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Marston Green Hospital

Canadian Hospital

I've just been looking through all the books (online) at Central Library...this one may be of interest to some people
"Canadian General Hospital by Ralph Kimmerley & Earl Hamm"...can be found on the 6th floor, cannot be loaned out, shelf location is LF75.8KIM
 
I found this website whilst researching MGH. This is the info that I found - hope it helps and please forgive any inaccuracies. The hospital was erected as a hutted building in 1938 & functioned as a 700 bedded hospital during the 2nd World War. It was known as the 19th Canadian General Hospital. When it ceased to be used by the Canadians it became the Marston Green Maternity Hospital and Hospital for Women in 1948 - one of the first to be opened under the newly intorduced National Health Service. The Midwifery Training School began in June 1950. In 1966 the hospital was recorded in the Guiness book of records as the largest maternity unit in the UK.
In 1974 with the reorganisation of the NHS the Midwifery Training school became the Solihull Area Authority Midwifery Training School. I believe it was in Berwicks Lane.
I don't have a photo of the hospital but do own a rare MGH qualified midwife badge which I'll try and upload. If anyone is interested I do have the history behind its design
 
Quite right Sue, Berwicks Lane we use to play Cricket there in the 1960s when I lived in Marston Green

You can also get to it from Coleshill Road:)
 
I thought it had always been a maternity hospital, thanks for letting us know the history of it.
 
ah that elusive photo - yes I'm still trying to get one as well. I have photos/prints of some other brummie hospitals but not this one. I was far too young to take photos of the only time I was there - thats my birthday and i was born there. Apparently it snowed and my dad missed the bus!! Since then I've always hated snow and early mornings!!! The only thing i have is the rare badge and I've put a photo of it on an earlier message.
Does any one know if the Sorrento maty hospital is still there or is it now a branch of tescos or luxury flats????
 
Sue, sorry to tell you but Sorrento closed in 1993 and is now housing.
If you enter Sorrento in the search box on the tool bar above, you will find a number of posts regarding it on this forum


Colin
 
It seems as if most of our hospitals are turning into shops, hotels or homes. I wonder what William Adams would have made of it all?? He's the guy who donated his private home to become a hospital. Yet another hospital steeped in history and "firsts" that has disappeared. Its not unique to B/ham -its happening all over the country tune into the derelict sites website for other examples.
 
Best I can do for a picture of MGH


Colin
 

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I remember going to Marston Green to collect my Sister in Law when she had my neice there. The hospital were like a long line of huts.
 
I was a teenager Alf and it reminded me of a holiday camp.....sorry if I have upset anyone but thats my memory. I love my sister in law and my neice who is about 37 now.
 
Yes they were like nissen huts Alfie, :) I recall them as being in a circle, am I right girls or is it another senior moment.

It was a very good hospital, and as was the order of things in those long gone days beautifully CLEAN.
 
you're both right - they were known as hutted buildings and used by the Canadian military
 
My middle son was taken to Marston Green from Lichfield St Michael's where he was born.
It was 10 days before I saw him again and could only veiw him through a window!!

I remember walking along the corridor that was open one side to the elements and all the babies were on veiw on the other side behind big windows. Rather like a cattery or dog kennels!!!!:rolleyes:

But the treatment was terrific and dispite my not reconising the little mite that left me at a few hours old (I had to stay at Lichfield for 10 days and didn't see him for 11 days and he looked like a skinned rabbit!!) I had to wait for another 3 weeks before I was allowed to hold him, very strict in those days.

But I do remember the huts that were rather basic and a little barren.

The staff were marvalous and understood the parents dispair and fear.
 
I had my 3 children at Marston green my last one was one of the last to be born there. I remember it having very long corridors and big windows that would look out at the grounds you could also register the birth of your children there.
The one thing I remember are the big old fashioned radiators that would clank all night.
It was a very freindly place staff and doctors were great it was the worse thing they did to close it down.
Now we would have to put up with Heartlands not big enough and under staffed.
My daughter went into Labour early and was sent to shrewsburry hospital to have my grand daughter. What a blessing it was like being back in Marston Green.

