RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Hertfordshire => Topic started by: jaxishere on Monday 21 November 05 20:28 GMT (UK)
-
can anyone help
I am trying to trace where a family member was born all I know is birth cert says hitchin
Do you know or any maternity hospitals in Hitchin around 1933
-
I think that the Lister Hospital used to be in Hitchin just off Nightingale Rd and that there was also a Maternity Hospital somewhere else - Upper Brand St? Neither exist now, at least not in Hitchin. The Lister is what the big Stevenage Hospital is called nowadays.
I've just found www.hitchin.net. Perhaps you could post there.
Vague I know, but maybe it will help a little.
Isobel
-
can anyone help
I am trying to trace where a family member was born all I know is birth cert says hitchin
Do you know or any maternity hospitals in Hitchin around 1933
Hi jaxishere
Please bear in mind that it was very common for babies to be born at home and not in hospital right up to the 1960's.
If no address at all is given on the birth certificate, I wonder if perhaps the birthplace was very rural, as you would at least expect the name of an institution or road.
Rick :)
-
The maternity unit only transfered from Hitchin to Lister in Stevenage about 15 years ago. I work at Lister. The old Lister in Hitchin is now care of the elderly.
Linmey.
-
As well as the old Lister Hospital there was the Herts & Beds Hospital and Benslow Nursing Home.
-
Don't forget private maternity homes. There was a Benslow House in Hitchin operating in the 30s & probably others besides
Maggott
-
My mother was born at the Maples Maternity Hospital, Bedford Road, Hitchin in 1933
It was pulled down a few years ago and although had not been used as maternity home for many years it was still used by NHS (as administration offices I think). The Maples stopped being used when the North Herts Maternity Hospital was opened next door. I think this was used until 1980 when it was transferred to Stevenage
-
Hi,
You probably don't need any more on this but if memory serves me correctly Foxholes just at the edge of the town on the road to Pirton was a maternity home.
Benzol
-
Prior to the founding of the National Health Service a lot of the first babies of parents who could afford it were born in small local nursing/maternity homes.
David
-
My mother was born at the Maples Maternity Hospital, Bedford Road, Hitchin in 1933
It was pulled down a few years ago and although had not been used as maternity home for many years it was still used by NHS (as administration offices I think). The Maples stopped being used when the North Herts Maternity Hospital was opened next door. I think this was used until 1980 when it was transferred to Stevenage
The Maternity Unit at the Lister Hospital Stevenage didn't open until 1983. My oldest son was born in the old unit in 1982, which is where Waitrose (and before that Safeway) now stands.
-
I was born in Hitchin in Oct 1940, although my parents lived in S London. I assume this was because of the dangers of wartime. I was always told, rather curiously, that I was born in the 'King's Dressing Room' Now that I'm researching my family history, it is, unfortunately, too late to ask anyone in the family about this. Could anyone very kindly throw any light on this please.
-
Hi Ted,
Interesting Question. I'm Hitchin born and bred. Never heard of the "King's dressing room". If such a place did/does exist it's likely to be part of The Priory in Bridge Street Hitchin. The Priory was owned by the Delme Radcliffe family for 400 years until 1965 and is the only establishment of any real note in the town. The family were full of good works and may be they opened up the house as extra maternity facilities - sorry I don'y know if this is true. I'm sure that there were royal connections particularly the current Queen's mum. Elizabeth Bowes Lyon was born and raised at St. Paul's Warden just a few liles away.
If I'm correct then HALS in Hertford, which holds many Herts Archives, has the archive for the family and house. Might be worth a query! You'll find HALS on the web.
Talked to my sister about this question. She was a teenager in Hitchin during the war and remembers that lots of young mums came down from London to have their babies when the war was on.
Cheers
Benzol
-
Dear Benzol
Many thanks. That does seem feasible and I'll have a look at the website that you mentioned. Thanks for your help.
Ted
-
Ted
Why don't you email the current owners?
R
-
North Herts Maternity Hospital used to be on the site where Waitrose is now, opposite Christchurch Methodist church on Bedford Road.
Don't know what date it opened though.
-
Think the maternity hospital being referred to was at the The North Herts and South Beds Hospital. A new wing went on to the hospital about1929. The Duchess of York the old Queen Mum opened this new wing. The main work of the hospital was moved to the old Lister Hospital, don't know when but probably during or just after WW2. (The new Lister Hospital is in Stevenage). The maternity facilities probably remained at the NHSB hospital so a war-time baby being born in Hitchin could well have been born there.
However don't see why there should have been a King's Room at NHSB. Having said that the old building went back many decades so it's possible I suppose!
Benzol
-
This link from the national archives site has some more information - records held in Hertfordshire Archives.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=417&page=42
The maternity unit closed around 1982.
The "kings room" might be a historical link. in the 1086 Doomsday survey there was a reference to "Rex Tenet Hiz" - referring to the fact that the land around Hitchin was owned by the King at that time.
-
If the only address given on the birth cert is "Hitchin" I would think it was more likely to be a private home. In the 1930s home births were much more common.
-
My mother was born at the Maples Maternity Hospital, Bedford Road, Hitchin in 1933
It was pulled down a few years ago and although had not been used as maternity home for many years it was still used by NHS (as administration offices I think). The Maples stopped being used when the North Herts Maternity Hospital was opened next door. I think this was used until 1980 when it was transferred to Stevenage
The Maternity Unit at the Lister Hospital Stevenage didn't open until 1983. My oldest son was born in the old unit in 1982, which is where Waitrose (and before that Safeway) now stands.
I was born in the Maternity hospital in '83, as was my hubby, also 83 and my bro in 81. OH brother born in '86 was born in Lister Mat Unit in Stevenage. It must have closed between 83 and 86, though I'm not sure when. I remained local and remembered going into Safeways with my grandparents. A lot of people in my school year were also born there, as well as older children, we were all known as "Safeways Babies" My mother was also born there in 56. So it is more than likely to be that Maternity Hospital on Bedford Road.
-
I would have thought there would be more of an address, like at least a road name.
NB Safeways briefly became Morrisons and is now Waitrose.
-
can anyone help
I am trying to trace where a family member was born all I know is birth cert says hitchin
Do you know or any maternity hospitals in Hitchin around 1933
I think it would be still the normal practice that most normal births would have been in the mothers own home, in 1933.
-
"The maternity unit closed around 1982."
No it didn't.
Ive got my own records, and i was born in hitchin in 1983 at this hospital, when we lived in the area. my younger brother, was born at the new lister in 1985. Which must mean the hospital in question closed approx 1984?
-
My great nephew was born 2. 2. 1984 Herts and Beds Maternity Hospital, Bedford Road, Hitchin. The old Lister Hospital in Hitchin, as far as I understand it, was never used for maternity.
Benzol
-
Hi,
You probably don't need any more on this but if memory serves me correctly Foxholes just at the edge of the town on the road to Pirton was a maternity home.
Benzol
I was born in the Foxholes Maternity Home in 1948 although I believe my Mother always referred to it as Foxholes Nursing Home or Foxholes Nursery. Is it the same place/building as the current Foxholes Nursing Home for the elderly? I did try emailing them (twice) at http://foxholes-nursinghome.co.uk/ to find out if they knew but I never received a reply.
Any information gratefully received.