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Ancestry UK

The Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa

The Origins of the Society

In 1843, a solicitor's clerk named William Williams took a train journey from Paddington to the West Country. His attention was caught by a noisy group of boys who, he discovered, were cold, dirty, miserable, chained together, and being transported to Australia as convicts. Determined to do something to help the plight of such boys, he founded a 'ragged school' in the St Giles-in-the-Fields district of London. St Giles was notorious for an area known as The Rookery, one the dirtiest, roughest and most crowded parts of the capital. The school was located in a hayloft over a cowshed on Streatham Street. Despite its humble origins, the opening of the school marked the beginnings of the major charity that later became known as Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa.

William Williams. © Peter Higginbotham

Ragged schools were not a new idea. Their inception is often linked to the name of John Pounds, a Portsmouth shoemaker who in 1818 provided a free school for the poorest children. Thomas Guthrie helped to promote Pounds' idea of free schooling for working-class children and started a similar school in Edinburgh. A further school was set up in Aberdeen by Sheriff Watson. Although other schools for poor children existed, many often required a small weekly payment. Ragged schools catered for children those whose parents could not, or would not, afford even such a small amount, or who had no family of friends to support them. Such children also lacked enough, or even any, suitable clothes for other schools — hence the name ragged schools. Like Williams' establishment, ragged schools often operated in cheaply rented run-down buildings and were staffed by volunteer teachers who worked unpaid in their spare time. As well as a basic education and religious instruction, the schools usually provided some training in manual trades to try and help their pupils find employment.

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John Pounds' Ragged School. © Peter Higginbotham

Initially, the Streatham Street School only had funds to open on Sundays. The School grew steadily, however, and by the end of its first year of operation a total of 23 teachers worked at the establishment. Its pupils included the children of beggars, street singers, crossing sweepers, costermongers and common labourers. Many of the children had to spend time selling watercress and other articles on the streets before they were able to come to the School.

In 1844, the School joined with a number of others in the capital to form an umbrella organisation called the Ragged Schools Union. Later that year, the Right Honourable Lord Ashley, M.P., later known as Lord Shaftesbury, became the Union's president. He soon met William Williams and the two became good friends.

Lord Shaftesbury, 1862. © Peter Higginbotham

An 1849 report on the Streatham Street School showed it in a very positive light:

Streatham Street, St. Giles's.—A decided advance has been made, not only in the numbers, but an improvement in the moral feeling and conduct of the scholars. Formerly it was no uncommon thing for the windows to be broken, and the building to be covered with mud, while the persons of the teachers were assailed with missiles, and their ears pained with language of the most disgusting character. Now, though the numbers have so much increased, the youths assemble and retire in a quiet and orderly manner, and offensive language has not been heard for several months. During the year, 314 boys have received instruction, and the average attendance has been fifty-two. The anxiety of the scholars to obtain admission has not at all abated; if there be any difference, it has increased. Eighteen of the scholars from this School were accepted by the Emigration Commissioners as fit candidates for the boon of a free passage to Australia, offered by Her Majesty's Government. On the superintendent going down to see them at the Emigrant Depot, Deptford, previous to their embarkation, he inquired of each boy the amount of money he possessed, and was astonished to find that two had not a farthing, one had only 2d., another had 3d., and the rest (with one exception) possessed from 1s. to 6s. each. These lads could all read and write, and were acquainted with the first four rules of arithmetic; and it is gratifying to know that most of them obtained the principal part of their education in this school

The School's Committee was constantly on the lookout for larger and more suitable premises, although this proved difficult, partly because of landlords' reluctance to take on such tenants, but also because large sections of St Giles were being demolished and redeveloped. In 1848, the School was forced temporarily to share premises with the Irish Free School in George Street, St Giles. In 1850, the School merged with two other ragged schools in a similar situation, one located at Abbey Place, Little Coram Street, the other in the very disreputable location of Neal's (or Neales) Yard. In 1851, the new body, known as The St Giles and St George, Bloomsbury, Ragged Schools, was operating three establishments. The Abbey Place School operated on weekday mornings in a stable yard. The Neal's Yard School, also based in a stable yard, was for boys. The largest school was on Great St Andrew's Street in Seven Dials and provided a night-school for girls, with a paid mistress; a Sunday school for girls with two paid and several voluntary teachers; and a girls' sewing class.

