Author Topic: Nazareth House Prestwich memories  (Read 31424 times)

cheethamgirl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 961
Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #60 on: 09:12:48, 24/08/16 »
Ardwick Boy: according to the NH website, though the Manchester home is at Scholes Lane, Prestwich, Manchester M25 0NU (tel: 0161 772 2111) all queries regarding their records - for genealogical purposes - should be directed by letter to Sisters of Nazareth Archive, Nazareth House, 169-175 Hammersmith Rd., London W6 8DB. For reasons of confidentiality, they won't give information out via e mail or phone. It doesn't say so, but I suspect you may have to send them evidence of your identity.

As you'll see, another person posting on this thread contacted them at Hammersmith but the promised reply did not materialise. I hope you have much better luck.  O0
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

ardwickboy

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #61 on: 00:01:22, 26/08/16 »
Thanks for the reply. I will work on that and see what happens. I will let you know how it goes.
 O0

margaret andrews

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #62 on: 22:13:47, 28/11/16 »
It was most interesting to read the story from Cheetham girl.  Yes I was in Nazareth House from approx 1940 to 1946.My years there were most unhappy! 
My Irish mother gave birth to me out of wedlock.  Therefore she was forced to put me into a 'home'  The infant home  was in Bacup near Rochdale, which from what I remember was only for children up to the age of five.

It was run by Austrian nuns who were wonderful.  So to be whisked away to the dreadful Nazareth house was traumatic to say the least.  I never remember ever having a glass  of milk ir a sweet or a piece of fruit!!

My mother and Gandmother used to visit as often as they could and bring some fruit or chocolate (whenever funds would permit)  The nuns asked them to leave it on the hall table to be shared with all the residents.  We children saw none of it.

I can remember at the age of 8 polishing the parquet hall flooring. -  I still have scars on my knees from the sores due to the work. 

Breakfast usually consisted of watery porage, dry bread and water to drink. The dormitories were freezing,  The bedding was just a sheet and one cotton blanket-I would pull my nightie over my knees to try and keep warm. If the sirens went off we would be marched down to the cellar and sit on long benches til the all clear sounded.  Some of the children were more petrified than I Some were given a mouth piece to put between their teeth to stop them chattering!!!.Never a kind word from any of the nuns.

Unfortunately the Sisters of nazareth  had the knack of being so sweet to any relatives that came to visit saying 'what a lovely child Margaret is" It was like being brain washed, I never said anything to my Mother about the conditions. 
We had schooling at the convent, and that was also traumatic,  The nuns would hit us with their stick, one poor boy was so frightened he wet the floor, and the nun made him clean it up.  I often think of him.
 
My mother took me out from the place in 1945/6 We  lived in Franchise street Ardwick. The rest of my life is another story.  It has been good to release some of my emotions.  I am 82 years old in December.  Memories are forever!!!

cheethamgirl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 961
Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #63 on: 06:44:30, 29/11/16 »
Hello Margaret, Thank you for sharing your memories, though it must be painful to do so. One can't help but wonder whether the nuns were so dreadfully unhappy in their own lives that they felt they had to pass the misery on to the innocent children in their care.
I hope your subsequent life brought you joy and provided more than compensation for such an unhappy start. My own experience of being taught by sadistic nuns pales in comparison to some of the accounts I have heard of the NH children.
Perhaps, at least, the callous and cruel treatment the nuns meted out taught us to be kind and compassionate in our dealings with others. I wish you happiness, contentment and long life, Margaret.   
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

Kitkat

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #64 on: 00:58:50, 21/02/22 »
So we have mixed experiences then, some good, some bad, with the elderly.  I saw on another website that Nazareth House were still sending orphans overseas to Australia etc until maybe the 1950s or 60s, and many of them had bad experiences.  Have any of you read 'Empty Cradles' by Pat (can't remember surname) about those children's experiences?  If ever you feel like a darned good cry, that's the book to do it.  You will also be outraged at what happened to those poor children, many of whom were told their parents had died, when they had not, and the parents were not told where their children were.  Many of the women had put their children into homes temporarily, owing to poverty, some because their husbands were away fighting in WW2 and they themselves had also been called up for war service in munitions, land army etc.  They never got their babies back. Now I'm wondering more than ever what happened to that little girl and her brother.   :(   

Kitkat

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #65 on: 01:00:13, 21/02/22 »
Depending on the year this girl and smaller brother could have been my mum Edna, brother Eric or Albert. Neither got past 5ft as adults so they were small.

ardwickboy

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 7
Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #66 on: 22:20:36, 23/02/22 »
It seems a lot of people had a bad time at NH, I cannot remember too much of my time there but no doubt it wasn't a good time there.

ChristineJ

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 1
Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #67 on: 02:29:04, 29/01/24 »
I was last in this home in 1968,with my brothers 7 and 3 I was 4.  We used to be locked in cupboards and punished for any little thing :(