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Fir Vale Workhouse


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17 hours ago, BMJ214 said:

Hi. My Grandma and Great Uncle were born here 1928/29. I cannot find any information what so ever. 

What does it say on their birth certificates? 

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I found that link very interesting from a personal perspective.  If I remember Mum correctly, I was born in Sheffield City General Hospital in 1956.  Would there have been maternity services there at that time?  My parents were living opposite Meersbrook park at that date.  Until now I hadn't realised that the City General and Northern General were the same place, still less that it was the old workhouse!  I'll have to see if I can find my birth certificate to confirm the location.

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There were definitely Maternity Services at the Northern General up to when services were consolidated at the Jessop Wing in 2001. There used to be Maternity Services at Nether Edge Hospital too and I think at the Royal Infirmary as well.

The Fir Vale Infirmary was opened in 1881 as part of the Fir Vale Workhouse. It was rebuilt and became Sheffield Union Hospital in 1906 and then Fir Vale Hospital. In 1930 it was renamed City General Hospital and eventually was renamed the Northern General Hospital in 1967.

For a long time, even after the workhouse closed, certain people were ashamed to say that their relatives had died there and asked that the place of death be written as 2 Herries Road, or Smilter Lane to avoid links to the workhouse.

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I too was born there some years before you. Mine says City General Hospital and yes there were maternity wards in place but obviously not as we know them now.  I have heard of someone born in the 1960s who had Herries Road on her cert. as an address. The registrars at the time knew about the Workhouse stigma and even in 1955 my husband's gt grandmother's death cert said 2 Herries road as she died in the Fir Vale Infirmary. The Fir Vale Infirmary basically looked after the elderly and those that could not look after themselves for some reason or other plus social cases too.  Now of course we have care homes here, there and everywhere to take care of the old and infirm.  

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Thanks for clearing this up.  In my mind's eye I was sure that there was a hospital on Glossop Rd, just down and on the opposite side to the Somme Barracks (TA centre).  I'd always assumed that I was born there.  Next time someone comes up with a poverty background I'll be able to trump them: I was born in the (ex-)workhouse!

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I believe the father of a University Professor was born in Nottingham Workhouse because that was where the father was a Hall Porter according to the 1881 census.

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15 hours ago, MartinR said:

Thanks for clearing this up.  In my mind's eye I was sure that there was a hospital on Glossop Rd, just down and on the opposite side to the Somme Barracks (TA centre).  I'd always assumed that I was born there.  Next time someone comes up with a poverty background I'll be able to trump them: I was born in the (ex-)workhouse!

The Royal Hospital stood on West Street, where the tram stop is now, between Eldon Street and Westfield Terrace.

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Ah! That makes sense.  I recall one night there was a "Vicars and Tarts" party at the Somme Barracks.  A group of us arrived too early so went down the road to the Beehive to idle away an hour or so.  At one point an Irishman (judging from the accent) got up and went to the bar to order another pint, saw us, thought better of it, then put his empty down and shuffled towards the exit.  As he passed us he greeted us with a rather slurred "Good night fathers" and went on his way!  Poor fellow, we must have spoilt his evening.😈

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As a sometime community worker in Burngreave I can recall the time in the 1980s when one of the small wards in the Maternity wing of the Northern General was occupied by young ladies…all of whom were having children fathered by a single male.I knew two of the ladies both of whom told me how well they all got on together.

I bet that was some sort of a record.🤗

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On 10/10/2022 at 18:34, Lyn 1 said:

If born in the workhouse it may say Smilter Lane or Herries Rd. Although a Workhouse it also had hospital wards too. 

https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Sheffield/

 

I’ve just received my grandmas Birth Certificate. It says 12 Herries Road. I ordered it to see if there was any info on her father but it was left blank. 

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3 hours ago, BMJ214 said:

I’ve just received my grandmas Birth Certificate. It says 12 Herries Road. I ordered it to see if there was any info on her father but it was left blank. 

Quite possible she was born on a maternity ward. Any other address re the informant? Sometimes it is just guesswork. 

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A date might be a useful clue since the workhouse, as such, didn’t exist for all of the 20th century becoming a hospital in 1906.

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17 hours ago, Lysanderix said:

A date might be a useful clue since the workhouse, as such, didn’t exist for all of the 20th century becoming a hospital in 1906.

Workhouses were still in existence until 1930. The one at Fir Vale always had hospital wards.  

 

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Funny how memories surface unexpectedly.  As a youngster (teens? maybe 50 years ago) I can vaguely remember Mum saying something about a lady going into hospital to have a child.  A neighbour said something along the lines of "You don't want to go there, it's the workhouse".  I'd always assumed that this was grandmother having either my uncle or my mum.  After reading this thread I wonder if it was actually Mum having me.  Unfortunately Mum died 10 years ago so I can't ask her now.

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As a boy in the late 1940s I recall my parents and grandparents referring to Firvale Infirmary as the Workhouse…..presumably, from the past, when the workhouse was something to avoid.

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