Oaklands Bishop Auckland

[Samantha Pratt]

I have a birth certificate of an aunt born here in April 1947, was it just an ordinary hospital then?

Just wondering why she was born there when the address given for parents is 263 High street, Easington Lane, Hetton Le Hole, Durham. Would this be the right place to give birth from that home address in that time period? Place doesn't seem to be very near to the address is all.

[AlanBoyd]

Is it possible that your aunt's family came from Bishop Auckland and had gone back there for the birth? Most births were at home at that time I believe, but maybe there was an emergency.

Apparently Oaklands Hospital is on the site of the former workhouse. According to this site:

https://workhouses.org.uk/Auckland/

[Auckland workhouse] later became Oaklands Poor Law Institution. During the First World War it provided beds for sick and wounded military personnel. This happened again during World War 2, and in 1942 the hospital was renamed the Bishop Auckland Emergency Hospital. From 1944 to 1947 it accommodated German prisoners of war.

So possibly not the most obvious choice for a delivery? Although I imagine that it wasn’t exclusively for prisoners of war.

[Samantha Pratt]

Hi Alan,

I read that too and that's why I was curios.

From what I've found the family were mostly around Easington Lane. I've several addresses for them in the same place just different numbers. The address where the mother(my maternal grandmother) was born is 203 High street, Easington Lane, Hetton-Le-Hole for example.

My maternal grandmother's earlier life is a mystery. This particular child seems to have been adopted. I feel like with every answer found it raises more questions.

[AlanBoyd]

How do you know where they were living in 1947?

[Samantha Pratt]

I have the birth certificate for the child born in 1947 and it gives the parents address under both no.6 'occupation of father' and no.7 'signature, description and residence of informant' which states the informant is the mother and gives an address. The address matches that of the father's.

An aside, if the NHS didn't come in until 1948 how would someone afford to pay for the hospital birth in 1947?

[AlanBoyd]

Yes, sorry, the birth certificate of course.

I’m not sure what the situation was with medical emergencies pre-NHS.

[Ruskie]

This gives some details about the various functions of the hospital through the years:
https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Auckland/

With mention of workhouse and poor laws, payment was probably not required.

[Samantha Pratt]

Hi Ruskie, I read that earlier.

I was wondering if it was still a poorhouse in 1947 and whether that just provided a place to give birth as in a hospital opposed to an instituation type place. I guess I need to research why she might have been in the hospital for that one and not the others. Although in all honesty I don't know where my mam was born in 1950.

[AlanBoyd]

I've gone through the available 20th century maps at the National Library of Scotland and listed below the labels on the Oaklands site. However I imagine that these could be out-of-date by the time the maps were published.

OS 6" map (Special Emergency Revision) Revised: 1915. Selected Revision:1938 (houses and roads). Printed: 1939
Auckland Union Workhouse (this is also the label on earlier 20th century maps)

OS 25" map revised 1939, published 1947
Oaklands Poor Law Insitution (Durham County Council)

OS 6" Revised: 1938 to 1939. Published: 1951
P.A. Instn.

OS 1:10,000 Surveyed/Revised: 1940 to 1953. Published 1954
General Hospital

OS 1:10,000 Surveyed/Revised: 1961 to 1964. Published 1967
The General Hospital