A Permanent Home

In an effort to rationalise its operations, the Committee launched an appeal for funds to provide permanent premises. An ideal building was found at the corner of Broad Street and George Street, which later adopted the address of 19 Broad Street. Originally used as a 'gin palace', it comprised four storeys plus a basement, with plenty of space for separate schoolrooms for boys, girls and infants, plus residential refuge accommodation for up to 100 children. The purchase price of £1,800 was raised partly through donations and partly through a mortgage. A grand opening took place on June 23rd, 1852, with a celebratory feast of roast beef and plum pudding for 300 pupils. On the same day, Lord Ashley chaired a public meeting to raise funds for the School.

In 1853, the old Neal's Yard premises were converted for use as a night refuge for homeless boys who were fed and given a bed but had to fend for themselves in the daytime. Those who demonstrated a willingness to learn were transferred to Broad Street when places became available. Reflecting the broadening of its scope, the organisation's title now became The St Giles and St George, Bloomsbury, Refuge for Destitute Children and Ragged and Industrial Schools. From 1855, as a result of growing concern about both boys and girls residing at Broad Street, the accommodation was used only for girls. Premises were then rented at 17 Arthur Street, St Giles, where the boys resided and received their industrial training, but coming to Broad Street for their other lessons. In May, 1860, forty of the older girls were moved to new premises at Acton, with the girls' refuge at Broad Street acting as its reception home. Both establishments were under the matronship of Mrs Edmonds. The Acton home provided a laundry service for all the Society's other establishments. In 1866, the end of the Acton Home's lease forced its removal to temporary accommodation at Greville Road, Kilburn, with a move to permanent premises at Ealing being made in July, 1867.

The Boys' Refuge at Arthur Street, which was rather small and inconvenient for its purpose, was transferred in 1857 to new premises — a former coach factory on Great Queen Street. The sum of £850 needed to alter and equip the building included a grant from the Ragged School Union, together with funds raised by the former Lord Ashley, who in 1851 had succeeded to the title of the Earl of Shaftesbury.

The Great Queen Street Refuge, c.1857. © Peter Higginbotham

The increasing workload undertaken by William Williams — still then working on an unpaid basis — prompted the Committee in 1857 to create a full-time post of 'Assistant to the Secretary', to which William Chappell was appointed. Despite this, Williams decided to give up his employment as a solicitor's clerk so that he could devote even more time to his work for the Society. After his plans to generate a income from occasional private work were unsuccessful, the Committee decided — without consulting Williams — to create a permanent, full-time, salaried position for him. This he reluctantly accepted, but at a salary of only £150 a year, rather less then the Committee had originally offered, and also less than his clerk's salary.

Emigration

An ongoing problem for the Society was finding suitable employment for its children after they left its homes. A solution adopted by the Society was that of emigrating the children to British colonies, where labour was in demand. Another advocate of emigration was Lord Ashley who, in June 1848, made a speech in the House of Commons suggesting that an annual government grant be made to fund the voluntary emigration of children from London's ragged schools. His proposal received widespread support and the sum of £1,500 was subsequently made available for the purpose. At the end of 1848, a party of 22 boys became the first to emigrate under the scheme, with each of them having been provided by the Society with a new outfit of clothes and a bible. All together, total of 150 boys, selected from amongst 6,000 at 30 different ragged schools, departed for New South Wales. Although the government grant was not renewed, the Society continued to fund the emigration each year of as many children as it could afford. In July 1857, a party of ten girls was accompanied to Canada by the matron of the Girls' Refuge, Mrs Edmonds, who remained until she was satisfied that they had all obtained suitable situations.

