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Body Washer at St Barnabus.

chocks2

chocks2

master brummie
I've recently descovered that my Gt Gradmother was employed by St Barnabus church in Erdington as a "Body Washer".
All we have been able to learn about this is that she washed the recently departed. She was well into her late 70's or early 80's when she was doing this job and it would have been around the 1960's ish.
The Church has no information about this and they have never been involved in either the undertaking trade or mortuary work however they do have a small note to say that she was employed on an ad-hoc basis by them but no record of what she actually did.
We belive that she didn't work in the church itself but somewhere close by.
Can anyone throw any light on this for me?
 
There was and I think still is an undertakers across the road from the church.
 
Thank's Wendy. I assume you mean Hazel & Sons? We've tried there and sadly they have not been able to help us.
 
My Father's Mother was known to do this task in the area where she lived. She was an official midwife for a while before the
government made specific rules about training midwives. It seems from this write-up that before the Government made rules about laying out the dead
that there was a local person, usually a women or midwife that carried out this task and she would have been known to local people. St. Barnabas would have
a note of your Great Grandmother as being available to do this task locally. https://books.google.ca/books?id=3UK9sicxeh0C&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=Laying+out+dead+and+body+washing+in+Britain&source=bl&ots=BGhsh7fb8e&sig=IBPBtXc79KWs6L4jsAX0CJr14f8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pFt4T_2fA8_UiAK2vtCnDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Laying out dead and body washing in Britain&f=false
 
That's really interesting Jennyann. Many Thank's.
Perhaps I need to delv into the church records a little more.

Chocks
 
That's interesting Chocks... are you referring to the church records for St Barnabas ? I thought they had been destroyed!
 
Hi 22f001: Birmingham Library holds records for Churches listed on this site: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/archivesandheritage
There is a PDF File on the title page of this site which contains details of the Church records of Birmingham Churches held at the Birmingham Library.
St. Barnabas, Erdington is listed there.
 
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hi wendy and chocks
many thanks for informing us of the registers and of the archives of st barnies ;
i will se about enrolling and on the subject yes there is a under takers across the rd they have been there many years
and my great grand father and mother are burried in st barnies grt father in 1935 and grt grand mother 1946
and i was happy to learn thar the water board company can be accessed in the archives as that would be of grt intrest to me
have a nice dat best wishes astonian;;
 
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