Social Life at Middlefield
“The annual summer fairs were very popular every year… and everybody came from the area...it was a public event. And they had games, and the residents all joined in, so that’s why the people outside knew the residents so well, because they’d mixed outside... a lot of them were very well known.”
“I think that was possibly one of the most unimaginative methods in the so-called larger, pre-war hospitals, the complete segregation of the sexes. It was absolutely taboo to have any contact or communication… it was absolutely out.”
“[Before 1960s] we had cricket – cricket was the highlight of the summer. We had fixtures with the local teams in the local cricket league… We played the gasworks, Barclays Bank, all the local people would come down, and we would beat them during a game of cricket! We had a very good team… It was a mix of staff and patients.”
“They used to have football matches down Hampton Road at the football ground, and you’d see them just come and stand and enjoy the game. Or they used to go and watch cricket, but they’d always be within Knowle, and they’d always been, as far as I can recollect, accepted, because they were just part of Knowle.”
“[Those who could] found their way to Dorridge and Knowle, and those eligible for bus passes made use of them to travel… as far afield as Solihull, Birmingham and even Wolverhampton. So, many residents were familiar to the people in the area.”
“Out of 150 people, 100 would turn up on a Sunday [for Church], in the main assembly hall… The residents would set up all the equipment, they would choose the hymns, they would put the chairs out and organise everything… They did everything. It was entirely self-controlled”