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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Buckinghamshire => Topic started by: Opal on Thursday 07 February 13 12:04 GMT (UK)
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On a birth certificate for March 1961 the 'where born' states 'Colinswood Farnham Common Farnham Royal'. I have searched to see what this place was but to no avail. The child born was adopted and it is possible it was a mother and baby home. Can anyone help? thankyou.
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A little bit of info :-\
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0suj/
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1953/dec/10/colinswood-maternity-home-slough
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Collinswood was indeed a Maternity home just outside Farnham common. My brother was born there in 1948,at that time it had just been taken over by the National Health service,having been private up till then.
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Thankyou, that does help to explain further as the child was born some distance from the birth mother's place of abode, in the sense of it being a mother and baby home.
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I recently was assisted in my quest for more information about Colinswood by Lisa Edwards, the Senior Archives & Local Studies Assistant at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies. She was able to provide the following:
"The Colinswood maternity home in Farnham Common was originally the Colinswood Hotel. The maternity home opened in October 1942 and was run by Buckinghamshire County council, it had 22 beds. It was one of three maternity homes in the Slough area."
"We have a couple of newspaper cuttings concerning the maternity home including one which stated that the 1,000th baby was due to be born there in May 1946. The other [published March 19, 1954] relates to a new matron [Sister Phyllis Sybil Roorby] being employed [effective April 1, 1954 to replace Matron A.M. Allardyce who resigned]. I have checked the telephone directories and the last time Colinswood Maternity Home is listed is in 1969."
The news clippings Ms. Edwards provided are from the Slough Observer newspaper. If I can get permission from them, or the current owner, I will post a scan of the clippings.
The article about the new matron makes reference to a "Save Collinswood" movement spearheaded by a Leonora Short, as there was consideration at the time in 1954 to closing the facility. I notice that even back then the spelling of Colinswood varied. The newspaper used only one 'l' throughout the story yet Ms. Short's group was named with two. This could simply be sloppy editing work.
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Thank you for your reply and the information re the home - it all helps to build a picture!
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I was born at Colinswood Maternity Home in 1946. The nurse who delivered me was Nurse Finn. My mother lived at Taplow and I suppose this was the nearest Nursing Home. My mother stayed there for 2 weeks and was very upset because I cried so much they put me in the attic so as not to disturb the other babies!
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I am glad that my query/post reminded you of your first few days! and welcome to RootsChat.
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I was born there in 1945 my mother was in the ATS at that time and my father was abroad with the Army
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I lived close by between 1958 and 1980. I knew the name but not where it was. Only place I can think of is there is a sort of respite hospital on the main road at the northern end of Farnham Common. My father had a stroke in 1976 and he was taken in there to give my mother some respite periodically.
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Thank you both for your replies. It was obviously in use for many years.
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The place I gave you can't be right. The A355 is Beaconsfield Road as far north as One Pin Lane, then it becomes Collinswood Road as it continues north to Beaconsfield. The place you want is still there but sounds as though it's been split up into flats. It's large and I can't think where it is. Once past One Pin Lane on the right going north, it's mostly countryside. If you Google Collinswood House, it will come up.
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Thank you - I will take a look.
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Hi Opal, not sure if you have had any luck. I live almost opposite and am sure that the place is now flats.
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/8/colinswood-house/collinswood-road/farnham-common/slough/sl2-3ln/45091846
Could this be it?
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Thank you. It looks as if is could be the building with much renovation for apartments.
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I took a look at the map link the REG provided and was able to see that Colinswood Hotel and Colinswood did not yet exist in the 1938 map. In the later maps it shows the buildings ever the years changed at least 3 times. I tried posting the 1938 map in a PDF file but it errors out saying it's too big. I will try posting it as a JPG.
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Correction: No buildings on the 1876 map.
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Thank you for finding and posting the maps/info.
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Opal - I was searching for the address of the place I was born and saw in the chat you were looking for the Colinswood Maternity Home as well. All I found was some report it was closed in the 50s and a picture from a 1938 postcard. What was your interest?