Northumberland Archives

The Demise of Local Maternity Services in Northumberland: Part One

03/08/2024 by Northumberland Archives

This blog has been researched and written by Dee Love, one of the volunteers on our maternity care project. Project volunteers are researching maternity care in Northumberland with particular focus on Castle Hills Maternity Home, Berwick, and Mona Taylor Maternity Home, Stannington. The blog is based on wider research exploring maternity provision in Northumberland.

Until the establishment of the NHS in 1948 maternity care in Northumberland was provided by small, local units and when plans were announced in the 1960s to centralise maternity care in the new General Hospital in Ashington, the transition was not universally popular. Questions were asked in Parliament. There was an outcry in Blyth over the proposed closure of Beulah House. Northumberland County Council had been asked to take over the running of The Mona Taylor Unit until it’s closure and they complained bitterly that the Newcastle Regional Hospital Board did not communicate sufficiently with them.

However, in Ashington and the surrounding villages, where there was no local provision, the decision was whole heartedly welcomed. As far back as 1948 there were calls for a maternity unit in Ashington which would also benefit nearby villages such as Newbiggin and Lynemouth. The Morpeth Herald reported on 26 February 1948 that a 1000 signature petition had been raised in Ashington protesting that the town needed a maternity unit as the nearest facility was the Princess Mary Maternity Hospital in Jesmond, Newcastle.

A meeting held at the Park Modern School in Ashington, which had been sponsored by a branch of the Communist Party, was poorly attended and the Morpeth Herald quoted a Mrs. Charlton saying that the question had been mooted from time to time with no result. Mrs. Clay of Newbiggin, urged local women to demand this much needed service for the district. She quoted statistics from The Northern Area Medical Association to support the need for women in Newbiggin, Ashington, Linton, and Lynemouth areas to have a local Maternity facility. “Have we got to stand in the same position as regards the welfare of our women for years and years to come? I am not speaking as a Communist or a Socialist but as a Humanitarian who wished to see a Maternity Hospital where there is need.”

Mrs. Clay also criticized the cost of £3 for ambulances to take women to and from Newcastle. “We want the best care for expectant mothers. Now is the time when this new bill is going through the House of Commons, for the women of Ashington to press for a Maternity Home”. The meeting ended with a decision to ask the County Council to meet a deputation and in the meantime, efforts were being made to obtain more names on the petition. The women of Ashington were to wait another 19 years for a Maternity Unit which was part of the redeveloped General Hospital opened in 1967.

The Northumberland County Council Welfare Committee minutes (1962 -1965) record in letters dated April, May and June 1948 and June 1959 the long running discussions between the County Council and The Newcastle Regional Hospital Board about the management and future of the Mona Taylor Maternity Home at Stannington. Northumberland County Council had been asked to accept responsibility for the administration of Mona Taylor Maternity Home until the Wansbeck Hospital Management Committee was able to do so itself. The Management Committee had expressed their gratitude to the County Council and recognized that the assistance of the County Council had been needed for longer than they had originally anticipated.

In 1962 Wansbeck Hospital Management Committee indicated that it was ready to play a greater part in the administration of the Mona Taylor Maternity Hospital under its NHS obligations. The minutes record the following list of responsibilities that the Management Committee would take on going forward.

1. Wansbeck Hospital Management Committee would be the managing authority for the Mona Taylor Unit and would be entirely responsible for the care and welfare of the patients in the hospital.

2. They would also be responsible for the appointment of staff for the purposes of the Mona Taylor Unit and for the payment of salaries and wages and the implementation of recognized conditions of service.

3. Staff appointed by Wansbeck Hospital Management Committee would be directly responsible to the Wansbeck Hospital Management Committee.

4. Wansbeck Hospital Management Committee will set up a subcommittee to act on its behalf for the day to day domestic administration of the Mona Taylor Unit. The County Council could appoint a representative as a liaison between the two hospitals.

