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Medical Scribblings - 09 July 2003

I’ll have been working here in Elsenham for 30 years at the end of September.

It all seems a world away now when I first took over from Dr Emil Leigh. He was both a kindly GP and indeed a very knowledgable chap. It was a real loss when he developed heart disease and died shortly after I arrived. These days we would have sorted him out and he should have been be able to look forward to years of activity.

The other people I remember meeting were the Rev. Brian Green and his wife Sheila. Brian called in, and as we didn’t seem to have any food he arranged for one of the parishoners to bake us a cake. I regret to say that I can’t remember who did the baking. I seem to recall John Hurwitz coming round to meet us and other village worthies. John I think was the chaiman of the parish council.

We moved into Newhaven, Station Rd on the Saturday to start work on the following Monday. We consisted of myself, Rosemary my wife and 2 little girls aged about 2 and 3, Jessica and Emma. The biggest shock was trying to come to terms with septic tanks. I’d never encountered these contraptions before and they came as a bit of a shock. In theory all the foul water from the house discharges into your septic tank and should break down and the clean water run away. It was fortunate in those days that there was a field behind the house with rabbits running about where now there are houses. Somehow the system never really worked and a frequent pass-time was digging it out – well I won’t go on. Be grateful you have mains drains.

One big advantage was the helpful neighbours who were very willing with practical solutions to problems. I must mention Joe and Lilly Robinson, our next door neighbours. They grew marvellous vegetables but of course they also had a septic tank! That was another left over from a byegone age; when I went on the visits the patients families would sometimes give me a cabbage or a few eggs from their chickens. There was one gypsie lady who came every year when she was working locally in the fields. I remember her always presenting me with something, usually a bag on new picked peas.

There were no lights in the villages and of course no mobile phones so trying to find someone’s house on a dark winter night was a real problem. I’m never very sure whether street lighting was an improvement or not.

The Herts & Essex hospital was in full go with maternity and casualty. For some reason, They (I’m not sure who They are ) decided that everything had to be done in huge central hospitals and so lots of local facilities were closed down. Now they seem to have gone into reverse. That’s life!

Miss Everett was the district nurse, midwife and general font of all knowledge. She was a help to many people in the village and a source of good adice to me. One winter she slipped over and had a nasty accident with the result that she had to retire. We now have teams of people doing her job. There were still a number of babies born at home and even now when I am looking through someones notes, there will be my record of their birth. Babies of course are born at 3am so my job was to sit and chat with the new dad and keep him calm. It usually worked.

I’d better not go on as it all gets very boring but one day when I eventually retire I’ll have to write about the old days.

John Schofield