Ancestry UK

St Deny's Home For Toddlers, Clitheroe, Lancashire

St Deny's Home For Toddlers was opened by the Waifs and Strays Society in 1915 as a replacement for the Society's home at Newchurch in Rossendale. St Deny's occupied a large house on Pimlico Road, Clitheroe, and initially accommodated 30 children, aged from 2 to 5 years.

The location of the home is shown on the 1932 map below.

St Deny's Home For Toddlers site, Clitheroe, c.1932.

St Deny's Home For Toddlers, Clitheroe, c.1916. © Peter Higginbotham

St Deny's Home For Toddlers, Clitheroe, c.1926. © Peter Higginbotham

The home's capacity was increased to 34 after building work was carried out in 1922. The children themselves helped pay for the work by performing in a pageant, which was a popular fund-raising event with the Society at the time. The St Deny's children's contribution to the proceedings was 'Children Through The Ages', featuring items such as 'Bethlehem' (the Nativity story), 'St Nicholas' (patron saint of children), 'St Gregory', 'St Cuthbert', 'The Boy Bishop', 'The Dame School', 'Old Street Cries', 'The Little Waif', and 'The Church Receiving the Children'. The pageant, which ran for three nights at a venue in Manchester, raised in the region of £250. In 1926, money raised by a fête in the home's garden paid for the installation of electric lighting at the property.

St Deny's Home For Toddlers, Clitheroe, c.1927. © Peter Higginbotham

St Deny's Home For Toddlers, Clitheroe, c.1932. © Peter Higginbotham

In the 1980s, the home was used to provide care for older children with difficult family backgrounds.

The home finally closed in 1992. The property no longer survives.

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