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00:00They say it's the little things that mean the most and in this series we're taking that to heart.
00:09We're stepping into a world where cherished places from the past are brought back to life in miniature.
00:16It's like being detectives isn't it?
00:18From family homes.
00:20I just miss it so much.
00:22To grand public buildings.
00:24This building was so magnificent.
00:27I found my identity there.
00:29Each tiny model tells a big story.
00:32It's a beautiful project because it's all about love.
00:36The craft and skill of our team of miniaturists.
00:39I'll make it happen.
00:41Perfect.
00:42Shines through in every delicate detail.
00:48Oh it's fabulous.
00:50Oh my goodness.
00:52I don't believe it.
00:54Gosh.
00:56That's beautiful.
00:58And while our models may be tiny, the memories they stir are immense.
01:03Welcome to the marvellous miniature workshop.
01:07The tools are out, the paint pots are open, and this time we're piecing together memories from the very start of adult life.
01:30A first job is always an important milestone.
01:43But when it involves saving lives and making lifelong friends, then come on, surely that's worth capturing in miniature.
01:49Visiting the workshop this morning are lifelong friends Kathy and Sue.
01:58Over the next few weeks, we'll recreate the workplace that brought them together.
02:04But first, let's find out why it holds such a special place in their hearts.
02:14Hello ladies.
02:16Oh hello.
02:17Welcome to the workshop.
02:18You brought the sunshine with you.
02:20We have.
02:21Kathy and Sue, what are we going to do for you today?
02:23Well, we're hoping for a model of Winford Orthopaedic Hospital.
02:28Kathy and I met there when we were 17.
02:31Started our nursing.
02:32How lovely.
02:33Well I can't wait to hear the full story.
02:35Are you ready to come and meet our miniaturist?
02:37Yes.
02:38Please.
02:39This way.
02:40Here you come.
02:42Our on-call model maker Hannah is just what the doctor ordered for this build.
02:52Right then ladies.
02:54Hannah and I cannot wait to hear all about Winford Hospital because this was the very special place where you two legends first met.
03:02Is that right?
03:03It was indeed.
03:04Yes.
03:05Happy memories of that time?
03:06Yes.
03:07Gosh yes.
03:08So what year was this?
03:111968.
03:12So this was your initial training to be nurses?
03:16Yes.
03:17We had a great training.
03:18Oh gosh yes.
03:19Training for life.
03:20Have you got photos of that time of the pair of year?
03:23This one, me and Kathy are in.
03:26And I'm underneath here.
03:27You've just seen my head on that one I think with the bunches.
03:30We were just 17.
03:32Yeah.
03:33It looks like a real laugh that you had together.
03:35It was a really, really good time.
03:37So some of the nurses would be living on site?
03:39Yes.
03:40The nurses home probably had about 30 of us I suppose.
03:43It was mayhem.
03:44They were like sisters really.
03:46Yes.
03:47Yes.
03:48What was it that drew you to a career in nursing?
03:51When I realised I was never going to be a ballerina.
03:54There's still time.
03:55There's still time, Kathy.
03:56I wanted to look after people.
03:58I wanted to help people.
04:00And my dad would say, you'll be a skivvy.
04:04He was partly right.
04:05I didn't realise I had to do so much dusting.
04:09That was an eye opener.
04:11But to look after somebody, even cutting their toenails, we had to clean their teeth and not be put off by it.
04:21You might be, but you walk away smiling, come back smiling, you know, and you just do it.
04:2845 years I worked for the NHS.
04:30And it was rewarding, wasn't it?
04:32Just to make somebody comfortable makes a difference.
04:35I always feel like saying thank you in these times.
04:37Yeah.
04:38People are putting in such a long shift for the NHS.
04:40Yeah.
04:41Because where would we be without it?
04:42I know.
04:43Yes.
04:44And Sue, what about you?
04:45Did you continue nursing?
04:46No, I didn't.
04:47I'd met my husband-to-be at Winford.
04:49He was teaching other nurses to drive.
04:52And I thought, I like him.
