Interview with Pat Entwistle
Interview with Pat Entwistle MBE, transport campaigner and author
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“They didn’t know what to do with me at all. I’m talking about, 1942, ’43. There was 250 children, and I was the only disabled child there. I used to try and walk, and the other kids used to push me over.”
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Born 6 October 1940
Educated Bleasdale House, Silverdale; Singleton Hall, near Blackpool; Queen Elizabeth Training College, Leatherhead
Died 20 March 2007
Pat Entwistle
Tape 1, Side 1
Pat was born Colne, near Burnley, Lancashire, 6 October 1940, christened Pat Michael Entwistle, 13th child, of 14 children. Mother had insulin-dependant diabetes (insulin twice daily, frequent comas) and was in coma when Pat was born. Birth complications lead to cerebral palsy. Breach birth. Pat was taken into care after being sent to The Royal Burnley Hospital, aged 2, with chest infection. The paediatrician said Pat must have a room of his own at home because he was a very sick child (14 children in 3-bedroom house). Pat never saw his birth family (until making contact very recently). 7 November 1942, Taken into a Convent, St Joseph’s Children’s Home, at Patricroft, near Eccles, Of 250 children, Pat was teased as only disabled child. Did not go to school. Pat left with nun from 8.30am until 4.30pm. Birthdays not celebrated. Food. Pat could hardly read or write. Father, Richard John, was “artificial silk creeper”. Pat had angle tendon operation in Rochdale hospital, aged 5. In 1946 went to a residential special school run by Lancashire County, Bleasdale House, Silverdale, near Morecambe. Exercises, (physiotherapy) speech therapy, ‘sun ray’ treatment. Visits by social workers. 6 November 1951, went to Singleton Hall, near Blackpool, residential open school, for pupils aged 11 to 16. Began to steal from other children.
Tape 1, Side 2
Installation of central heating and lift at Bleasdale House. Teachers and carers. School photo. Eat, slept and played in one dormitory room. Staff. Fights. Most pupils from Singleton Hall went on to Special Training Colleges. Pat went to Queen Elizabeth Training College, Leatherhead, Surrey. Gardening for two years. Aged 18, in 1958, went to a Children’s Reception Centre, Bamber Bridge, near Preston. Employment Exchange. Disablement Resettlement Officer. Worked 7.30am, to 9.30pm, cutting flowers, weeding, boiling beetroot for Bury market. Pat worked 7 days a week for £2. Later sent to a ‘Home for Incurables’, near Darlington, run by Brothers of St John of God. Stayed with “Foster parents” in Denton (Manchester). Messenger boy at Oldham Batteries at 19. Later worked in Welfare Dept as Chief Petty Officer. New boss’s disablist attitude. Pat sacked for swinging at boss. Just married with a new daughter: 6 weeks’ wait for dole. First contact with Spastics Society. Mrs Muncaster, Welfare Officer, found Pat a job at Dunlop Rubber Works in Manchester for 5 years. Heavy industrial cleaning. Collapsed. 1974 approached by RADAR [Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation] to become a member of Transport Users’ Consultative Committee [TUCC] for the North West. Disability access on British Rail. ‘Mark III Train’. 1986 awarded MBE. In 1974, Nigel Smith, Regional Manager of The Spastics Society, invited Pat to speak at a conference at Manchester County Hall. David Blunkett spoke at conference about access problems of visually-impaired people. ‘Speaking bus-stop’ made by company in Bournemouth. ‘Kneeler bus’ and ‘Ready bus’. Launch of ‘Ready bus’ with BBC newsreader Robert Dougall and Ken Livingstone. Spastics Society report ‘Can I Get There’?’ De-regulation of buses. Spastics Society animated disability-awareness video called ‘The Land of Droog’. Visited 60 infants’ schools in Preston in 6 weeks, with Nigel Smith and Peter Clarke from the Spastics Society.
