Exhibition review: You’d Hear Them Jingle in Clitheroe

David O’Driscoll reviews an exhibition on the history of two long-stay hospitals for people with learning disabilities

I am aware that most of my learning disabilities colleagues have not had experience of the old long-stay hospitals that so dominated our services history.

In my experience, knowledge is rudimentary and, outside our services, knowledge and curiosity is often non-existent. I am concerned by this as such ‘hidden’ history is important today.

I travelled from London to Clitheroe, a small town in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, to see an exhibition on the history of two long-stay hospitals, Brockhall and Calderstones, which are situated a few miles apart. The exhibition was called You’d Hear Them Jingle, a reference to a comment by a patient about the sound of the keys the nurses