Wigan Album

What a lovely photo of a proud Mum..one to cherish forever..why oh why did Billinge Hospital have to close.

They look beautiful, but I bet they were hard work at the time. They are probably parents themselves now and mum is a granny...

There were births at Billinge Hospital long before that.

1968, fifty one years ago, these little ones could easily be grandparents themselves and their mum a great grandma, doesn't time fly !!. Both our children were born in Billinge Maternity 1972 and 1974.

Great pic.
But looks like someones been careless with their tea/coffee

I was born there In the 1940s

I was born there in the 1940's too!

So was I but it must have been outside,under a bush - so my mother told me!

My wife was born there 1944.

@Johnny, it isn't a spillage on the photo.it's the photo laquer perishing

Maureen like so many building that seem to get demolished for no reason, so developments can built on its grounds, in this case houses.

Garry I totally agree with you..I once read that everything in life revolves around money,and not people,and it is so true..soon there will be no greenery anywhere at all..just bricks and mortar.

There were two reasons for the closure of the maternity unit at Billinge.
The building specification was well below the standard expected at the time of closure. The Royal College of Midwives raised concerns about the number of days the special care baby unit was closed when it was cold outside. Eventually they classed the building as not fit for purpose.
When the Foundation Hospitals Act came into force Bolton Hospital introduced a strategy that saw maternity become one of their specialities. The new NHS choice agenda saw increasing numbers of moters to be living on the eastern side of the Wigan metro area opting to go to Bolton.

I was born there in 1954 ... then moved to America as a baby.

I was born there 1949. A friend of mine Suzanne Darbyshire was a nurse there in late sixties. I think she worked on maternity. She was the 1st Miss Wigan Athletic.

A lady that took me to Taylor’s Lane Sunday school, Spring View, in the mid to late thirties, and then later went off to Africa, as a missionary. In later life she became a sister on the maternity ward, at this hospital, in the fifties, and sixties. She was there when my son was born there, in 1962. She just adored singing hymns. Charlotte Aindow.

How interesting to read of Charlotte Window.I knew her for many years.She was Sister Tutor at Billinge.Her church connections were later with the Pentecostal Meeting at Scholes Crossing.I don't think she actually went to Africa but hade a keen interest in the Belgian Congo.WE had lunch together at the Lindley in Parbold when she was touching ninety & visited her in Wigan Infirmary towards th end of her life on earth.Blesed memories

Donald. In the thirties, we live next door to the Aindow’s, opposite Spring View Police Station, that is no more. Charlotte took me to the Methodist Chapel, in Taylor’s Lane, Spring View. I suppose that has been demolished.

Albert.They have demolished everything from my childhood except St Catharine's church
I must apologise for hitting the wrong key W for A.I have a feeling that four Window sisters were pictured in the Wigan Observer some years back