Tape 2, Side 1
1980s video, ‘The Land of the Droog’. Questions asked by children. Pat was keen to encourage the girls to be immunised against Rubella. Difficulties in Catholic-run schools. Pat was chairman of the Greater Manchester Alpha, a group of people with cp advising Spastics Society. Life Member of Scope. In 1951-2 [whilst at Bleasdale House] Pat met David Robinson, who also had cerebral palsy. Pat spent his first-ever Christmas in a family home, with David’s parents in Denton. Margaret and Jack, David’s aunt and uncle, became Pat’s foster parents. Their visits to Bleasdale House and Singleton Hall near Blackpool. Lancashire County Council refused to allow Pat to be adopted, saying that his birth parents must consent. Foster parents worked in one of four big hat factories in Denton. First holiday to Isle of Man. Foster grandfather had a leg amputated because of diabetes in 1953. Twice daily insulin. Meeting Joan, future wife and Secretary, at Inskip League for Disabled People, which started in Oldham in 1947. Pat and Joan married on 21 December 1962 - stayed with cousins in Marple [near Stockport] for their honeymoon. Daughter, Ruth, was born on 16 August 1963, Caesarean birth, 2 months premature. People’s reaction to Pat as father.
Tape 2, Side 2
Ruth was Pat and Joan’s only child. Ruth married at 19 and had Hayley, now 16, followed by Matthew, now 12. “No such word as can’t.” Attitude of Ruth’s fellow pupils to her parents’ disability. Teacher’s comment “You’re writing like a spastic”. Name change of Spastics Society. Education available to disabled people was limited. When Joan swapped artificial legs for wheelchair, Matthew said: “Never mind, you’ve got wheels.” Red Cross Holiday in Blackpool. Denton ‘pre-fabs’. Lack of accessible accommodation. Transport User’s Consultative Committee [TUCC] for the North-West of England. ‘Heysham-Belfast’ ferry enquiry, held in Morecambe Town Hall. Ian Paisley. 1986 Leeds-Carlisle track public enquiry lasted 6 weeks. Integration of disabled children into mainstream education. Open University. Improving access to public buildings and churches. Installation of dropped kerbs. Disability rights and interpretation of access. Disability Discrimination Act.
Tape 3, Side 1
Ashton-under-Lyne town hall lift – access problems. Aging and disability. Catheter and prostate problems. Visit to A&E unit of local hospital. Attitude of doctor. In 1974, Pat was voted onto the Community Health Council. Lack of disability awareness in hospitals. Frequent visits by doctors and social workers to school. Attitudes within Scope. Ignorance of cerebral palsy. Pat has home care help twice a week to help with getting in and out of the bath. Direct Payments. Tameside Forum of Disabled People. Access to public buildings. “Bourneville houses” lifetime homes. Derbyshire local authority. Inskip Social Club quizzes and holidays to Skegness, assisted by Lincolnshire Red Cross enablers. Greater Manchester Cerebral Palsy Society. ‘Mobility car’. Driving to Marsden and Sheffield.
Tape 3, Side 2
Learning to swim. Visiting historic buildings. Working voluntarily. Using a computer. Collection of 800 postcards. Greater Manchester Cerebral Palsy Society has four caravans at Robin Hood Bay. Campsite owner refused to adapt bungalow for disabled people. Staying on a farm in Ilkley Moor, outside Keighley.
Tape 4, Side 1
Pat’s first contact with other disabled people in the late 1940s at Bleasdale House, Silverdale, a school for 24 multiply-disabled boys. Pat went to a secondary school, Singleton Hall, just outside Blackpool - opened in 1952 for boys from 11 to 16. Death of boys with muscular dystrophy. Volunteering for Scope, with Alpha and visiting junior schools showing the video ‘The Land of the Droog’. Disability Discrimination Act. Went with Nigel Smith, a manager of Scope in the North West, on a conference in Brussels on transport. Pat spoke in the European Parliament. De-regulation of buses. Privatisation of railway. Disabled children in mainstream education. Computers. The media image of disabled people is “slightly better”. Channel 4. Social Services committee. Pat’s autobiography. MBE. In hospital in November 2004, sclerosis of liver. Ward sister’s attitude.
Tape 4, Side 2
Ward sister’s ignorance of cerebral palsy. Bath adaptation. Problems with hips. Home care twice a week. Without a steering wheel knob Pat could not drive a car. Writing autobiography with PC, loaned by Regional Committee of Scope. David Branch. Aging process. Liver problem. Diabetes. Social Services. Direct payments scheme with Tameside Forum for Disabled People. Arthritis of spine. Committees in voluntary sector. Scope closing services.