Sheila Peroni SRN
Having completed 4 years of general nursing training at University College Hospital I decided to leave London to complete my midwifery training in the country. Looking down the list of available Midwifery Schools my eye caught sight of the name of The Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital in Taplow. Thus started a life long association with Taplow which continues today. I applied to the School and was accepted.
My 6 months of training from August 1959 to April 1960 was a most happy and enjoyable time in an hospital with the most wonderful atmosphere despite the up market nissen huts which comprised both the actual hospital and our accommodation wonderfully known as Northwood. Its location was behind the tennis court but still attached to the main hospital. The area around the hospital was very countrified with the hospital actually in the grounds of Cliveden where the Astors still lived. They entertained quite a lot but we were never invited! However, some of us when off duty would scramble under the hedges to watch the mannequins parade on the terrace of Cliveden organised by Lady Astor, she herself having once been a mannequin.
The bus service into Maidenhead ran every 2 hours from outside the hospital, but I rarely used it preferring to go with my friend who had a motorcycle with me on the pillion. Even in those days I was regularly up and down Berry Hill with not a crash helmet in sight. If you had a lecture on your day off - bad luck - there were no concessions. With my home in Tring I quickly learnt the journey back and forth and even today the countryside itself has remained relatively unchanged - long may it remain so. Christmas at the hospital was as magical as it can be especially in the midwifery department. If one was free we managed to get to the midnight service at St. Nicolas where the rector was the Rev. Christopher Hare. It saddens me when driving past the hospital to see such a wreck of a place but fortunately memories cannot be erased.
