Gilsland Spa Hotel

By Tony Henderson, Newcastle Journal 24.04.2009

Remembering a unique birthplace; Hotel became a labour ward during war

Walkers will take a step back into their wartime babyhood this weekend.

During the Second World War Newcastle Corporation took over the Gilsland Spa Hotel in the village of Gilsland on the Cumbria-Northumberland border. The aim was to provide a refuge for Tyneside mothers to give birth, safe from air raids. More than 4,500 babies were born at the hotel.

Now 15 of the wartime babies will link up on Sunday for a walk which starts and finishes - with tea - at the hotel, which is 700ft above sea level. The 4.5-mile outing is part of the Haltwhistle Walking Festival and has been organised by Maureen Hart, who was born at the hotel on April 27, 1944. Her mother Sybil lived in Heaton in Newcastle and was 40 when she travelled to Gilsland by train and walked uphill to the hotel. "My mother told me she stayed at the hotel for about six weeks," said Maureen, who now lives in Haltwhistle.

She said she loved it there and could look out of the window and see all the primroses. "The hotel is special for me and it would be lovely to know what room I was born in." The walkers will visit the nearby St Mary Magdalene church where many of the babies were baptised.

The walk will be led by Ashley Robson, who was also born at the hotel in 1943. The family home was at Fenham in Newcastle and now Ashley lives in Denton in the city. He said: "Around 25% of all Tyneside births during the war took place at the hotel, which is amazing. As well as being a safer place for mothers and babies I think they also wanted to free up hospital beds in Newcastle because of the expected casualties from air raids on targets like the big Vickers factory."

"Being born at the hotel is something that we all have in common." From the turn of the last century, the hotel was used as a convalescent home for Co-operative Society members in the North of England but it also welcomed paying visitors as well as the patients.

Today, the Co-op Group owns 95% of the shares in the 93-bedroom hotel, with the rest spread among Co-op societies such as Seaton Valley and Penrith. General manager Les Thompson said:" The whole building was taken over during the war and at that time it had around 140 rooms and would have been quite Victorian. We have quite a few people who call in and say they were born at the hotel." People can join the walk at 1.30pm at the hotel. There is a £10 charge which includes tea.

Famous Patient

The last woman to be hanged in Britain, Ruth Ellis, gave birth to a son at Gilsland in 1944. She was executed in 1955 for shooting her boyfriend.

Update March 2024

The co-op sold Gilsland Spa and it may have changed hands again since. It is not open anymore as a hotel.