Opening of Castleford Maternity Home by Princess Mary & Viscount Lascelles

A princess gets the usual enthusiastic welcome in a Yorkshire town between the wars, with locals enjoying the occasion and children waving their English flags to order.

Miners raise money for a maternity home, but Princess Mary does the honours in opening the home in Castleford in 1929; which also, fittingly, serves as a war memorial for those who lost their lives in the Great War. Locals turn out in force to witness the event, and rare treat of seeing the Princess wielding a spade.

The film shows the Princess opening the eight-bed maternity home on 23rd August, when she also opened the rebuilt Market Hall. The home was distinctive in that it was much more than an ordinary war memorial. The Miners Welfare Committee contributed Ј2,800 towards the Ј4,000 that was raised, which allowed the District Council to purchase and equip Hanbury House in Barnes Road. The hospital was renamed Municipal Maternity Hospital in 1949 and Castleford Maternity Home in 1951, and finally closed in 1970; sold for private residential housing and the Memorial Tablet was discarded. The Princess continued her association with nursing, becoming chief controller of the ATS at the outbreak of war.