Medical dates:

Medical character:

In 1912 the Salvation Army opened its third mothers and infants home in a house next door to The Nest, a home with 50 places for sexually abused girls, also run by the Salvation Army, which was at No. 10 Springfield Road.

The new maternity home was originally called Next-Door-to-the Nest until it was renamed Cotland.  It had 40 places for mothers and their babies.

Expectant mothers were admitted some weeks or months before their confinement.  They were then sent to the newly opened Mothers' Hospital to give birth, returning to the home with their babies some two to three weeks later.  After a few months, the mothers were found employment, usually as domestic servants, while the babies were sent out to foster mothers.

The Salvation Army had special officers trained in detective work to find the fathers and to insist that they contributed to the child's support.  In this way, some £1,000 was raised in 1913.

In December 1920 the home moved from Springfield Road to No. 9 Amhurst Park in Stamford Hill, where it re-opened on 21st January 1921.


Present status (March 2012)

The site now contains a local authority apartment block.