04:54The rest is history after 54 years.
04:57Wow.
04:58So have you got some photos of the hospital itself so Hannah can see what she's got to work with?
05:02We have a few.
05:03Yeah.
05:05This is one of the wards.
05:11Winford Hospital in Somerset occupied a large rural site.
05:15And when Sue and Cathy trained there in 1968, it had 10 wards, an operating theatre and 225 beds.
05:29What would be helpful to know Hannah?
05:30I'd love to know the colours of the beds, the beddings.
05:34Yeah.
05:35Because I'm going to be making things from the black and white photos or any colour reference if you remember.
05:40The bedspreads were blue or green.
05:43Blue or green.
05:44Yeah.
05:45And what about the walls?
05:47I'm sure they were cream.
05:48Cream.
05:49Yeah, just cream walls.
05:50Magnolia.
05:51As far as I recall, the floors were wooden.
05:54They had curtains around the beds.
05:56A bowl of fruit, the ashtray.
05:58Because one of the things that they do, which they wouldn't do now, is they were allowed to smoke.
06:03Oh, wow.
06:04In the hospital.
06:05In the hospital.
06:06In the hospital.
06:07In their beds.
06:08Wow.
06:09Ashtrays were part of making the beds for a new patient to come in.
06:13And this one, this is the sitting room that we would use.
06:17Oh, wow.
06:18And that was exactly how we remember it.
06:20So, this is where you can just relax.
06:21Relax.
06:22Watch a tiny.
06:23Watch a bit of fuzzy.
06:24Black and white.
06:25Black and white.
06:26Yeah, yeah.
06:27Because you're smoking there?
06:28Yes.
06:29Absolutely.
06:30You walked in to a dental space.
06:31I mean, back then it was like, oh, it's good for you.
06:32Yes.
06:33Great.
06:34Very different times.
06:35Yeah.
06:36Well, there's a lot to be working with here.
06:37Looking at this, Hannah, any challenges?
06:40It is exciting, actually.
06:41There's a lot of elements.
06:43When I think of hospital, I think of like clinical.
06:45Yes.
06:46But it looks like there's a lot going on in the space.
06:49To see it again would be lovely.
06:51If you can do it, I'm sure you can.
06:53I'll bring it back to life.
06:54Bring it back to life.
06:55In a different scale.
06:56Yeah.
06:57Hannah gets straight to work, deciding which part of the vast hospital to focus on.
07:10So I would like to make two rooms for Sue and Cathy because this is where they met.
07:17One is going to be a hospital ward where there were professionals, they were looking after people.
07:23Then I would also like to make a nurse's sitting room.
07:27It sounds like they had a lot of fun times there.
07:29They're going to be completely different builds, but I really want to do both to highlight their friendship.
07:36From Sue and Cathy's photos, Hannah knows the Winford wards were single-storey prefab buildings.
07:44To make the floorboards, she cuts over a hundred thin strips of birch veneer
07:49and spends five hours laying them down and staining them a no-nonsense brown.
07:56The back wall is glazed and panelled in a functional mid-century style.
08:02She paints each separate section, adds realistic electrical conduit and stains the wooden framework.
08:12On the cream side walls, she adds curtain rails for privacy and angle-poise reading lamps.
08:19The shades made from resin poured into a tiny cone-shaped mould and painted cream.
08:25The long arms styled from polystyrene rod.
08:29Such a detailed job.
08:31The three ward walls are then glued together to form an open room box.
08:37Next, Hannah turns her attention to the furniture.
08:42The ward is going to be filled with beds, hospital equipment and some gifts, some hospital food.
08:54She makes the retro metal bed frames out of more polystyrene rod and uses tiny wooden beads for wheels.
09:02I've never made hospital beds before.
09:04Then she cuts miniature mattresses from foam board, covering them with white cotton sheet
09:10and a blue woolen fabric to mimic the blankets Sue and Cathy remember.
09:15Let's hope these hospital corners pass matron's inspection.
09:24The ward is going to be super special for them because they went in as a 17-year-old
09:29and became an adult there.
