SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Crazy Jane wrote: My mother worked at Meanwood Park Hospital for a while cira late 70s going on 1980, not exactly sure what her actual job was but she may have been a cleaner.She used to steal bedding from there that i got to sleep on, so all my sheets and pillowcases had MPH stamped on them in big red letters.Apart from sleeping on the job, which she mentioned a few times, she used to say too about when she;d been going through cupboards in the kitchen and found catering tins of food that had been opened and put back, sometimes they were mouldy of literally crawling, the the kitchen staff would just scrape the [edited for content] off and use it anyway, or if it was too gross, stick it in the stew Two of my brothers were chefs and worked at Meanwood Park in the late 70’s. I remember one of them being off work for weeks because of a salmonella outbreak at the hospital. Every couple of day he had to go see the doctor and take with him his little jar of poo. Having experienced the cooking “skills” of both of them I can well believe this!

I think there seems to be some confusion in this thread - although the closure of places like Meanwood Park did mean that some of the more able could live in the community (usually in supported accommodation) this was never really what is known as 'Care in the Community' Care in the Community is synoymous with mental health problems (eg the former residents of places like High Royds) and not those with learning disabilities (ex-mentally handicapped) ie those who were the residents of Meanwood Park.

Slightly OT but does anyone remember the former childrens home in Meanwood? Between Church Lane and Church Avenue from memory. You could go up the fire escape and climb in (allegedly!) Once you got to the lower floors it could get pretty scary...well we were kids!We never ventured into the grounds of the hospital but saw patients out and about. Seem to remember there being a guy called Dave, late teens, early twenties who'd come and chat, never any problems.

The Hollies [not the scousers who did the singing thing, either!] And if it's not a rude question, why would you be stranding outside Blakes International...... as if I didn't know!

liits wrote: The Hollies [not the scousers who did the singing thing, either!] And if it's not a rude question, why would you be stranding outside Blakes International...... as if I didn't know! Somewhat off-thread, but I'm pretty sure the underrated The Hollies came from Manchester.

I heard a piece on local radio about the dangers of visiting and trying to enter Meanwood Park hospital. Apparently there is radioactive waste around there, not to mention asbestos....

I was a student nurse at Meanwood Park in the early 70s and I am saddened at the general tone of criticism on in this thread. The stories or impressions given here produce an entirely erroneous view of the hospital. It was not filled with unkind or thoughtless staff treating the patients badly. Not at all! I guess there would be some cases of ill treatment since it seems unrealistic to think otherwise but I never saw any case of it anywhere in the time I worked there. It was not ideal in many ways. I'm not saying it was. It had all the problems of a large institution with little homeliness and routines that were not always the best for every patient. But this was not intentional and was simply the downside of the hospital system which was our best idea for the time. Soon after I worked there the first scheme for group homes was launched and I went on to work in one of the first rehabilitation hostels in the country. In Headingley. Now, 40 years later, I sometimes work in group homes with learning disabled and so have seen the results of that idea come to fruition. The group home system is much better on the whole than the old institution system but this progress is just part of evolution of the service. In 50 years time people could be writing the same kind of criticisms of modern care for learning disabled. I would ask anyone with a view on the conditions at MPH to practise caution and diplomacy before spreading it about as the absolute truth. If you weren't there you don't know what it was like! Nor why it was like it was.Linda

Nurse Linda wrote: I was a student nurse at Meanwood Park in the early 70s and I am saddened at the general tone of criticism on in this thread. The stories or impressions given here produce an entirely erroneous view of the hospital. It was not filled with unkind or thoughtless staff treating the patients badly. Not at all! I guess there would be some cases of ill treatment since it seems unrealistic to think otherwise but I never saw any case of it anywhere in the time I worked there. It was not ideal in many ways. I'm not saying it was. It had all the problems of a large institution with little homeliness and routines that were not always the best for every patient. But this was not intentional and was simply the downside of the hospital system which was our best idea for the time. Soon after I worked there the first scheme for group homes was launched and I went on to work in one of the first rehabilitation hostels in the country. In Headingley. Now, 40 years later, I sometimes work in group homes with learning disabled and so have seen the results of that idea come to fruition. The group home system is much better on the whole than the old institution system but this progress is just part of evolution of the service. In 50 years time people could be writing the same kind of criticisms of modern care for learning disabled. I would ask anyone with a view on the conditions at MPH to practise caution and diplomacy before spreading it about as the absolute truth. If you weren't there you don't know what it was like! Nor why it was like it was.Linda Linda, I don't think anyone was deliberately trying to malign every aspect of the old place - more that those are the opinions of those folk who have contributed to the thread and perhaps felt they had reasons for trheir strong feelings. If there are other views then they too are welcome and like yourself, would offer an alternative perspective to life there, but as you will have seen, such contributions are few.It is a fine line sometimes between allowing genuine comment and removing unfair, inflamatory or even defamatory comments. The present content moderators do sometimes get stick for trying to keep things in line - diversity for all its good intentions, by its very nature means that not everyone can be satisfied, as we can all see things differently. As I recall, the majority of this thread was created at a time when the originating Administrators mostly controlled the site and they were very strict in maintaining propriety. I think we can be confident that they did not find the posts to be a problem.Now you have found the site, I do wonder if you yourself could add some more specific stories from your memories of your time there, to at least add to even if not to complete the record - that would be very welcome, I think you'll find most people here are open to different points of view.

I taught locally in the 1970s and remember once accompanying a group of pupils to MPH. My most vivid memory of our visit is of a group of patients with Down's syndrome dancing hand in hand in a big circle and looking as though they were loving every minute of it.

Montholon wrote: I taught locally in the 1970s and remember once accompanying a group of pupils to MPH. My most vivid memory of our visit is of a group of patients with Down's syndrome dancing hand in hand in a big circle and looking as though they were loving every minute of it. If you taught at Tommy Ackers or Cardinal Heenan, you may remember that everyday a "Sunshine Variety" minibus would bring around six or eight patients from MPH for their lunch. Always much better behaved than any of the inmates of the school!