Ancestry UK

St Aidan's Home for Boys, Whitley Bay, Northumberland

St Aidan's Home for Boys was opened by the Waifs and Strays Society in 1901 at 4 Rockcliffe, on the main promenade at Whitley Bay. It could accommodate 15 boys aged from 7 to 10.

St Aidan's Home for Boys, Whitley Bay, c.1903. © Peter Higginbotham

A tragedy occurred at the home on 11th March, 1904. Patrick James Hardy, aged seven years, was passing through the kitchen and stopped to warm his hands at the range. An overall which he was wearing caught fire. He suffered from sever burns from which he later died. An inquest jury strongly recommended that fireguards should placed in all rooms at the home that contained fires.

St Aidan's, located in a rented property, was originally envisaged as a temporary home but the demand for places at the establishment soon led to plans for a larger, permanent home in the area. In 1906, all the Whitley Bay home's residents transferred to the new home at Tynemouth.

The former home now forms the leftmost section of the St Anne's apartment building.

Former St Aidan's Home for Boys, Whitley Bay, 2014. © Peter Higginbotham

Records

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Bibliography