Children of the Scattered Homes............ stories from Sheffield on Radio 4 today with a bit about Canada

Fitzalan Square, Sheffield 1935

Now here is a programme that gets to the heart of how some of our children were treated while in “care” at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th.

Using original records and memories as well as the research of local historians the programme focuses in those Sheffield children who were taken into care by the Sheffield Union.

And as you would expect contains stories of those migrated to Canada by the Catholic Emigrating Society and Barnados.

"Clare Jenkins uses the resources of the Sheffield Archive, social media and newspapers to track down the children of the 'scattered homes' - a pioneering scheme, begun in 1893, to take poor children over three years old out of the workhouse and bring them up in homes scattered across the city.

Clare researches the history of the system and talks to descendants of those children adopted by the Sheffield Guardians . 

She looks at their school reports and finds out what happened to the children after they left their 'scattered home'.

The system was called 'utopian' by the Victorians, and copied all over Britain. It was seen as a successful way of removing the children away from the pauperisation effects of the workhouse - but the children were often parted from their parents just because they were poor.

Detail of Fitzalan Square, 1935

Clare discovers how to research recent history as she tracks down the stories of the children of the scattered homes and learns of their fate."**

There will be much that will strike home with anyone who has a family member who was a BHC.

One contributor  said of her grandmother that "not much love was given out" but then she had not "experienced much love".  

Many of those remembering grandparents who had been in care commented on how they seldom talked of their time in the homes.

C&A Fitzalan Square, 1935

There is also that all too familiar attitude from the people of plenty and their political representatives that such care was a double edged, and that if those homes were too comfortable poor parents would seek to place their children there to avoid their responsibilities.

Not that some of the homes were such havens, and in once case a young girl called Ada had her name changed to Ida just because of the confusion that arise because there was already an Ada living there.

That said we should never forget that in some cases children taken into care were in real danger.

So the programme draws on the Magistrates Records to highlight one family where the children were judged to have been neglected for some time that they were "very dirty" and as consequence both parents were sentenced to three and four months in prison.

But I get carried out away and so will just suggest you follow the link and listen


Picture; Fitzalan Square, 1935 from the collection of Alan Brown,

*Children of the Scattered Homes, Producer: Janet Graves, A Pennine production for BBC Radio 4,http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05pr81r

**Programme notes