Crossley Hospital, Ancoats, Manchester

[royd]

Hello Barney1959, I guess if it says so on your birth cert then that's where you were born.  What exactly are you looking for?  Were your parents in the Salvation Army?  I was born there, but don't remember anything about it......lol

R.

[Parmesan]

you didn't have to have a Sally Army connection.  I was born there and my mother says the nurses weren't very nice!

[Viktoria]

Although Crossley`s Hospital is no more there is a building on the site which replaced it.It was built by The Salvation Army and so if you enquire there I think there is a possibility they will have some idea about where  the records of Crossley`s are. They may be in Manchester Local Archives  collection which was in the Central Library but due to a major refurbishment  have been moved, but I think some at least can still be viewe elsewhere..
I think Mitchell St. is still the address.
Crossley`s was the preffered maternity hospital of many Manchester Clergy wives, perhaps because of the Christian ethos
I don`t think the nurses at Crossley`s were any worse than elsewhere, at Crumpsall ( now North M/C General) there was one in particular who would now be disciplined one hopes for her attitude towards young mothers. She was dreaded.
 Hope you are lucky and get the info you require.   Victoria.

[Barney1959]

Hi all.
When I first saw my birth certificate i went down to the hospital. It was being used as a safe home for girls who were homeless at the time. I was given a tour and went to see the delivery room which I have to say made a lasting impression on me. The SA woman there was incredibly helpful but I think I was still in shock about finding out I had a different mother to the one I knew.
I obtained my mothers death cert back then (late 1980s) and last years discovered that she was to be married after I was born and put up for adoption. I have no idea who she was to marry though, other than his name was Trevor or Terence. When I went back there sometime in the 1990's the place had been demolished.
The SA in London were incredibly helpful and i couldn't thank them enough for their efforts. I have also read up much on the political and moral attitudes that brought about the proliferation of the Mother and Baby Homes that utilsed the hospital

[royd]

Wasn't it later turned into the Star Hall?  This rings a vague bell with me.

 All I can remember my mother telling me was that I was born there because they were SA Officers. When the time came for me to be born, my father was getting in everyone's way so they gave him an oilcan and told him to go and oil all the doors!!!   

R.

[Barney1959]

The SA had Mother and Baby homes all over Manchester. This was where single mothers went after their families threw them out. This was always about but became a viable business after 1923 when an MP made a speech in the House of Commons about these fallen women. They wanted to cut the welfare costs in a way that was reminisent of the Poor Law Reform of 1832 which itself resulted in an explosion of Workhouses. In 1910 there was a system in place to cater for single mothers on the welfare state, but they kept the whole thing secret from the young mothers as there was profit in adoption to re-colonise the empire with white blood lost in the Great War. Mothers were told lies and harrassed into giving up their babies, many of the children being put straight on a ship and taken to Australia, South Africa and Canada. When they got there they were given new birth certificates.
The flip side of things is that if the SA weren't there to cater for these girls, the alternative was a back street abortion and the greater hazard that involved. Many many girls would have died if it were not for the SA. You have to look at the whole picture.

[pearly sj]

Hi,
I worked in Crossley house in the early 80s, for the Salvation army. I lived in the Nurses home, and Star Hall was in Merrill Street number 15.  Ancoats hospital was in Great Ancoats Street.
Before the Army turned Crossley house into a nursing home it was indeed a home for unmarried mums, and also a place for other babies to be born.
The nurses home was separated from the main building by Foot Street which was the last cobbled street in Manchester apparently.
I remember distinctly when the Matron was on holiday going down into the basement of the nurses home that was no longer used.  I found loads of stuff used at that time including a marble slab just a little bigger than a door.  I also found huge ledgers there which had names of babies and mothers, how their labour had been etc.  I left those ledgers etc in the basement as i had found them.  There was frequent mention of the flying squad.  I dug around to work out what it was and apparently it was when a mum was in trouble or very ill the nurses and doctors from the home would go to their houses to help with the birth.
When I left crossley, the nurses home was still being used as accomidation, the home was still a nursing home the Star hall which was on the bottom floor was used as a place of worship but also a drop in coffee lounge and half of the nurses quarters was used for the salvation army admin.
I returned many years ago to find that the building has been demolished and houses built on the site. The first time i went back there was the sandstone pillar of the gate still there but now it has gone.  I have photos but unfortunately not good at uploading.  If you need any more info I will try and help

[royd]

Hello Pearly, welcome to Rootschat.

I was very interested in your comment about the old ledgers.  I wonder what happened to them?  Is there any way you could find out?  I am especially interested in the year 1947.

Thanks.  R.

[Barney1959]

It is probable that the ledgers went to the SA archivist in London. He did a search for me and found nothing with myself or my mothers name on it, even though it says I was born there on my birth certificate.
I would love to have a trawl through them and see if there was a name my mother may have used. I gave the archivist a list of possible aliases she could have used but other have come to light since then that would be available to her, one in particular being Collett. I have also learned that she was to be married after my birth and I was to be put up for adoption. This means that she could have assumed the name of her husband to be who I only know to be Terence or Trevor, my source being elderly and it was half a century ago. His name wasn't Collett, that is the married name of her Aunt Alice who lived in Prestwich not far from Ancoats.

Pearly. If you were there in the eighties it is possible that I met you when I came to the home the first time. Bewilderingly confused as I knew nothing of anything, armed with a birth certificate and the name of some woman I had never heard of before as "mother".
I stood in the delivery room and it is an image I will never forget.