Rose Cottage Home for Girls, Dickleburgh, near Scole, Norfolk
The Rose Cottage Home for Girls was established in 1878 at Burston Road, Dickleburgh, Scole, Norfolk. It was founded by the Rector of Dickleburgh, Henry Brandreth, and his wife Louisa. The home could accommodate 22 girls aged from 7 to 12 at their date of admission.
Rose Cottage Home for Girls, Dickleburgh, c.1900. © Peter Higginbotham
On July 27th, 1880, the home was certified by the Local Government Board to receive destitute children placed there by the Boards of Guardians who administered the poor relief and workhouse system. A payment of 3s. 6d. or 3s. 9d. per week was made for each girl placed at the home. As the home became known, this sum was often supplemented by 1s. 6d or 1s. 3d. a week, given by some well wisher who gained a personal interest in a particular child. Thus the true cost of maintaining a child at the home, estimated at 5s. a week, was met.
Rose Cottage Home for Girls, Dickleburgh, c.1900. © Peter Higginbotham
Rose Cottage Home for Girls, Dickleburgh, early 1900s.
It was expected that girls at the home would eventually enter domestic service. As well as attending the local school, they were given training in skills such as needlework, housework and laundry work. They also contributed to the cleaning of the home and mended their own clothes.
Former Rose Cottage Home for Girls, Dickleburgh, 2013. © Peter Higginbotham
Applications for admission to the home became so numerous that in 1883, the Brandreths opened a second girls' home in the village at Lee Cottage on Rectory Road. In July 1888, the running of both Rose Cottage and Lee Cottage was taken over by the Waifs and Strays Society.
The home closed in around 1912. The property is now a private residence.
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.
