[an error occurred while processing this directive] Hampshire Female Orphan Asylum, Southampton, Hampshire
Ancestry UK

Hampshire Female Orphan Asylum, Southampton, Hampshire

The Hampshire Female Orphan Asylum was founded in 1837 and in 1852 opened in premises at 1-3 Park (later King's Park) Road, Southampton. It provided a home for girls, born Hampshire, with one or both of their parents deceased. Admission was by an election of the charity's subscribers in May and November every year. A payment was required for each girl of £2 on entrance, and £5 a year thereafter. Certificates were required of the birth and baptism of the candidate, the marriage of her parents, and the death of one or both of them, and a medical certificate of the girl's good health. Girls had to be aged between 7 and 12 on the day of their nomination, and stayed in the Asylum until about the age of 16, when situations as domestic servants were obtained for them. The Asylum could originally house 50 girls but this increased to 100 after the building was enlarged in 1887

The location of the home is shown on the 1899 map below.

Hampshire Female Orphan Asylum, Southampton, c.1897.

During the Second World War, the home — by then known as the Hampshire Girls' Orphanage — was evacuated to a house called 'Marden' on Rhinefield Road, Brockenhurst. It appears that the home never returned to Southampton and the King's Park Road premises were taken over as a health centre, now demolished to create a car park.

The home subsequently moved to a property known as Hawk's Lease at Lyndhurst in the New Forest. In 1958, it started to admit boys and changed its name to the Hampshire Girls and Boys' Home. In 1961, the home was taken over by the Waifs and Strays Society and became their Hawk's Lease Home.

Records

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Bibliography