Brentwood / MacNair Court

[Diane Chew]

The home where you stayed is now known as MacNair Court, a nursing home for the elderly on Church Lane in Marple, next to All Saint's Parish Church. From 1941 until 1972 it was called "Brentwood Recuperative Center for Mothers and Children".

According to newspaper cuttings in the Marple Library the home, run by Lancashire and Cheshire Community Councils, was a "centre for wives and children of unemployed men in the industrial districts". The women were said to sufferer from many different problems, including "too much child bearing, too much work and no holidays. Others lived in appalling housing conditions and were unable to cope with their children or domestic lives".

They generally seem to have stayed for a few months to a year or two, presumably until they got their lives together again.

I was contacted a while ago by a man whose mother spent some time there in 1957-58 after loosing twins in child-birth and the above is what I was able to learn at that time. She recalled someone by the name of Shakespear in the nursery.

I have sent Eunice some photographs of McNair Court as it is today. It would be good if anyone with memories of those times was able to correspond with her too.

The "Aunt Elsa" mentioned in the first message may have been Miss Buto (spelling?) I remember her as a client of my mother's in the 1950s and 60s. She was a German Jewess and she and her brother were the only two out of a large family to have escaped the Holocaust. I believe her brother lived in Israel.

[admin]

The home where you stayed is now known as MacNair Court, a nursing home for the elderly on Church Lane in Marple, next to All Saint's Parish Church. From 1941 until 1972 it was called "Brentwood Recuperative Center for Mothers and Children".

According to newspaper cuttings in the Marple Library the home, run by Lancashire and Cheshire Community Councils, was a "centre for wives and children of unemployed men in the industrial districts". The women were said to sufferer from many different problems, including "too much child bearing, too much work and no holidays. Others lived in appalling housing conditions and were unable to cope with their children or domestic lives".

They generally seem to have stayed for a few months to a year or two, presumably until they got their lives together again.

I was contacted a while ago by a man whose mother spent some time there in 1957-58 after loosing twins in child-birth and the above is what I was able to learn at that time. She recalled someone by the name of Shakespear in the nursery.

I have sent Eunice some photographs of McNair Court as it is today. It would be good if anyone with memories of those times was able to correspond with her too.

Does anybody remember Brentwood Recuperating centre for tired mothers ? It was on Church lane near All Saints church. My mother was sent there when I was a child in 1947 I had a brother too called Terence. It was a wonderful place and I have some wonderful memories. We went as guests for years after up to about 1953. I lived in a terraced house in Manchester and it was lovely being in the countryside with great walks to the Lakes and farms. It was run by a Miss Abraham, Mrs Lambert was the cook.
I remember Auntie Elsa was in the nursery. Molly Langshaw was there she had a son called Fred. I am now 62 living in Australia since 1969 . I often think about all those times and wonder does anybody else remember too ?.  Regards Eunice.