The Chichester and Arethusa

Lord Shaftesbury's continued support for the Society led, in 1866, to his becoming its Patron. In January of that year, great public interest was stirred up by the publication in the Pall Mall Gazette of a series of articles entitled A Night in a Workhouse. The anonymous journalist, who had spent a night in causal ward the Lambeth workhouse, graphically described the bleak conditions provided for the inmates, who included several young boys. In the wake of these revelations, Shaftesbury launched a new initiative to take such boys of the streets by giving them a training for life at sea. The following month, on St Valentine's Night (February 14th), he organised a supper at the Broad Street Refuge to which were invited any boys under the age of 16 who were staying at night refuges and workhouse casual wards in the area. Tempted by the prospect of a warm fire free hot meal, around 200 boys overcame their natural caution and attended the event.

The Great Supper, 1866. © Peter Higginbotham

The boys were welcomed by William Williams and his helpers and were shown into the main school room, set out as a dining, where the Refuge's own 200 residents were also waiting to greet their guests. After filling the visitors up with roast beef, plum pudding and coffee, Lord Shaftesbury spent some time going around the room, talking the boys and hearing about their lives. He then came to the main point of the evening and addressed the assembled company. "Now, boys, supposing that there were in the Thames a big ship large enough to contain a thousand boys, would you like to be placed on board to be taught a trade or trained for the Navy and Merchant Service?" Shatesbury's words were greeted with cheers and roars of approval and he promised to set about finding a vessel for the purpose. His request to the Admiralty received a rapid and positive response, with the redundant frigate Chichester being offered to the Society. After being fitted out, the Chichester was moored on the Thames off Greenhithe and officially inaugurated into its new role on December 18th, 1866.

The Chichester, 1867. © Peter Higginbotham

The Chichester proved a great success with more than 1300 boys accepted for training on the ship by the summer of 1874, with up to 250 resident on board at any one time. A proposal to establish a second ship was quickly met by the offer of £5,000 from Lady Burdett-Coutts to fund the venture. The Admiralty again proved forthcoming and provided the Arethusa, a wooden frigate which could accommodate staff and 250 boys. The refitted Arethusa was moored near to the Chichester and was officially opened in August, 1874.

The Arethusa, c.1900. © Peter Higginbotham

The Chichester was sold in 1889 and replaced by a smaller and more modern vessel, the brigantine Ballerina, which was renamed Chichester.

Away from London

Once the Chichester had come into operation, the Society began to look for accommodation in the countryside, to which boys could be moved from the slums of London. In 1867, a farm for sale was found at Bisley, near Woking in Surrey, and fund-raising began to purchase the property and erect the required premises. The site, which became the Farm School and Country Home, came into operation in 1868.

Bisley Farm School for Boys, 1868. © Peter Higginbotham

While the initial building work was being carried out, boys from the London Refuge came in groups of 25 to spend a week's holiday at Bisley, camping in the farm's barns. When it came fully into operation, Bisley could accommodate 150 boys who were taught farming skills, carpentry, tailoring, and bread-making. Some also learned telegraphy, a skill then becoming much in demand in the commercial world. The School also had its own uniformed wind band. In 1873, the accommodation at Bisley was increased by the construction of a second home in the grounds of the Farm School, which was named the Shaftesbury School.

The End of Ragged Schools

The 1870 Elementary Education Act introduced a system of School Boards to supplement the existing voluntary provision for children aged for 5 to 13 years. A Board could be set up in any area where the existing number of school places was calculated to be insufficient. Board Schools were funded by local rates and could also charge weekly attendance fees, although children from poor families could be admitted without payment. Religious education in Board Schools was required to be non-denominational and parents could withdraw their children from it. Boards could make their own byelaws, such as making school attendance free in their area. From 1880, school attendance was made compulsory for all those aged 5 to 13, and in 1891 all public elementary schools became free. A significant effect of the 1870 and later Acts was steadily to reduce the need for ragged schools. This was recognised by the Society when, in around 1872, its name was changed to The National Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children and 'Chichester' Training Ship. The last ragged school being run by the Society, in Little Coram Street, finally closed in 1891.

