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Archiver > ENG-SURREY > 1999-08 > 0935311454


From: "lesley chaney" <>
Subject: Re: 2000 in ASYLUM
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 1999 09:44:14 +0100


Hi Listers,

I can add a bit to this. My grandmother was a swimming instructress which
was a summer occupation so during the winters she had to find another job.
One winter, she got a job in the laundry of a lunatic asylumn (this would
be about 1900). Her only half day was Sunday afternoons but she was
forbidden to meet my grandfather (they were not then married) so they
passed notes to each other. Sometimes she had to go and help on the wards
and always remembered a woman who was eternally in labour. I think my
grandmother found it all very distressing and the work conditions even more
harsh than most places in those days. Being a natural blonde she had very
sensitive skin, and was chapped up to her armpits working in the laundry.
She never worked there again. I don't know where precisely it was but
would almost certainly be the Camberwell area, possibly Asylum Road?

Lesley Chaney in sunny Leics.
researching: BRADBURY DOUCH ELSEGOOD LEVETT STRAKER TITLER in Surrey.
MASTERS in Beds.
CASTLE CHANEY COOK in Dover
LAMBERT in Lavenham
MABBOTT in Notts/Lincs/Leics
SQUIRES in Lincs
BIRCH in Leics
RAWSTHORNE McKEE in Liverpool

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