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Grosvenor Rd Maternity Home, Handsworth

KellanJ

New Member
Hi,
I just found out that my Nan was born in Grosvenor Road Maternity Home in Handsworth. Has anyone ever heard of it before or know anything about it?
I only knew of the Heathfield Rd Maternity hospital before, in Handsworth......
Thank you!
 
We moved to 17, Grosvenor Rd in 1950. The maternity home was on the same side of the road a couple of hundred yards down. A white building built in Victorian times, vague impression of a couple of trees in front, looking a bit in need of paint after the war ,I think it had a flat roof, and might have been about the size of two pairs of semi-detached houses, but I did not take a lot of notice, aged 11! Later demolished and redeveloped.( The Record Office might have something of it's history?) At that time it was reckoned to need 8 nurses to staff a ward , but these might not all have been qualified nurse/ midwives, particularly if it was a privately run home, or a home for unmarried mothers. Disposable needles were yet to be made, so a lot of equipment was still boiled up to sterilise. Judging from experience in 1960 in Moseley, may not have had a lift, newly delivered mothers may have had to be carried up stairs on a canvas trolley cover. Mothers kept in for about a week, unmarried mothers longer to establish feeding, post-natal care etc
 
paulboyle290, Welcome to the forum, I have never come across a picture yet, be interested if anyone else has.

Colin
 
Hi,
I just found out that my Nan was born in Grosvenor Road Maternity Home in Handsworth. Has anyone ever heard of it before or know anything about it?
I only knew of the Heathfield Rd Maternity hospital before, in Handsworth......
Thank you!
Yes I heard that too, a lady who works for h/worth history society was born there, my family lived there from1959-1972 when it was demolished.
 
We moved to 17, Grosvenor Rd in 1950. The maternity home was on the same side of the road a couple of hundred yards down. A white building built in Victorian times, vague impression of a couple of trees in front, looking a bit in need of paint after the war ,I think it had a flat roof, and might have been about the size of two pairs of semi-detached houses, but I did not take a lot of notice, aged 11! Later demolished and redeveloped.( The Record Office might have something of it's history?) At that time it was reckoned to need 8 nurses to staff a ward , but these might not all have been qualified nurse/ midwives, particularly if it was a privately run home, or a home for unmarried mothers. Disposable needles were yet to be made, so a lot of equipment was still boiled up to sterilise. Judging from experience in 1960 in Moseley, may not have had a lift, newly delivered mothers may have had to be carried up stairs on a canvas trolley cover. Mothers kept in for about a week, unmarried mothers longer to establish feeding, post-natal care etc
Yes my family lived there 1959-1972, it did have trees in the front and an orchard at the back, lovely place to grow up in-fond memories.
 
Hi,
I just found out that my Nan was born in Grosvenor Road Maternity Home in Handsworth. Has anyone ever heard of it before or know anything about it?
I only knew of the Heathfield Rd Maternity hospital before, in Handsworth......
Thank you!
I used to live in that house, and that is was a hospital at one time, one of the historians at Slack house was born there, thats all I know.
 
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