New Ventures

In 1871, the Society began an experiment in the shape of the News-boys' Home at 80 Gray's Inn Road. The Home, which was superintended by a married couple, offered modestly priced bed and board to boys' selling newspapers and other articles on the city's streets. In 1875, the establishment began to also offer accommodation to boys starting work in London and so was renamed the Home for Working Boys.

In 1872, the Refuge at 19 Broad Street was closed and the girls moved to a more rural location at Sudbury Hall, Wembley. The Broad Street premises were then converted to a lodging house for working boys. In 1878, the Boys' Refuge in Great Queen Street relocated to a large mansion at Twickenham, known as Fortescue House. A smaller property at 25 Great Queen Street was then opened as a receiving home for boys coming into the Society's care.

Sudbury Home for Girls, Wembley, c.1920s. © Peter Higginbotham

In 1883, a house in Hamilton, Ontario, was taken by the Society on a three-year lease as a reception home for its boys who were emigrating to Canada. It provided a base for new arrivals until they found a job, and also a temporary home for those who were out of work or ill. Financial and other difficulties led to its move to cheaper premises in nearby Wingham and eventual abandonment in 1888.

Lord Shaftesbury, who had become the Society's Patron in 1866, and its President in 1874, died on October 1st, 1885. He was succeeded as President by the Earl of Jersey, one of the Society's Vice-Presidents. One of Lord Jersey's early initiatives, by way of honouring Shaftesbury's memory, was the setting up in 1886 of 'The Ashley Club', a room set aside at the Great Queen Street premises where young men. who had passed through one of the Society's schools or refuges, could come and socialise, read newspapers, play board games, and relax. Despite an enthusiastic start, interest in the Club soon waned and it was discontinued within a couple of years.

A New Headquarters

Also in 1886, the Society decided to bring together all its London activities (with the exception of the Little Coram Street Ragged School) at a single location. After no suitable premises could be found, a site was purchased on the recently constructed thoroughfare of Shaftesbury Avenue and an architect was commissioned to design a new building. On 17th June, 1887, the Prince of Wales laid of the foundation stone of what was originally to be known as 'The Jubilee Memorial Home' in honour of Queen Victoria's golden jubilee. However, by the time the Countess of Jersey formally opened the completed building on May 15th, 1888, it had adopted the name Shaftesbury House, with the address of 164 Shaftesbury Avenue. The premises included accommodation for 100 destitute boys and 35 working boys, together with a club, institute and offices for the Society. The Working boys' department was renamed Fordham House in 1892 after a long-serving Treasurer of the Society.

164 Shaftesbury Avenue. © Peter Higginbotham

The Departure of William Williams

At the end of 1889, the declining health of the Society's founder, William Williams, led to his decision to retire as the Society's Secretary. He was awarded a retirement allowance of £250 a year and retained his connection with the work of the Society as Vice-Chairman of the General Committee and member of the Ships' Committee. He also continued to visit the Society's various homes. After a brief illness, he died on January 21st, 1892. In his memory, four staff cottages were erected at Bisley, known as the Williams Memorial Cottages.

Reflecting the ever increasing workload of the Society's Secretary, Williams was succeeded by two joint holders of the post. In 1889, Mr Henry G Copeland was appointed Finance and Deputation Secretary. The following year, Mr H Bristow Allen, who had previously been Secretary of the Home for Working Boys, was appointed Secretary. From 1904, the two became Joint Secretaries, working side by side until the end 1926, when Mr Wallen retired, with Mr Copeland also retiring the following Spring.

