An old photo of Little Thorpe Maternity Hospital in Easington, County Durham, which briefly featured in Emergence (and, incidentally, is where I was born):
And a particularly creepy photo of the hospital from the 1940s before it was turned into a maternity hospital. At this point it was a hospital for infectious diseases, known locally as Fever Hospital:
Like something off a horror film, right?
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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