Tag Archives: Dr. Drummond

Granny Hunt: Home nursing and more

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Granny Hunt

My Granny Hunt did some home nursing when I was little.

Before I was born I‘m told she helped deliver babies. Her mum had given birth to thirteen healthy babies so I suppose it was a way of life for Gran.

She once told me that when she was young, if you had a baby that would not sleep, you got a square of butter muslin, sprinkled sugar in the middle then fold the butter muslin around it so it was rolled up, then you tied the ends tight with cotton. It should now be cracker shape. Then you stuck one end in the baby’s mouth and apparently they sucked the sugar out. What would health and safety think?

Sometimes the undertaker Mr May would send someone on a bike to ask her to come and lay somebody out who had just died. Granny Hunt would expect Aunt Alice and I to be very serious when she was about to go and do this. First she would put on a black silk dress then a black coat, black hat and a white starched apron. She had a little black case. We were not allowed to see inside and off she would go. When she came back we were expected to be silent for the rest of the day which wasn’t easy for me as a small kid.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

Doctor Drummond, Yarmouth Doctor

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How medical things have changed!
I remember as a child we sat in Doctor Drummond’s surgery, near the Quay. It was a small room and you took your turn to go in. The door between the waiting room and his consulting room was so thin if the person seeing the doctor had a loud voice you could hear what they were saying. Many a bit of gossip was picked up while you were waiting.

Some of his treatments were mixed in a room behind his consulting room. Those in my age group will remember that awful gritty chalky stuff you mixed with water for tummy complaints. It used to stick round your teeth and when you did manage to swallow it, it made you cough. There was some awful stuff you gargled with for sore throats. It smelt like disinfectant and burnt your throat.

He would always come out on house calls in the afternoon, when he used to call on us at the Toll Gate. There was always the apple polishing that had to be done. This may sound funny but Great Uncle George always kept the apples from one of his many apple trees for the Doctor. No one else was allowed to eat them. I remember they were big and went bright red in the autumn and would last for a very long time and looked lovely polished. The Doctor was well thought of in Yarmouth, and I believe greatly missed when he was gone.
Delia Whitehead nee Hunt b 1934

Sue Langford: Thorley Lodge 1950s – 2000s

Thorley Lodge

My sister Andra (Nan) and brother Peter, were both born in Thorley Lodge.
Dr. Drummond made the national press the night Nan was born, because whilst my mother was giving birth here, my cousin Frances     ( Mig) was being born to my aunt who was staying at Granny Haigh’s in Wellow. Dr. Drummond spent the night going to and fro between my mother and my aunt, a half a mile journey between his two patients.

 Haigh children 1952Haigh children 1952

Nan and Peter, Mig and Sue nee Haigh 2006

Nan and Peter, Mig and Sue nee Haigh 2006 Photos from Sue Langford

 

Effie Pitman: Shops 1930s

When I finished school, I had a week off then I started work the day the old king died, George V, in January 1936. I started work for 7/6 a week at the shop in the Square, where the Deli is now. It was a hairdresser one side and Kelsey’s confectioners and tobacconists the other.  Mr. Gobini was the barber. He was Italian. He charged 4d for a haircut, except for Dr. Drummond. He paid 6d and went into the back room to have his hair cut on his own. I used to work in the barbers in the morning and go into Kelsey’s confectioners if I was needed. Seven and a half years I worked there.

Mrs Walton from the Terrace used to come in to buy those little cigarillos she smoked. One day I remember when she was walking across the Square, the elastic must have ‘gone’ in her French Knickers and they fell down.  She just stooped down and picked them up, and carried on walking.
Effie Pitman b 1921

Eileen Smith: Free Time at Love Shore 1950s

The only problem you had on the beach was the guns going off above you from the sailing.  The West Wight Scows were anchored off Love Shore and Dr Drummond’s, his was white with a red band round it, and was called Pillbox.  They used to race every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon and they had their gun in their little shed at the bottom of the Deacons’  garden. Sometimes they’d never fire the gun, they’d say:  Bang!
They didn’t like us down there because we were shouting and laughing and goodness knows what.  They couldn’t stop us because the lane going down to the shore was a public right of way. We used to walk right through to the next lane, along the stones from Fryer’s Lane right up to the Common. Eileen Smith nee Lansdowne b 1921