Parkside School / Poplar Bank House School for Girls, Liverpool, Lancashire
The Parkside School for Girls was opened in 1917 at Poplar Bank, Huyton, Liverpool. Parkside, a Reformatory School, was run by the Church Army and could originally house up to 50 girls aged from 14 to 16 at their time of admission. The superintendent in 1920 was Miss Andrews and in 1930 Sister Bentley.
In 1933, Parkside became an Approved School, one of the new institutions introduced by the 1933 Children and Young Persons Act to replace the existing system of Reformatories and Industrial Schools. It initially accommodated up to 50 Senior Girls aged between their 15th and 17th birthdays at their date of admission. The number was raised to 70 in June, 1935. The School provided domestic training and the girls also attended outside classes. Facilities for the treatment of venereal disease were provided in the school.
The School site is shown on the 1937 map below.
Parkside School for Girls site, Liverpool, c.1937.
In July 1959, the School was renamed Poplar Bank House School and its management taken over by a local committee.
In 1973, the School became a Community Home with Education (CHE) under the control of Lancashire County Council.
The School buildings no longer survive and the site is now occupied by a bingo club.
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.
- The bulk of the Church Army's archives have been deposited in the Bible Society Library, housed at Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cambridge University Library, West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DR. The material does not include minute books or admission records, however.
Bibliography
- Lynch, Donald Chariots of the Gospel. The Centenary History of the Church Army (1982, H.E. Walter)
- Rowan, Edage Wilson Carlile and the Church Army (1905, The Church Army)
- Carpenter, Mary Reformatory Schools, for the Children of the Perishing and Dangerous Classes, and for Juvenile Offenders (1851, General Books; various reprints available)
- Carlebach, Julius Caring for Children in Trouble (1970, Routledge & Kegan Paul)
- Higginbotham, Peter Children's Homes: A History of Institutional Care for Britain's Young (2017, Pen & Sword)
- Abel Smith, Doroth Crouchfield: A History of the Herts Training School 1857-1982 (2008, Able Publishing)
- Garnett, Emmeline Juvenile offenders in Victorian Lancashire: W J Garnnett and the Bleasdale Reformatory (2008, Regional Heritage Centre, Lancaster University)
- Hicks, J.D. The Yorkshire Catholic Reformatory, Market Weighton (1996, East Yorkshire Local History Society)
- Slocombe, Ivor Wiltshire Reformatory for Boys, Warminster, 1856-1924 (2005, Hobnob Press)
- Duckworth, J.S. The Hardwicke Reformatory School, Gloucestershire (in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 1995, Vol. 113, 151-165)
Links
- The Church Army, Wilson Carlile Centre, 50 Cavendish Street, Sheffield S3 7RZ.
- Red Lodge Museum, Bristol — a former girls' reformatory.
Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.
