St Winifred's Home for Girls, Rhyl, Flintshire, Wales
St Winifred's Home for Girls was opened by the Waifs and Strays Society in 1925 at Summerfield on Brighton Road, Rhyl. The home, which was the successor to the St Mark's Home for Girls in Carnarvon, could accommodate 26 girls aged from 6 to 16. Most of its initial residents were the daughters of men who had died in the First World War.
St Winifred's Home for Girls, Rhyl, c.1925. © Peter Higginbotham
St Winifred's Home for Girls, Rhyl, c.1925. © Peter Higginbotham
Christmas at St Winifred's Home for Girls, Rhyl, c.1926. © Peter Higginbotham
For many years, the home was run by three sisters named Bertha, Lily and Blanche Broughton, who took on the role of matron in turn.
St Winifred's Home for Girls, Rhyl, c.1929. © Peter Higginbotham
St Winifred's Home for Girls, Rhyl, c.1931. © Peter Higginbotham
After the Second World War, the home became a mixed establishment. In 1954, Chester Zoo presented the children at the home with a donkey named Joseph as a Christmas present. Mr G.A. Mottershead, curator of the zoo, had heard that the home was in need of a donkey for its Christmas Nativity play. He said it could have Joseph and keep him for good.
The home closed in around 1971.
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.
