsy was common so major convulsions were frequent.

Some patients had the tell-tale indentations on either side of their forehead - signs of pre-frontal leucotomy in bygone years. Many patients were from areas in Manchester and Liverpool, miles from home, and had lost all contact with their family and friends. Visitors seemed few and far between. It was their home and most staff were kind. Most patients had little contact with the outside world, apart from watching television. Most were voluntary; those who were compulsorily detained were under the 1959 Mental Health Act. Our role was mainly custodial, with few opportunities to practice any therapeutic interventions, although we learned about modern techniques. Wilf Morris was the principal tutor in charge of the school of nursing, but Andrew Moss was its actual head.

Some wards still had padded single rooms in which the floor and walls were covered in an upholstered canvas material. Very disturbed patients could be secluded for their own protection. My impression was that they were not often used for their original purpose; the major tranquillisers had the effect of being a 'chemical straightjacket'. I never saw any canvas straightjackets - I presumed that these were abandoned long before my time. In fact, I didn't see much violent behaviour, in comparison with what I had seen in a general hospital. I think the very disturbed long-stay patients were housed in 3 up during my time. When a patient became very violent an emergency bell would sound and nurses would rush from their wards to help; I think they were known as the 'heavy gang'. I don't remember there being any formal training for this role; it was much later that breakaway training, and control and restraint training, was introduced.

The acute male admission ward was, I seem to remember, 1 down. Patients were often very ill on admission - hallucinations, delusions, manic behaviour or profound depression. I remember a Portuguese merchant seaman who was brought in from his boat on the Manchester Ship Canal, I think by the police, in a very agitated and disturbed state, with florid hallucinations. We had to restrain him in order to inject his medication. When he became well enough, David McKendrick had the job of escorting him back to Portugal. The Charge Nurse was Norman Hughes, a portly avuncular character who impressed me with his psychiatric nursing skills and his natural ability to teach. He would say "come with me lad"; I would then watch in awe as he dealt with a patient, and sometimes the family. Oh boy was he good!

I was resident on the 'block' and remember Sid Nobbs who cleaned the rooms. Frank Clarke was in a room next room to me; he was head cook and one of the old Winwick characters, as was Benny Paget. I somehow managed to make homemade wine in my wardrobe; my first effort was banana and it tasted like Harvey's Bristol Cream to me.

I soon made friends, by which I mean I soon found some other students who had a similar interest in wine, women and song. However, we had most success with the wine and song. We did an awful lot of what we thought was singing, or maybe we just did a lot of awful singing. Perhaps it was a side-effect of Burtonwood bitter; Frank Sinatra had nothing to fear. So, Brian Nugent, John Wilson and John Chadwick, where are you now? Still in 'fine' voice?

Frank Callaghan was the steward at the staff social club; he was years ahead of his time with extended opening hours. The nearest pub was The Swan, on the other side of Winwick Road from the hospital. I worked with Brian Footitt and his brother Ivan, and of course David McKendrick, amongst many others. David had a Reliant Robin 3-wheeler van, just like the one David Jason drives in Only Fools and Horses. There were no seats in the back, but I don't recollect that being a problem. That van seemed to know its own way back to White City, which was just as well in the circumstances. Does anyone remember seeing Ken Dodd perform one evening on the stage in the large recreation hall? It was probably during 1970. Please tell me I didn't dream it!

I qualified as an RMN in late 1970 and worked for a few months as a staff nurse on night duty on the unit across the road from the main hospital, called the Delph. I left Winwick in early 1971 to work as a deputy charge nurse on the psychiatric unit at Whiston Hospital. My sights were set on becoming a nurse tutor; ward management experience at charge nurse level was essential for achieving this. I later returned to general nursing, and then managed to get into teaching. I desperately wanted to be able to say: "Here is the kidney". I often think of my time at Winwick; it was relatively short but it made a big impact. Happy days (and nights)!

I moved South nearly 30 years ago and have lived near Canterbury for about 25 years. In recent years I have been a lecturer in adult nursing at Canterbury Christ Church University, and also involved with staff training and development in our local trusts. I will be semi-retiring in early October 2005.

I enjoyed looking at the old photos on your website - they brought back many happy memories.

