A new project funded by Historic England is helping to highlight the experiences of our NHS nurses through the decades, as it marks 75 years.
‘Answering the Call’ is a project bringing the local community together to reflect on the experiences of nurses working at Glenside Hospital in Bristol, who came from the Commonwealth to work for the NHS after the Second World War.
Glenside Hospital in Bristol, built in 1861, provided a therapeutic community where the patients were engaged in meaningful occupation, including sewing, as part of their treatment. The hospital has had a nurse training school on-site since 1880 which is still running today.
Many of the nurses training and working at the hospital were from the Caribbean who had ‘Answered the Call’ of the British Government after the Second World War. An analysis of 320 trainee nurses from 1956 to 1966 shows 22 per cent were from the Commonwealth, with 17 per cent from the Caribbean islands.
‘Answering the Call’ is a co-created project, funded by Historic England and the University of Bristol, which will uncover the stories of those nurses and bring the local Bristol community together to reflect on their experiences.
Through the project a collection of oral histories and photographs from people who worked at Glenside Hospital have been gathered together for the first time. Many stories have been captured, for example those of May Tanner, who came by boat from Barbados and trained as a psychiatric nurse in the early 1960s. She remembers treating patients affected by the Second World War.
Many of the nurses interviewed felt their psychiatric training taught them lessons they used all their lives, as May explained: “it’s taught me a lot doing psychiatry because you got then to knowing people, to get into them”.
She also describes the experience of living in Bristol: “… at times, the other Bristolians, they were very withdrawn from us you know. They didn’t want you to touch, as though you were an alien from somewhere.”
Collaborative research showed that patients at Glenside Hospital in Bristol were often encouraged to sew as part of their therapy. Using these new oral histories and information from the hospital archives, volunteers have stitched quotes onto used nurses’ uniforms and other fabrics in the Glenside Hospital Museum collection to mark the stories and experiences of nurses who came to the UK to work in the NHS.
The project will culminate in an exhibition at Glenside Hospital Museum in December 2023, which will then tour by invitation to other locations.
Sean Curran, head of inclusion at Historic England, said: “These projects use community voices and creative methods to tell everyday stories of extraordinary people. They highlight the immense contribution to the NHS by those from Commonwealth countries, and the heroic work that nurses undertook during the pandemic.
“Both projects are moving and fitting ways to celebrate the 75th birthday of the NHS, and great examples of community-led and celebratory heritage projects as part of Historic England’s Everyday Heritage programme.”
