Dr Baldwin

Tittleshall.
Born in Halifax.

I moved to a flat above of the Bull public house, Litcham in 1949 to be assistant doctor to Dr Knappet and later became his partner it the practise, which at the time was at The Mount in Church Street, Litcham which was Dr Knappet’s house.
There were no electricity, mains water or sewage at that time, people had to get their water from the nearest well which more often than not was in somebody else’s garden, “This meant you had to get on with your neighbours to survive”. The toilet at the bottom of the garden was emptied by an old boy called Wally Feeke with his horse and cart in the evening and you would soon know when he was coming as you would here him saying “woo there!” “Woo there” then the clatter of the buckets being emptied into the night cart as he stopped at each house. One night Wally stopped for a drink or two at the Bull Inn leaving his horse and cart outside, while he was in there some of the local airmen from the air base at Wendling decided to make their way back to the living quarters at Beeston (maybe it was Wally coming into the pub that made them leave as he had a reputation of emptying any pub he went in). On exiting the pub after having one or two too many they decided that the horse and cart standing outside would be an easy way to get home, but they must have sobered up on the way back as they abandoned it before they got there.
Going back to the time when electricity was put on in the area, one lady in Whissonsett had her power put on by the farmer who her husband had worked with for many years and was asked by a friend how she was getting on with it? Her reply was that it was very handy as she could switch it on at a flick of a switch to find the matches to light her oil lamp, she had not acknowledged the fact that the electric light was there to replace the oil lamp.

As the local doctor I can remember a number of occasions that still bring a smile to my face, one being an occasion one boxing day I was called out, when a man from Rougham got into a fight and was knocked unconscious. The problem was when he started to come round he would try to punch me thinking I was the man he had been fighting with, but lucky for me he would then go unconscious again. This happened a couple of times then the next time he came round he remembered who I was. Another occasion was when I was called to the Plough shire public house at Beeston where a father and son had got into a fight with each other, the landlord of the pub was concerned about the condition of the father but by the time I got there the father had gone so I decided to head for the gentleman’s home but only got half the way there when I found him laying on the side of the road, I then took him to his house where he insisted on going after his son but his wife and I finally managed to charm him down and he agreed to have a sedative to make him sleep the night but only after having a meal so I waited for him to finish eating to give him the injection, at the time his family said it wouldn’t work but I though I had given him more than enough so I made the way home. The problem was by the time I got home his family had rang my wife to say he had gone after his son with a gun and the police had been called so I had to dash back knowing that I was going to have to face this man and his shot gun but I managed to talk him into letting me take the gun and going back into his house where I gave some more sedative which worked this time. Of course village life was very different then the policeman called out would have been the local village bobby.

Health care was very different then to want it is now to start with the only anti-biotic we had then was penicillin which had to be given by injection by myself or the district nurse that it self would be a problem, as I would have to know which nurse would go to which village, where now the doctors can subscribe a course of one of many different anti-biotic tablets. Another thing that has changed is that most mothers gave birth at home with a lady from the village coming to help her through labour if I remember right in Litcham this lady was Mrs Potter and then the midwife would deliver the baby and the doctor would be called out on stand by in case he was needed and the only pain relief available was chloroform until the mid 1950’s where we started to use nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and trilling.