Ancestry UK

St Margaret's Home for Girls / Blanche Wimbridge Home, Penkridge, Staffordshire

The St Margaret's Home for Training Destitute Girls was founded in 1885 at Cuttlestone Cottage, Clay Street, Penkridge. As its name suggests, it took destitute girls between the ages of 5 and 14, and trained them for a future in domestic service. The home was certified for the reception of up to 20 pauper children placed by the Boards of Guardians who administered the poor relief and workhouse system. A payment of £13 a year was required for each girl, to be paid quarterly in advance. At admission, each girl also needed to be provided with three changes of linen and medical certificate required. The home provided each girl with an outfit when she left for service. Girls of bad character were not admitted.

In 1893, the running of the home was taken over by the Waifs and Strays Society and continued very much along its existing lines.

The location of the home is shown on the 1923 map below.

St Margaret's Home for Girls site, Penkridge, c.1923.

In 1923, the establishment was renamed the Blanche Wimbridge Home. It closed in 1931.

The building no longer survives.

Records

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Bibliography