Alarmed as an infant!

I live locally to Hellingly Hospital and have always found it completely fascinating. As a child in the seventies and early eighties I was a pupil at Hellingly Primary School. Several of my friends were children of doctors and nurses who worked at the hospital and I remember attending birthday parties up there in their hospital accommodation. I always remember peering around a curtain at one end of the house to find a window looking straight down a corridor actually into the hospital and being rather alarmed as an infant! Also we played amongst some large conifers in a pebbly area.

From the school we occasionally sang for the patients in the Hellingly Hospital Social club and I remember feeling a bit scared when we went up there. Patients could often be seen walking down the old railway line and the surrounding area and I always remember a friend's neighbour coming across a patient who had hung himself from an ash tree near the Golden Martlet.

I also attended the local Sunday School and was in the grounds with Mr Rose who ran it then, and a gentleman, who I remember being certain was from the hospital, made converstaion with us. I remember he wanted me to show him around the churchyard but Mr Rose said I had to stay put.

I was very interested to hear the tales of high profile celebrities being brought to the hospital via the link railway under the cover of darkness. I Would be intrigued to know more about that!

V.