Hi all,
My curiosity peaked I started to look at what else the newspaper archives might hold for 20 Laurel Road. I found an add from April 1914 under 'Apartments to be Let' which reads as follows:
Accouchement - Comfortable Home for lady, before and during: mod terms. Nurse Pierce, 20 Laurel Road, Fairfield, Liverpool.
Being unfamiliar with the term 'Accouchement' I looked it up and it is described variously on the internet, but basically ....“to be delivered of a child, to aid in delivery”.
So, it sounds like Nurse Pierce/Pearce rented out rooms for pregnant women to live before and up to the time they gave birth. I guess her other services went beyond if the woman was unable to keep the baby. Therefore, not a maternity home as such, but a midwife who rented out rooms and 'cared' for the expectant mothers and delivered their babies.
As a note: A woman called Kate Pearce can be found on the 1901 census living in Liverpool and working as a nurse at the David Lewis Northern Hospital, Islington, Liverpool. Described as single, age 32 (b. 1869) originally from Madley, Shropshire.
In 1911, a Kate Maria 'Pierce' is living at 15 Huntley Road, Fairfield, Liverpool. Occupation: Certified Midwife. Industry or service: Maternity Home. On own account. She says she is a widow and is enumerated as living with her 2 daughters, 2 sons, a male boarder, and 5 female boarders (one is 14 days old).
CD
