Victoria Gibbs Memorial Home for Babies, Bristol, Gloucestershire
The Victoria Gibbs Memorial Home for Babies was established in 1920 by the Waifs and Strays Society in 1920 at 14 Somerset Street, in the Kingsdown area of Bristol. The premises had previously housed the Bristol Industrial School for Girls. The new home was named after a vigorous local fund-raiser for baby care facilities in the city who had died that year. The home was opened on 25 January 1921 by Lady Helena Gibbs and dedicated by the Bishop of Bristol. The home provided accommodation for 29 babies under the age of two.
Former Victoria Gibbs Memorial Home for Babies, Somerset Street, Bristol, 2013. © Peter Higginbotham
Victoria Gibbs Memorial Home for Babies, Somerset Street, Bristol, c.1931. © Peter Higginbotham
In 1940, the danger from wartime bombing led to the home being evacuated to Seagry Manor, Chippenham. The home moved again in 1943 to the Fairfield Home for Babies, Bath.
Because of bomb damage to the Somerset Street building, the home was re-opened in 1948 in new premises on Durdham Park, Bristol, with accommodation for 31 children up to the age of five.
Former Victoria Gibbs Memorial Home for Babies, Durdham Park, Bristol, 2013. © Peter Higginbotham
The home finally closed in 1970.
The Somerset Street property is now used as a probation and bail hostel. The Durdham Park building has been converted to flats.
Records
Note: many repositories impose a closure period of up to 100 years for records identifying individuals. Before travelling a long distance, always check that the records you want to consult will be available.
- Index of the Society's first 30,000 children's case files ordered by surname.
- Index of the Society's first 30,000 children's case files ordered by date of birth.
- The Children's Society Records and Archive Centre is at Unit 25, Springfield House, 5 Tyssen Street, London E8 2LZ (email: archives@childrenssociety.org.uk). Files for children admitted to its homes after September 1926 were microfilmed in the 1980s and the originals destroyed. Some post-1926 files had already been damaged or destroyed during a flood. The Society's Post-Adoption and Care Service provides access to records, information, advice, birth record counselling, tracing and intermediary service for people who were in care or adopted through the Society.
- The Society has produced detailed catalogues of its records relating to disabled children, and of records relating to the Children's Union (a fundraising body mostly supported from the contributions of children).
Bibliography
- Bowder, Bill Children First: a photo-history of England's children in need (1980, Mowbray)
- Church of England Waifs and Strays' Society [Rudolfe, Edward de Montjoie] The First Forty Years: a chronicle of the Church of England Waifs and Strays' Society 1881-1920 (1922, Church of England Waifs and Strays' Society / S.P.C.K.)
- Higginbotham, Peter Children's Homes: A History of Institutional Care for Britain's Young (2017, Pen & Sword)
- Morris, Lester The Violets Are Mine: Tales of an Unwanted Orphan (2011, Xlibris Corporation) — memoir of a boy growing up in several of the Society's homes (Princes Risborough, Ashdon, Hunstanton, Leicester) in the 1940s and 50s.
- Rudolf, Mildred de Montjoie Everybody's Children: the story of the Church of England Children's Society 1921-1948 (1950, OUP)
- Stroud, John Thirteen Penny Stamps: the story of the Church of England Children's Society (Waifs and Strays) from 1881 to the 1970s (1971, Hodder and Stoughton)
Links
- Hidden Lives Revealed — the story of the children who were in the care of The Children's Society in late Victorian and early 20th Century Britain.
- The Children's Society
Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.
