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St Margarets Hospital - Great Barr

Hi All,

Firstly - can I just say THANK YOU to Big Gee for having just drawn my attention to the fresh activity on this thread! Also, many thanks to Coldplay78 for having taken the time to email me directly with the data included in his recent posts, etc.

With regards to Coldplays query concerning whether the site itself is potentially haunted 'by staff and patients', perhaps.... I can only reflect on the variety of stories that we have received from different sources over the years and say that - visually speaking - this possibly doesn't seem to be the case? We've been informed of a variety of different 'figures' being seen in the general region (both on hospital grounds and in the surrounding area) and most appear to be historical figures - period costume, etc - or, as with a potential, phantom horse-rider seen on hospital grounds, not actually / obviously engaged in hospital related activities(?) Looking at the matter objectively, it would seem that a lot of references / motifs mentioned pre-date the hospital itself.... i.e. figures in period costume, phantom coaches and the like.

MrFaultless said:
One bottle digging website speaks of finding human bones in the nearby man made lake on the site.
Click to expand...

I must admit that the above quote from Mr Faultless both stopped me in my tracks for a second and made me giggle a little (uneasily) as, in interviewing a past staff member of the site, we were told of occasions where people were supposedly 'thrown into the lake'. Needless to say, this did sound rather far fetched, to be honest....... but, in light of the quote, I won't be too ready to dismiss from now on, possibly? Laugh!
 
Sometime next week I'm going to take a day out to the grounds even though its an housing estate just to take it in what it use to be to what it is now. Call me a idiot but I most likely get emotional as the memories I had on that site even though I was only a security guard but I loved doing the night guarding at that hospital.
 
Hi coldplay78
In answer to your query about St Margarets Hospital I myself was and still am sure there was something unnatural at St Margarets. To many staff had unexplained events to relate as regards physical sightings and feelings some of wich were related to me at the time along with one of my own. These were highly trained and or very inteligent people and as far as I was concerned were found to be reliable.
See you soon Kevin gs
 
Hi everyone sorry i havent been on lately ive not been well, not long got out of hospital. The day i was going to visit the old st margarets hospital i ended up in back of ambulance instead of on a bus due to having a severe epileptic seizure but im planning to go next weekend with my partner and kiddies.ill update you all after my visit. Once again id like to apologise for my abscence and not posting.
 
Coldplay78, glad you are feeling better, that's the main thing!!
Look forward to hearing your thoughts on St margarets after your visit and hope it all goes ahead ok!
Sue
 
coldplay78 said:
Hi everyone sorry i havent been on lately ive not been well, not long got out of hospital. The day i was going to visit the old st margarets hospital i ended up in back of ambulance instead of on a bus due to having a severe epileptic seizure but im planning to go next weekend with my partner and kiddies.ill update you all after my visit. Once again id like to apologise for my abscence and not posting.
Click to expand...
Hope things are looking better for you now, all the best and nice to see you back.
 
Hi Kevin,
I have lived just off the Queslett Road most of my life and I DO remember a murder on the Queslett Road.
I think it was in the 60s or 70s and I believe ( Although not certain) the house which had an old cartwheel at the front entrance was on the left hand side going up the hill toward the Scott Arms.

Regards
Jim
 
Coldplay78 I do hope you are making a steady recovery after your stay in hospital. My aunt Phyl was a pshyciatric nurse at the hospital for many years but I can't remember any ghostly experiences she had. This should have been a photo of her in her uniform but is has not attached. It is the first time I have put this one on I think. Sorry about that. Jean. The photo has gone on at last Coldplay. Aunt Phyl at last.
 

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Absolutely fasinating thread...
I lived for most of my life in Perry Barr/Great Barr and remember some of the stories of St. Margarets...there was stories about patients committing suicide in the lake...
Then in the early 70's we use to go to a Disco held in the Clubhouse once a week..
I had heard of the murder of Cynthia Stride but didnt know any details,then approximately 12 years ago we were looking to buy a house..we went to view one on the Queslett Road...a nice Detached with a cartwheel in the front garden..we liked the house but something just wasnt right...just looked at the news report and it is the same house...
https://www.birminghammail.net/news/local-news/casebook-lone-wolf-responsible-for-halloween-167417
 
Thanks fatfingers. Just a shell there. My aunt used to come home with awful bruising at times. She also had some of the inmates who were just institutionalized and should not have been there home for Sunday Dinner.
 