The Turn of the Century

In 1896, the Boys' Refuge at 164 Shaftesbury Avenue was turned into a technical school for older boys from the Society's other homes. Boys arrived at the age of 14 and received up to 18 moths of instruction in trades such as shoemaking or tailoring.

Several new fund-raising ventures were launched in 1900. Children from comfortable homes were targeted by the formation of a 'Victoria League' for girls, and an 'Arethusa League' for boys. Lantern-slide presentations of the Society's work were prepared, after which collections were taken. A network of local agents was set up to promote the Society and to receive donations. The Society also benefited from substantial donations from Alfred Fennings, the founder of a successful company selling over-the-counter medicines such as Fennings' Fever Curer. After Fennings' death in 1900, the Society continued to receive the profits from his company which eventually ran into millions of pounds. In 1904, the Society became Incorporated under the 1867 Companies Act which allowed it to formally hold its own property and also freed its Trustees from personal financial liabilities.

On the occasion of its Diamond Jubilee in 1903, the Society decided to set up a new home for girls who were too young to attend the existing establishments at Sudbury and Ealing. Financial constraints delayed progress with the scheme but in 1906 a site was purchased at Royston in Hertfordshire. The Little Girls' Home, which accommodated up to 80 children, was officially opened in November, 1908.

Royston Home for Little Girls, early 1900s. © Peter Higginbotham

The First World War

The First World War caused great difficulties for the Society. Its income suffered considerably from a substantial fall in donations and by 1916 had a deficit of over £6,000. The sailing brig Chichester was sold off in 1917 for 500 guineas. This, together with a highly successful appeal for funds to city insurance, shipping and marine companies, brought the deficit down to £1,500. Many of the Society's staff were called up for military duty, resulting in even more stress for those trying to keep the homes running. Old boys from the Society's homes also contributed to the war effort. By 1917, 900 of them had joined up, with having been killed, 14 invalided out, and 9 captured as prisoners of war.

A Changing Image

The Society's President since 1885, Lord Jersey, died in 1915. Because of the wartime upheavals, no immediate successor was appointed. This was remedied in 1919 when the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, became President. One of the first matters in which he was involved was a change in the Society's name. The existing name (The National Refuges for Homeless and Destitute Children) was felt to be out of keeping with the times and, it was said, upsetting to many of those in the Society's homes. The new name that was adopted was The Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa. (In 1944, the Ragged School Union was renamed the Shaftesbury Society, but was always a separate organisation.)

Reflecting the change of name, efforts began to make the Society's establishments more homely and less institutional. At the Ealing girls' home, greater contact with the local community was encouraged and a Girl Guides company started. The employment prospects of the children also received increasing attention. For the boys, in particular, an increasingly wide range of occupations was becoming available. For girls, however, although nursing and teaching offered an alternative to domestic employment, there were some in the Society who were concerned at the 'over-education of the working classes. At a conference of the Society's Ladies Association in 1926, one speaker saw the ideal destination for many girls as the 'good wives' of the 'splendid young men of the Dominions'.

New Homes for Old

In 1929, the Society took over the Newport Market Army Training School, founded in 1863 at Newport Market, Soho, to train poor boys for a career as military bandsmen. Under the Society's control, the school was renamed The Newport Market Army Bands School.

Also in 1929, increasing structural problems with the building at the Sudbury Hall girls' home led to a search for new premises. The following year, the Society acquired Esher Place in Surrey, a large mansion set in ten acres of grounds. The property was large enough to also accommodate the girls from the Ealing home. Most of the £8,000 cost of converting Esher Place was raised by the sale of the Sudbury Hall and Ealing House properties. At around this time, the Royston establishment was turned into a home for young boys.

In 1935, following an approach from the 'National Society for the Protection of Young Girls (Princess Louise Home)', which was in financial difficulties, a merger was agreed between the two organisations. The girls' home was then renamed Esher Place (Princess Louise Home for Girls).

