SPAIN has been in the news as government officials have been asking for more ‘baby boxes’ to be installed around the country due to an increase in child abandonment. The boxes would be a safe place for mothers to leave their unwanted babies, instead of abandoning them in the street or beside doorways. If we look back at Southend history, there are countless stories of babies being abandoned. Often there were a number of reasons why a mother would be driven to such action. It could be poverty, the fact the mother was a servant and could not keep the baby or because the woman was unmarried.