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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Lancashire => Topic started by: rubymelia on Sunday 04 August 19 17:20 BST (UK)

Title: Mill Road Hospital 1938?
Post by: rubymelia on Sunday 04 August 19 17:20 BST (UK)
Hi,

My great-grandfather was buried on 17/01/1938 at Ford Cemetery in Liverpool. From the burial information given, I can see that he died at 147A Mill Road, Liverpool. At first I thought this was a road but now I have come to believe that this was a hospital?

After some research I have come to the conclusion that it may have been a maternity hospital? My great-grandfather died at 44 years and was from a working class background.

Could anyone offer any advice as to whether he died in a hospital or possibly a workhouse infirmary as the family were quite poor? Also would there have been any specific illness that he may have died from so young that he would have been sent to the workhouse infirmary for?

Thanks for any help given.

 :)
Title: Re: Mill Road Hospital 1938?
Post by: PaulineJ on Sunday 04 August 19 17:56 BST (UK)
It's pre-NHS don't forget.

From: https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=326053.msg2068429#msg2068429

"I think you will find that 147a Mill Road, Everton was the Mill Road Infirmary and part of the West Derby Workhouse.  "

Pauline
Title: Re: Mill Road Hospital 1938?
Post by: Joney on Sunday 04 August 19 18:39 BST (UK)
The term 'workhouse' was passing out of official use by 1938. The address 147A Mill Road was used to avoid the stigma that  putting the word workhouse on a certificate of birth or death might have created. This strategy had been adopted around 1930, I believe. My grandfather has his place of death recorded as156 Smithdown Road, the former Toxteth Park Workhouse.
Title: Re: Mill Road Hospital 1938?
Post by: stanmapstone on Sunday 04 August 19 19:41 BST (UK)
The term 'workhouse' was passing out of official use by 1938. The address 147A Mill Road was used to avoid the stigma that  putting the word workhouse on a certificate of birth or death might have created. This strategy had been adopted around 1930, I believe. My grandfather has his place of death recorded as156 Smithdown Road, the former Toxteth Park Workhouse.

Workhouses, and Boards of Guardians, legally ceased to exist on Monday 31st March 1930, they were then called Public Assistance Institutions and continued as before to provide care for the elderly, infirm and destitute.

In 1904, the Registrar General decided that where a child was born in the workhouse, there need no longer be any indication of this on the birth certificate. Instead, the place of birth could be recorded as an ordinary street address, either a real one or a pseudonymous one invented for the purpose. From around 1920, the same practice was later also adopted for the death certificates of those who died in the workhouse. http://www.workhouses.org.uk/addresses/b.shtml

Stan
Title: Re: Mill Road Hospital 1938?
Post by: stanmapstone on Sunday 04 August 19 19:56 BST (UK)
The Mill Road Infirmary later became the Mill Road Maternity Hospital. See http://www.workhouses.org.uk/WestDerby/
See the Hospital Records Database http://www.rootschat.com/links/01o5c/
Stan
Title: Re: Mill Road Hospital 1938?
Post by: garstonite on Monday 05 August 19 07:54 BST (UK)
My daughter was born there in 1983 - wonderful little Hospital and very friendly then
Title: Re: Mill Road Hospital 1938?
Post by: Joney on Monday 05 August 19 08:55 BST (UK)
Thanks for correcting me , Stan.  :)
Gosh, I had no idea that it was still there in the 1980s. My mum was there in around 1929 / 1930 when she had Scarlet Fever. Anything that she took into the hospital would have to be left there, so her mum produced a new notebook for drawing and a pack of cards to take with her. She remembered at least one other child died and said one of the nurses got it, so ended up in the same ward. She said sulphur was blown down her throat, as powder collected on a piece of paper, folded so it all collected in the crease. It tickled and made her cough. She was in bed for weeks. There was no visiting because it was infectious, so her mother and aunt came and stood on the pavement outside, as she could see them and wave through the window. (She was in a ward right at the front of the hospital.)In the end, when she was discharged, her mother had to more or less carry her, because she was so weak that she couldn't walk.
Title: Re: Mill Road Hospital 1938?
Post by: stanmapstone on Monday 05 August 19 08:58 BST (UK)
Gosh, I had no idea that it was still there in the 1980s.

It closed in 1993.

stan
Title: Re: Mill Road Hospital 1938?
Post by: Blue70 on Monday 05 August 19 11:31 BST (UK)
I was born there ;D if you're wondering about cause of death the death certificate should give you the details. PDF costs £7 from GRO:-

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/Login.asp


Blue
Title: Re: Mill Road Hospital 1938?
Post by: rubymelia on Tuesday 06 August 19 13:20 BST (UK)
Thanks for correcting me , Stan.  :)
Gosh, I had no idea that it was still there in the 1980s. My mum was there in around 1929 / 1930 when she had Scarlet Fever. Anything that she took into the hospital would have to be left there, so her mum produced a new notebook for drawing and a pack of cards to take with her. She remembered at least one other child died and said one of the nurses got it, so ended up in the same ward. She said sulphur was blown down her throat, as powder collected on a piece of paper, folded so it all collected in the crease. It tickled and made her cough. She was in bed for weeks. There was no visiting because it was infectious, so her mother and aunt came and stood on the pavement outside, as she could see them and wave through the window. (She was in a ward right at the front of the hospital.)In the end, when she was discharged, her mother had to more or less carry her, because she was so weak that she couldn't walk.

Wow, stories and little anecdotes like these make all the research so real and important!
Title: Re: Mill Road Hospital 1938?
Post by: Joney on Tuesday 06 August 19 15:07 BST (UK)
I agree with you on that. My mum and grandmother never stopped repeating the family stories. I am lucky in that some of them must go back to the 1870s and 1880s. The reason I started tracing the family, back in the 1970s, was that, as I told my mother at the time, 'Either this is history or it's baloney and I think we ought to sort out which !'
In fact, more turned out to be true than I would ever believed at that point. Good luck with your ancestors too.