IN the autumn of 1944 I fell ill and I was diagnosed as having Tuberculosis (TB).
My mother was devastated and confused. TB was associated with poverty, bad sanitation and a poor diet; none of these things applied to me, but the social stigma directed to parents of children contracting the disease didn’t discriminate.
To add to my mother’s worries, in late September my father was reported ‘missing in action’. It would be four months before she learnt he was safe.
At that time the only treatment for TB was extensive bed-rest and exposure to clean, fresh air. So I was confined to bed on a verandah at the rear of the County Hospital, Monkgate. Unfortunately, fumes from the nearby Gas Works prevented exposure to clean air, my condition gradually deteriorated and the TB spread to my spine.
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Ivan Martin pictured in 2011.
As a consequence, in late 1945 I was transferred to the Adela Shaw Orthopaedic Hospital at Kirkbymoorside where I was confined to a bed with a frame to restrict my movement, the bed was then situated on a verandah open to the elements.
There I stayed, throughout the severe winter of 1947 until early1948 when I was assessed as ‘cured’.
Upon which I was freed from the bed and then, with the aid of the nurses, I learnt to walk, before returning home.
Meanwhile, in 1945 my father was liberated and came back to York to return to my mother and his trade as a carpenter/joiner.
He had seen me briefly in 1943, it would be 1948 before we saw each other again.
My memories of Fulford’s open-air school 1948-1950
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York’s outdoor Open-Air School
When I left Kirkbymoorside I was fitted with a leather back support which was kept in place with two shoulder straps and a waist belt. I had to wear this all day even at night in bed.
My mother had to sew an insert into the back of my shirts to enable the shirts to fasten at the front.
My trousers would not hold up with a belt, so I had to use braces instead.
To hide the modified shirts and the embarrassing braces, my mother knitted special sweaters and sleeve-less pullovers with big chest sizes.
I wore these sweaters and pullovers as much as possible, even on hot days. With these clothes you couldn’t see the back support.
In the September of 1948 my mother first took me to board the school bus to go to the Fulford’s open-air school.
We got off in Fulford near the ‘Cross’, an adult escorted us up a lane before entering the school on the right, which I remember was a collection of dark wooden huts, surrounding a hardened central area.
The huts became our classrooms, they had very large windows which were wide opened most of the time, even during winter. In summer lessons were taken outside on the various grass lawns at the back of the huts.
Each day was the same, starting with a breakfast, usually porridge and toast followed by short walk to our classroom for lessons. Then mid-day ‘dinner’. The stew I remember, with mashed potato, followed by a pudding and custard, then we were always given an apple to eat afterwards.
After ‘dinner’ we were all required to lay down on a camp bed to rest or sleep for an hour. A mass of camp beds were laid out on the hard central ground even in the coldest of weathers (my Kirkbymoorside experience meant I never felt cold).
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Pupils like Ivan Martin tooks naps outdoors at Fulford Open-Air School in York
The day concluded by being taken back down the lane to queue next to the ’Cross’ for the bus home.
I didn’t make many friends at the school. Most children knew each other away from school, I didn’t. They were obviously from poorer families, their unkept appearance with dirty clothes and poor personal hygiene, contrasted with a minority of other children, better dressed, but all strangers to each other.
It was to this group I gravitated. There was also a marked division between the ‘have’s’ and the ‘have-nots’. Bullying and petty theft was a problem; I ‘lost’ my gloves, my balaclava, colouring pencils and a penknife. My mother wrote to the school but I never got them back.
There was little time for lessons between meals and the ‘sleep’. Most of the lessons were taken outside sitting on the grass.
I didn’t like sums (maths), reading or writing which was all new to me, but enjoyed drawing, painting and colouring which I had done before in hospital. I also remember enjoying playing with, and stroking the pet rabbits. Academic achievement did not appear to be important, there was no ‘marking’ of work and no tests or reports. Parents were not made aware of needs, progress or lack of it.
Life after Fulford Open-Air School
I left Fulford Open-Air School in the early summer of 1950 and left behind friends that I never saw again. In the September, I went to the Glenn Junior School (later amalgamated with the Avenue School to become Tang Hall Junior School), I didn’t like it.
The lessons I found very difficult (except drawing and painting) and still wearing a back brace made me different, the centre of attention and cruel remarks, especially when I couldn’t play like the other boys.
I was not happy. The first Christmas report to my parents was not very good, I was marked bottom of the class for most subjects (except art) with nothing at all complimentary. The Open-Air School had done me no academic favours.
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My father took hold of the situation. For months each evening I had to either read to him, copy writing, do simple maths, learn to spell words or explore facts about countries or people.We played games with a maths element like darts and dominoes. He was firm but gentle – I never came bottom of the class again.
The stigma of having had TB was a difficult burden; no-one called for me to ‘play out’ like the other local children did. I was an only and lonely child, spending much time on my own, drawing or painting.
When I was ten, I finally lost the need for my back brace and so dispensed with all movement restrictions.
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Ivan Martin is pictured here with the Evelyn cup handed over by chair of YAYAS Rosemary Sutill, to president of York tennis club, John Scott, also pictured are David Brinklow and Ian Drake. Photo – York Press
At last I was the same as all the other boys at school. I now had the physical freedom to learn to play various sports from my father like table tennis, tennis and cricket.
Eventually, playing these sports would give me confidence – the platform for lasting friendships, respect (I played cricket for the school) and many happy times.
At the age of 15, I was finally discharged from the Children’s Health Clinic, ready for the adult world.
In 1964 the Fulford Open-Air School closed. In 1970 the Adela Shaw Hospital also closed. Thankfully the need for both was finally over.
History of York’s open-air school
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Children taking classes at York’s outdoor Open-Air School
FULFORD’S open-air school was a very special school in York. It’s official name was Fulford Road School for Delicate and Partially Sighted Children.
In fact, the school was designed for children battling tuberculosis. It was based in a converted army hut in grounds at Fulford Cross.
It opened in Fulford in 1920 but was first established in 1913 in Castlegate – originally in the same building as the Tuberculosis Dispensary, with classes held in a garden next door. In 1919, records show there were 39 children enrolled.
At Fulford, extra accommodation was made and by 1956, 108 children were on the register.
Open-air schools were established across the UK and abroad between the world wars.
Their aim was to tackle the rise of tuberculosis (TB) during that time, under the belief that fresh air would improve health. The schools tended to be away from city centres and sources of pollution.
Children were taught in classrooms with open doors and windows, or outside. And sleeping was done outside or in wards that were exposed to the elements.
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