Elmdale Lane in the suburb of Phillipstown, Christchurch

Elmdale Lane in Phillipstown- First appears in street directories in 1987.

A tiny amount of information from the library website. Not much information on Papers Past and it was just ads for businesses. The earliest ads in 1985 has it as Elmsdale Lane. I couldn’t find anyone with that surname or a place name in the UK.

The street has mostly businesses here but there was a building that looked like there would be people living in it. The building was originally Essex Maternity Hospital which closed in 1980. Lots of information on Papers Past as many people didn’t want it to close. Women were promised extra beds at Christchurch Women’s Hospital. Note this didn’t happen. I had my older son at Essex Hospital but I had to go to Lincoln for my second son.

The property was sold in 1983 and by 1986 there were ads for businesses on the street. Looking at old street views on Google maps the old hospital was still a brick building but by 2022 the brick had been painted white and another level had been added to it. It was being used for emergency housing under the name Essex Lodge. It is now being called New Essex Lodge under a new company name but same director. Found an interesting article about the previous operator of the emergency housing as that company had been put into receivership owing $10 million to creditors.