Scarlet fever hospital Blyth

[Nova67]

At the risk of going off topic
It is interesting with the Northumbrian tradition of surname as middle name that I have found a few examples of it being attributed to an Uncle by marriage.  Sometimes it is the mother's maiden name, or something much more complicated.  Often the Aunt and Uncle by marriage might be childless.  I guess it was a way of honoring them and still carrying on a family name.  Then this middle name might be passed down to successive generations - totally baffling the family historian   Check out those side arms of the tree
Many thanks to you Philip!

[Northerngirl]

Hello Fremund.

I have been meaning to contribute to this post for a long time.  So here is my contribution.

My mother who was born in 1931 lived at Beattie Road at Bedlington as a child.  This was one of the properties on the 'Free Wood' side of the woods at Bedlington.  She has mentioned a young child that she could remember - even way back then - who was sent to the Fever Hospital at the bottom of the woods but never came home.  The way that she describes it is where the bus company Coopies - or Coopers have their property now.  This is on the left hand side of the river at Blyth just tucked under the Kitty Brewster bridge.  I hope this helps.
NG

[Phodgetts]

More information re Monkey Island at Blyth. I just found an old postcard with the title Monkey Island, and it is a scene taken on Bucks Hill Point looking to the north, taken pre 1910 whilst dredgers were making preparations to the river for the West Staith in the Upper Basin.

So this photograph places Monkey Island in a totally different place to where later generations of people put it.

Most interesting!

P

[villageguides]

Hi Philip

Thanks for the wonderful photograph of the Isolation Hospital you posted earlier.

Are you sure it is the one from Monkey Island and not the earlier one from down the road?

The reason I ask is that the earlier one was cruciform in shape and had trees around it, which seems to match the photograph, whilst the one on Monkey Island was T-shaped with no trees (see the attached map).

What do you think?

Regards

Richard

[Yossarian]

Some fascinating photos. My mother was in one of the hospitals after contracting diptheria when she was a child. She used to tell us that the hospital was hit by a mine rather than a bomb - I always bowed to her first-hand knowledge (she lived on Beecher Street, quite close to the explosion). My grandma used to tell of another woman on Beecher Street, who had been nursing her baby in front of the fire when the mine exploded. The shock-waves caused a fall of soot and the distraught young mother ran into the street holding aloft her soot-covered sprog shouting "Me babby... me poor little babby". The babby came to no harm, and I was talking to her in Blyth town centre just before Chriistmas.

By the way, am I right in assuming that the building in the Monkey Island postcard is the same one seen in this photo from the Buck's Hill Mill thread (link below)? If so, does anyone know what it was?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51893012@N05/10217404016/in/set-72157641931957224

[c-side]

15 – 16 April 1941 between 22.45 and 04.57
2 parachute mines and 1 shell landed in fields near the auxiliary hospital on Factory Point causing damage to the hospital and surrounding buildings.

12 March 1943
A 50 kg bomb landed in the grounds of the hospital at Factory Point – this didn’t explode and was cleared later

[allanh]

Around about 1930-1933, my mother (Eva Cornick, b.1927) and her brother (Billy, b.1922) caught scarlet fever, and were put in isolation at 'the Blyth fever hospital'. They may well be on the photo, but the jpeg resolution is too low to tell - do you have a higher resolution version? I can see two potential candidates for each of them.

Regards,
AllanH.

[Pete E]

Hi Allan, best I have is this; I hope it helps particularly if you find your relatives.
Pete

[allanh]

Hi Pete,

Many thanks for posting the higher resolution image. Having looked closer, I don't think it is my mother in the photo, but the middle row/4th from left looks like one of mum's half-cousins (I have a very similar image of her face in a family group photo). Frustratingly, I don't have the girl's name. It was a significant epidemic and I suspect that the hospital staff took pictures of their successful 'recoverees', so there may well be other surviving hospital photos. I believe that my mum's elder brother became blind in one eye due to scarlet fever.

Best regards,
Allan Hodgson.