Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital Saturday Fund

Hi all It has come to my notice that the offices of Mercia Health Benefits have moved out of Dale Buildings & are now in the old Courtaulds clock tower area. Their postal address still remains the same.

Hope the postman knows!

Hi Midland Red The office operations moved during last year. I was told by a scheme member who had a query, turned up at the Cook St offices only to find them locked. His query was sorted in the old Courtaulds main works building. Odd really as he used to work in E.D.D.

So, the postman knows, but the members don't!

Hi Midland Red Clair on T: 024 7681 1700 will tell you all about their move to the first floor of Courtaulds Tower building. They physically moved last July. They no longer have a public access office. ps It appears that they do not want the general public to know where they are physically located. So here it is on our website for all to see!

Yeh, paid a tanner a week for about twenty years into that Hospital Saturday Fund, wonder what happened to it?

Hi Kaga It probably went to fund my dental treatment for many years. I was in the scheme where my contribution was paid directly from my company salary. My company, along with so many started to give private healthcare as a salary perk, where at the same time, I was becoming a "conscientious objector" to private health care, so that is why I came out of the Mercia Health. I have no regrets prior to that, as dental treatment for me has never been free & still isn't. PS. I had received so much good care from the NHS throughout my early years of constant orthopaedic surgery, that for me to turn my back on free care for all, the NHS, was like me becoming a turncoat or traitor.

A young girl riding a horse through Coventry was a charity gimmick. Godiva and Leofric go back to the 11th century, the time of chastity belts, so it's unlikely an Earl would let his young wife ride round the streets naked, and her second marriage. It's more likely that she was around forty, looked older so no-one was interested in looking anyway. Before the welfare state Coventry had a Saturday Hospital fund, I think my mother paid about a shilling a month for each of us. If we were ill then she got something like ten shillings a week for twenty odd weeks. If we were still ill then it was reduced to about half for the same number of weeks, but it was always short of funds so someone came up with the idea of a carnival to raise funds, but they needed a front piece so they went back to the ride round Coventry, only with a young girl to attract attention. But history shows us through the Doomsday Book that high taxes were crippling the country and the law was changed only a short time after the Godiva Ride, so did our good lady have some influence, not just with her husband, but Gov't as well, me thinks? I did attain a copy of the Doomsday Book in Coventry, whether library or book shop? I can't remember. Post copied from topic Lady Godiva on 11th Oct 2018 8:53 am

In recent years a film was made, and Lady Godiva had to ride down Bayley Lane on a big white horse. The part was played by an ex singer of the pop group Steps (Faye Tozer?). It was a freezing cold day (we all had coats on!), and she was clad only in a body stocking. I remember the Hospital Saturday Fund. 10p was deducted each week. Post copied from topic Lady Godiva on 11th Oct 2018 8:54 am

It is still in existence, my wife and I have been members for many years. It is certainly worth it as we get the majority of our spectacles and dental costs reimbursed, plus several other benefits should we need them. It is rather more than 10p now, of course.

Yes, we're longstanding members, and received benefits re my recent short stay in Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital

Yes it was called the Hospital Saturday Fund because Coventry have long been paid wages on a Friday, thus allowing mother on a Saturday morning to sort out the money. Gave the kids a tanner to go and pay the fund at someone's house, who opened his front door to receive payments, marked a small book, took your money. This went on throughout my childhood and teen age until 1945 when NHS started. During the 1920/30s people dare not report illness unless really dangerous, most of us went through small illnesses without so much as a bottle of medicine. I think the fund had a limit to what it would pay a family at the beginning, just simply not affordable. Someone started that fund and the yearly carnivals that boosted its funds. Mods note: Full post copied into the "Coventry Carnivals" thread

The plaque on the wall to the right of the photo reads Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital Saturday Fund Dale Buildings. My grandmother is pictured here. Wondering if anyone has any photographs of Dale Buildings at around the time this photo was taken?

I remember the Dawlish Convalescent Home. Allowed out in the evenings but had a strict rule to be back in by 9pm, being told you're here for recuperation, not a holiday.