Convent of the Good Shepherd, Liverpool, Lancashire
Liverpool's Convent of the Good Shepherd and its Asylum for Penitents (otherwise known as a Magdalen Home) was founded in 1858. Its aim was to provide 'moral reform' for Roman Catholic females who, in the terminology of the time, had 'fallen' by having become pregnant outside of marriage or been involved in prostitution.
In its early years, the establishment occupied premises at Everton, then at Mason Street, Edge Hill, where up 56 girls and women could be accommodated. By 1871, it had erected a permanent home on Sterrix Lane, Ford, Seaforth. By the 1890s, the home could accommodate up to 225 females, aged at least 14 at their date of admission.
As well as participating in religious devotions, the inmates were occupied in a variety of work tasks, which included laundry work, sewing, knitting, crocheting, lace-making and embroidery. The laundry work was sometimes seen as symbolic of the process of purification that the inmates were going through. It also operated as a commercial activity, bringing in useful income for the establishment. The work wasunpaid, apart from a few pence a week as pocket money.
The convent site is shown on the 1907 map below.
Convent of the Good Shepherd site, Liverpool, c.1907.
Convent of the Good Shepherd, Liverpool, from the south-eastc.1910.
Convent of the Good Shepherd, Liverpool, Laundry Packing Room, c.1910. © Peter Higginbotham
Convent of the Good Shepherd, Liverpool, Laundry Packing Room, c.1910. © Peter Higginbotham
The convent and home finally closd in 1965 and buildings no longer survive. Rowan High School and the housing of Sterrix Green now occupy the site.
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.
- Try the Good Shepherd Convent, 114 Chain Road, Blackley, Manchester, M9 6GN. Email gssarchives@aol.com.
Bibliography
- Bartley, Paula Prostitution: Prevention and Reform in England, 1860-1914 (2000, Routledge)
- Finnegan, Frances Poverty and Prostitution: A Study of Victorian Prostitutes in York (1979, CUP)
- Hopkins, Jane Ellice, Work Among the Lost (1870, William Macintosh) Nokes, Harriet Twenty-Three Years in a House of Mercy (1886, Rivingtons)
- Taylor, William J The Story of the Homes (1907, London Female Preventive and Reformatory Institution)
- Thomas, E W Twenty-Five Years' Labour Among the Friendless and Fallen (1897, Shaw)
Links
- None identified at present.
Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.