The venerable Arethusa also came to the end of the line in 1932 when it was condemned as unfit for further service. She was replaced by the Peking, a steel-hulled barque built in Hamburg in 1911. Renamed Arethusa, she was refitted at the Royal Dockyard, Chatham, and took up a new mooring on the River Medway at Upnor, near Rochester, in July 1933.

In 1937, the Fortescue House boys' home moved to larger premises, the former Police Orphanage in Twickenham, where the Newport Market Army Bands School could also be accommodated. The new establishment had the rather cumbersome official name of 'Fortescue House (incorporating the New Market Army Bands School)'.

Fortescue House, London Road, Twickenham © Peter Higginbotham

The Second World War

As had happened in 1914-18, the Second World War put a great strain on the Society's operations. Donations and subscriptions were reduced, the prices of food and clothing increased, and extra expenditure required for matters such as the provision of air-raid shelters and the evacuation of some of the children. Wherever possible, children were returned to their own parents to make room for those who were made homeless or orphaned by the war. Between 1939 and 1941, the number of children in the Society's care fell from 1,200 to 800.

Apart from 50 of the older boys who were about to enter the Royal Navy, the inmates of the Arethusa were temporarily returned to their homes. The remainder were evacuated in 1940 to Salcombe, in Devon, when the ship was taken over by the Admiralty as accommodation for naval ratings.

At Fordham House Hostel in London, the building was reinforced and sleeping accommodation for boys and staff set up in a locker room and adjoining lobby, with the women sleeping in the swimming bath. Underground shelters were set up at the Bisley, Esher and Fortescue House homes.

The Society's homes all contributed to the war effort by growing vegetables on any land they had available. At Royston and Esher, the children picked herbs for food and wild plants for medicine. At Fortescue House and Bisley, the boys made small lathe-turned parts for use by the forces.

After an incendiary bomb landed in the grounds of Esher House, the girls and their teachers were evacuated to a school at Bradford. Two flying bombs fell on Fortescue House in 1944, on in a playing field, the other directly on the building. The boys were subsequently evacuated, some to South Wales, the others to a nissen hut camp at Bucklesham in Suffolk. The boys were all later transferred to Pontefract in Yorkshire. The only home to be entirely undamaged was Royston, but not a single child or member of staff was injured.

On wartime casualty was the Duke of Kent, the Society's President since 1936. He was killed in an air crash in 1941.

The Post-War Years

After the war, the subject of how best to deal with children in care came under the spotlight. A parliamentary committee was appointed, under Miss Myra Curtis, "to inquire into the existing methods of providing for children who... are deprived of a normal home life with their own parents or relatives; and to consider what further measures should be taken to ensure that these children are bought up under conditions best calculated to compensate them for the lack of parental care." The committee looked at wide range of children including the destitute, the homeless, war orphans, the physically and mentally handicapped, children removed from their families by the courts, and children awaiting adoption. Its conclusions, in what became known as the Curtis Report, had a huge impact. For children without parents or a satisfactory home, adoption was proposed as the best option, with fostering the next best. If a child had to undergo institutional care, then this should be in small homes of no more than twelve children and ideally no more than eight. Children in such homes should be encouraged to maintain contact with relatives and to develop friendships outside the home. Brothers and sisters in care should be kept together. The Curtis Report's proposals formed the basis of the 1948 Children's Act.

An early sign of the changing approach came in the summer of 1946. The parents of those children in the Society's care who could afford to pay for their fare, went home for the holiday. Others spent time in the homes of volunteer 'aunts and uncles'.

The Society also had to contend with the requirements of the 1944 Education Act, under which primary and secondary education was to be provided at separate schools. This caused problems at Bisley where the two original schools had merged in 1919, one becoming the junior department, the other the senior. It was eventually determined that Bisley would have to become a secondary school for boys aged 11 and over, while Fortescue House would be a primary school for those aged 7 to 11.

