22 Broadwater Down, Tunbridge Wells

[brianrover]

A few years ago a question was posted as to the function of 22 Broadwater Down as it appeared to be available for registration of illegitimate birth. No satisfactory answer was offered at the time and I raise this topic again because I have just received the birth certificate of one of my relatives whose birth on 1st April 1944 was registered as having taken place at 22 Broadwater Down although the Mother's normal abode was in East Kent. Moreover the mother was married at the time and the name and occupation of the father have been left blank on the certificate.
Please can someone tell me more about the use of 22 Broadwater Down in 1944?

[stanmapstone]

Welcome to RootsChat
22 Broadwater Down was listed in Kelly's as a Kent County Council Emergency Maternity Home.
http://www.tunwells-fhs.btck.co.uk/Guestbook
Stan

[brianrover]

Many thanks for this helpful response.

[SCR]

Hello.  I have been doing some research on this address as it features on my father's birth certificate.

It was always a mystery as to why he was born in Tunbridge Wells as his mother lived in Canterbury.  Being born in 1943, he was told that it was 'because of the war' and it was left at that.

I have since discovered that my grandmother was married to someone else when my father was born, and she didn't divorce her first husband and marry my Dad's biological father until 1946.

Dad was completely unaware of the back story until recently, but it solved the mystery.

[brianrover]

Thank you SCR - your research seems to confirm that 22 Broadwater Down was used by our families  as a matter of convenience so that the birth could be registered outside the district of the mother' usual residence.

[PaulMunds]

I have always been puzzled why my birth was registered in Broadwater Down when my mother was living in Chattenden, Kent. I have recently taken an Ancestry DNA test and was surprised to be 100% matched to someone unknown to me who was described as a half sibling. So I therefore am 99.9% sure that I know who my biological father was! My mother is still alive, but is frail and I am loathe to bring the subject up........but if I don't I will probably regret it. Dilemma or what!
But thanks to everyone who has posted on this thread as it has helped me to piece together my  73 year old mystery.

[PtE]

Hi Paul,
Find a way to ask your mother gently. There was a similar situation in my family where one of my aunts had a child to another man when her husband was away on war duties. She confessed to her husband and the child was put up for adoption. Their subsequent children knew nothing of their half sister until after my aunt died and my uncle revealed all to them. After some searching, my cousins finally met up with their half sister and it was a happy outcome for all concerned. Hope it works out well for you too.
PtE

[Sandy Ridge]

I was born at 22 Broadwater Down in 1944. I am the youngest of 3 children and my parents were definitely married to each other at the time. My family were living in Belvedere Kent, which is now greater London. I expect that my mother was sent there to escape bombing. 22 Broadwater Down is actually on the border of Kent and East Sussex. No 22 is in Kent. Many years later we moved to 53 Broadwater Down, which is in Sussex.