Audenshaw Girls Home for Waifs and Strays
A very Victorian title, but the home did offer a much better future for girls, than they might have experienced without its establishment.
As we know from Dickens the life of poor people was very hard in Victorian times. The Church of England and other Christian organisations did try to help the needy. In today’s eyes this can be regarded as very condescending action but they did help to ease the lot of the needy.
The Waifs and Strays’ Society was formed in London in 1881 by Robert and Edward Rudolf, and the first home for boys was established in Clapton in 1882. By 1890 there were 35 homes and 1600 children in the society’s care.
In 1893 the Society took on the official name of the ‘Church of England Incorporated Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays’. In 1946 it was renamed the ‘Church of England Children’s Society’. From 1982 it adopted the informal title of ‘The Children’s Society’, as it is known today.
A home for girls was established at Trafalgar House on Audenshaw Road in 1894. The persons mainly responsible for this were Revd. W. Goss and Mr G. H. Ashworth. Mr Ashworth lived at Audenshaw Lodge and was a member of the Ashworth and Hadwin company who owned mills in the area and warehouses in Manchester. He was for many years the secretary of the Manchester branch of the society. He was a very practical and determined man and it is recorded that he and his wife spent the night before the home opened in the house sleeping on the floor awaiting the arrival of the girls’ beds.
During the 1890s Audenshaw underwent some major changes. In the summer of 1897 Trafalgar House expanded. It now housed twenty children, rather than the twelve it coped with before. During the building work the children were taken on holiday to the seaside at Bolton-le-Sands for one month.
In November 1898 the Home was certified to receive children under the Poor Law, which meant that it could now admit girls from the most impoverished backgrounds. This measure had immediate effect, allowing three children in the Stockport Home to be transferred to Audenshaw. They were all under the care of the matron, Miss Squire, who according to one visitor was ‘not only a judicious teacher and advisor, but also a loving mother at the head of their happy little home.’
During its lifetime Audenshaw Home held regular festivities for its children, who were aged between six and thirteen. Every year the girls had a ‘Summer Treat’, which was paid for by people in the local community.
In 1898 this involved a trip to Worsley, where they dined at the Lady Ellesmere Coffee Tavern, and walked through the grounds of Worsley Hall. The Home also held an annual party at the beginning of the year, for which each girl was allowed to invite a friend from school.
Other events at Audenshaw Home included the annual Pound Day, which in 1900 was expanded to include a fête with a performance from the Audenshaw Amateur Minstrels. Many of these special occasions were organised by Miss Hadwen who was Honorary Treasurer for many years, and Miss Judson who was Honorary Secretary for most of the Home’s lifetime.
The Second World War had a big impact on the Homes within the Manchester branch of the Waifs and Strays’ Society. In 1939 Audenshaw was forced to evacuate to the Ashbourne Home in Derbyshire, where the children were to stay.
The home was closed in 1970.
One of our member’s mother spent her early childhood at the home and she has written the following account of her mother’s experience:
Audenshaw Girls Home for Waifs and Strays was a substantial building on Audenshaw Road now known as Trafalgar House. It had three floors the bottom one being a basement. There used to be a sunken walkway around the outside of the house, which was always filled with cinders from the fire.
In about 1921 my mother Jean and her sister Catherine (Kitty) McGregor were taken to live there by their father who was dying of tuberculosis. Their mother had already died of this disease when my mum was about eighteen months old.
There were twelve girls altogether in the home. Each girl from the smallest to the largest had their jobs to do; the little ones learning to hem handkerchiefs and dust, the older ones washing and polishing floors, making beds etcetera. Girls were expected to go into service when they left the Home.
The girls went to school at Audenshaw county Primary School, but were not expected to do well – there was no chance of them going on to a better job. They walked in crocodile style to St Stephen’s church each Sunday.
Meals were simple, lots of bread and jam; this was something mum would never touch later in life. She said “she had had her fill of that”. Sausages were the treat on Christmas day.
My mum was a timid child but her sister would stick up for her. She was a fighter, she had probably had to be; Kitty was in the naughty book nearly every day. The punishments were harsh to say the least. The matron had a jar of dried peas which were counted and then thrown onto the cinders covering the walkway. My Aunty had to pick each pea up and if the count was not right, she had to start again. Mum said that many were the times Aunty Kitty had bleeding knees and fingers. Another punishment was to spend the night in the coal house with no shoes, only in your nighty and no light. One of the matrons was ‘removed’. My mum’s favourite was the nurse; I think she spoiled her a little.
Some girls had a ‘friend’ who came to visit and brought some items of clothing for ‘their’ girl. Mum’s friend was the lady who used to live in ‘Deepdale’ a house just along from the home; this has gone now to make way for the motorway. Poor Auntie Kitty never had a friend.
There was a pound day each year, an open day where the admission was a pound of sugar, flour etcetera. I went to one with mum many years later. The girl who showed us round slept in the same bed mum had had many years before.
The sisters were split up when my mum was adopted by Frank and Lilly Ellis when she was nine. Aunty Kitty eventually went back to Hampshire, where they were all born. Their brother Kenneth was brought up by their mother’s family. Mum was fifteen before she ever saw her brother.
