Regarding Bushey Maternity Hospital, Miss Anne Brown, of Vega Road, Bushey, recalls:

I WENT there to do my midwife training in 1946 and stayed there until it closed. I think it was bought in 1939 and opened in 1945. It had 50 beds and 45 cots. It closed in 1976. BUPA bought it and rebuilt a nursing home there instead.

There was never enough accommodation for the nurses so they bought Birchville Court, which is now a nursing home. That was bought in 1947 because the hospital hadn't enough room for the nurses to live in. I lived in Birchville Court. I think it's now a nursing home.

The nurses' home was requisitioned by the government. The woman got £7,000 for it. She wanted £12,000 and they gave her £7,000 and she went and bought a cottage in Regent's Park. She sold the chauffeur's cottage for £3,000. The woman that lived there is still alive mind you, she's had a stroke and she's living in Heath House.

I did my training at the hospital. I came from Liverpool and I did my training in Liverpool and I came there.

It used to have a greenhouse and chickens when I went there. It was entirely self-sufficient. The vegetables came from the garden. It was a Mr Hill who was the gardener. They had chickens as well. They had their own chicken run.

It had a huge house with two bedrooms and a Polish registrar living in it for a while. But before he came it was used by two doctors and the health registrar, and it had two secretaries in the office.

It was owned by Middlesex County Council. It caused a lot of controversy at the time because they didn't take patients from Hertfordshire.

It was built on to over the years. It had no clinic when I first went there. We used the congregational church hall in Bushey. The matron is now in New Zealand. We didn't even used to have a couch. We had a kitchen table. We were given a cup of tea by the health visitors. Edgware supplied the transport.

It really belonged to Edgware. When it was built it was owned by Middlesex County Council. I think it was bought as a nursing home and extended. We only took patients from Harrow and up as far as Dollis Hill. Eventually, they did take patients from Hertfordshire. I can't remember when that was. There were people who went up town to have their babies because they couldn't get into the hospital.

It closed in 1976 and then I went to Edgware for the last for year to get my pension.

The matron who went to New Zealand was in charge of the midwife training course in Edgware. When she retired she retired early and she had two sisters in New Zealand. She retired in 1955 and she went to New Zealand and she's been there ever since.

I was a midwife in training and I stayed on as a midwifery assistant and I was in charge of training at the end. I started at the bottom and I worked my way up.

October 19, 2001 12:07