09:31So, I really hope I can do justice.
09:33Do you want a cup of tea?
09:34Yes.
09:35Sue still lives just a few miles from Winford with her husband Steve.
09:39Winford Hospital is where I met Steve and decided that we were meant for each other.
09:43And she now puts her nursing training to good use every day as she's a full-time carer for Steve.
09:49He hasn't been well of late and I look after him 24-7 and I look after him 24-7 but he's a good patient.
09:55Here's a cup of tea, love.
09:56Here's a cup of tea, love.
10:01OK.
10:02OK.
10:03And I'm going to go now.
10:04See you later.
10:05Yep.
10:06See you later.
10:07See you later.
10:08Have a nice day.
10:09We will.
10:10Lovely.
10:11But today, she's joining Kathy to travel back to Winford.
10:12Morning.
10:13Are you all ready?
10:14Yeah.
10:15I'm ready for it.
10:16Yeah.
10:17Lovely.
10:18This is the first time they've been back to the side.
10:20And she's a full-time carer for Steve.
10:21She's a full-time carer for Steve.
10:22He hasn't been well of late and I look after him 24-7 but he's a good patient.
10:24Here's a cup of tea, love.
10:25OK.
10:26And I'm going to go now.
10:27See you later.
10:28Yep.
10:29See you later.
10:30Have a nice day.
10:31We will.
10:32Lovely.
10:33This is the first time they've been back to the site together.
10:46It's woods over there.
10:51But everything's changed since they were trainee nurses here.
10:56This is?
10:57It's a foundation stone.
10:58Foundation stone, that's right.
11:00This must be the last little bit of Winford Hospital this stand down.
11:05That is.
11:06Yes.
11:07Apart from all our memories?
11:08Yes.
11:11Winford Orthopaedic Hospital discharged its last patient in 1993 and was demolished.
11:18Today, the site is occupied by a housing estate.
11:23It's sad.
11:24It is sad.
11:25We were lucky to be trained there.
11:26We were.
11:27We were really lucky.
11:28I think my time at Winford was very formative.
11:32I always felt incredibly proud of the work that went on there and the training that I'd had.
11:41Looking back, 17 was young, but we grew up learning that people have horrific injuries
11:49and we have to cope.
11:51There is no walking away.
11:52We have to cope.
11:54Does it take you right back to come in here?
11:59Oh, yeah.
12:00I'm 17 again.
12:01Yeah.
12:02Let's go and see where we can place things.
12:04Yeah.
12:05I think the nurses' home must have been here, there.
12:08Sort of around there.
12:09Yeah.
12:10Then the wards would have been up there.
12:12Up there.
12:13Yeah.
12:14I don't know where the doctors' residences were behind.
12:16Behind.
12:17I don't think we fully understood how important and pioneering some of the work that was being
12:24done was.
12:25Things like hip replacements, which are now very commonplace, were relatively new then.
12:31It was a very special place.
12:33We made friendships that have lasted, as you can tell, for a long time.
12:38Our lives were made, I think.
12:40Yeah.
12:41Those were the days.
12:42Those were the days, yes.
12:44The building is gone now and we won't see it ever again, but to have this model, I know
12:52our community of nurses will just love it.
13:03Fortunately for Cathy and Sue, Winford is rising again on Hannah's workbench.
13:09And now, she's turning her attention to some vintage medical equipment.
13:14I've never made hospital equipment before.
13:18First, she slices thin strips of wood to make crutches, bending and shaping each one before
13:25wrapping them in patterned tape.
13:28She makes a tiny walking frame from polystyrene rod, before turning her attention to a much
13:34more complicated device.
13:39So I'm going to be making wheelchair that was around in the 60s, because it was at Orthopaedics
13:45ward.
13:46There were wheelchairs everywhere.
13:48I am going to be making everything from scratch, including the wheels.
13:59So I've got very thin wire here.
14:01I'm going to bend it and stretch it out with a toothpick.
14:06And that becomes a spoke for the wheel.
14:10And now I'm just going to dab it in a bit of glue.
