During the period 1925-1930, the Tunbridge Wells & Neighbourhood Maternity Hospital was located at 46 & 48 Upper Grosvenor Road. The matron was Miss Harvey. I have been unable to locate any records for the home, I think they have been lost, but would welcome any information about this specific period, especially records or recollections, other than what I have been able to glean from a published document in The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, a few short extracts of which are below:
The Maternity Home as a Health Asset, by F. CHURCHILL LINTON, M.A., M.B., D.P.H., Medical Officer of Health, Tunbridge Wells.
(Being a paper read at the Tunbridge Wells Sessional Meeting, 2nd May, I930.)
… This home is not a municipal home, but is run on voluntary lines, by a committee of ladies who, with the approval and support of the local authorities of the Borough, and of the County Councils of Kent and of East Sussex, from whose areas the patients come, administer the home, raise the money required apart from grants-in-aid and patients’ fees, and generally run its business, displaying an admirable public spirit of help for others and deriving much unselfish pleasure from noting the success with which their efforts are rewarded. The home has ten beds and is staffed by a matron and sister, each possessed of general nursing training as well as the C.M.B. certificate, also one other certificated midwife, and generally three probationer nurses; it consists of two semi-detached four- storied houses, the lowest floor being semi-basement. It runs its own laundry in the basement-a daily laundress being employed-as there is insufficient accommodation for a full domestic staff on the premises; the domestic staff numbers three. The two houses have been thrown into one, communicating doors being opened in the party-wall on each floor and other partitions removed, so as to make the best use of the premises.
… The home was formally opened in May, 1925, by Mrs. Neville Chamberlain, wife of the Minister for Health of that date. From May to December, 1925, 38 confinements took place in it. During 1926, the number was 127. During 1927, 146. During 1928, 151. During 1929, 168. January-April, 1930, 62. Totalling 692 in 5 years.
… A movement was set on foot to raise funds for the purchase of larger and more suitable premises. These were obtained at Nos. 10 and 12, Calverley Park Gardens - an ideal site. These premises were taken over some time ago, and plans for alterations and estimates of expenses obtained; but the change-over has come at an unfortunate time, as the giving of grants-in-aid was on the point of being transferred from the Ministry of Health to the County Councils, under the terms of the Local Government Act, 1929. This transference took effect on 1st April, 1930, and we await the decisions of the County Councils of Kent and East Sussex, before so much as a plank is lifted or a paint-pot installed.
