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I trained as a nurse at Barrow back in the late 1970s. I arrived at the nurses' home and was allocated a room on the second floor, which looked out onto a large lawn and the woods beyond. The staff dining-room was situated on the ground floor of the building, as was the staff social club, where I spent a lot (way too much) of my time!The first four, or maybe it was six, weeks of my training were spent 'in block' at the Bristol School of Nursing, which was situated at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. There was a frequent hospital coach service that ran between the BRI and Barrow.
After this introductory course was completed, we were let loose on the wards. I was allocated to Centre Ward A2, which was a female long-stay ward. Here, the ward was the patients' 'home', as none of them would ever be discharged. This was because they were suffering from enduring, or chronic mental illness, and had become so institutionalised that it would be nigh on impossible for them to live independently. Perhaps the saddest aspect of working on this ward was that some of the patients were not really mentally ill at all; they had flouted the 'social mores' of the day, perhaps by giving birth to an illegitimate child, and found themselves 'put away' in Barrow, as objects of 'shame'.
Female Center Wards |
Interior of Male Center Ward |
The main part of Barrow, which is referred to as the admission hospital on your page of photographs, was better known as the Centre Wards. If you went into the building through the main entrance and turned left down a long corridor, you would find yourself in the female section. On the right, Centre Ward A2 was situated; there was a stairway, and on the first floor was Centre Ward B, also a female long-stay ward. Straight ahead, at the end of the corridor, was Centre Ward A1. This was an acute admission ward. Not everyone was admitted here, however. Many patients were admitted to one of the Villas, but Centre Ward A1, and its male equivalent, Centre Ward C1, cared for patients who were acutely disturbed and needed more supervision. Consequently, the staff/patient ratio was higher on these wards, but they were not locked wards. There were no locked wards during my time at Barrow.
If you turned right down the corridor, after the main entrance, you would be in the male section, a mirror image of the female section, with Centre Ward C2 (male long-stay) and Centre Ward C1 (male acute). Upstairs, was Centre Ward D (male long-stay) which also served as the ECT suite.
Now by taking a very pleasant walk through the middle of the woods, you would come to the Villas. Dundry, Combe, Blagdon and John Cary House. East Villa was situated away from these Villas, closer to Southside. The Villas were admission wards, and patients from the Centre Wards would often be transferred to one of them for a period of convalescence.
East Villa |
Southside Enterance Block |
Further down the road was Southside, the sick hospital. These wards housed what was called in less politically correct times, the 'psychogeriatric' patients. Kenn Ward 5 (male) and Nailsea Ward 6 (female). These two wards were for high-dependency patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Most of them were doubly incontinent and need a great deal of hands-on nursing care. The other two wards were Shipham Ward 8 (male) and Redhill Ward 9 (female). These wards housed low-dependency patients.
After qualifying, I worked at Barrow on night duty. Staff would often walk from the Villas or Southside to/from the Centre Wards through the woods, it could be a bit spooky if you were on your own. I often worked on John Cary House, usually on my own, except for the bedtime drugs round, when a nursing assistant would come and help me. I would make hourly checks on each patient through the night, sustained by seemingly endless pots of tea! Sometimes a patient would be unable to sleep, so they would come downstairs and we would have a chat, accompanied by the usual tea and fags (no smoking ban in those days).
Sharon