Around 1980 my sister lived in Kinross Cresent, I would have been 14 at the time and used to stay with her regularly. On a number of occasions I would wake up with my heart pounding and sweating and had a feeling of panic, as though I was being chased through woodland and around a small body of water...I would dream of running into an upstairs area of a barn or other wooden building. I always felt heavy as though I were pregnant. I would awaken hearing footsteps coming up the stairs. After several times of this same dream, I woke one night and hearing the footsteps got out of bed and stood at the top of the stairs. I expected the footsteps to stop, but instead the footsteps continued. It frightened me terribly. Years later I told my sister the dreams I had had, I'll never forget her face as she listened and then said she had had the same or similar dreams...in her being chased she had had the feeling of men in long coats and big dogs chasing her towards a barn or wooden shed and from the barn she could see a small lake We couldn't believe it when we did some research and found that there was actually a lake was in the grounds of St. Margret's, we had no idea of this before hand. We heard that unmarried mothers could have been sent here....I would love to hear if anyone else knows anything more of the area being used for unmarried mothers or a chase that happened. I know that some asylums were used for unmarried mothers....as pregnancy outside of marriage was considered a mental health issue, where a woman was unable to control her libido!!
 
As a complete outsider, I would like to bring into the discussion the children with cerebral palsy and various other physical defects who were dumped into St Margeret's as being "sub normal" and unwanted.

In the 1970's my mother, Margaret Evanson, was appointed head of the St Margaret's Hospital special school, which had been set up to give these youngsters a chance of learning. During her time at St Margaret's, she fought the authorities, continuously, to improve the lot and future of these youngsters. Eventually, a purpose-built school was built on the site - with facilities to improve the mobility, accessibility and independence for these youngsters.

In 1979, my mother was reluctantly forced to resign, being 65 years old. As I understand it, it wasn't long after this that the hospital and school were closed down.

If anyone can tell me more about these years, I'd be grateful.
 
It's totally dreadful that children with disabilites were considered sub-normal, but that was simply a hangover from the Victorian age. It was easier, I guess to just declare that these children were sub-normal than to find a way of teaching them - how frustrated they must have felt, and angry one assumes, too. I rememer in the early 1950's a single deck bus used to come into the street where I lived to pick up what we now know as a Down's child. This child, I have no idea of its sex, was tied tightly into a green gaberdine mac and a grey balaclarva and off they went. My mother said it was not possible to educate them, which was the view at that time. How lucky we are to now live in a more enlightened age.
 
Hi, I came across this site when I was just browsing looking for old photos of St Margarets Hospital to show my children. Find it really interesting as I nursed at St Margarets from 1977 to 1985. I remember my first time of going there as a newly qualified nursery nurse and being interviewed in the room below the clock tower. I was absolutely petrified..........it turned out to be the most rewarding job I have ever had. It actually was a town of its own, everything you needed was on site. Most of the staff there were very commited to their posts and had the clients best interests at heart and did there best in difficult circumstances. I worked on various wards on the male side and the female side but mostly on Chase and Derby ward which were the childrens units. Also in the newly built school. The story about the murder of the lady by the gardener was true, I actually worked with Joseph Birch (Jo), of course by then he was a very frail elderly gentleman. Also a young lad from Chase ward did manage to get out through a window during the night and drowned in the lake on site. Things were very different then, health and safety weren't the big issues they are now. I often go back to visit my dad who lives in Great Barr, as I live in wales now and always have a drive up the main entrance. Its very hard to imagine it now as it was then. So many stories could be told, I could go on and on. Just makes me wonder where all the poor souls are now. Would be lovely to be in touch with other people who worked there, as I'm sure they will agree it was the sort of place that had a huge impact on your life.
 
