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Marston Green Hospital

loisand

master brummie
Can anyone shed light on what Marston Green Hospital was in the 1950's, was it a maternity hospital, was it somewhere for unmarried mothers to be. Why would someone be born there when their residence was in the Hockley area of the city???
 
Marston Green Hospital from WWI has been used as a military hospital, maternity hospital
not sure if its the same place but listed in 1949 Marston Green (Mental D)
My brothers first child was born at Marston Green  Mat.Hos. in the 60's and he lived at Frankley Beeches
Northfield
 
I lived there in the 60s and it was a maternity Hospital. Last thing I remember doing was watching our local Cricket team play a evening match before I left, at that Hospital :)
 
I gave birth to my son at Marston Green Maternity Hospital in 1959, at the time I booked in I lived in Small Heath, but had moved back to Aston by the time he was born. It was a prefabricated hospital which I believe was built or used by the Canadian forces during WW2, and then turned into a hospital. No doubt if my facts are muddled someone will correct me. Its patients were the general public, not for unmarried mothers per se.
 
Cromwell adjacent to Marston Green Maternity Hospital, was Chelmsley Hospital which cared for the mentally ill, this was a large brick built Victorian type institution.
 
I do believe that this was knocked down and is now an housing estate but someone wanted to now where the memorial plaque went to for the soldiers who were patients in the hospital in WW1 went to.
Might be a bit of subject but can someone tell me if Marston Green hospital and Chelmsley Hospital were in the same grounds ?
 
Cromwell I'm pretty sure they were, you could certainly see Chelmsley Hospital from Marston Green Maternity Hospital, but of course there was a lot of security fencing between the two, although I have a recollection children were treated/cared for at Chelmsley Hospital. I don't know anything about the memorial, would it be worth contacting the Health Authority for the area.
 
Sylvia
I had it in good faith (I was told) last year that when the buildings were demolished that a plaque
would be put at the entrance of the new estate as the WFA is trying to get a national register of all the memorials in Engand listed and recorded  so data bases can then be searched.
 
Maple Leafs History is brought to you by our secondary sponsor Interior Love

MAPLE LEAFS ORGANISATION HISTORY

The Beginnings Of Birmingham Baseball

Much like many Major League teams of the United States the Maple Leafs and its organisation are blessed with a rich and engaging history.
Unsurprisingly the teams players and organisers pride themselves in knowing the part they play in a continuing legacy that dates back over sixty baseball years makes them virtually unique in UK amateur baseball.
The first era of Marston Green baseball history began in the World War II summer of 1940, when the British government sequestered many hospitals around the country for the purpose of providing commonwealth allies with suitable facilities to care for there war casualties. Marston Green's Hospital was one such hospital allocated to the allies. More Specifically the Royal Canadian Medical Corp. The Corp occupied Marston Green Hospital for a five-year period, and in that time Canadian casualties were frequently transferred for medical attention to hospital #7, as it was then known. During their convalescence the patients frequently participated in recreational activities on the hospital grounds, which are now known as Marston Green Recreation Ground. The main activity for the Canadian casualties was obviously baseball, as ice hockey rinks were not widely available in wartime Marston Green. Due to this lack of ice the Maple Leafs legacy was born and the bats were swung with regularity throughout the war on the make shift diamond that was marked out by the Canadian servicemen. Once the war was won and the surviving servicemen made their long journey home, the diamond lay dormant until the new millennium. Overgrown but still clearly visible the diamond was reawakened in 2003 by a baseball enthusiast who was totally enthralled by the grounds enchanting history. 63 years after the first bat was swung the second era of Marston Green baseball History began, with the help of one baseball enthusiast who set out on a quest to rekindle the flame of the grounds former glories.
 
“Ivy Cottage”, Marston Green

Warwickshire VAD 54. It opened on 6 September 1915 and was attached to the 2nd Birmingham War Hospital.
 
The Marston Green Cottage Homes were erected in 1878-9 to provide accommodation for pauper children aged from three upwards. The Marston Green site was one the earliest such developments to be organised as a "village" located away from the workhouse in an airy rural setting. The original scheme, which opened in January 1880, included seven homes for boys and seven for girls, together with a probationary home, school, infirmary, swimming baths, workshops, bakehouse, a superintendent's house and offices. A farm was built to the south of the homes.
 
sylviasayers said:
Cromwell adjacent to Marston Green Maternity Hospital, was Chelmsley Hospital which cared for the mentally ill, this was a large brick built Victorian type institution.



Just as you discribed it Sylvia :)
 
Our daughter was born at Marston Green hospital in 1962. We were living in Birchfields, which is between Witton and Perry Barr. It was bit of a treck to the hospital, and my doctor tried to get me a bed in  Heathfield  Road, but home births were very much the vogue in those days, and I was refused a hospital bed anywhere at first. Marston Green was a port in a storm for me.

It was a series of nissen huts, built around a centre circle. They were certainly there in WW2 as Sylvia said. It was light and airy in the wards, there was a large door at the end of each ward, and when sister, who was unpopular with staff and patients, was off, we mums would get the nurses to open it for us, and we would stand in the sun. :)
 
My second son, who was born in Litchfield, was taken to Marston Green Prem unit,on the day he was

born as he was only 4lbs 2ozs.


I didn't see him again until 10 days later, when I was discharged.

He didn't look like the baby I had given birth to, he was so scrawny!!

I remember that the babies were in seperate rooms that looked out onto a corridor.

It was scary seeing all those scraps of human beings.

My baby was allowed home after two months then I could hold him!!

In those days you were not allowed to even touch them or go into the room!!! :'(
 
If I remember correctly when I was pregnant your doctor had to register the pregnancy with the "bed bureau" and you were allocated a place with a hospital which had vacancies for the expected birth date.

I was allocated to Marston Green and for the ante natal checks a special bus picked up the mums to be at various points. I used to get it at the Tivoli in Yardley, and the it went round Sheldon and other places and then through Chelmsley Wood which was still woods in 1958/59. Not many people had cars then and it really seemed like the back of beyond to us, and when the fathers came to visit. No fathers present at the births then, and strict visiting times, with the absolute maximum of two visitors, and that I think was at the ward sisters discretion.
 
Was it still Midland Red Buses Sylvia :) I seem to remeber them then
 
We did have a car Sylvia, but when I went for antinatal checks Brian was working and I hadn't learned to drive then, so I used to get a bus into town, and then another which went close to Marston Green, and then I waited for a mini bus to pick me up. It was a lovely summer that year, I had a two year old who had to come with me, so the journeys were a nightmare in the heat.

I don't remember the bed allocation, but a home midwife came to the house to visit me, and was very put out that I didn't want the baby at home. She was quite miffed, and I reckon that is how I finally got a bed. I was very happy to go to Marston Green, because my doctor was pregnant at the same time as me, and she was going to have her baby there. If it was good enough for her............... :)
 
Both the Marston Green maternity hospital and Chelmsley hospital have dissappeared,a few of the old 'Houses' have been kept to provide homes for residents who are not able to live in the community.
Both sites now are given over to new houses and one of the new roads is Maple Leaf Drive.
 
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