5. Northumberland County Council should continue to provide and maintain the following services for The Mona Taylor Unit and Thomas Taylor Homes. Payments will be at an agreed basis and arrangements are to be agreed between appropriate Officers of the Authority:

Cleaning
Lighting
Heating
Domestic hot and cold water
Laundry
Maintenance of buildings and grounds.

6. Wansbeck Hospital Management Committee and Newcastle Regional Board will consult with Northumberland County Council on any developments, improvements and adaptations to the hospital buildings which are proposed.

7. The effective dates of the new administration are to be arranged and mutually agreed.

8. £30,000 of alterations and improvements are planned.

In March 1960 the County Council were still struggling with communications with the Regional Hospital Board. There had been very little progress with discussions regarding the future of the building housing the Mona Taylor Unit. The Regional Hospital Board repeatedly told the County Council that it was not yet in a position to meet them. Finally, in the same month, the Regional Hospital Board was ordered to meet representatives of the council. The County Council sent a list of questions relating to the termination of the use of this accommodation to the Regional Hospital Board on 27 October 1960. Communications between the two committees was still painfully slow.

The Committee Minutes dated 2 November 1960 report a meeting took place at Walkergate Hospital on 27 October 1960 between the Regional Hospital Board and Northumberland County Council to discuss the future of the Mona Taylor Unit.

The Board’s representative outlined proposals to increase the number of maternity beds in the Wansbeck Group. At that time there were 13 in Beulah House, Blyth, and 26 in the Mona Taylor Unit. The proposal was to provide 45 more beds in 3-4 years with further additions within 7 years in Morpeth and Blyth. The Board considered it necessary to retain the use of the Mona Taylor Unit until such time as the beds in Ashington, Morpeth and Blyth had been provided in order to bring the number of beds in the Wansbeck Group to the percentage thought essential in a population of 150,000.

On 13 March the following year, Will Owen, the M.P. for Wansbeck, asked the Minister of Health in the House of Commons about the provision of a maternity unit in Wansbeck Hospital. Mr. Owen asked if the Minister would make a statement. He was told that the Regional Board had included a maternity unit in its plans for the next phase of development of Ashington Hospital. Mr. Owen “Yes, but as I am informed that plan was included in the Regional Hospital Board’s submission in 1954. At the moment, taking the available facilities, at the Mona Taylor Home and Beulah House, Blyth, over a period of 13 years, the additional facilities have been six beds. There is an urgent need again for some intensive development for this service in this area.”

The Welfare Committee minutes for January 1961 state that The Mona Taylor Unit will be returned to Northumberland County Council not later than 3 months after the new Maternity Unit is brought into use.

In Blyth similar concerns were being raised about the future of Beulah House and The Thomas Knight Memorial Hospital. In October 1962 at a meeting of The Blyth Hospital House Committee fears were expressed regarding a newspaper article which reported that there would be considerable changes to the functions of both Beulah House and Thomas Knight Memorial Hospital. The secretary of the Committee stated that these reports did not emanate from any official source and could, therefore be disregarded. The minutes also reported that the members of the House Committee who visited Ashington Hospital on Saturday 15 December reported an interesting and worthwhile tour.

In June 1972, the House Committee at Thomas Knight complained, as had the County Council, that the Hospital Management Board did not communicate with them or “take the House Committee into its confidences.” They recommended that planning for a small general hospital incorporating a maternity unit to replace the existing hospital was required. A statement in July 1972 from The Hospital Management Board said that the possible closure of Beulah House would be considered in the light of the service now being provided at Blyth and the available Obstetric services at Ashington Hospital.

