My Mother has unhappy memories of this place. She remembers the Matron in Charge who would walk past and smack you across the face for nothing...she would tell you to get out of the way and find something to do. Then she used to retire to the Housekeeper's room .....(Mum thought it was her girlfriend - there were many stories going about). Doreen who was a patient was actually the daughter of a Lady somebody.......she came from abroad and had to pay to come here. She remembers Mary and Sheila - Sheila was my Mum's baby's godmother, christened at St. Edwards by Father Bull. Father Bull and Father Wall were the Priests at St. Edwards.....there was another one. My Mum was there for about 2-3 months in the late stages of pregnancy. She said she worked. Scrubbing, cleaning, toilets, washing, ironing, running errands. Sometimes you were allowed out but you had to have someone with you. You went to Church, which was St. Edwards opposite, but occasionally you went out just to walk around the streets to see where you were. There were about ten or twelve unmarried Mother's from entirely different walks of life. There were three wards (?) and they had to be cleaned from top to bottom every day. Mostly people went to Selly Oak Hospital to have their babies. (I asked if she was taken there and she replied "Oh no....there were no niceties. We walked - almost always managing to get there before the baby was delivered). My Mum remembers Sheila and Mary (both Mary and Sheila were having babies and were in a very advanced state of pregnancy - you had to be six months pregnant before you were admitted) in particular and an Irish girl (she can't remember her name) as being extremely nice girls and they all became very friendly and supportive to each other ("Very. Very...." my Mum says). The Irish girl had a son and she was a devout Catholic. All the girls were Catholics. Mum also remembers that they had to dig in the garden and she hated this. The Housekeeper used to cook the food and the girls laid the tables, served the food, collected the plates and if anyone wanted water, the girls would serve it. Mum thinks the house was self supporting. Only a Matron, an Assistant Matron and the Housekeeper. You never questioned what they told you to do. Just did it.
Mum said there was always a question mark over the Matron who ran the Home....but she couldn't remember her name. Mum could never understand how the Assistant Matron was such a lovely old dear (old to Mum, but she could have been young?) She thinks that the age for retirement was around 50, then. This Assistant Matron only ever spoke to the girls kindly and Mum thinks that she was retired when she came to Woodville. She thinks she was a Midwife and more than qualified to do the job. She did deliver a baby once. They were just taken across the road to the hospital, checked over and then returned to the home.
I felt it was essential to write this.......My Mum is 98 years old now, born 1919 (she was at Woodville in 1940) and remembers things vividly although she has never wanted to talk so freely as she does now, only ever with my Father. If anyone has anything to add to this - or indeed can think of any questions I could ask my Mum......please do. I doubt anyone is still living who remembers being at this place in 1940. Yet Mum says..... " -but the Children are".