35. Home Thoughts, from Abroad

Key words/phrases: Metropolitan Asylums Board, Dr T.F. Ricketts, Dr A.F. Cameron, Harry Hopkins, Arboretum.

No 35.

If you were to ask half a dozen people on any English street to suggest a poem that refers to Spring I suspect that at least one of them would launch into those immortal lines by Robert Browning : “Oh, to be in England now that April's there …”

Is it because British Summer Time starts again this Sunday morning (when we have to turn our clocks forward) or is it because we have had enough of winter by this point in time and simply find ourselves yearning for Spring ?

Whatever the reason, if you allowed yourself to start thinking further about this magical time of the year I’m also prepared to wager that “blossom” or “flowers” would be two of the things that would also shoot into your mind were I to ask you to identify a couple of images linked to Spring.

It seems to be the case that we are inescapably ‘hard-wired’ into contemplating two specific things when we think about Spring: new life & new growth and interestingly - looking back over it’s history - Joyce Green Hospital has had more than it’s fair share of individuals interested in encouraging new life and growth in relation to the animal and plant kingdoms.

The Metropolitan Asylums Board borrowed £257,100 from the Local Government Board to build Joyce Green Hospital but when the hospital was completed in 1903 it appears that there was a lot of land “left over” including the parcels of land situated on each side of the wards.

The buildings it seems stood out like sore thumbs until 1905 when according to the records the hospital farm was formally established. This project was initiated, according to Dr Thomas F. Ricketts, the Medical Superintendent, at the behest of the M.A.B.

The existence of a farm in the middle of a smallpox hospital was obviously fairly unusual; as was the presence of sheep and cows grazing between the ward blocks but notwithstanding this the farm apparently functioned for 14 years between 1905-1919.

Apple, pear and plum orchards plus many ordinary deciduous trees soon existed - in such numbers indeed that an unnamed individual felt it necessary at one point to purchase 400 tree guards to protect the trees from the animals that were supposed to be confining their grazing to the grassed areas.

The orchards - which if they still existed would probably be blossoming as you read this - survived until 1921. And according to the hospital records a certain Mr Joyce was even retained on the payroll for an unspecified period of time to spray and care for the trees.

But apart from the orchards a certain Mr Harry Hopkins who arrived to work as the gardener at Joyce Green Hospital in 1919 described the hospital grounds as “a wilderness with a few trees” and, if the truth be known, it probably would have remained a flat, uninspiring plain had it not been for the determination of Harry Hopkins and Dr A.F. Cameron, the Medical Superintendent to develop the hospital grounds into an Arboretum.

It seems that Dr Cameron was simultaneously a member of Kew Gardens Society in London and The Royal Horticultural Society and as a result of his contacts he was able to obtain enough plants, shrubs, saplings and slightly bigger trees to begin to develop the Joyce Green site into a very respectable horticultural site.

Between 1919-1935 approximately 500 trees were planted including some very rare and exotic ones, although I particularly remember magnolias in blossom. A few conifers were also planted, plus a large number of sycamore trees and a fair number of laburnums too.

The soil in this riverside location was very alkaline and had previously only supported salt-tolerant grasses however these two men even arranged for the delivery of lorry loads of leaf mould to enable the gardeners to grow a number of rhodendrons in selected spots. The hospital’s annual report of the time also mentions the planting of a mixture of 6,000 flowering and evergreen shrubs, as well as some long stretches of hedging.

In no time at all these two men had transformed the site into a veritable Garden of Eden and the gardening staff were apparently so successful in propagating large quantities of herbaceous plants and shrubs that very soon the hospital Gardening Dept was supplying plants to many of the public institutions under the control of the London County Council.

All good things come to an end and Harry Hopkins died in the 1930s at about the same time that Dr Cameron fell due for retirement but happily the grounds of Joyce Green continued to provide untold enjoyment for hundreds of thousands of people over the years - including those who were recuperating, visiting or working within the hospital.

I don’t think that I could really be accused of “over-icing the cake” if I said that these two men really did embellish our alma mater with some very beautiful natural decorations indeed, nor do I think that could I be accused of over-stating the case either if I were to say that I think that even Browning, Wordsworth or Keats would have found a Spring visit to Joyce Green inspirational.

But what do you think ? Was your life enhanced by the surroundings that you were able to work in at Joyce Green? Or do you remember anyone else who appreciated the beauty that they discovered in the grounds ?

Oh … and by the way, what was it that Robin Williams said about Spring ? "Spring is nature's way of saying 'Let's party !'"