Tag Archives: Wigan
THE CUCKOO WALTZ
Growing up among people who worked with their hands, all of them craftsmen in their chosen disciplines, I learned very early on the importance of precise measuring and accuracy.
Without a doubt, the most enduring adage I learned through those interactions, and have subsequently adhered to throughout all of my working and personal life – is to always:
“MEASURE TWICE AND CUT ONCE”.
As a working carpenter, I also learned through experience that in order to avoid making mistakes and ruining costly materials, that little saying, long since committed to memory has proved to be invaluable, inasmuch as it’s a constant reminder that very often you only have one shot at getting it right.
Measuring twice, or even three times before positioning your saw and starting that cut will not only save you time and money, but also ensures your reputation remains intact.
Making sure that you have thought of all the things that could go wrong beforehand, applies to many other aspects of life too, but unfortunately, even the most careful preparation is not always a guarantee that you will get it right every time.
A case in point is a recent post I published on this site recently, which examined the possibility of hundreds, perhaps thousands of babies being ‘swapped’ by a midwife at a Hospital in the North-West of England over a twenty-eight year period.
It appears that a great deal of interest has been generated by that article, which in turn has led to an unprecedented number of people not only contacting me personally, but also radio stations and news outlets in and around Wigan and St Helens, as well as the Wigan and Leigh Health Services NHS Trust that was responsible for the running of the hospital in Billinge that was the focus of the article.
A number of those people have been genuinely concerned about the possible implications for themselves and for people they know, healthcare workers, radio presenters, journalists and those who were just interested in the story have also been in touch, and I have spent the greater part of a week going through everything, and responding where required.
A number of those who contacted me shared personal experiences of the time they spent there, some voiced some very real suspicions and shared their own theories, and one in particular, contacted me and claimed he was in possession of ‘evidence’ that proved the whole thing is/was a hoax.
He claimed that a document, a screengrab of which was attached to the article published on this site, was created on his kitchen table, and himself and another, un-named person made up the whole thing to post on the @blackchapter Facebook page they run – a post which they somewhat strangely, deleted a few hours later.
I have made a request that the alleged hoax author(s) send me a written statement (with evidence) to reinforce that claim, which I offered to publish on this site in the interests of balance, but have not received a response at the time of writing.
Hopefully that may change.
So is there any truth in this story, or is it simply a hoax?
From what I have been able to ascertain, ‘The Billinge Cuckoo’s’ , could appear on the surface to be a case of ‘where there is smoke, there is also fire’, but there is no visible evidence I have been able to find which supports that.
On the other hand, the only ‘evidence’ to allegedly support it as being a simple hoax, has been removed from the internet by the people who have also claimed to be the architects of said hoax.
All I know is that I have spent way too much time waltzing around this one, and although it is an interesting premise, I really cannot see ‘The Billinge Cuckoos’ as being anything other than one of ‘those stories’ that will never be brought to a satisfactory conclusion while people still have breath enough to argue over it.
And most people’s lives are way too short to worry unduly about it anyway.
POST UPDATE: I have a feeling that I will not be hearing from the alleged hoaxer again.
“A full confession has been posted by the perpetrator, declaring the content a joke. “It is most regrettable that the hoaxer decided to use Billinge Hospital as the focus. “There is no doubt that the publication of the prank video has caused a lot of upset and concern for many people. “We hope that now it has been confirmed as an act of complete fabrication that the matter will now rest.” – WIGAN TODAY
THE BILLINGE CUCKOOS
Founded in 1837 as the ‘Wigan Poor Law Union Hospital’, Billinge Hospital was a National Health Service facility in the Higher End district of the Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester.
The Maternity Unit attached to the main hospital was opened in 1968, and served much of the surrounding area of Wigan, parts of St Helens and the District of West Lancashire, before it’s closure in 2004, it’s services being transferred to other hospitals in the surrounding districts.
Very little of the original hospital remains.
In September this year, a number of documents were allegedly released, one of which mentions a project named ‘The Cuckoo Children of Billinge’, which added weight to a rumour that began in 2003, which alleged that a Midwife, known only as ‘1B’ had confessed to ‘swapping babies’ during the 28 years she had worked there.
During her alleged confession, the Midwife also claimed she was able to see ‘coloured auras’ which surrounded newly born babies and their mothers, and whenever she saw auras that in her opinion ‘did not match’, she would exchange the baby with a mother who’s aura was the same.
She further claimed that she had been swapping babies this way from 1971 to around 1999, and although she could not recall the exact numbers involved, she estimated that for the 28 years she worked at the hospital, she would swap no less than two babies a day.
Billinge Hospital in 2013
Following this alleged confession, a number of stories have been circulating, one of which was an allegation that the security services ordered the immediate closure of the facility to ‘bury’ the scandal – which if true, would be a conspiracy theorist’s dream, especially as the (allegedly) recently discovered documents, part of which is reproduced above, reads;
‘Codename; Cuckoo Children of Billinge. The prolonged swapping of newly born children by midwife B1. From Years 1971 to 1999. MI5 demands the immediate closure of the facility. TOP SECRET. This must not enter the public domain’
The investigation continues.
UPDATE: THE CUCKOO WALTZ
