LDHS Oral History Interview18
Dr Denys Brierley
AI Summary of the Interview with Dr Denys Brierley
1. Early Career & Arrival in the Area
Dr Brierley qualified in London in 1946, worked in several hospitals, and served in the army until 1954. After a short period in Cornwall, he applied for a post in the joint practice of Dr Michael and Dr Shuttleworth, succeeding among 17 applicants. He recalls travelling for the interview via the Chepstow ferry, where “the ramp was too slippery and we were the last ones to go over” .
He began as an assistant for 12 months before becoming a partner.
2. History of the Practice
The practice had deep roots:
- Dr Michael’s father founded the Bow Church practice in 1896, arriving during a diphtheria epidemic: “it wasn’t uncommon to find two people dead in the house at the same time from diphtheria” .
- Dr Michael himself served in the Royal Flying Corps, was shot down and held as a POW in Austria.
- The NHS (1948) prompted the merging of two separate practices into one, with a third doctor required due to workload.
Geographically, the practice became the second largest in England, covering around 5,000 patients.
3. Surgeries & Rural Working Conditions
The practice operated through a network of surgeries:
- Vowhurch and Longtown (Dr Michael’s side)
- Grosmont and multiple “front room surgeries” (Dr Shuttleworth’s side), including Pontrilas, Wormbridge, Garway Hill, Norton, and Pandy.
These front-room surgeries had minimal facilities: “There was no couch… only a stand‑up examination” .
Medicines were mixed on the spot from concentrated solutions and tap water. Bismuth stomach mixture was especially popular and—years later—proved unintentionally helpful against H. pylori.
4. Travel, Weather & Emergency Work
Travel dominated the job. Snow frequently made visits hazardous:
- He often fitted snow chains before driving out at night.
- On one occasion his car was completely buried: “we just can’t see it. It’s completely covered” .
- Farmers frequently rescued him with tractors or lent him Land Rovers.
- The winter of 1962–63 was the worst: three months of continuous snow.
Despite conditions, he almost always reached patients—only once failing due to a sudden blizzard.
5. Medical Conditions Seen
He describes the diseases typical of rural Herefordshire:
- Diphtheria (rare by his time due to vaccination)
- Polio epidemic in South Wales (late 1950s)
- Brucellosis (undulant fever) from infected cattle
- Farmer’s lung from mouldy hay
- Orf, a viral infection passed from sheep to farmers’ hands: “a warty nodule… on the fingers” .
- Frequent ringworm and warts.
He also treated animals when asked—once dosing a cow with leftover chloromycetin, which cured it.
6. Accidents & Emergencies
Farm accidents were common:
- Tractor rollovers causing fatal crush injuries.
- A man blinded when battery acid spilled into his eyes.
- A farmer whose thigh was shattered when a wire rope snapped; he was carried down the mountain on a gate.
Children were occasionally injured by farm machinery.
7. Hospitals & District Nurses
Local hospital provision included Hereford General, Hereford County, and later Neville Hall (Abergavenny). District nurses were essential, often travelling in severe weather and performing midwifery, child health visiting, and general nursing.
Most births were at home—around 20 per year.
8. Practice Development
Dr Brierley modernised the practice:
- Opened new surgeries in Peterchurch (converted bungalows, 1964).
- Later established the modern surgery at Ewyas Harold.
- His wife answered the phone day and night; doctors’ wives were not paid.
9. Advances in Medicine
He identifies penicillin as the most transformative drug: “by the following morning all the signs had completely disappeared” in a pneumonia case .
10. Reflections
He describes the patients as “very undemanding… extremely good patients” and says he would gladly do it all again—though not under modern pressures.