How did mangled crosses trigger a revival of interest in care for people with disabilities?
Each cross is a reminder of a patient once cared for by a hospital that looked after people with disabilitiesIn a small village cemetery, 34 tiny iron crosses poke up through the soil.
He tells of one man who, before being sent to Jane Walker, was a teenage farm worker. He had learning difficulties and once told Mr Weston how he used to be whipped by the foreman. With seven wards, the Jane Walker Hospital had between 150 and 200 patient-residents at any one time."It was ahead of its time in being person-centred, and everybody who went on from Jane Walker took those values with them," says Mr Weston.The hospital, originally established by Dr Jane Walker as a tuberculosis sanitorium, closed in 1991.
And yet the poor state of the iron crosses, originally funded by The Hospital League of Friends, has triggered an unexpected revival of interest in the hospital and its patients, and a rekindling of friendships among former staff.