Simpson Hill, Bury

[Jackie S]

Hiya sheila, I am not able to see your email address so I have sent a friend request on FB but don't know if it is you. Tried to send a personal message but it said it couldn't find you. Jackie x

[Jackie S]

Hi DAve, was looking through your post and was glad to see you are able to get in touch with the present owners. I was in St Anne's Mother and Baby Home in 1966 and would love to go back to have a look at the old house. Do you think the owner would let me have a look round for old time sake ? I know it is a lot to ask but as I get older it somehow seems more important. I had twin boys at the time who where adopted. Thanks, Jackie.

[Cra3ycarol]

Hi sorry this is first time ive been on here so not sure what im doing.
I saw what people were say about st Annes maternity unit in Heywood.
53 years ago today i was born there, it was a place for young unmarried mothers had to go when they had to give there babies up for adoption.
My parents were both only 16 at the time, funny thing is i found them a couple of years ago theyve been together ever since they had me.

[CornishKungka]

Thank you to everybody who has been asking about Simpson Hill. My auntie was born there in 1922. My grandmother was unmarried at the time. She was able to take her daughter home, where she was looked after by the family until she was around two years old. But due to family tragedies they were unable to look after her any longer and she was put into an orphanage. She was never seen or heard of again until 1986 when my mother (also illegitimate, born in 1929 at 123 Crescent Road, Crumpsall, a similar institution) found her. My mother had been fostered out, but kept in touch with my grandmother. They met for the first time in 1986 and were sisters together until 1989 when my auntie died. The stigma attached to unwed mothers was so great that it forced my grandmother to abandon two beautiful daughters and never tell either of them that the other existed. The entire family colluded with these secrets, such was the social stigma at the time. It was only in 2010 that I have been able to pull the facts together, thanks to excellent sites such as Roots Chat.com

[silver2142]

Hi, after my mother died in Dec 2009, my brothers and sisters and I found evidence that she had given birth to a son in April 1942, before she was married, when she was just 17. She stayed in St Anne's Maternity Home in Simpson Hill, Heywood, Lancs, until he was christened. We understand that the baby was then adopted, but have no further details to follow up, apart from his date of birth and christened name, and we have managed to obtain a copy of his birth certificate from Somerset House. We just want to know if went on to have a happy life with a family, and if he is still alive - we don't need contact if this is not wanted. We were told that all adoption records for the time were destroyed in a fire. Does anyone know if this was really the case, or if there could be any other documentation sitting anywhere? It is so sad that she never managed to tell us about him, and yet left his Christening certificate in a prominent place for us to find after she had died.

[Jo Dunn]

My birth mother was at St Anne's Mother and Baby home at the end of 1973 beginning of 1974.  I would love to talk to any body who was there around that time.  I'm hoping to get a better understanding of what it was like and what she went through.

[Ronin1077]

Hello!
I hope this is of some assistance to other members and, maybe, responses will also help me in my research.
My father was born at Simpson Hill in August 1921. He was born 'out of wedlock' as it was then known, his mother lived in Moston, Manchester. She was of Catholic upbringing, though whether this is relevant, I am not yet sure. However, it seems in those days it was considered appropriate for single Mum's to 'go away' for a period, and come back with a child? At least that is what happened in my fathers' case. My father's Dad isn't named on the birth-certificate yet my father believes his Dad was unable to marry his Mum because he died from wounds inflicted in WW1 before they could wed.
As mentioned above, I hope this is helpful to other members, and maybe you can help me too with more information!

[LouRoth80]

Hi all,

I hope you are all keeping well and safe through this nightmare of a time.

I can see this thread is relatively old so not sure if anyone will see this, but just wondered how you have progressed with your search? Have you managed to find out any further info? It's heart breaking to hear some of the stories of separation and the obvious trauma its caused you and your families.

I'm from Heywood, my Grandma lived on Chadwick Lane, right near where the mother and baby home was. My Mum and aunties remember it well. I started researching the Ireland mother and baby homes originally and even more so since January with the heightened media attention around the latest commission report. I then started looking into the England mother and baby homes, there doesn't seem to be much in the media or any pressure for apology or acknowledgement from the government or church as there is going on in Ireland. Confusing and annoying ... on-going with my research in this area ... lockdown and the libraries etc being shut isn't helping.

It surprised me even more when I started learning figures. So in Ireland there was around 18 mother and baby homes, with around 56,000 women being sent through them whilst they were open and obviously many more babies (and this is just the ones recorded). In ENGLAND I have learnt there were approx 172 mother and baby homes with over half a million women being put through them!! What's more unsettling is that even though there is a huge presence at the moment regarding the Ireland mother and baby homes, why is there a lack of acknowledgement over here? Australia have also made apologies for their part in it all and are helping to connect people who were separated when they were sent over there as babies. Apparently it was part of a deal with our government. Australia's foreign population was growing and they wanted good British 'stock' brought back into their population which is where England's adopted babies came in. Disgusting isn't it! This is just the tip of the Iceberg.

I would be really interested to hear from anyone who would like to talk about if you have got any further in your search for birth parents or adopted children, have you found them? I would like to try to help if I can.

I have looked at various old newspaper articles and annual committee reports from Simpson Hill too, seems like they made a good profit from the mother and baby homes. Their 2 main incomes from 'government grants' and 'patient contributions', as well as donations from local events etc.

Thank you.

Louise Rothwell

[Maiden Stone]

It surprised me even more when I started learning figures. So in Ireland there was around 18 mother and baby homes, with around 56,000 women being sent through them whilst they were open and obviously many more babies (and this is just the ones recorded). In ENGLAND I have learnt there were approx 172 mother and baby homes with over half a million women being put through them!!

Those figures seem about right, taking into account the huge difference in populations of Ireland and England.
What time period for those statistics? There were peaks in the birth rate in England after both world wars and again in 1960s. Half a million is a big number but is a percentage of many millions.

I've recently been reading annual reports of a chief medical officer from 1890s-1973 for an urban district council which became part of Bury district in 1974. He drew the health committee's attention one year to the high death rate of babies born to single mothers compared with babies born to married women. He said that those babies were of equal value to babies born to married couples and he hoped the committee would consider how outcomes for them could be improved. I can't remember which year the CMO made that comment; I think it was mid 20th century.

As family historians we've encountered illegitimacy in our ancestors and learned how attitudes to unmarried mothers and their children changed over centuries, influenced by economic and social conditions of each era and by moral and religious outlook.

There is a private message option which new members can use after they have made 3 posts. Any personal or sensitive information and details about people who are or who may be alive should be communicated by private message.