Time team at Kenley

Thanks very much Lee. I am thrilled to learn that you may take some photographs for me! I'm saving up for a trip to Great Britain next spring, (I hope), and will add this to places I want to visit.

I've found articles from US papers about my mother's 1941 tour to raise money for Bundles for Britain that state she had worked at two hospitals, one in Lambeth and the other in Croydon. Do you think people would have referred to Netherne Hospital as being IN Croydon? The address she wrote on a letter dated June 28, 1940 is: Netherne Emergency Hospital, Coulsdon, Surrey, and I don't know if that is the 2nd hospital, or a third I didn't know about before.

The articles also state she went through 78 bombing raids, and I know Kenley was often a target. Her hearing was damaged severely when she was in surgery and the adjacent Nurses Home was bombed. I've found that the Nurses' Home in Netherne was hit, though I don't yet know when that happened, but the bomb didn't explode. I wonder if you, or anyone else reading this post knows if an unexploded bomb would have made enough noise to destroy a person's hearing in one ear?

Thanks very much,

Barbara

 

Hi Barbara, my wife was born in what was called Lambeth hospital which would have been opposite what we call the Elephant and Castle shopping centre. The hospital and the grounds were converted to a housing estate in about 1980 if I remember rightly. and would have been behind the Imperial War Museum ( check on google earth ) which was where the Bethlem mental institution around about 1815-20 moved to from Bishopsgate in the City of London ( widely known as Bedlam )

Netherne hospital is actually on top of a Hill in Hooley just off of the A23 which is the main road in and out of London going directly south to the coast of Brighton and actually runs right up to what would have been the Lambeth Hospital. People say it is Coulsdon because that is the nearest big town and if you sneeze going through Hooley you will miss it.. ;-)

Might I suggest again you use Google earth and take a look of the current map then alter the time line also click on street view and drag the little orange man in the top right hand corner and drag him to where you want to look and then you can look around......there are 3 buildings and the main Tower left that I can see..

Search for Wallace Square Hooley Surrey.

Regards Lee

 

Now I'm totally confused! But tomorrow morning I'll work on Google earth and try to figure this out. Seems you're saying Netherne Emergency Hospital might have been the one she worked in in Lambeth not Croydon.

Thanks,

Barbara

 

Hi Cash - Sometimes I'm dumber than I look, and I didn't at first understand your message. Now, having circled around Netherne, Coulsdon, and Croydon by Google Earth I'm dizzy, but I have a better sense of their proximity. I couldn't figure out how to change the Time Line, however. Can one really put it back to 1940 and search for what a placed looked like then, or am I misunderstanding again? Also - should I be posting something like this to a private box?

Thanks very much for your patience and help,

Barbara

 

Ha ha no that's fine we all have to learn some time..

The easy way to get your bearings is to start up Google Earth and make sure that the uk is the right way up first..... Brighton should be in the south..... and London about 35 miles north.... if you can see the M25 just follow the M25 which then as it gets built up turns into the A23 and then goes into Hooley the first small town. This is where the fun begins click on the little orange man with the left mouse button and drag him to the part on the map that you want to look at and release the button. I would suggest you start with the A23 coming into Hooley and once you have done this you will see an Esso Garage ( Gas station I think you would call it hehe ) on the right and a little further up a set of traffic lights with a BP Garage on the left.. keep clicking you mouse to move along the road and just as the road gets wider there is another set of traffic lights. if you turn right here you can then follow the road up a country lane and it will wind its way up onto Netherne itself....

I think this would be a more exciting way of looking at the place.....

Netherne Emergency Hospital was the only one that I know of in Greater London...and was here.......near where I live...

Lambeth Hospital was in Lambeth up in London itself about two miles south of the River Thames..

Here is a link that I have found explaining about the Hospitals and the reasoning behind the way that they were used...

Lost_Hospitals_of_London

Here is also a couple of pic of the hospital in the 1920's in all its glory


Hope this helps.....regards Lee

 

Hi Cash - thanks for all of this information! I'm looking forward to dosing myself with Dramamine and going for a spin later today. The photographs are fantastic. The one of the whole hospital gives me a much better sense of the layout than I could have had otherwise, and the photograph of the ghostly gate is haunting. Did you take it? I wonder where you found the overview- it's wonderful and I want to be sure I can give credit wherever it's due - in addition to you. Thank you. The link to the website is also very helpful. I've bumped into it before, but only for individual hospitals and hadn't read the history sections. Any ideas about how to find people who worked at Lambeth or Netherne?

Thanks for all your help!

Barbara

 

Hi Barbara, alas no I can not take the credit for the photo's my Daughter has a fascination for the old hospitals and they were ones she pointed me to...

Try this site for older pics of our area....people seem to be leaving messages asking after people etc so you never know your luck..


Hooley photos, maps, books, memories

 

Personally I find the idea that there are ww2 planes buried in crates rather exciting. I'd love it if this thing takes off. (Excuse the pun).

Pun excused, especially if the whole thing has wings & finally Gets Off the Ground

 

Hi Cash - That was fun. What a great site! The Francis Frith Collection seems to have an enormous amount of material that may be useful to many of us. I also enjoyed my Google tour of Netherne and with the maps you linked me to, I could figure out where old buildings still stand. It was wonderful!

Thanks.

Barbara

 

Somewhere I have a pic of a HUGE amount of P-38's about to be buried in the Pacific.

 

Does anyone know when Netherne Emergency Hospital was bombed? I haven't been able to find any information about it except that a UXB hit the Nurses Home there. Surrey Local History Centre doesn't have a bombing map like the one I got for Croydon Aerodrome, where my mother may also have worked as a VAD.

Thanks,

Barbara