Wend
 
The photo that Colin posted was of the Chelmsley hospital main gates,the building to the left of the photo was the administration office.

I spent many happy hours in there in the 70s,I volunteered with the friends of Chelmsley hospital and I was assigned to insure that every resident had a birthday card.,I also worked with an art group which was very satifying.

My son was a nurse there and he encouraged me to volunteer and I can remember very clearly my first day,I was completely overwhelmed.
The residents,they were called kids then but it is now nonPC,were mostly very badly mentally and physically disabled,I went home that day and sobbed my heart out.
I went back the next day and loved it from that moment.

My husband,now ex, was a bus driver and in 1981 ,which was the international year of the Disabled, his bus depot decided to donate a bus and driver every week to help us get the residents out and about.
We took a House(ward) of residents and nurses at a time all through the summer.Many bus drivers came along with their families also.
We went to Billing Aquadrome and Drayton Manor,we met with many stares but on the whole people were lovely
As the years went by and my health failed a bit I gave up my volunteer work.By this time less youngsters with these disabilities were being born because of the prenatal testing and those that were had more help and stayed as part of their family,just as it should be.
Most of the hospital then became redundant and that which was left was redeveloped into large houses so that the remaining residents got away from being institutionalised.


The Marston Green maternity hospital wasn't half as grand architecturally as Chelmsley in fact it all looked like Nissen huts.
I never gave birth there but had an operation in 1978 and the staff were marvellous even if the building was a dated.
 
I did my work experiance at Chelmsley Hospital in the old peoples section I remember a very quite old Lady who did not seem to have any disabilites and after a few weeks I asked the nurse why she was there I was told that when she was a young girl she became pregant and was not married her family had her sectioned and had forgot about her. They did not send back into the community because they were worried that she would not be able to look after herself she had became instiutionized.
I fell in love with this Lady and became her friend when I finished my work expireance I asked if I could contiue visiting her and they said yes I would pop in every evening on my way home from school to see her it was a very sad day when she died.
I founf it very hard to think that a family could have treated a child so badly. Hwever as I have grown older I learned that their were lots of cases like this.

Wendy
 
My memories of Marston Green Maternity hospital are that it was built by Canadian Soldiers circa 1940, the timber sections were shipped from Canada and erected at Marston Green, they had a covered walkway by the side of the wards which were named after trees for example Rowan etc, in WW2 the military patients wore a blue jacket & trousers, wih a red tie on their shirt a lot of them visited The Swan pub at Yardley the Army ruled that Civilians must not buy them lots of drink as they were having medical treatment, the site is now a housing estate, i think there is a sign telling that it was the site of a Canadian hospital, Marston Green Mental hospital was not on the same site.
 
hi all
i was born in marston green in 1954 and my mom lived in camp hill by the blues ground! my sister was also born there in 1959 and we lived in winson green then! i do vaguely remember goin to ante natal with her and i had to sit outside the door, cos kids were not allowed in there.
i had my daughter there in 1975 it was dece mber and they wrapped me in blankets to take me to the labour ward!
 
A small bus was used to go round the outlying districts to pick up the pregnant Moms and take them to Marston Green Maternity Hospital. My Mother travelled to the No.14 terminus at Tile Cross in 1954 when she was expecting my youngest brother. The bus was known locally as the 'Blunder Bus'. It was right out in the country and not many people had cars in those days.
 
kmt123, No problem, no need to say sorry, you can find threads on what you are interested in by the search option i do it myself, the forum members have lots of answers in their memories, good luck in your posts, Len.
 
I worked at Marston Green Hospital between 1977 to 1986 in the Estates Department. I have photographs within this period if anyone is interested.
 
DITTO THAT TOO,

Would love a picture, to insert into my family tree as this is where our two sons were born in 1971 & 2

Thanks Degsy
 
Post your photos Degsy, all that is left is a plaque saying the hospital was there. Len.
 
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