Scholfield Home for Girls, Liverpool, Lancashire
The Scholfield Home for Girls was opened by the Waifs and Strays Society in 1897 at Church Road, Wavertree, Liverpool. The house had been donated by Mrs Killick and her sisters, the Misses Scholfield. A further gift of £250 form a woman who did not wish to be named had allowed the addition of a sanatorium to the premises. The home was officially opened on 20th May, 1897, by Lady Doreen Long, wife of the local MP, Walter Long, with the Bishop of Liverpool, Dr Ryle, conducting a devotional service.
The location of the home is shown on the 1927 map below.
Scholfield Home for Girls site, Liverpool, c.1927.
Scholfield Home for Girls, Liverpool, c.1897. © Peter Higginbotham
Scholfield Home for Girls, Liverpool, c.1897. © Peter Higginbotham
Scholfield Home for Girls, Liverpool, c.1897. © Peter Higginbotham
The home could accommodate up to 30 girls. aged from 7 to 14, who were to be trained in laundry and domestic work. The first matron was Miss Holsworthy.
Scholfield Home for Girls, Liverpool, c.1912. © Peter Higginbotham
Scholfield Home for Girls, Liverpool, c.1924. © Peter Higginbotham
Scholfield Home for Girls, Liverpool, 1928. © Peter Higginbotham
Every year, the girls' were taken away for summer holiday, with places such as North Wales being a popular destination.
Scholfield Home girls at Conway, 1923. © Peter Higginbotham
Scholfield Home girls on holiday, 1934. © Peter Higginbotham
The home closed at the outbreak of war in 1939 and the girls were initially evacuated to the Manor House at Pontesbury, near Shrewsbury. In 1941, they were transferred to a newly opened home at Ormskirk.
The Wavertree building no longer survives and the site is now a school playing field.
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.