14:15Put it around the centre of the wheel.
14:19Apply the glue.
14:23And place it firmly.
14:27I'm going to put the masking tape on it so it stays in the position until it's dry.
14:37So I'm going to be making a few of them.
14:39Put it across so that it's nice and even.
14:43And hopefully at the end result, it's going to look very realistic.
14:48And I can't wait to put it on the body of the wheelchair.
14:51The seat of the wheelchair is made from carefully cut polystyrene sheet and rod, glued into shape.
14:58Once it's been painted and stained, it's time to add the handcrafted wheels.
15:13And Hannah's miniature wheelchair is ready to roll.
15:18Now Hannah turns her attention to the nurse's common room.
15:22She decorates each wall separately to match the photos Sue and Cathy provided.
15:28The cream wall colour is based on their memories.
15:31Then she glues the walls together to form a second room box.
15:38Now Hannah wants to fill it with familiar items and starts with a classic 1960s uniform.
15:45Carefully cut from stiff blue cloth, folded and pleated at the front with a crisp white collar.
15:53Back then, nurses wore their hemlines long and their caps high.
15:58Matron would have been proud.
16:01So far, so standard hospital issue.
16:08But to make this model perfect, Hannah needs more specific details about Winford
16:13and what life was like there for young trainee nurses.
16:16So I'm off on a fact-finding mission to meet historian Andrew Seaton.
16:22Andrew, hello.
16:24Hi Sarah, how are you doing?
16:26Glad to see you're genning up, very studious here.
16:28Absolutely.
16:29I'm glad you know your stuff because we are building this model for Cathy and Sue.
16:33They are former nurses at Winford Orthopaedic Hospital.
16:37So you're here, hopefully, to give me a bit of insider knowledge on nursing and the hospital back in the 60s.
16:44So where to start? Winford itself, what do you know about it?
16:48Winford Orthopaedic Hospital was a hospital that dealt mainly with musculoskeletal conditions.
16:55It opened in 1930.
16:57So it's bones, isn't it, basically?
16:59That's right, yeah.
17:00During the Second World War, it opened its doors to military personnel.
17:04And then after the Second World War, in 1948, the hospital joined the new National Health Service.
17:10Following the Second World War, the NHS was born out of a radical vision. Free healthcare for all.
17:22Inheriting around 125,000 nurses, it was immediately desperate to recruit more.
17:29By the 1960s, numbers had almost doubled and typical trainee nurses were unmarried girls with five O levels and upstanding moral character.
17:40So let's talk a little bit about nursing in the 1960s, when Sue and Cathy would have started as young girls.
17:49They were 17, first time away from home. What would their duties have been? Would it have been quite tough work?
17:54Would have been very tough work. So your primary duty would be, of course, looking after the patients.
18:00The nurses were also expected to keep the ward clean at this time.
18:03So this meant changing bedpans, the sheets, mopping the floors.
18:07On the ward itself, you were under the supervision of the matron on the ward, who kept usually very strict standards.
18:16Inspection of clothes. If you had a ladder in your tights, then you would be sent immediately back home to deal with that.
18:22Gosh.
18:23And nurses had to know their place in that hierarchy.
18:26There were rules about student nurses, for instance, speaking to doctors.
18:30You wouldn't be able to speak to them directly.
18:32Gosh, that seems absolutely mad, doesn't it?
18:34But also there were lots of other controls of their social life as well.
18:37So they weren't allowed partners.
18:39Many places had what was called a marriage bar.
18:42And that really meant that if you got married, you were expected to resign your position and look after the children.
18:49And it would be the husband who would be the breadwinner of the family.
18:52So the NHS at that time, although in many ways an egalitarian and radical thing, was still carrying on with these Edwardian and even Victorian hierarchies.
19:02That seems so bizarre now to a modern woman that you wouldn't be allowed to have a partner.
19:07You'd have to be single.
19:09The marriage bar was something Sue experienced firsthand when she decided to marry her dashing driving instructor, Steve, and start a family.
