St Lawrence's Home for Girls, Worcester, Worcestershire
The St Lawrence's Home for Girls was founded in 1890 by Lady Alice Nelson. It provided accommodation for up to 16 girls aged from 8 to 12 who had been 'ruined or addicted to impure habits'. A payment of five shillings a week was required for each girl. The girls were trained in needlework and dress-making.
When Lady Nelson retired from her active involvement with the home in 1903, it was taken over by the Waifs and Strays Society who initially continued to run it along its existing lines. Before too long, however, it became an ordinary Society branch home.
St Lawrence's Home for Girls, Worcester, c.1908. © Peter Higginbotham
Building work at the property in 1911 increased its capacity to 30 girls aged 7 from 16. A playroom was added in 1928.
At Christmas, the girls prepared a theatrical entertainment — in 1911, it was a piece called The White Garland.
Christmas Entertainment at St Lawrence's Home for Girls, Worcester, 1911. © Peter Higginbotham
Fire escape at St Lawrence's Home for Girls, Worcester, c.1924. © Peter Higginbotham
The home was closed temporarily in 1951 then re-opened as a hostel for student nursery nurses.
The property is now a hotel.
Former St Lawrence's Home for Girls, Worcester, 2012. © Peter Higginbotham
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.