Part two to follow……

BERWICK JOURNAL, 31ST JULY 1924

02/08/2024 by Northumberland Archives

NORHAM CASTLE HISTORY

At the annual summer outing of the Melrose Literary Society to Norham, the following paper on the position of Norham Castle in history and romance prepared by Mr J. E. Fairbairn was read in his absence by Mrs Drummond:-

The habit of this Society in selecting for its annual outing some place famous in literary annals has on this occasion again been amply justified and maintained, for today we meet mot only on the scene of one of the greatest and most stirring poems in the whole range of English literature, but on the banks of that river which had been such a fruitful source of inspiration for many a poet’s fancy. Throughout his life there was no river which appealed to Scott like the ever dear Tweed: he knew it in every aspect, it was his joy to ride its most dangerous fords, to light its dark waters at night with the flame of the salmon lusterer, or to dream beneath a tree above its flowing waters, and on that memorable afternoon to the music of its ripple he fell asleep. It was only natural therefore that he should have selected the castled steep of Norham, flanked by the fine sweep of the river as the scene of his fresh and galloping poem of Marmion. Did it ever occur to you how I each of his three best known poems Scott weaves his story round some hoary castle on a romantic river bank. In “The Day” it is Newark and Yarrow, in “Marmion” Norham and Tweed, and in the “Lady of the Lake” the final scene occurs in Stirling on the Forth. Most of “Marmion” was composed on horseback, and the cantos ring with the sound of hoof and the jingling of bridle and spur. The preparation for the writing of “Marmion” began with his childhood’s years round the old tower of Smailholm when the love of martial tales was so early implanted in his breast and never ceased to grow until it reached its full maturity. While Scott found the inspiration of the poem in the old story of the feuds between the two Kingdoms with all its accompanying throng of gallant knights and ladies fair, he wove into the still older tale of love between man and maid, and it contains also a fine outburst of enthusiasm for his native city of Dunedin.

Norham Castle on the Tweed. Ref: BRO 515/178

Norham, as you can see, has been something more than an ordinary Border peel tower, and in the height of its glory must have been a place of great dimensions. With its double moat and strong fortifications, it looks as if it would be almost impregnable against attack, while its high and massive walls, even in their decay, are grim and forbidding and suggest defiance to all. This great fortress, set down as it were to over awe a Kingdom, was begun by Ralph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, in 1121, and was completed about 1170 under the succeeding Bishop, Hugh Pudsey, reminding us that in these early days the ecclesiastics, while members of the Church militant, took part also in another form of warfare. Its purpose was to ward off the turbulent and aggressive Scot of the North and was the great Border fortress in charge of the warlike Bishop of Durham. The river in broad volume washes on two sides of the high rock on which it stood in all its grandeur. Within the inner wall stood the massive square keep or donjon of Flambard Pudsey’s days, originally 95 feet in height, and still as a ruin not much less. Norham was the last point to the north of the province of Northumberland, and it eyed the opposite heights of Ladykirk and the Scottish Border with perfectly equipped defiance, and commands even today a view of the distant Lammermuirs to the north, and the triple peaks of the Eildons to the west. Round it cluster important movements in English and Scottish history from the time of King John to James IV. At the head of the island in the river is the ford where James was nearly carried away, and where he made the vow that issued in the building of Ladykirk. The importance of Norham ceased with the union of the Crowns in 1603, when its last Governor, Sir Robert Cary, rode from London to Holyrood in two days to hail James VI. as Monarch of two Kingdoms. It still frowns across the Merse and carries us in thought back to the days of chivalry when the holding of its great sandstone keep was a gage of knightly honour.

