"You were only allowed so much dating" Highvolume Play Pause Stop

A dance at Calderstones (not Brockhall) in around the 1960s.

Courtesy of David Fitzpatrick

A dance at in the hall at Calderstones probably in the 1960s.

SMG was born in 1958 and went into Brockhall aged 4 in 1962, leaving later in 1960s. He returned to Brockhall aged 16 in 1974, and left in 1978.

Here he talks about how hard it was to have relationships.

Transcript:

“And they used to have night school here. Night school in big recreation hall. Used to go to night school. Dances. But there were a lot of things we couldn’t do. See if you were going out with a woman, you couldn’t have a proper relationship, because they wouldn’t let you.

Did that happen?

“Oh been with a girl there but you were only allowed so much dating because you couldn’t do it proper like a proper couple because – like dances. You weren’t allowed to touch them. But you were allowed to put your arm round them but you couldn’t touch them. Because they watching. Used to have staff in there used to watching… We used to have a few nurses and other staff. You might not think they were watching you but they are. They were. Years ago when you had disco, discotheques used to call them you weren’t allowed to go in the girls’ ward. They weren’t mixing. But as time went on the rules were flexing and we could mix with them, so long as we didn’t get up to anything. That’s main thing you see.”