19:20Now Hannah's adding a surprise detail to the model that should bring a smile to Sue's face.
19:27I am making a miniature version of the Highway Code because I heard that Sue had met her husband while she was working in the hospital and he was her driving instructor.
19:40So it would be really nice, I think, if I add this into one of the rooms that I'm making.
19:46I found a vintage copy of Highway Code from 1968.
19:51So I have printed that out but I'm also painting over it because the colour of the print house isn't strong enough.
19:59So I'm applying the colour onto the book cover with a tiny paintbrush so it will look nice and vivid when it's done.
20:09Hannah's filled the cover with tiny driving symbols, a reminder that Sue's road to romance began at Winford.
20:21But what other details should she be adding?
20:25So we've got to build this model. What do we need to know about the inside of a ward at Winford in the 1960s? What is crucial to include?
20:33The social life of the ward is really important.
20:36The amount of time that people spent in hospital in the 50s and the 60s was much longer than the average hospital stay now.
20:43I think patients, you know, reading newspapers, reading books, listening to the radio, playing cards with each other.
20:49That might be nice to kind of capture something that I'm sure your nurses would remember about the social life of the ward.
20:55And then types of cleaning equipment, bedpans, of course, would be enough.
20:58Oh, yeah. Do we have to include some bedpans?
21:00I think so, yeah.
21:01Lovely.
21:07Hannah wastes no time cracking on with Andrew's suggestions.
21:11She adds a dose of 1960s social entertainment, printing tiny playing cards and stacking them into a perfect miniature pyramid.
21:20A reminder of bed-bound patients looking for ways to pass the time.
21:27And because Sue and Cathy spent an awful lot of time cleaning, Hannah makes a mop bucket.
21:33She draws, cuts, curves and coaxes a piece of card into shape, gluing a disc onto the bottom.
21:44She cuts thin strips of card to form rims and ridges.
21:50Before a coat of silver paint gives it the industrial gleam of galvanised steel.
21:55For the mops, handles are fashioned from humble kebab sticks.
22:01And the heads are a collection of coarse string, made stiff with glue and aged with brown paint.
22:16Nurses were waitresses of the wards in those days, so Hannah is making tiny hospital meals.
22:23Good old fashioned meat and two veg.
22:27And a hospital issue stainless steel pot for the tea trolley.
22:32Next, the get well gift on every 60s side table.
22:37Green grapes, made from translucent air dry clay and held together with strands of glue.
22:44It's very tedious.
22:46Then Hannah adds a detail you wouldn't see in hospital wards today.
22:50Back in the day, hospital allowed people to smoke, so I'm going to include some cigarettes as well.
22:57They're made from wire wrapped in scrolls of paper, with the ends painted brown.
23:03I never made them before. It's going to be really, really tiny.
23:07Even the nurse's common room just wouldn't be complete without an overflowing ashtray.
23:13Last but not least, the dreaded bed pan.
23:20Perhaps not Sue and Cathy's favourite memory.
23:23The base has been fashioned from resin clay, while the rim is cut from card and carefully glued on.
23:28It's an essential and unforgettable part of the training nurse experience.
23:35It's been a month since Sue and Cathy came to us, hoping for a model of the hospital where they trained, laughed and learned to care.
23:54And now it's time to see if Hannah's creation is just what our favourite nurses ordered.
23:59Here they come.
24:09Hello. How are you?
24:11Lovely to see you again.
24:12So nice to see you. You all right? How are you, Sue?
24:15Hi, Sarah.
24:16You look gorgeous.
24:18Well, I'm matching this.
24:20Yeah, you are.
24:21Now, gather round, come and see. The big moment is upon us, almost.
24:24Right, yes.
24:25How are we feeling?
24:26Excited.
24:27Yeah.
24:28Yeah. Anxious.
24:29You had some great stories, so hopefully you brought them all alive.
24:33I hope so.
24:34Not all of them.
24:37Do you want me to get on with it?
24:38Please do.
24:39Please do.
24:40Three, two, one.
24:42Oh, my goodness.
24:52Oh, my goodness.
