St Mary's Hospital - Armley

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Fri 08 Jan, 2010 9:31 pm

I was born there, December 1970.I've posted about this elsewhere on here before - despite living within sight of Jimmy's the nice ambulance men had to take my somewhat anxious mum all the way to the other side of Leeds.I soon returned to East Leeds though and appear to have suffered no long term trauma as a result of my unplanned trip to West Leeds.

mellersfour · Post by **mellersfour** » Mon 01 Nov, 2010 11:34 pm

I was born at St Mary's in 1968 - my birth mother was housed in a local mother and baby home and I was later adopted. Would be interested to hear of similar stories.

Browney · Post by **Browney** » Thu 28 Apr, 2011 10:55 am

My mom, Grace, is now 83 and had 6 children, 3 girls and 3 boys. Four of her children (myself being one of them) were born between 1951 and 1956 at Saint Mary's Hospital in Armley. My parents left England in 1957, still in their twenties,with four children and settled in Africa. We grew up on my moms tales of her young happy life in Leeds. She tells us that she thought the hospital was lovely and remembers the cleaniness of the place. However there is one sad tale attached to it for her which as she has got older she talks about more often. On the night of December 31st 1953 she went into labour at full term (a long tale attached to this) with her 3rd child (a girl who she would have named Beverley). The baby was born on the 1st of January 1954 but was still born. She was told that two other babies were also born and died that day at the hospital??? She was never shown the baby (you weren't in those days). My late father took care of everything and my mother went home without her baby and life carried on. Does anyone know what would have happened to babies that died at full term back then? Where would the records be kept? I would dearly love to close this seemingly still open chapter in her life.

rammy · Post by **rammy** » Tue 13 Dec, 2011 3:53 pm

I was born there in 1967, then my parents moved to Halifax before moving to Scotland when i was a few months old. I have been to visit Leeds recently and am very interested in knowing a bit more about he hospital as i too have no memories from there

SandraB · Post by **SandraB** » Sat 31 Dec, 2011 10:35 am

Browney wrote: My mom, Grace, is now 83 and had 6 children, 3 girls and 3 boys. Four of her children (myself being one of them) were born between 1951 and 1956 at Saint Mary's Hospital in Armley. My parents left England in 1957, still in their twenties,with four children and settled in Africa. We grew up on my moms tales of her young happy life in Leeds. She tells us that she thought the hospital was lovely and remembers the cleaniness of the place. However there is one sad tale attached to it for her which as she has got older she talks about more often. On the night of December 31st 1953 she went into labour at full term (a long tale attached to this) with her 3rd child (a girl who she would have named Beverley). The baby was born on the 1st of January 1954 but was still born. She was told that two other babies were also born and died that day at the hospital??? She was never shown the baby (you weren't in those days). My late father took care of everything and my mother went home without her baby and life carried on. Does anyone know what would have happened to babies that died at full term back then? Where would the records be kept? I would dearly love to close this seemingly still open chapter in her life. Browney, I'm afraid I don't know what happened to stillborn babies at that time (thankfully things are much better now) but there are one or two links on this sitehttp://harrogatelinks.com/Leeds/Leeds_Links.htmlthat might help, I'd suggest starting with Yorkshire BMD in case both birth and death certificates were issued, Leeds City Council who would have issued any certificates, Yorkshire Roots and the Thoresby Society which have lots of records for the Leeds area. Good luck in your search.

shaunandelly · Post by **shaunandelly** » Sat 31 Dec, 2011 4:11 pm

I was born there in 1961

book · Post by **book** » Sun 01 Jan, 2012 8:40 pm

I was born there in 1959

emo · Post by **emo** » Thu 01 Mar, 2012 11:22 pm

stevief wrote: sri130 wrote: After a few people mentioned they were born there (on the Highroyds thread) I thought I should open up something for St Mary's.I worked there for about 5 years and still drop in, every now and again as part of my role in the health service in Leeds.One of the old workers in the child health department has done loads of reserach on the site and she has long since retired, but I'm attempting to help getting it recognised to the wider public, possibly starting on here.It was originally built as a workhouse for the poor, before being fitted as a maternity hospital - so I am lead to believe. I'm not sure there is anyone old enough to remember that far back! but the chimney stack in the centre car park is still standing from those days.Any memories? I'll post up some more, as soon as I can get it. St Marys Hospital chimney with my compliments.Note the white cross at the top. Hi All, I currently work at St Mary's (03/12) and just an update to say that the chimney was shortened in the past couple of years to approx 5ft above the bottom ledge on the chimmney base. Nice though to see the pic of the chimney in all it's former glory. Cheers.

Catgirl · Post by **Catgirl** » Fri 02 Mar, 2012 3:47 pm

St Mary's is apparently for sale.....

Alliw · Post by **Alliw** » Sat 30 Jun, 2012 11:54 pm

My mother in law now aged 85 had her first child at st marys hospital, unfortunatley her son was very poorly when born and the baby died hours later, she said she never saw the baby, her busband did and the hospital arranged a funeral within the grounds of the hospital. She told me she did not attend the funeral as she was so poorly but it would be interesting to know if they kept any record of where the children were burried, the baby was full term ans was born alive but died hours later. Does anybody know if there is a section within the hospital which is a cemetary? This happened in 1948.