Now quite understandably the study of British Home Children takes a different path after the migration of young people to Canada stopped in the 1930s.
It was to continue in a slightly different form for another forty years as children continued to be sent to Australia, and nor was there closure for those sent to Canada who after they left the farms and domestic service lived full and productive lives in their adopted country.
Their lives continue to be explored by descendants and historians.
Indeed in the last decade and a bit BHC has become a serious area for historical research which can only be for the good of all of us.
But I am increasingly interested in what happened here in Britain after migration stopped and in particular how young people “who missed the boat” experienced the world of charitable care.
And here it has to be said that for every child who was migrated, many more stayed in Britain in the care of the Poor Law Unions or children’s charities.
Some spent a relatively short time in an institution, waiting on family circumstances to improve while others remained, seeing out their childhood in homes and orphanages.
At which point I have to own up and say that my interest is in part to do with the new book I am working on with the archivist of the Together Trust which has been commissioned to mark the charity’s 150th anniversary in 2020.*
The charity began in 1870 with the purpose of offering a bed for the night to destitute young boys found on the streets of Manchester and Salford, and within a decade had expanded into a wide range of activities to do with young people who were in need of care.
The form of care that was provided changed with the century, and so what in 1870 was immediate and pretty much a reaction to a crisis on the streets, over time evolved into a more interventionist approach which saw the charity campaign for the regulation of child labour along with prosecuting neglectful and abusive parents and the provision in the homes for vocational training for both boys and girls.
They stopped the migration of young people at the outbreak of the Great War and in 1920 changed direction with a move out of the inner cities to a green field site and the establishment of a “children’s village”.
The creation of the Welfare State and the growing involvement of local authorities in the care of young people further changed the role of the charity with by the beginning of this century more emphasis on working with families as well as children.
All of which makes the story of the charity less an account of one organization and more a comment on how society has and continues to evolve its approach to those who at one stage of their life need help.
And in the course of the research the Trust has made available a set of oral histories from the 1930s onwards which give a fascinating insight into what it was like to be in the children’s village in Cheadle.
The first dating from 1937 will be from children who just twenty years earlier could have been bound for Canada, and whose contemporaries from other parts of the country might well have had siblings who were sent over.
They record the minutia of living in a home, from the routines, to the small acts of childish rebellion, the memorable moments like the lighting of the Christmas tree and the bitter sweet memories of life in care, which in the case of the first I have read were positive.
There are plenty more to read and I have to say I am looking forward to the task, partly because it is always fascinating reading about other people but also because it takes the story down a different path.
Pictures; courtesy of the Together Trust, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-together-trust.html
*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust
 |
| The Children's Village, Cheadle, 1920s |
Their lives continue to be explored by descendants and historians.
Indeed in the last decade and a bit BHC has become a serious area for historical research which can only be for the good of all of us.
But I am increasingly interested in what happened here in Britain after migration stopped and in particular how young people “who missed the boat” experienced the world of charitable care.
 |
| Belmont in Cheadle, 1920 |
Some spent a relatively short time in an institution, waiting on family circumstances to improve while others remained, seeing out their childhood in homes and orphanages.
At which point I have to own up and say that my interest is in part to do with the new book I am working on with the archivist of the Together Trust which has been commissioned to mark the charity’s 150th anniversary in 2020.*
 |
| Promotional material, date unknown |
The form of care that was provided changed with the century, and so what in 1870 was immediate and pretty much a reaction to a crisis on the streets, over time evolved into a more interventionist approach which saw the charity campaign for the regulation of child labour along with prosecuting neglectful and abusive parents and the provision in the homes for vocational training for both boys and girls.
They stopped the migration of young people at the outbreak of the Great War and in 1920 changed direction with a move out of the inner cities to a green field site and the establishment of a “children’s village”.
The creation of the Welfare State and the growing involvement of local authorities in the care of young people further changed the role of the charity with by the beginning of this century more emphasis on working with families as well as children.
All of which makes the story of the charity less an account of one organization and more a comment on how society has and continues to evolve its approach to those who at one stage of their life need help.
 |
| Promotional material, date unknown |
The first dating from 1937 will be from children who just twenty years earlier could have been bound for Canada, and whose contemporaries from other parts of the country might well have had siblings who were sent over.
They record the minutia of living in a home, from the routines, to the small acts of childish rebellion, the memorable moments like the lighting of the Christmas tree and the bitter sweet memories of life in care, which in the case of the first I have read were positive.
There are plenty more to read and I have to say I am looking forward to the task, partly because it is always fascinating reading about other people but also because it takes the story down a different path.
Pictures; courtesy of the Together Trust, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-together-trust.html
*A new book on the Together Trust, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20Together%20Trust
I am sure you already know about the boys in southern England who were sent to sail training ships https://somerville66.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/what-did-they-do-with-workhouse-boys.html
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link Elizabeth, I found the article most interesting.
ReplyDeleteAs it turns out, my grandfather and his brother were both down to go to a TLS sent by the Derby Guardians in 1914. Granddad went, great uncle Roger opted to go to Canada as a BHC. They had both been very challenging and wayward. Why great uncle Roger opted for Canada is now lost in time.