Thanks to the Friends of Frank James for sharing this open letter to one of the owners of the former hospital in East Cowes. Sunday sees another clear-up session, which residents are invited to take part in. Ed
Dear Mr Jones,
I write on behalf of residents of East Cowes who, although not an official organisation, call themselves Friends of Frank James. These local residents have a collective interest in the future of the much loved Frank James Hospital. As you know, the former Frank James Hospital was originally gifted to the people of East Cowes and as such the local residents still feel a sense of ownership and a sense too that something was taken away from them.
Many of these people grew up with the hospital as part of their lives attending as patients, sitting by the bedsides of relatives, working as nurses and attending fêtes in the grounds as children. Since it has been such a big part of their lives and the those of generations of their families, as you can imagine, with so many memories people are very sad to see the building and grounds fall into such disrepair over the last 10 years. One lady said on the Facebook group:
“I did work experience in Frank James when I was about 14 years old. I also worked there as a nurse about 1987. My mother was also a nurse there for many years. I work at the surgery now and my office looks out onto the old operation theatre that was. It s very sad to see it in its state now. I have lots of happy memories about the hospital. Working there and the staff that worked there. It was a proper hospital.”
Another Gentleman said:
“Last time I was here was in 1984 as a patient for some minor surgery and was looked after really well. Back in 60’s my Mum was a Nurse there and in 1977 my father passed away there. He died of cancer and was so well taken care of and even as a nipper of 18 will never forget the folks who cared for him, and indeed Mum and me. I remember the gardens being beautifully tended and the actual hospital being spotlessly clean despite age of building…all this long before “Care in the Community”; safeguarding issues; MRSA etc etc. It was a good old-fashioned, traditional cottage hospital which provided a fantastic service to its community in the true spirit that Frank James and his family would have wanted.”
This is why in March people came together to take matters into their own hands. They wanted to see the grounds restored to their former glory, some would like to see the grounds put to good use, growing food for the community and all would like to see the building restored. The consensus has been that they would prefer for the building itself to be returned to the community for use by local groups and organisations and to house the endangered library.
Contrary to how it must seem with newspaper reports of Guerilla gardeners, these are not trouble makers or misfits, they are local people with a genuine love of the hospital who don’t want to see it crumble and be lost forever.
From what we understand the issues of ownership are difficult and complicated. Perhaps you could help us understand further. We believe that the building was managed by Vivaldi, while individual units/flats are owned by different individuals.
According to council records your company Vivaldi is no longer trading, giving no-one overall responsibility for the main building and grounds. It is also our understanding that you personally own one or more of the units. If we are correct then it seems that you are in a very difficult situation and this must have really become a thorn in your side.
With no-one to manage the overall building we would assume that no ground rent etc is being collected and there is therefore no money in the coffers to undertake basic maintenance, making any further development difficult.
Our question to you is; how can we the community work together with you and other interested parties such as the Isle of Wight Society, IW Council, Town Council and of course the other owners to break the hiatus that has been reached with this beautiful monument to Frank James?
After all, it would be so sad for all concerned if the building was lost to time or had to be demolished because of disrepair and we are therefore sure you would like to reach a productive solution.
Let us as a community help you! You know the old phrase 2 heads are better than one, well in this case 20 or 30 heads are certainly better than one and their may be an idea or solution in one of those heads that relieves you of the stress and anxiety this situation must bring, whilst ensuring that this beautiful landmark is saved for future generations.
We would very much like to meet with you in person. There is another informal clean up at the grounds this Sunday the 29th of April. If you would like to join us with bin bags and gardening gloves it might be a nice way to break the ice and see that we are all human.
Moreover, it might be good for local residents to see that the elusive “owners” are real people with real difficulties that have occurred through no fault of your own. This is not about laying blame after all, but about finding solutions.
In the interest of transparency and ensuring full community involvement we have copied this letter to the County Press and VentnorBlog. We apologise for the short notice for this Sunday’s clean up but we have only just managed to track down your contact details.
We very much look forward to hearing from you.
With kind regards,
Julia Hill
(On behalf of)
The Friends of Frank James
Thanks to Robin Harrison for use of the photo.