Best wishes, Eddie Newall. September 22nd, 2005.

David McKendrick: 1960 - 1982

I arrived at Winwick on December 19th 1960 at the age of 18, having a very limited idea where in the North West it was actually situated. Even before I entered the wards, it was a world apart. At night the corridors were deserted, giving an eerie impression of the building, as if one had been marooned.

Living on the Male Residents’ Block, my first evenings were spent mostly in solitary isolation in the snooker room below. That was because, as I was soon to find, most of the staff residents were in the social club across Winwick Road.

After a short induction on Male 2 Down with student nurse Gary Say, and a ‘Merry Xmas’ helped by Phil Kinney, Mike O'Rourke and friends, I commenced work on Male 2 Up, a long-stay ward of elderly patients (actually, virtually all the wards were 'long-stay'). The uniform consisted of a charcoal black three-piece suit, the buttons on which were embossed with "Lancashire County Asylums Board". Various embroidered insignia designated different ranks of nurses - student nurses wore one, two or three vertical red stripes on the upper sleeve to show the year of training. The hospital tailor Georgie Woods would stitch the seams of the trousers for ten Woodbines to retain a crease (soap was another trick).

Pay at first was Ł6 10s a week, with Ł3 10s deducted for board and lodging. The remaining Ł3 was usually blown on the Friday payday at the Social Club. Shifts were two afternoons 2-9, one 'long day' 7 - 5.30, and two mornings 7-2, followed by one day off. The six day pattern meant that the rota lasted six weeks, and your assignment to a particular rota could change when you moved ward, which meant that it was possible to work 11 days without a day off, which led to great rejoicing. Holidays were allocated centrally and posted on the hospital notice board.

In that era many of the senior ward staff had joined the service after the Second World War. Nursing training was comparatively new - the previous qualification was the RMPA (the examination of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association). The Charge Nurse of Male 2 Up was Bert Galloway, an avuncular figure who cared for his charges along lines of regimented routines. There seemed to be a great reliance upon regularity of bowels, and I’ll draw a veil over the routines that this entailed.

At that time new staff were employed as nursing assistants, and those engaging in nurse training went on to become student nurses. I did so in February 1961, commencing the PTS, or ‘Preliminary Training School’. Some of my twenty or so classmates I worked with over the years were Keith Wills, John Bryant, Bert Everest, Ethel Latham and Jean Puzzar. The Sister Tutor was Monique Nation. Her husband Jack Nation was one of the first Winwick nurses to undertake post-graduate general training - previously Winwick nurses were not accepted at Warrington General Hospital.

Then followed a gradual progression through the male wards of the hospital. After one year students sat the Hospital Intermediate Examination and had to pass this to continue training. There was a grant of Ł40 made to successful students. Similarly, there was a Hospital Final Examination at the end of three years combined with a State Examination, and I qualified as a Registered Mental Nurse in 1964.

I then worked as staff nurse on night duty, Male 5 Up and Male 3 Up before undertaking my general nurse training at Warrington General in 1968-69. On my return I spent a period on Male 8 Down before moving to Delph Hospital as a deputy charge nurse. Career progression was slow on the Male side of the hospital - much quicker on the Female side. (As John Middlehurst, then a long-serving staff nurse, once put it, "You don't want to stay at Winwick waiting for 'dead man's shoes'. Move to another hospital where there's a vacancy. And why is there a vacancy? Somebody's died.".) Promotion to Charge Nurse followed in 1971, when I became one of the staff pioneering staff integration in the hospital with a move to Female 1 Down. After this ward was transferred to Ward 38 (the wards had been renamed by then), I moved on to take charge of an acute admission ward - Ward 30 (previously Female 3 Down).

In 1975 I joined the new community psychiatric nursing service, travelling round Warrington, Haydock and Ashton-in-Makerfield visiting existing and newly-referred patients.

I left Winwick in 1982 to take up the post of Community Psychiatric Nurse with Salford Psychiatric Services, based in Walkden. It was a wrench to leave the place of my formative nursing years, with the many valued relationships I had made. I still think that the training I received was exemplary for its time, and provided me with a sound grounding in psychiatric skills, and appreciation of many unsung people who were part of the fabric of Winwick Hospital.


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