Much of August spent trying to find this little place near Skipton, Cawder Ghyll, where I was born. The maternity hospital there closed years ago and no-one seemed to remember it. Searching online I found only quotations from Blake Morrison's book, 'Things My Mother Never Told Me ' - I knew already that his mother was the midwife, his father our GP. Then another online search produced an estate agent's advert for a house at Cawder Ghyll, BD23 2QG - with a map.
We followed the Keighley Road out of Skipton town centre and soon found that we were walking alongside the Leeds Liverpool Canal, back towards Leeds in fact, and so switched to the towpath, watching ducks waddle in and out of the cottage gardens, and crossed each bridge to look for signs on the lanes which meandered off up the hillsides. Over a humpbacked bridge we'd passed under by barge just days before we found first Cawder Lane then Cawder Ghyll. No old buildings remained, just a small cul-de-sac of new houses where the lane runs out, then nothing but fields and those soft hills which have always seemed strangely familiar as I've passed them by rail or road.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cawder_Gill_-_geograph.org.uk_-_308119.jpg
.. also nearby are the remains of the Iron Age settlement at Horse Close Hill (Cawder Hall Enclosure):
http://megalithix.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/horseclosehill-skipton/
I’m also looking for i information on Cawder Gill. My first child was born there in 1970 and I was hoping to find at least a photo to show her for her 50th birthday but I found nothing at all. I remember some of the nurses that worked there and some names, but I will always remember there faces. I was in for bed rest for a few weeks before she was born so I got to know them pretty well. How sad it has disappeared like that it served Skipton and distract mothers well for many years It was so good a beautiful little hospital. It was at one time a fever hospital the fresh moorland air was considered good for the lungs. I hope to find out more if possible.I always thought it would be remembered and that someone would have information posted on the net.
ReplyDeleteMy brother (1971) and I (1974) were born there. Yet no photos.
ReplyDeleteI grew up at Cawder Ghyll Hospital in 1950’s and early 60’s. We lived at The Lodge by the gates. My father was the gardener handyman. The Matron was Miss Blakey and Assistant Matron Miss Jones. There is a disappointing lack of information about it. I recently found an old photo from when it was newly built. Titled Skipton Fever Hospital. You will find it if you put Skipton Fever Hospital into your search engine. I bought a copy for about £3
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