Elm Lodge Home for Boys, Liverpool, Lancashire
The Elm Lodge Home for Boys was established by the Waifs and Strays Society in 1893 at 40 Seaforth Road, Seaforth, near Liverpool. The formal opening, on March 2nd, was performed by the Bishop of Liverpool, Dr Ryle. The home provided accommodation for 28 boys aged from 7 to 14 who were to be taught trades under the supervision of a labour master.
The location of the home is shown on the 1890 map below.
Elm Lodge Home for Boys site, Liverpool, c.1890.
Elm Lodge Home, Liverpool, early 1900s. © Peter Higginbotham
Elm Lodge Home, Liverpool, c.1911. © Peter Higginbotham
Elm Lodge Home, Liverpool, c.1916. © Peter Higginbotham
In 1931, the home was relocated to a house known as Beech Mount at 13 Cambridge Road, Waterloo, near Liverpool. The Cambridge Road house, which took on the name Elm Lodge, could house 30 boys from 7 to 14 years of age.
The home was closed during the Second World War and the boys dispersed to other branches. When the home re-opened in 1946, it received the boys from the Society's home at Rochdale which was being closed.
When Elm Lodge finally closed in 1969, the boys and their house-parents were transferred to the Alice Brooke Home for Girls in Scarborough, which was being turned into a mixed home. The Alice Brooke Home was itself to close just two years later.
Neither of Elm Lodge Home's Liverpool premises survives. The Seaforth site is now covered by part of Bowersdale Park.
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.