Norham Castle, Harvest Time. Ref: BRO 515/179

Though day set long ago on the living glory of its castled steep the fame of the deeds done there in ancient days is not likely to be forgotten. Its walls still ooze history, and thanks to the genius of a master hand it rises again in all its ancient glory so that its denizens of former times become to us a living presence. Looking on its broken battlements as they yellow in the western blaze we are seeing it in that same golden glory under which Marmion sought its walls. In our mind’s eye we can still see that errant knight in all his panoply and pride come riding o’er the hill. We can still hear the steady tread of the warder on the turret high, and across the calm air of the evening there comes to us a snatch of that ancient Border gathering song. The form of the witching lady Ford still flits across the scene, bearing heavy on her soul the fate of Flodden Field, and with the wail for the Flowers o’ the Forest causing unrest to her spirit. The doughty King James, directing the destinies of battle looms large on Piper’s Hill, and under burden of a mental and more grievous weight than his ponderous iron belt. It is a far cry from Norham to the Scottish capital, but there still comes to us the news of battle ringing down its cobbled streets, and we see the haggard form of Randolph on his weary steed, the sole survivor of that mighty host which but a week before had gathered on the Burgh muir. It is pictures like these and many others that the once proud but now dismantled towers of Norham suggest and conjure up before us. The waters which wash its walls have flowed through a hundred scenes famous in history, renowned in romance, and garlanded with song, past many a roofless Border peel, and before the river loses itself in the bosom of the eternal sea it lingers for a while round this the last of the landmarks on her hundred miles of water way. Norham carries us back to the days of chivalry, and few castles of that period display more of their strength than this stronghold not only so, but that quality also shone, though in a fitful and a fading gleam across the ridge of Flodden.

Norham Castle, Evening. Ref: BRO 515/181

The massive ruin still keeps ward upon the Border side, and Castle and Church and village alike are full of reminiscences of history and romance. Hither in 1318 there came from Lincoln an actual Sir Wm. Marmion, helmed with gold, it is said, under pledge to win his lady love by defending Norham for a year and day. Alas, h however, for the gallant, for the Scots Borderers proved too warlike for him, and he lost his gage, his lady and his life in a single ambuscade. Here in May, 1291, Edward I met the Wardens of Scotland to arrange the succession to the Scottish crown, and thus sowed the seeds of the dire wars of Succession in the northern Kingdom. And it was on the green meadows opposite that in June of the same year the great nobles of Scotland, took upon the gospels, the oath of allegiance to the English King. But these and other actual historical events sink into comparative insignificance with the romantic episodes associated with Norham. In the Abbotsford gallery of fame the haughty crest of Marmion and the abiding love of Clare occupy honoured and important niches, and it is round them that there has been woven that story of glamour and romance which will enshroud the castled steep of Norham until the last day has set upon its battlements and towers.

Transport to Local Hospitals for Pregnant Women

30/07/2024 by Northumberland Archives

Before the establishment of the NHS in 1948 the majority of women gave birth at home but on occasions complications would arise and they would need to be taken to hospital. Women in Ashington and the surrounding district often had to travel to Mona Taylor in Stannington, to Beulah House in Blyth or to The Princess Mary Unit in Newcastle. There were rail links from Newbiggin and Ashington to Blyth and Stannington but it would have been a long, uncomfortable journey for pregnant women. Few families owned cars at that time.

The ambulance service as we know it began in 1948 and when the Government decided that the service should be free to all patients in need. The 1946 NHS Act required the Local Authorities to provide an ambulance service where necessary. To begin with it was staffed by volunteers and professionals were gradually introduced. Eventually the service became a discrete part of the NHS.

Prior to 1948 patients paid for ambulance transport. It is documented that pregnant women in and around Ashington were paying £3 for an ambulance to take them to the Princess Mary Hospital in Newcastle. In the meantime, the Medical Officer for Health’s Annual report for 1926 on The Urban District of Amble states that the only ambulance provision in the town was the colliery ambulance from Broomhill Colliery three miles away.

Newbiggin, Pegswood and North Seaton Collieries also provided an ambulance service paid for by miners’ subscriptions to the Miners’ Welfare Fund. The service was free to subscribers and non-subscribers paid a fee. I found no mention of how much that fee was.

The 999 number to summon an ambulance was introduced in 1937. At that time there would have been very few telephones in people’s homes. The first public phone boxes were introduced in the United Kingdom in 1921. It is most likely that in the early days of the ambulance service that G.Ps organized ambulances when necessary.

The M.O.H. Annual Accounts for Ashington in 1949 record that the County Council provided five Ambulances and nine drivers who worked shifts to provide a 24 hour service and in 1950 the County Council provided an ambulance service for Newbiggin.

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