Mary Coates has good reason to remember the Slade Hospital with affection – she met her husband there, in ghostly surroundings!

Brian Coates was a patient at the Headington hospital and Mary, then Mary Ovenell, was his night nurse.

Mrs Coates, of Laburnum Road, Botley, writes: “At this time in the early 1950s (1954-ish), there was a rumour going round that a ghost used to walk in the lumbar puncture room at midnight.

“This was a small room between wards Briscoe 1 and Briscoe 2. Because I didn’t like the thought of bumping into this ghost at that time, Brian would sometimes sit up and chat to me.

“We got to know each other so well we were married in 1956 and have now just celebrated our 56th wedding anniversary.

“The Slade Hospital was a wonderful hospital, with lots of history, and I’ll always remember it. I also remember Miss Preddy with affection – she was a good matron, and I only wish she was still around today.”

Did they see the ghost? “It was meant to appear at 12 o’clock, but we never saw it.”

We were reminded of the Slade Hospital by Barbara Cleary, of Witney (Memory Lane, April 23), who remembered being a patient as well as losing her handbag.

Another reader, Dorothy Holloway, of Wenrisc Drive, Minster Lovell, was often posted to the Slade on night duty during her nursing training.

She writes: “Many years later, my father contracted TB and was sent to the Slade. For the first time, I saw the hospital in daylight! It was very pleasant.

“Miss Preddy was just retiring when I began my training, replaced by Principal Nurse status – Miss Ware – a true terror, largely responsible for my constant Slade posting.

“She was not impressed when I left to marry my late first husband, or at my passing my final examination to qualify. I will not repeat her stinging remark.

“But on the whole, I enjoyed my nursing and have fond memories of false teeth and medicine cupboards. And the Slade? As the old song goes: “Ah, I remember it well.”

Any more memories of the Slade Hospital to share?