In November 1945, the boys at Fordham House moved to larger premises in Hampstead, although the Technical School was discontinued as part of the reorganisation. However, the steeply rising costs of the Society's operations — partly due to a post-war surge in the numbers of children being taken into care — meant that cuts had to be made. It was therefore decided in 1948 to close Fordham House. The Society also sold the freehold of its Head Office site on Shaftesbury Avenue, though continued to rent offices on the first floor of the building.

Further retrenchment followed in 1952 with the closure of Esher Place and of Royston. Esher Place was replaced by a much smaller house a few miles away at East Molesey. In 1958, Bisley was also closed and the boys transferred to Fortescue House which was reorganised and expanded to create separate junior and senior schools on the same site. On the more positive side, an ocean-going steam yacht, Glen Strathallan, was bequeathed to the Society in 1955 for use in the training of boys for the sea services. It was moored on the Thames alongside to the Arethusa.

Facing the Future

The Society's financial problems continued into the 1960s. In 1967, its Head Office moved from 164 Shaftesbury Avenue to smaller premises at 229A Shaftesbury Avenue. Its difficulties were added to by the general trend away from providing residential care in large institutions, which had been the Society's traditional main activity. By the 1970s, there was also a decline in the number of boys interested in training for a life at sea. In 1972, following a major review by consultants of the Society's options for the future, known as the Hunt Report, three major changes were proposed. First, the Arethusa would now be run as a floating secondary boarding school, coupling high quality education with character training and adventure. Second, the Society would open one or more hostels for homeless school leavers, run along family-style lines. Third, a suitably qualified 'Social Service Secretary' would be appointed to co-ordinate all caring aspects of the Society's work. These recommendations offered a path by which the Society could continue to pursue an active role in the support of young people.

In 1973, the first of the Society's 'Adolescent Hostels' was opened in house Putney, housing ten boys in their late teens under the supervision of a small residential staff. The neighbouring house subsequently acquired for use as a 'progress' hostel and fitted out as self-contained flatlets for those able to live independently. In 1975, Esher House became a supported hostel for vulnerable, young, single mothers with their babies. Funding for these new initiatives came from the sale in 1974 of the Society's last big property, Fortescue House at Twickenham. The remaining residents of Fortescue House were transferred to new premises at Hanworth, Middlesex.

Although the Arethusa did see a short period of use as a floating boarding school, the cost of its maintenance, together with £100,000 worth of urgently needed repairs, led to the decision to dispose of the vessel. She was sold in 1975 to the South Street Seaport Museum of New York and restored to her 1911 condition and name, the Peking. In the same year, a new 71-foot ketch was acquired to become the third Arethusa, itself replaced in 1982 by another purpose-built vessel. The Arethusa's on shore buildings were developed into the Upnor Venture Centre. Two other new nautical-related projects were the John Collett Barge, a floating school for children from the Borough of Southwark who struggled to cope with mainstream education, and the Sir Alan Herbert, a sailing barge used as a mobile adventure centre for inner-city children.

Other new ventures in the 1980s and 1990s included the McAndrew House Family Centre in Clapham for parent having difficulty coping with their children, the Ipswich Young Persons Support Team providing guidance and support to vulnerable young people in the city, and a scheme to manage residential homes for young people on behalf of the Borough of Wandsworth.

In 2006, the charity changed its working name to Shaftesbury Young People. Its present-day mission statement is "To support young people in care and in need to find their voice, to be healthy, to learn, develop and achieve and to gain an independent and positive place in society.

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.

Bibliography

  • Bailey, Marion Chance of a Lifetime - the Story of the Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa (1996, Dianthus Publishing)
  • Cuthbert, V Where Dreams Come True: A Record of 95 Years (1937, London: Shaftesbury Homes and "Arethusa" Training Ship)
  • Higginbotham, Peter Children's Homes: A History of Institutional Care for Britain's Young (2017, Pen & Sword)
  • Hodder, Edwin The Life and Work of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G. (1886, Cassell)

Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.