Hello faenol. Its nice to read your memories of working at St Margarets I can imagine it must have been difficult working there. I think like nurses it takes a special kind of person to work in a place like that in the 70's. I am glad your memories are mostly good ones. I hope your co workers see this and get in touch.
 
A photo from Britainfromabove.org.uk of Great Barr Park Colony for Mental Defectives (St Margaret's Hospital), Walsall, 1936. The image is HERE .
They did not mince words in 1936 with the above description. The brook flowing from the lake in the image went through the Beeches Estate into the pool in Perry Barr park and then into the River Tame. If you register on the site you can zoom in close....
 
Certainly remember the river that ran through Perry Hall Playing Fields, the smell was dreadful and the banks were black and covered in slime. We were told the river ran through the industrial Black Country which resulted in all the trade effluent being discharged into the river, never saw any signs of life as opposed to the lake in Perry Barr Park where fishing and boating were the norm, we fished in the Canal by Perry Barr locks as we couldn't afford to pay for a fishing permit.
 
After reading this account I asked my mother about it as she lived on the Queslett Road from 1948-1960. She recalls this story from around 1952-1953, as she and her friends were warned about going near the hospital.
 
bobsden said:
After reading this account I asked my mother about it as she lived on the Queslett Road from 1948-1960. She recalls this story from around 1952-1953, as she and her friends were warned about going near the hospital.
Click to expand...
Bit off thread but I used to go to a friends house on the back of his bike during our lunch break from Beeches road School to his house on Queslet Road, we used to cook chips and his name was Robert :). This would have been 1959/1960.
 
faenol said:
Hi, I came across this site when I was just browsing looking for old photos of St Margarets Hospital to show my children. Find it really interesting as I nursed at St Margarets from 1977 to 1985. I remember my first time of going there as a newly qualified nursery nurse and being interviewed in the room below the clock tower. I was absolutely petrified..........it turned out to be the most rewarding job I have ever had. It actually was a town of its own, everything you needed was on site. Most of the staff there were very commited to their posts and had the clients best interests at heart and did there best in difficult circumstances. I worked on various wards on the male side and the female side but mostly on Chase and Derby ward which were the childrens units. Also in the newly built school. The story about the murder of the lady by the gardener was true, I actually worked with Joseph Birch (Jo), of course by then he was a very frail elderly gentleman. Also a young lad from Chase ward did manage to get out through a window during the night and drowned in the lake on site. Things were very different then, health and safety weren't the big issues they are now. I often go back to visit my dad who lives in Great Barr, as I live in wales now and always have a drive up the main entrance. Its very hard to imagine it now as it was then. So many stories could be told, I could go on and on. Just makes me wonder where all the poor souls are now. Would be lovely to be in touch with other people who worked there, as I'm sure they will agree it was the sort of place that had a huge impact on your life.
Click to expand...
Hi , I know your post is quite old but I have just joined and have been looking for information on the patients . My great grandmother was an patient there apparently, Nellie Redfern . I was wondering if you knew her xx thanks in advance
 
I lived on the border of Great Barr and as small children we rode all over the place on our bikes. We would often ride to the top of Queslett Rd. and dare each other to ride down to the hospital( only as children we called it something else). None of us ever took up the dare, we were all too scared, and most of us were in forbidden territory anyway.
 
Martin there is a facebook page on St Margaret's but they only allow people on there who have connections with the old hospital. I am on there because my Aunt Phyllis was a nurse there for many years. You could private message one of them. This is a photo of Aunt Phyllis in her nurses uniform.
 

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Martin you may already have looked into this resource but I remember coming across a lot of information about St Margaret’s via the National Archives newspaper site - you need to subscribe of course. Viv.
 
G G Jean said:
Martin there is a facebook page on St Margaret's but they only allow people on there who have connections with the old hospital. I am on there because my Aunt Phyllis was a nurse there for many years. You could private message one of them. This is a photo of Aunt Phyllis in her nurses uniform.
Click to expand...
GG you might seen myself on there
 
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