Hopedene

A Memory of Elswick.

I would like to know if there is anyone out there that knows of the practise that went on in Hopedene.
My partner was born there in 1965, his birthmother was also a domestic there, presumably to pay towards her keep while she was waiting to have her baby. We have now traced his birth mother but unfortunatley she died in 2002, but we have been able to get hold of a few records that were recorded at the time. Most of it does seem ok, but there is a bit in there that left us wondering. It states that she signed adoption papers two days before my partner was born, it does state that this was not normally done, but the social worker who was in charge of the case got his birth mother to do this, and it does say that this was questionable by the social services. Does anybody else know of any such cases where this has happened. We have heard a few things about Hopedene and we are wondering if there was a practise to make the unmarried mothers sign over their babies before they were born so they could not change their mind. We know the name of the social worker and we know that she already had a family in mind, whom she had already placed a child a year earlier. We are not trying to cause any pain to anyone just wondering if anyone else has heard of this.