My very old teddy is just back from 'hospital'!

You can now sit him on the bedroom chest of drawers, in pride of place, where he can survey the world ( he forgives you for all his lying in a drawer days though.)

Lovely! I abandoned poor old Andrew, Albert,Christian,Maigret (my panda) when I left home and been sad about ever since. For some reason I named him after the new baby prince Andrew and added Maigret as I thought it sounded sophisticated!

Buy him a nice new ribbon!

I also have a much loved aged teddy, (sitting on the chest of drawers). I do sometimes worry what will happen to him when i have gone. I don't see either of my sons taking him on and have considered leaving him to a museum. I'm pleased your bear is repaired Witzend

My son's teddy was 49 this year and he is looking a lot the worse for wear. He has to have tights over his arms and legs to stop his straw falling out, and wears a babygrow, but we love him and he has his own chair in GS's room here and when my GS's teddy, Duncan, comes to stay, he sits on his knee! Our ted has never had a name. He's just Ted. I asked my son if he wanted to take him over and he said no but he hoped we would never get rid of him! I remember there being a doll's hospital here in Sheffield when I was small - one or two of my dolls went there to have eye and limb operations!

Mine is a day younger than me and sits in the bedroom, he is also Ted and is getting to look very tired. Bit like me really! Maybe a trip to a convalescent home (don't want to think hospital, poor old bear) would be good for him. I'll research I think.

H still has his 68 yr old teddy. He's been living in the spare room since the day we married and is in remarkably good condition given his age.
I don't have my teddy but I do have a large doll (approx 18") that I was given on my second Christmas.

I have my very old Teddy too. I inherited him from my eldest sister who was born in January 1933 and had him as a baby. I was born in late 1943 and toys were almost impossible to get as it was wartime So Ted came to me and I have now had him for 73 of his 83 years.

He is a bit moth-eaten, a bit bald and more than a bit floppy but he knows all my secrets and has been my constant friend for all these years.He wears a red needle-cord coat and a pair of red knitted knickers and sleeps peacefully in a box in my wardrobe.

There was a dollar's hospital in Hammersmith when I was little. Did he go there?

Lully, I think that one of my dolls went to Hammersmith dolls hospital. I remember Mum taking me and coming home on the trolley bus, 657. Carefully clutching her and stepping off the bus, then I dropped her. Calamity, traumatised child. I have never forgotten it. I also had, around that time, a black ' Sorbo'? Doll, all dressed up in red. Did any other GN's have a sorbo doll? They were rubbery.

Witzend Lucky Teddy!
I have Teddy Trousers, Golly, Teddy Growler plus my pink baby teddy and late DH's one eyed Ted sitting half way up the the stairs . They could all do with a visit to the Teddy Hospital!

My teddy is 61 and I think he came from Marks and Spencer's. He's got babies socks on because the stuffing was falling out of his feet. My friend knitted him a new jumper last year from a pattern in the "Women's Weelky"

My Edward is 61 too. He used to growl apparently, but alas no more, and he's lost a lot of his straw filling, as well as having bald patches (I was a rough sort of child ). I'm feeling a bit bad now, wot, because he's butt naked, not like your teddy. He does sit in pride of place next to my computer though.

Ha ha Maggie!! Mines got loads of clothes on, even a little hat! His name is not very adventurous...it's Teddy! He's even got a Masonic badge on. I operated on him when I was about 5 and took the growler out. My mum had to replace his eyes. I look like your teddy,s name....Edward, indeed!!

I like your teddy,s name, I meant.

Thought I ought to post a photo of him all spruced up! He was a very sorry sight before, with his nose chewed off and one eye hanging loose...

Auntieflo I think the little black dolls were called 'Mambo" dolls.

I lived in South London as a child in the 1950's and remember my beloved 'Betty' doll (a 'mama' doll) losing all her hair (it was brown, curly human hair, and I probably pulled it out!). She was packed off to a Dolls Hospital, and I spent a fraught week worrying about her, I wasn't even allowed to visit her, even though I begged my mum. She returned boasting a head of glossy blonde curls. Not long after she went back and had an eye replaced. I've still got her, she's bald again but I'm pretty sure there's no longer any Dolls Hospitals I can take her to

Witzend, how very cute! And he does have a nice new ribbon.

I went to Ridgeway Craft Centre Sheffield a couple of years ago with mine but he would have to be sent away .I just couldn't do it .

Bohemian, there are still lots of dolls'/teddies hospitals! We just googled to find them.

I emailed one some time ago about two very old dolls that came from an aunt's house after she died - nobody else wanted them! They are both in a state with arms and legs fallen off etc. Still haven't got around to sending them or asking for a quote.

For teddy we emailed a photo first.

Auntieflo yes the dolls.hospital was very important, what lovely idea.. I used to like looking inside the heads and finding out how the eye movements worked and of course cutting the hair which never grew back.....heyho sorry to distract from teddys.

When I was a child, I remember a doll being sent off to the dolls hospital ( there was less money about for buying new dolls then) and I imagined it being in a bed in a ward.I had been in hospital myself a few times as a child, so felt sorry for dolly.

Now you can get an enormous stuffed toy for a fiver and kids' rooms have piles and piles of them, i wonder how many will be loved with such ferocity in 60 years' time?

Witzend, he looks just like my teddy. He is 54, has lost his growl and has foot rot.Could never part with him though-he knows EVERYTHING!!