I came across an old photograph of Little Thorpe Hospital near Easington, County Durham.
By the time I knew it, it was a maternity hospital.
Before the wards were repurposed for expectant mothers, it was an infectious diseases hospital. Locally, it was known simply as Fever Hospital.
I used to attend a writing group in Easington. Two of the members were retired nurses who had worked there. They spoke about the building at night. About how sound carried. About how certain corridors never quite settled.
There was a separate building on site known as the Wendy House. Women in the imminent throes of labour were wheeled there to give birth.
Beginnings, contained.
Endings, remembered.
It occurs to me now that some stories are absorbed long before they’re written. Passed hand to hand. Room to room. Night shift to night shift.
Some buildings don’t lose what they’ve held. They just find new ways to speak.
And they found words within Emergence.
This kind of unease appears often in my longer work.
R. H. DIXON 
Fascinating! Thank you so much for posting this. I’ve just found out that my sister was born here in 1950…although it was probably called the Maternity Hospital at that time. It’s lovely to see a few pictures of it. Do you know what date the photo was taken of the ward?
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Hi Ken, thanks for reading 🙂 I’m not sure what date the picture was taken, but it was Fever hospital from the time it was built in the late 1800s till 1949, when it changed into a maternity hospital.
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My sister was born 1950, so only a year old as a maternity hospital. I appreciate your quick response…and curious about choosing it to feature, albeit briefly, in a horror setting?
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I used to be a member of a local writing group and two of its members, both retired nurses, used to work there. They often told me stories about how eerie Little Thorpe Maternity Hospital was and how a few of the nurses, including themselves, used to do the Ouija board during their break times. I got to wondering what kind of spirit would be drawn to a maternity hospital… and so that’s how the initial idea for my novel Emergence was sparked.
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i just put on a local group site a photo of the last mothers & babies born at Thorpe & have just copied your photo of the building. Now planning passed for house building surrounded by another 900 up to Peterlee. Know members of the local writing group.
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I was born at Thorpe hospital in February 1955
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I was born there in 1959 !
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I was born there 1983
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I was born there February 1954,
I didn’t know it was a Fever hospital prior
to being a maternity hospital.
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I was born there in 1976 to a very young mum. I was adopted and brought up in Bristol from the age of 6 weeks
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