THOUSANDS of Huddersfield people were born there.

But Huddersfield's former Princess Royal Hospital - now a health centre - could soon be no more.

Health officials are looking at disposing of the site in Greenhead Road, which is home to several community health services.

The building was best known to generations of people as the town's maternity hospital.

It opened in July, 1928, as the Municipal Maternity Home. It replaced the previous maternity hospital at Mill Hill Hospital in Dalton.

Huddersfield health officials had acquired a large former Victorian vicarage in Greenhead Road and turned it into a hospital.

But they'd also been embroiled in a row with the Government's Health Ministry.

Civil servants wanted the hospital to have 15 beds. Huddersfield's health officials were determined there should be 20.

They had their way.

The Mayor of Huddersfield, Alderman Rowland Mitchell, was asked to perform the opening ceremony and posed for an Examiner photographer with the obligatory baby on his knee.

But the baby had been brought in by a mother, as the first baby was actually born at the new maternity hospital on July 3, two days after the opening.

It was a boy for Mr and Mrs Harold Armitage, of Blacker Road, Birkby, and they christened their son Roland in honour of the mayor.

The hospital thrived over the next decade and in July, 1939, a large extension was officially opened by the then Princess Royal.

That was when it was decided to change the name to the Princess Royal Maternity Hospital.

And that is the name that appeared on many thousands of birth certificates over the next four decades.

The hospital also fulfilled a vital role in training nurses.

Many nurses who wanted to become midwives were trained at the hospital, which established an enviable reputation.

But it also had its problems, notably staff shortages.

One solution was to ask new mothers to leave for home after seven days, rather than the normal 10 days.

By the mid-1970s the Huddersfield Health Authority was thinking of closing the Princess Royal and moving all maternity services to the new delivery suite at the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

One suggestion for its future use was as a base for a comprehensive service for the mentally ill and handicapped.

But in the end, when the maternity services finally moved, it w as decided to base community services at the hospital.

The last baby to be born at Princess Royal was Nathan Holmes, who weighed in at 7lb 4oz when he was born on October 22, 1984, the son of Trevor and Lesley Holmes, of Meltham.

After that date the hospital was used for services including district nursing, health promotions, dentistry and the Ellerslie Children's Unit.