24:57Oh, my goodness.
24:58Oh, my goodness.
25:01That's lovely, Hannah.
25:03That's brilliant.
25:05It's really amazing.
25:06So, Hannah, you're going marvellous.
25:08From the starched sheets to the minuscule medical equipment,
25:13Hannah's model is full of heart, humour and astonishing detail.
25:19There's a lot of life in this ward, isn't there?
25:21Yeah. There's so much to look at.
25:23The medicines.
25:24Medicines, yes.
25:25Curtains are good.
25:26Really good.
25:27Oh, look at this lovely little wheelchair.
25:31And the beds are spot on.
25:33They haven't made all the beds yet.
25:35We've been in trouble.
25:36We'd be told off for having that bed like that.
25:38Oh, yeah.
25:39Oh, crunk old, yeah.
25:40And then look at the water coming out of them.
25:42I know, yes.
25:43The water's there.
25:44Your sister wouldn't be happy with that, would she,
25:45with a puddle phone?
25:46No.
25:47Bed pan on the floor.
25:48Bed pan on the floor.
25:49No.
25:51I feel like I got you through a lot of trouble from here.
25:54Yeah.
25:55Yeah, it brings it all back.
25:56Yeah.
25:57So much to do, wasn't there?
25:58Yeah.
25:59There was.
26:00It was always busy and heavy and full on every day.
26:03Well, I never not wanted to go to work.
26:06No.
26:07This tiny world reflects a real one,
26:10where the work was hard but rewarding.
26:13And when the day was done,
26:15a group of bright young friends gathered around the fire.
26:20I need a sitting room as well.
26:22I didn't know you were going to do a sitting room as well.
26:24The fireplace is spot on.
26:25Yeah.
26:26And I've traced.
26:27Yeah.
26:28Yeah.
26:29And I've traced.
26:30Yeah.
26:31Yeah.
26:32I've photographed.
26:33No.
26:34That's brilliant.
26:37And casually propped on the coffee table,
26:39there's a nod to Sue's driving instructor turned husband, Steve.
26:43There's a miniature homework.
26:44It's just...
26:45Steve's walked back into it.
26:46Yeah.
26:47Yes.
26:48It's all brilliant, Hannah.
26:49Oh, thank you.
26:50You were brilliant.
26:51Thanks for letting me do this,
26:52because it was honestly so much fun.
26:53I thought of you two a lot, and your colleagues,
26:54and, you know, I also left home when I was young.
26:56Yeah.
26:57So I understand the friendship that you formed,
26:58you know, when you moved.
26:59And we're still together.
27:00Is it an emotional scene?
27:01Yeah.
27:02Yeah.
27:03Yeah.
27:04Yeah.
27:05Yeah.
27:06Yeah.
27:07Yeah.
27:08Yeah.
27:09Yeah, it is, isn't it?
27:10Because that is so true to honours.
27:11Yeah.
27:12Yeah.
27:13Yeah.
27:14Yeah.
27:15Yeah.
27:16Yeah.
27:17Yeah.
27:18Yeah.
27:19Yeah.
27:20Yeah.
27:21Yeah, it is, isn't it?
27:22It's so true to our life.
27:23Yeah.
27:24We're going to start us off in a bit.
27:25No, we're not.
27:26No, we're not.
27:27No, we're not.
27:28It was incredible how much detail Hannah had got into that model.
27:33It's emotional because it takes you back to those times,
27:37and you realise how special it was.
27:40Now that we have the model, all the Winford nurses can see it,
27:44because there's a lot of love.
27:46Yeah, a lot of love for the place.
27:48Yes.
27:49If we could shrink.
27:50Yes.
27:51We could walk in there and work, couldn't we?
27:52Yeah.
27:53Yeah.
27:54Yeah.
27:55It's booked it back.
27:56Yeah.
27:57Brilliant.
27:58I can see myself walking in and starting 8 o'clock in there.
28:01Yeah, we'reăăăăăat!
28:02Yeah!
28:03Yeah!
28:04Ha, ha, ha!
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