Mama's and Leonies ''Sheffield's most notorious Doctor's Surgery'' ?

[JackK0]

Hello I was just wondering what the story was behind Sheffield's most notorious Doctor's Surgery. which was located at Mamas and Leonies restaurant does anyone no anything?

 

Thanks Jack!

[Daven]

Are you referring to the nearby Wicker Herbal shop which was built in the grounds of the Sheffield Medical School which stood where the Central library is now ?

There is supposed to be a ghost which inhabits the building which was near to the mortuary of the medical school. Bodies were brought there for dissection but they weren't always entirely dead and the ghost is the spirit of one of the unfortunates.

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=159102

Edited June 24, 2015 by Daven

[JackK0]

Thank you Daven yes I was, that is interesting why would live bodies be brought for dissection ?

[Daven]

Because back in the early 1800's there was a shortage of bodies for dissection- the medical students would have learned much about the human body, as they do today, by dissecting a cadaver. These days many people leave their bodies to medical science and these are the bodies which is are dissected by modern day medical students.

Back in the 1800's the medical school would pay a small backhander to the undertaker or grave digger for the body and the coffin would be filled with stones and sealed so the relatives wouldn't have known any different.

Because medicine was very primitive in those days, it sometimes happened that when the students started to dissect the body it started to move - the person wasn't actually dead but soon died afterwards from the effects of the dissection.

It is thought that the spirits of some of these unlucky people haunt the herbal shop and also the archive rooms under the Central library on Surrey Street.

[tzijlstra]

Thank you Daven yes I was, that is interesting why would live bodies be brought for dissection ?

 

They were not aware that the person was not dead yet - don't forget they did not have the equipment we have these days!

 

There is a brilliant piece of Frisian folklore about a man that was found face-down in a swamp. The milkmaids brought him home, sure he was dead, so they put him in the barn until the authority (ie. the chief) would decide what to do.

 

The following morning the youngest lass went to the barn to milk to find the body had gone. Hysterically she ran into the kitchen where the man was cutting a piece of sausage and bread, he was pale as anything so she screamed and panicked and turned away to run off, she slipped in her panic, banged her head and died on the spot. The dead man had become a dead girl, not a fair exchange by any means!

[Daven]

When the medical school closed, the entire fittings were sold off and some went to a nearby business - Hibbert Brothers who sold artist materials which was in the building now occupied by Wicker Herbal shop. They bought four marble slabs that had been used for dissection and autopsy.

The ghost makes it's presence known by dropping packets and pills from the high shelves onto customers heads apparently.

Apparently there used to be a vegan restaurant above the herbal store called the Olive Garden and strange things often happened to diners in there too.

 

---------- Post added 24-06-2015 at 17:52 ----------

 

They were not aware that the person was not dead yet - don't forget they did not have the equipment we have these days!

There is a brilliant piece of Frisian folklore about a man that was found face-down in a swamp. The milkmaids brought him home, sure he was dead, so they put him in the barn until the authority (ie. the chief) would decide what to do.

 

The following morning the youngest lass went to the barn to milk to find the body had gone. Hysterically she ran into the kitchen where the man was cutting a piece of sausage and bread, he was pale as anything so she screamed and panicked and turned away to run off, she slipped in her panic, banged her head and died on the spot. The dead man had become a dead girl, not a fair exchange by any means!

 

Absolutely correct. These days are are many tests done to 'diagnose' death but back in those days if the doctor couldn't hear a heart beat they were declared dead.

I once saw a programme on TV about bodies that were exhumed from an old graveyard and many many of the coffins exhumed had signs of the body having to tried to get out - i.e., scratch marks on the inside of the coffin.

 

https://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=159102

Here is another thread about the Wicker Herbal shop ghost .

Edited June 24, 2015 by Daven

[Bodie]

shortage of bodies

 

I thought I was unique

[JackK0]

Thank you again for the replies but you keep referring to the herbal store I'm wanting to know the story of mamas and Leonies ?

[Nijinsky]

I once saw a programme on TV about bodies that were exhumed from an old graveyard and many many of the coffins exhumed had signs of the body having to tried to get out - i.e., scratch marks on the inside of the coffin

 

That`s what Jimmy Savile must have been doing working in the morgue all those years, making sure they were brown bread.

[TORONTONY]

I once saw a programme on TV about bodies that were exhumed from an old graveyard and many many of the coffins exhumed had signs of the body having to tried to get out - i.e., scratch marks on the inside of the coffin

 

That`s what Jimmy Savile must have been doing working in the morgue all those years, making sure they were brown bread.

 

I suppose Burke and Hare types were everywhere lol