Web Page  No 2138

8^th March 2015

The first of the pictures from The George last month. Alan Hartley talks as others listen. Left to Right: Bob Barlow, Melvyn Bridger and David Wyatt's wife. 

Barry Dunnaway, Pam Hammond, Peter Barlow behind and Tina at the bar.

Now this weeks page.

 Top Picture: 1950’s check up at the doctors

 Middle Picture: Hospital 1950’s style

 Lower Picture:  The Nit Nurse

Bottom Picture: Inside a 1950’s Chemist shop

Carry On Doctor

Anida’s piece concerning The Droke and the doctors surgery nearby few weeks ago got me thinking about my doctor when I was young and the later doctors in a new surgery when I was a child in the Farlington area. Originally, for us who lived in that area, we only had one choice of surgery and this was a small, purpose built extension which had been built onto the doctor’s house. This extension was brick built with a tiled pitched roof and the windows and doors painted in a shade of dark green. The doctor was Dr. William Cheyne a broad scot who adored hunting shooting and fishing, a doctor of the old school!

His house was on the Havant Road on the corner with Galt Road, opposite the old Farlington Post Office and Frank Vine the butcher, but the entrance to the surgery was through a small garden gate in Galt Road. On entering the waiting room I remember no receptionist, everyone just sat down on the old wooden chairs with raffia seating and read the out of date Horse and Hounds or Woman’s Realm magazines and waited patiently for their turn to see Dr Cheyne.

Like all GP’s at the time there was a morning surgery and an evening one with home visits squeezed in between. The doctor would make his house calls driving himself around in his Armstrong Sidley and I only remember him visiting me once when I was ill. I was lying in bed; I must have been six or seven at the time and feeling very sorry for myself when my mother called out the doctor to see me. I heard him walk up the stairs, he then put his head round my bedroom door, looked at me and said to my mother ‘Aye lass he’s got the Mumps, let it run its course’ and he was gone. End of home visit.    

One story that I do remember about Dr Cheyne is that he had a beautiful Golden Retriever which went everywhere with him, it even sat in the car during home visits. The doctor and his dog were out shooting one day when the dog got into the line of fire and Dr Cheyne accidently shot the dogs off. After the initial reaction, he calmly retrieved what was left of the ear, took his medical bag out of his car and carefully reattached the ear almost as good as new!

But things do not last and the Drayton and Farlington area grew and grew until the area became too big for one doctor and eventually a brand new, larger surgery and waiting room was built further into Drayton, this time on the south side of the Havant Road very near to the Drayton Methodist church and actually right next door to my Uncle Will and Aunty Ada on a derelict piece of land alongside Laburnum Path.

Things were certainly very different here as the practice increased with the addition of further partners, Drs Kenyon, Martindale, Thompson and O’Connell plus various nursing sisters and reception staff. On a visit here things were far more rigidly controlled. After reporting in to the receptionist we had to check in and then were given a plastic number, white letters on a black background or black letters on a white background (they ran two separate clinics), and told to wait until the appropriate buzzer went and then to go and see the doctor, placing the plastic number on the correct spike as we went out to the consulting room.

The other medical staff in the area that I frequented was Mr. Roy Kenroy, the dentist who had his surgery in a large house almost opposite the new doctors surgery. This was a place I was terrified to visit but mother marched me down there every six months for a check-up. The only other medical person that I can remember that I had dealings with, apart from the school ‘nit nurse’ was my one referred trip to the school dentist, a traumatic experience which I know that I have spoken about in the past. Shall we just say his name suited him, Mr. Butcher!!!  

Oh! Of course the two other medical professionals in the area were the Chemists, they were not referred to as pharmacists then, Mr. Stuart and Mr. Eastwood.

Still most of us came through the medical side of our childhoods without much trouble, whereas today I almost have to give a weeks’ notice to see a doctor at our local Medical Centre. (They are not Surgeries anymore, they are Medivcal Centres.

  Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

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Whilst interviewing Dr Theo Roberts in preparation for a book I am writing on the history of Drayton and Farlington, he related this story about Queen Mary and Drayton.

One day when Queen Mary was being driven through Drayton along the A27. She was travelling between the Royal Yacht in Portsmouth Dockyard and was one her way to  a race meeting at Goodwood.  She suddenly spotted the Smith & Vosper bakery on the Havant Road in Drayton. This was along by Mugford the green grocer and Smith’s the shoe shop.She ordered the car to stop and the chaffeur to get out and purchase her somecakes. (whether she paid the chaffeur for them is still unknown but Queen Mary was well known for never carrying money). Having made the purchase the Royal Party then progressed on their way. One of the partners in the bakery. Mr Vosper, lived in Drayton and it was his habit to call into the shop every afternoon on his way home. When the shop staff told him of their distinguished customer he was very loath to believe them but on asking around in Drayton he had the tale confirmed and this became a favourite after dinner story of his at many social functions for some time to come.

News and Views:

On this day 8^th March 1960-1965

On 08/03/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was The Larkins (ATV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/03/1961 the number one single was Walk Right Back/Ebony Eyes - Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/03/1962 the number one single was Rock-a-Hula Baby/Can't Help Falling In Love - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/03/1963 the number one single was The Wayward Wind - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/03/1964 the number one single was Anyone Who Had a Heart -Cilla Black and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/03/1965 the number one single was I'll Never Find Another You - Seekers and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was First public talking computer.