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Hi Sarah, thanks for reply, are you a former Bramhope/Gyde house inmate?   Without wishing to appear immodest about my MA Hons, it was the easiest and enjoyable thing I have ever done, far easier than 47 years on and off on the engineering workshop floor?   Hopefully someone will read my note who is a contempory of mine and who will find the time to put finger to keyboard?   I only mention this, because it is hard to find anubody who shares my background, someone who has never known a blood relative?   I have kids of course, and they also find it difficult to talk about my past, so the subject is hardly ever raised.  Usually most days in fact, one is reminded of one's background in the most casual of ways.  In the pub for example you will hear somebody in your company talk about their parents, brothers and sisters or their uncles and aunts, or you will watch the news and learn that sombody has just lost their parents, and you will be reminded of the fact that you will never have that experience?   If that sounds a tad maudlin, just think for a moment and ask yourself the question, do you know who you are, and what your background is?   Genetically are you thrombotic, and did your parents experience cancer, or heart disease?   All questions most folk can answer.   On that cheery note, I'll close thanking you once more for your interest and kind thoughts, Rgards Barry

I posted the note "dear Poppy 52", we do have something in common, in the hope of getting some kind or response to my message about Gyde House?   I am now 71 years of age and have been attempting via this forum, and many others to obtain some kind of response to my pleas for information?  Some background on my profile, I was abandoned aged 6 weeks in 1945 by my mother, who was pressured by her parents into placing me in care with the NCH (National Children's Home).  I never knew my father (or any other relative fr that matter) though I understand he was a US GI?   With my scant knowledge of WWII history, it is likely that he most probably perished on Omaha beach in 1944 along with the other doomed American GI's?  My first port of call as a 6 week old infant, was the NCH at Frodsham in Cheshire where I resided for the first 5 years of my life.   Following this I was transferred to the NCH at Bramhope in Yorkshire, and lived there up to age 10.   The home at Bramhope was then specially adapted and designated for disabled children, and all of the able-bodied children were moved on to other homes.   The choice made for me was Gyde House Painswick Glos, where I spend the next and final 5 years up and until age 15 where I left the NCH to start an apprenticeship.  I will be the first to tell you that I was a problem child with huge psychological difficulties, and there followed some 15 years of dysfunction until I found my feet, and could reasonably cope independantly (some would argue that I still have these problems, and I would not argue with them?).   Over the ensuing years after 2 marriages and 3 children I managed to live a relatively normal life, working, paying my way and contributing to society the way most of us manage to do, and even managing go up to university and to win a Masters in Humanities at the ripe old age of 55.   What I really lack, for a variety of differing reasons, is a connection with my past, and I yearn to share my experiences and to socialise with my contempories from either Bramhope or Gyde House, and in particular with David L, Ian Clark, Ann & Frank Green, David H, Brian & Peter Hedges, Jackie Spencer and any others whose names elude me just now.  I have a huge store of memories to share, so thanks for your patience and hopefully for your interest.   Barry Stevens           

I am looking for any information about my fellow inmates at Gyde House Painswick Glos in the 1950's?   For example Poppy wrote about her father who was there in the 50's but who went to Bramhope Yorks, coincidentally it was from Bramhope in Yorks that I came to be at Gyde House in 1950!!   I would like to hear from Names Removed and any other of my contempories circa 1945 to 1960?   Regards Barry Stevens

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