Amanda Jobson - The Cuckoo Trail

Silverhill Press Photography Number 13

Amanda Jobson is a photographer based in East Sussex. In 2009 to 2010 Jobson photographed the interior and exterior spaces during the demolition of Hellingly Hospital and the housing estate that replaced its memory. Her research led her to the former nurses and employees who worked at the hospital.

'They lived in a house, which was the first one on the left of the drive up to Hellingly hospital. Some patients were cleared to go out during the day. Some would do odd jobs like washing up and gardening at my mum’s house and the hospital would pay them pocket money for this.

The hospital had its own farm with animals and fruit and veg, where patients could also work. There were other buildings in the grounds of the hospital, which were used for private patients, nurses home and a children’s hospital. The army used some of these smaller buildings in the forties.

There were locked doors at intervals along the corridors. Only the extreme patients were securely locked up at all times. There was a padded room, which was made of cream coloured leather'.

- Interview with a former Hellingly nurse, 2010

50 pages of photographs and texts