When the home was closed mum and Aunty Kitty visited for a last look round. They hated the Waifs and Strays bit – but as mum said if they had not taken them in- heaven knows what would have happened to them.
Mrs D. Wheeldon
A very Victorian title, but the home did offer a much better future for girls, than they might have experienced without its establishment.
As we know from Dickens the life of poor people was very hard in Victorian times. The Church of England and other Christian organisations did try to help the needy. In today’s eyes this can be regarded as very condescending action but they did help to ease the lot of the needy.
The Waifs and Strays’ Society was formed in London in 1881 by Robert and Edward Rudolf, and the first home for boys was established in Clapton in 1882. By 1890 there were 35 homes and 1600 children in the society’s care.
In 1893 the Society took on the official name of the ‘Church of England Incorporated Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays’. In 1946 it was renamed the ‘Church of England Children’s Society’. From 1982 it adopted the informal title of ‘The Children’s Society’, as it is known today.
A home for girls was established at Trafalgar House on Audenshaw Road in 1894. The persons mainly responsible for this were Revd. W. Goss and Mr G. H. Ashworth. Mr Ashworth lived at Audenshaw Lodge and was a member of the Ashworth and Hadwin company who owned mills in the area and warehouses in Manchester. He was for many years the secretary of the Manchester branch of the society. He was a very practical and determined man and it is recorded that he and his wife spent the night before the home opened in the house sleeping on the floor awaiting the arrival of the girls’ beds.
During the 1890s Audenshaw underwent some major changes. In the summer of 1897 Trafalgar House expanded. It now housed twenty children, rather than the twelve it coped with before. During the building work the children were taken on holiday to the seaside at Bolton-During its lifetime Audenshaw Home held regular festivities for its children, who were aged between six and thirteen. Every year the girls had a ‘Summer Treat’, which was paid for by people in the local community.
In 1898 this involved a trip to Worsley, where they dined at the Lady Ellesmere Coffee Tavern, and walked through the grounds of Worsley Hall. The Home also held an annual party at the beginning of the year, for which each girl was allowed to invite a friend from school.
Other events at Audenshaw Home included the annual Pound Day, which in 1900 was expanded to include a fête with a performance from the Audenshaw Amateur Minstrels. Many of these special occasions were organised by Miss Hadwen who was Honorary Treasurer for many years, and Miss Judson who was Honorary Secretary for most of the Home’s lifetime.
The Second World War had a big impact on the Homes within the Manchester branch of the Waifs and Strays’ Society. In 1939 Audenshaw was forced to evacuate to the Ashbourne Home in Derbyshire, where the children were to stay.
The home was closed in 1970.
One of our member’s mother spent her early childhood at the home and she has written the following account of her mother’s experience:
Audenshaw Girls Home for Waifs and Strays was a substantial building on Audenshaw Road now known as Trafalgar House. It had three floors the bottom one being a basement. There used to be a sunken walkway around the outside of the house, which was always filled with cinders from the fire.
In about 1921 my mother Jean and her sister Catherine (Kitty) McGregor were taken to live there by their father who was dying of tuberculosis. Their mother had already died of this disease when my mum was about eighteen months old.
There were twelve girls altogether in the home. Each girl from the smallest to the largest had their jobs to do; the little ones learning to hem handkerchiefs and dust, the older ones washing and polishing floors, making beds etcetera. Girls were expected to go into service when they left the Home.
The girls went to school at Audenshaw county Primary School, but were not expected to do well – there was no chance of them going on to a better job. They walked in crocodile style to St Stephen’s church each Sunday.
Meals were simple, lots of bread and jam; this was something mum would never touch later in life. She said “she had had her fill of that”. Sausages were the treat on Christmas day.
My mum was a timid child but her sister would stick up for her. She was a fighter, she had probably had to be; Kitty was in the naughty book nearly every day. The punishments were harsh to say the least. The matron had a jar of dried peas which were counted and then thrown onto the cinders covering the walkway. My Aunty had to pick each pea up and if the count was not right, she had to start again. Mum said that many were the times Aunty Kitty had bleeding knees and fingers. Another punishment was to spend the night in the coal house with no shoes, only in your nighty and no light. One of the matrons was ‘removed’. My mum’s favourite was the nurse; I think she spoiled her a little.
Some girls had a ‘friend’ who came to visit and brought some items of clothing for ‘their’ girl. Mum’s friend was the lady who used to live in ‘Deepdale’ a house just along from the home; this has gone now to make way for the motorway. Poor Auntie Kitty never had a friend.
There was a pound day each year, an open day where the admission was a pound of sugar, flour etcetera. I went to one with mum many years later. The girl who showed us round slept in the same bed mum had had many years before.
The sisters were split up when my mum was adopted by Frank and Lilly Ellis when she was nine. Aunty Kitty eventually went back to Hampshire, where they were all born. Their brother Kenneth was brought up by their mother’s family. Mum was fifteen before she ever saw her brother.
When the home was closed mum and Aunty Kitty visited for a last look round. They hated the Waifs and Strays bit – but as mum said if they had not taken them in-
Mrs D. Wheeldon
