There was no such thing as a typical day
When Audrey joined the Common Cold Unit (CCU) in 1977, she could not have guessed how varied and lively her working days would become. Officially, she worked under the administrator, but in practice, her role touched almost every corner of life at the Unit.
“I was in charge of the laundry and looking after all the flats,” she recalled. “If anything needed replacing, I replaced it. And when the volunteers came in, I did all their shopping while they were in isolation.”
The CCU volunteers: students, couples, and even the occasional honeymooners were quarantined for ten days during medical trials. Audrey was their connection to the outside world. She took their requests by phone, then headed into Salisbury to buy whatever they needed: groceries, birthday cards, fishing bait, or even to place a bet on the horses. “My job was very interesting,” she said with a laugh. “You never knew what you’d be doing from one day to the next.”
Beyond shopping and supplies, Audrey managed the stores and linen for the entire site. She made curtains, repaired sheets, and helped make the volunteers’ temporary homes as comfortable as possible. Wanting to brighten up the flats, she suggested replacing the plain white crockery with colourful pieces from Poole Pottery. “I thought it’d be nice if we had something a bit better,” she said. “So we went and got blue and yellow china and I made matching curtains.”
The CCU itself, she remembered, was “a lovely place to work, so friendly, no them and us.” Doctors, administrators, cleaners, and drivers all worked together. The site was peaceful, surrounded by fields and flowerbeds tended by Dennis, the gardener. “It was absolutely beautiful,” she said. “When the weather was good, the volunteers would be out there sunbathing.”
Volunteers were well looked after, with televisions in their rooms and games such as snooker, badminton, and croquet to pass the time. Birthdays were celebrated too: “If we knew it was someone’s birthday, the cook would make a cake. We did look after them very well.”
Audrey worked closely with administrators Tom, then Carl Brown, and later Arthur Amos, as well as scientists like Dr David Tyrrell. Many staff families lived on site, forming a close community. “We all got on very well,” she remembered. “It really was like one big family.”
When the Unit began to wind down in 1989, Audrey knew her time there was ending. “Once the volunteers left, my job basically finished,” she said. “It was very sad saying goodbye to everyone. Some of the volunteers cried.”
Even after the Unit closed, Audrey and her former colleagues stayed in touch. For more than twenty-five years they met for reunions, later gathering every few months at the White Hart Hotel in Salisbury. “It’s nice just to keep in touch,” she said. “We always have a good chat, remembering people, who we’ve seen, who we’ve lost.”
Looking back, Audrey spoke with warmth and pride about her years at the Common Cold Unit. “It was a lovely place to work,” she said simply. “I met so many people from all walks of life. Every day was different and I loved every minute of it.”
Listen below to Audrey talking about her time working at the Common Cold Unit:
