Tag Archives: Toll gate

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