The first day.

A history of paediatrics at Northampton General Infirmary re-enacted with the assistance of the historical documentation available in the archives and dramatised using a group of local children with their families. In March 1744, the first patient the hospital received was a thirteen year old girl called Thomasin Grace; it is possible to track her treatment, recovery and then death at 70 in London. Various archive documents indicate the prevailing conditions. The archive has some surprises; the hospital have analysed the dietary intake of Thomasin and found it to confirm with current requirements. At the end of the DVD there is a short sequence of archive taken from an archive film made in 1934 about the hospital.