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My Great Great Aunt was Superintendent at the Home for c.30 years. She was one of the first graduates of Newnham College, Cambridge and graduated with a First!

We have lots of information about her and her life but I cannot find where the archives of the Home are. I've drawn a blank at the National Archives.

Can anyone think where they might be, please?

Thank you

Sounds like it was run as a catholic college .there seems to be loads of them placed all over including Ireland

Wonder about this site

http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=search_catalogue_index&args=st+mark+st+marks+road+notting+hill,or,20,40

It deffo wasn't Catholic; twas C of E. It was in Norland Gardens, Notting Hill and no longer there. Mrs. Gladstone, wife of politician, was involved in its setting up.

Here we are in 1901 if it helps:
Name: Mary B Hervey
Age: 34
Estimated Birth Year: 1867
Relation to Head: Assistant
Gender: Female
Birth Place: Paddington, Lancashire, England
Civil parish: Hammersmith
Ecclesiastical parish: St Gabriels Chapelry and St James Norland Square
County/Island: London
Country: England
Registration district: Fulham
Sub-registration district: North Hammersmith (including Starch Green)
ED, institution, or vessel: 21
Piece: 43
Folio: 71
Page number: 16
Household schedule number: 114
Household Members

Name

Age

Charlotte Wood 61
Elizabeth A Radford 50
Amy P Wood 40
Mary B Hervey 34
Caroline F Seale 29
Alice Lusher 19
Jessie Francis 19
Elsie Tail 16
Jane Goddard 16
Beatrice Chaldanya 15
Minnie Walton 15
Mary Dixon 15
Minnie Mc Dowell 14
Constance Frank 14
Helen Hodges 14
Mary Farnsworth 14
Alice Goodger 13
Alice Hudson 13
Isabella Kingham 13
Gertrude Stockwell 13
Amy Maynard 12

Off to perform at a gig - back later. :-)

I'm back on the case now.
:-)

From the Children's Homes Website

St Mary's Training Home, 128A Lancaster Road, Notting Hill W11 (LA) ( Ladies association)

clicking on the highlighted (LA) goes to this but no further help with records I'm afraid

http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/LA/

except this comment
"Any surviving records for individual Ladies' Associations will generally be found at the local record office or archives covering the location."

From the LMA

http://search.lma.gov.uk/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/LMA?LOGONFORM

using search term 'Ladies Associations' gives a few items which might be worth looking at?

"Friends in Need. Some papers read at a Conference of Ladies Associations for the care of Friendless Girls. [Contains inscription written in 1927 'to NCW from Emily Jones'. Emily Jones printed the pamphlet.]Reference CodeACC/3613/06/019LevelFileDate1889 From Collection NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN OF GREAT BRITAIN
The National Council of Women of Great Britain was founded in 1895 as the National Union of Women Workers. This resulted from the work of a number of women engaged in the care of girls, who realised that many of the difficulties of these gir...

Quite interesting re the Ladies Association.

http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781134610723_sample_523968.pdf

Thank you RR. I'm on to the LMA and following up all those leads you gave me.

Nicola..Didnt we cover this some time back...I seem to remember the details posted above...I cannot access "My Threads" to look through...but if not you then somebody else wanted info.

Well, the strange thing is that I thought I'd tried to find info on this in the past as well but when I checked before posting the thread I couldn't find any mention either. Very odd.

All those helpful leads, and more, came to a dead end. The records appear not to have been lodged with any authority and because it was a 'private' institution there was no obligation to do so. :-( :-(

So now I'm wondering whether any of the lasses in the 1901 and 1911 census for the Home may be traceable - apart from Hervey and Seale in 1901 and Gibbons in 1911 for whom there is no need to trace!!

We have a wonderful photograph of the outside of the Home with all the girls in their beautiful uniforms posing on the steps and the banner for the Home is waving in the doorway behind them. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they could have a copy of this photo for themselves .............. :-) :-)

A little explanation on my above post:
HERVEY: she is my direct ancestor and doesn't need tracing forwards, thanks.
SEALE: she was the Asst. Head of the Home with HERVEY, and never married.
GIBBONS: she is my cousin's Great Grandmother and no need to trace forwards either, thanks.
All or some of the other little girls on the census entries, i.e., the 'inmates', must appear in the wonderfully clear photograph which we have of them as mentioned in my opening post.
Their descendants will probably have no idea of the photograph's existence and if we can find even some of them ...................... :-)

Hello Nicola S,

Have you tried writing to the Children's Homes address below:

The Children’s Society Record Centre
2nd Floor, Block A
Tower Bridge Business Complex
100 Clements Road
Bermondsey
London SE16 4DG

Tel: 020 7232 2966


I had occasion to contact them and my information went back 100 years; they were most helpful and I gained the information I sought.

Good Luck,
Peahen

Gosh Peahen - that info hasn't come up yet in any of my endless searches. I shall contact them pronto!
Many thanks. I'll report back.
Nicola

VERY helpful but sadly no luck and another dead end. They only have records for their 'own' institutions.

So now I'm wondering whether there would be some reference in the newspapers of the time in connection with the closing/winding down of the Home?

We know that Mrs. Gladstone, the politician's wife, was involved with the Home and possibly had some financial involvement with it too. The Home was still in existence in the 1940's and possibly a little later.

Please could you do a search for a possible mention about the Home in the newspapers?

Thank you. :-)

Can I put a little nudge up on this one, please?

Can anyone see mention of the winding down/sale of the Home in newspapers, perhaps?

I have tried another couple of 'dead ends' as far as the records of the Home are concerned. Now I'm beginning to wonder where the girls/inmates came from? They are not all Londoners by any means and I wonder whether they may have been Barnado's children previously ............? How did they come to be in training at the Home in their early teens - where had they been before?

My cousin's late mother [who was a grand daughter of E.E. Gibbons, Matron of the Home in the 1911 Census] recalled that the girls were 'not quite fallen' [!!] so they sound as if they were rescued in some way. Curioser and curioser.

Please help if you can.
Thank you.

I've send you a small article from the London Daily News - Friday 22 February 1901 titled Mrs Gladstone's Good Work for Girls.

There is also an obituary Portsmouth Evening News - Monday 26 August 1935 titled LATE MISS HERVEY OF PETERSFIELD- Her Great Work for Girls.

Let me know if you don't have it and I'll send you a copy