St John's Home for Girls, Mildenhall, Suffolk
The St John's Home for Girls was established by the Waifs and Strays Society in 1883 at Beck House on St John's Street, Beck Row, near Mildenhall. The property, an old farmhouse with a large garden and orchard, was made available to the Society for only a nominal annual rent by the Rev. A.G. Livingstone.
St John's Home for Girls, Beck Row, Mildenhall, 1884. © Peter Higginbotham
On April 9th, 1884, the home was certified for the reception of 12 girls, aged from 7 to 12 years, placed there by the workhouse authorities. The girls were given a basic education and also trained for future employment in domestic service.
St John's Home for Girls, Beck Row, Mildenhall, 1906. © Peter Higginbotham
St John's Home for Girls, Beck Row, Mildenhall, 1903. © Peter Higginbotham
The home closed in 1907 and the girls transferred to the Society's new St Audrey's Home in Bedford.
Former St John's Home for Girls, Beck Row, Mildenhall, 2013. © Peter Higginbotham
The Beck Row property now houses a local nursery.
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.
