'God made the Bees' Highvolume Play Pause Stop

Betsy Bell was born in 1926. She went to Brockhall hospital in 1959, and except for a few months away in the 1970s, lived there until she left in 1991.

David Brandon wrote down some of Betsy’s memories of Brockhall in his 1990s book, Strange Places: Experiences in Mental Handicap Hospitals.

Betsy remembered songs her and others used to sing at Brockhall. Here is one of them:

“Come to Brockhall

Make no delay

Just around the corner

You’ll find the way

That’s all we get

Just a bucket of water

And thank God for that.

God made the bees

The bees made the honey

The patients do the work

While the staff get the money.”

The last four lines of this song are the same as that spoken by Harry Oldham from the Royal Albert.