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Chelmsley Hospital

Pat56

master brummie
Does anyone have pictures of this hospital?
Does anyone know if records exist anywhere of nursing staff from the 1940 period?

I am trying to trace the working life of my mother and would like to establish if she worked at Marston Green Hospital , Chelmsley Hospital or perhaps both (I believe they were next to each other). I have some evidence to suggest she was at MG and evidence that she did work with the mentally ill (the link with Chelmsley). I have read the long MG thread but cannot find anything similar on Chelmsley Hospital.

Any snippets of info welcome.

Thanks
 
Any 1940 records would still be subject to the 100 year rule - this means they would be considered closed and so not open for viewing. That said, I don't know if any records exist. Try National Archives
 
Chelmsley Hospital was formerly Coleshill Hall Mental Hospital and I am trying to find when the name changed. The records, those which exist, seem to be at Warwick Archives.
 
Chelmsley hospital and Coleshill Hall Mental Hospital were seperate institutions.
Chelmsley Hospital was in Marston Green . my son worked there in the 70s and I volunteered there.
Coleshill Hall Mental hospital was housed in Coleshill Hall which was housed in the Hall which is on the Birmingham Road, Coleshill and is now Coleshill Manor business complex.
Before Chelmsley became a mental hospital it was an orphanage.
it was Coleshill Cottage homes for pauper children, address Marston Green, Coleshill.
Houses are now built on the site.
Marston Green was built in 1940 as a Canadian hospital for Canadian serviceman.It became a Maternity hospital in 1948 and is now a housing estate.
 
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Thanks Alberta - when I did a search a history of workhouses suggested that Coleshill mental hospital site later became Chelmsley Hospital. Obviously that was an error.
 
Thank you both.

Alberta, I have noticed that you have chipped in with your info about Chelmsley Hospital in several threads, when doing so have you come across any additional detail about the hospital? I don't seem to be able find anything myself.
 
Copy of Nurse photo 3 (2).JPG
Alberta, do you recognise this building as part of CH?
I think the external stair/fire escape must be a bit of a give away!
 
Pat, I don't recognise that photo and I can't imagine it being part of CH because the hospital was made up of very large houses each given the name of a flower or plant.
None of the buildings were 4 floors high like the building in the photo.
Marston Green was made up of single storey prefabricated buildings.
 
Well that's intriguing!
I didn't think it was MG from the pictures I've seen on the MG thread and that's why I have been looking for pictures of Chelmsley Hospital. Must be somewhere else then!
If you get chance to look at my Marston Green Nurses thread there are a few more photos, buildings don't show so well, but having worked there something might stand out to you.
Was there nurses accommodation at hospitals back then and if so would it be shared by MG and CH seeing as they were next to each other?
 
I don't recall any accomodation at MG but Chelmsley had a small 2 storey block flats.
 
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Chelmsley Hospital. .......I remember going to this hospital. to fix a puncture, (not as a patient,) I got my tools out and started work on the car, when i finished the nurse said do you want a cuppa, so i went inside. when i come out, all my kit was on the floor behind the van. inside was a few patients, asking for a ride. they would not get out.they just sat there:) so I had to get help, to remove them.one said to me "can i have a book with telephone pics in it" I said i am not telecom.bless. then I left. from then 2 of us had to go there if needed again.
 
I don't recall any accomodation at MG but Chelmsley had a small 2 storey block flats.
There was accommodation at MG. There was a 2 storey block for nurses on days, one for nurses on nights, a doctors res, several flats above the staff canteen and a bungalow near to the gate on Berwicks Lane.
 
Pat, I don't recognise that photo and I can't imagine it being part of CH because the hospital was made up of very large houses each given the name of a flower or plant.
None of the buildings were 4 floors high like the building in the photo.
Marston Green was made up of single storey prefabricated buildings.
It’s the Nurses home
 
I've just signed up to add a tiny bit of more recent history about Chelmsley Hospital. It won't assist the original poster tracing records but I thought I'd add my recollection of the place for others who are interested.

From 1990 to 1997 I used to visit a house opposite the site once a week (for violin lessons). The site always looked reasonably well maintained and the architecture always caught my eye. There were always cars parked on the site and it was clearly in some sort of use.

In subsequent years, somewhere between 1997 and 2002 I was sent to partake in a health and safety/first aid course. I was amazed when I arrived to discover the location for the course was the Chelmsley Hospital site. The entire place was deserted and in a shocking state of disrepair. There was evidence of vandalism everywhere, broken windows, graffiti and some signs that people had tried to start fires. The building the course took place in was in slightly better condition but it was clear that the site was in a phase of neglect.

I drove past the location of the site last night, (September 2021) and indeed there is no trace of it whatsoever. There are some new houses there and a quick survey of Google satellite images shows not a single one of the original buildings is still there.

Upon reading about the site I too encountered what I believe may be some confusing information about remaining buildings. I think some historians have confused two similar sites as eluded to earlier in this thread but I can confirm there is nothing left of the site I understood to be Chelmsley Hospital.

I hope this information is of some interest to somebody, even though it doesn't provide any help to the original poster.
 
It is the nurses home at CH, I lived there in the 70,s
Fair play to you Melvin,
I worked at both Coleshill Hall and Chelmsley Hospitals. This picture looks like the view you would get at Chelmsley if you almost stood on the football pitch and looked up. It was literally behind the "Rec Hall". I worked on every one of the wards at both hospitals including the original Janet Shaw Secure Unit at Coleshill Hall. I eventually finished up on Almond Ward at Chelmsley.
 
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