Colinswood, Farnham Common ? maternity home

[Opal]

On a birth certificate for March 1961 the 'where born' states 'Colinswood Farnham Common Farnham Royal'.  I have searched to see what this place was but to no avail.  The child born was adopted and it is possible it was a mother and baby home.  Can anyone help? thankyou.

[rosie99]

A little bit of info 

http://www.rootschat.com/links/0suj/


http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1953/dec/10/colinswood-maternity-home-slough

[Marie Baker]

Collinswood was indeed a Maternity home just outside Farnham common. My brother was born there in 1948,at that time it had just been taken over by the National Health service,having been private up till then.

[Opal]

Thankyou, that does help to explain further as the child was born some distance from the birth mother's place of abode, in the sense of it being a mother and baby home.

[HGUOLS]

I recently was assisted in my quest for more information about Colinswood by Lisa Edwards, the Senior Archives & Local Studies Assistant at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies. She was able to provide the following:

"The Colinswood maternity home in Farnham Common was originally the Colinswood Hotel. The maternity home opened in October 1942 and was run by Buckinghamshire County council, it had 22 beds. It was one of three maternity homes in the Slough area."

"We have a couple of newspaper cuttings concerning the maternity home including one which stated that the 1,000th baby was due to be born there in May 1946. The other [published March 19, 1954] relates to a new matron [Sister Phyllis Sybil Roorby] being employed [effective April 1, 1954 to replace Matron A.M. Allardyce who resigned]. I have checked the telephone directories and the last time Colinswood Maternity Home is listed is in 1969."

The news clippings Ms. Edwards provided are from the Slough Observer newspaper. If I can get permission from them, or the current owner, I will post a scan of the clippings.

The article about the new matron makes reference to a "Save Collinswood" movement spearheaded by a Leonora Short, as there was consideration at the time in 1954 to closing the facility. I notice that even back then the spelling of Colinswood varied. The newspaper used only one 'l' throughout the story yet Ms. Short's group was named with two. This could simply be sloppy editing work.

[Opal]

Thank you for your reply and the information re the home - it all helps to build a picture!

[babylib]

I was born at Colinswood Maternity Home in 1946.  The nurse who delivered me was Nurse Finn.  My mother lived at Taplow and I suppose this was the nearest Nursing Home.  My mother stayed there for 2 weeks and was very upset because I cried so much they put me in the attic so as not to disturb the other babies!

[Opal]

I am glad that my query/post reminded you of your first few days!  and welcome to RootsChat.

[Gooda]

I was born there in 1945 my mother was in the ATS at that time and my father was abroad with the Army