BBC History Magazine

Rural idylls?

Cottage home es promised inclusive, bucolic seats of o learning – though the reality was s often less romantic

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By the second half of the 19th century, the large ‘separate’ school had fallen out of favour, to be replaced by something, in theory at least, a little more intima ate: the cottage home.

Cottage homes were the child welfare equivalent­s of the agricultur­al colony – villages of small houses in a rural location, each containing ‘families’ of children.

As the name suggests, both boys and girls were housed in ‘cottages’, cared for and supervised by a live-in matron or ‘mother’. They ate meals together, prepared by their matron and the older girls. They said prayers, did chores and took part in leisure pursuits.

Child welfare activist Henrietta Barnett perhaps summed up the ideal best when she described an inclusive and diverse cottage that was “ruled by a working woman as its mother, containing the helpful girl of 15, the weeny babe of three, the delicate child to whom the cosiest seat must always be given, the cripple who must be helped to school”.

In reality, cottage homes were far less intimate than Barn nett envisaged. The system produced huge se elf-contained colonies that resembled small to owns on an enclosed site. The one in Chelseaa housed around 600 children. At Banstead in Surrey there were 20 houses, a scho ool, infirmary, baths and a shop.

There’s little dou ubt that, in the larger homes, children could feell isolated from the outside world. At the Bans stead home they led “a separate life from ordinaryo children”. There were high brick wa alls surroundin­g cottages in Kirkham, although h separated siblings might meet in the school l. A school inspector recommende­d tha at children at Pontypridd’s cottage home “be taught to play some games” – hardly a ringing endorsemen­te of the leisure pursuits on offer.

But some childr en did recall their time at cottage homes wit th fondness. The granddaugh­ter of one fo ormer pupil remarked that her grandmothe­r hadh described the homes “so warmly” that shes was shocked when she realised that cotta ge homes were a branch of the workhouse.

James Howard, a resident of Swansea’s cottage homes – whow went on to gain a scholarshi­p to Cardiff University and become a church minister – wrote affectiona­tely to his matron Letitia Lloy yd in later life. But he also claimed that, to on ne superinten­dent, beating “seemed almost a pastime”.

Howard also rec called that the boys took part in at least onee organised fight a week, generally on Friday ys after school. One battle apparently lasted forf three evenings in a row – “night and mutua al exhaustion were the only interrupti­ons poss ible”.

 ??  ?? Country living ABOVE: Children and staff outside one of Leicester union’s Countestho­rpe cottage homes, which boasted an infirmary with an isolation unit, laundry, stores and swimming baths RIGHT: Pupils at Banstead’s cottage homes assemble for a parade...
Country living ABOVE: Children and staff outside one of Leicester union’s Countestho­rpe cottage homes, which boasted an infirmary with an isolation unit, laundry, stores and swimming baths RIGHT: Pupils at Banstead’s cottage homes assemble for a parade...
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