William Barratt, Barratts Shoes and The Barratt Maternity Home

On 16 August 1944 my dad was born at The Barratt Maternity Home in Northampton. World War two was still raging and it would be another eight months until victory was declared in Europe. The photo below is said to have been taken the year dad was born. The title and description read ‘The front of the Barratt Maternity Home in Cheyne Walk, after nurses had covered it in flags. The American Stars and Stripes the most prominent, perhaps due to the number of US fathers who visited after American forces came to town, It was said at the time the American fathers outnumbered the ‘local dads’.

Embed from Getty Images
The Barratt Maternity Home, 1944

The flags may also have been displayed to mark VE day, as described in the newspaper article below.

An article from the Northampton Mercury newspaper
dated 11 May 1945 detailing the display of a large US flag.

The Home was a separate building in the grounds of Northampton General Hospital and was built by William George H Barratt who was born in Northampton in 1877, where he lived throughout his life. The son of a boot sewer, William and his brothers became shoe workers by their early teens and William managed one of Manfield’s shops in London, then his father’s boot shop in Gold Street, which later he bought. By 1902, he and his brother David had a boot shop in the Drapery. Their innovative idea of selling boots via the post (the first in the country) was resented by the manufacturers who cut off supplies of boots and shoes. However, in 1907, the brothers started a new company, W Barratt and Co, Ltd. to make their own shoes, with two of their other brothers, Albert and Richard, as nominal shareholders.

William George H. Barratt
Photo credit: Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust

In 1913 they opened a new factory, the Footshape Boot Works an elaborate looking building with a brick and cream terracotta frontage and a pierced balustrade which reads Footshape Boot Works. The building was designed for the comfort of its workforce, with air conditioning and natural light through roof vents and widows with clear glass. An up to date conveyor reduced lifting and carrying. A canteen served tea free of charge and made hot meals available. Welfare services included a benevolent scheme and contribution free pensions.

They added a chain of retail shops and advertised their wares with the slogan ‘Walk the Barratt way’, which became famous internationally. The first shop opened in London in 1914, and by 1939 there were 150. A chain of retail shops followed and products were advertised with the slogan ‘Walk the Barratt way,’ which became famous internationally. The first shop opened in London in 1914, and by 1939 there were 150.

William Barratt was also active in politics. He and his brothers were fervent socialists. As a young man he was a prominent member of the Social Democratic Federation, one of the forerunners of the Labour party, and he was present at the foundation meeting of Northampton Independent Labour party in 1908. In 1904 he stood twice, unsuccessfully, for the town council. His second attempt came 25 years later in 1929, when he was elected as Labour councillor for Delapre ward.

In 1930 William contested Bethnal Green at the parliamentary election. He was narrowly defeated, but the incoming Labour Minister of Health appointed him to a committee inquiring into the law covering the composition and description of food. In 1935 he became a Northampton magistrate. He was a Director of Franklins Gardens Sports and Pleasure Company, and a Committee member and later President of the Saints Rugby Club.

Sisters and pupil midwives
on the steps of The Barratt Maternity Home, 19 February 1941.
Photo used with permission of Historic England.

William and his wife, Alice, are best remembered however for financing the building of the Barratt Maternity Home with an initial gift of £20,000 in 1934. Alice laid the foundation stone in May 1935, and the Home was opened in July 1936. William explained they had desired to do something in their lifetime, of a lasting character, for the benefit of the town, and that the Home should be as bright and cheerful as possible for the benefit of the patients and staff alike.

A view of the labour ward. with a nurse preparing equipment,
at The Barratt Maternity Home, 19 February 1941.
Photo used with permission of Historic England.

The following year the Barratt’s agreed to fund a gynaecological department, a maternity outpatients department, and an operating theatre. It was hoped that the provision of a maternity home would help to reduce maternal mortality in the town. William was a regular contributor to good causes, including a rest home for the unemployed, and the Mayor’s Fund for the Red Cross. He died in a Northampton nursing home in December 1939.

Pupil midwives with babies on their laps, in the bathroom
at The Barratt Maternity Home, 19 February 1941.
Photo used with permission of Historic England.

The Historic England website records the Home at first provided 34 beds for ante- and post-natal patient, a nursery, and a labour ward. Located on the first floor, the labour ward and was separated from the gynaecology ward by doors which were opened to allow patients to be transferred to the gynaecological theatre for caesarean sections. It consisted of two delivery rooms, a first-stage room, staff changing room, sluice room, and admission room.

Miss C. E. Nelson, Matron to
Northampton General Hospital and The Barratt Maternity Home (1938 – 1954)
Photo credit: Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust

Midwifery training was divided into two parts in 1938, and establishments were approved to provide training in one or both: Part I was primarily theoretical, based in hospitals and was assessed by examinations; Part II was largely practical, and allowed pupils to demonstrate competence and to link theory with practice. The same year, The Barratt Maternity Home was approved as a Midwifery Training School to provide Part I of the training. Miss Eleanor Hague, who had qualified as a midwife in 1933, was appointed by the Central Midwives’ Board as the Approved Teacher; in 1943 she received her Midwife’s Teacher’s Diploma. Later, Miss Hague became Matron of the Barratt Maternity Home and is regarded by some as the ‘Mother of Midwifery’ in Northamptonshire. When my dad was born in 1944 the Matron was Miss C. E.Nelson.

The Barratt Maternity Home as it looked in 2020.

In 2021 it was announced that William would be the recipient of a blue plaque, an initiative of English Heritage, which celebrates the links between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked.

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