DERELICT Greaves Hall was once the site of a thriving hospital with 1,000 staff and more than 700 patients, remembers retired nurse Arthur Wright.
He spent more than 10 years from 1966 working at the hospital in Banks, which occupied the 55- bedroom Greaves Hall mansion and buildings in its 124-acre grounds.
His wife Pamela also worked there as a nurse and the couple lived in the village.
Greaves Hall, with its mock- Tudor styling, was built in 1900 and was a girls’ school before becoming a hospital.
Its patients were primarily people with learning disabilities or who suffered from mental ill health, and the first intake arrived after hospital accommodation in Liverpool was threatened with German bombs during the Second World War.
Arthur, who is now 65 and lives with Pamela in Rufford, remembered Greaves Hall as a “very attractive building� to which employees from around Southport were driven daily in special buses.
He said: “It was a lovely place to do your training. We used to do our studying in the old lord of the manor’s library.
“It was like a little community, it had its own chapel, swimming pool and gymnasium.�
Arthur rose to become a charge nurse, equivalent in rank to a nursing sister.
He also spent around two years becoming qualified in general nursing at other hospitals in and around Southport, including New Hall off Southport Road, Scarisbrick, which had formerly been an isolation hospital for sufferers of contagious diseases.
Greaves Hall was visited by senior politicians, with both Enoch Powell and Ian Macleod – each Conservative health secretaries at different times – planting trees in its grounds.
Asked about the experience of himself and Pamela in the NHS, Arthur added: “We enjoyed it in the main.
“There were periods that were better than others, which was sometimes down to who was the secretary of state for health in the Government.�
“Barbara Castle [who held the office from 1974-76] put a lot of money into mental health services.�
Arthur Wright with patients at Greaves Hall Hospital
Pamela Wright (second left) and other medical staff at Greaves Hall Hospital
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Peter Wood wrote...
Both my parents Tommy & Brenda Wood worked at Greaves Hall for many years. We used to live on Aveling Drive. It was very sad when the hospital closed. Many of the patients suffered,living in hostels many could not cope. I know of some ending up in prison of no fault of there own. Very sad.
Posted by: Peter Wood | August 20, 2008 2:28 PM