RootsChat.Com

OK there is some confusion regarding Styal Cottage home. As a resident at the time that it was a children s home I will give you the correct information from the time I was there and then the time after I left and its change of use.  I have given info in the past but haven't been on for quite a while. So this it what I know. I was in Styal from the age of 3 (1947) the first house on the left in the  photo you usually see was the place we would see our parents. I have mention this before. I lived In the second building on the right (B home) with my older sister). My youngest brother, who was also my sisters twin lived in the first house (A home). I'm not sure were my other two brothers lived. The home was cruel. For eg. Sometimes we didn't have socks on and I remember one time my feet got very grubby. The house mother (possibly Mrs Ramsbotham) was so cross she scrubbed my feet with carbolic soap and a wooden brush. The twins wet the bed and had to take their sheets to the laundrey and wash them by had. they missed a lot of school and unable to read or write when they left at about 12 year old. We left when I was 8 I had my 9thbirthday just about the Coronation time (1953).  After the place closed it was used for Hungarian refugees. This is when I'm not sure of dates and facts as I believe it was after it closed again that it was then used as an Open air School and it sounds like the staff where a lot nicer.
So there you have it. I am the only one left in my family now but I remember my time very well and am in the process of writing it for my family and my siblings who had a very bad time. By the way the Chapel in the Village, not the one in Styal it self was shown in the TV sers. about the Cotton weavers their families and the the people who built Styal Village. it is the Chapel that my brother Douglas use to go to on a Sunday to operate the bellows for the lady who played the organ. If there is anyone who would like further information I will be very pleased to help you in any way that I can. But no promises as I don't know everything.

Well now this is my third time of trying. I've only just joined so i'm probably doing the wrong thing and losing messages instead of sending them.  Anyway hear we go again.
I was in Styal C'sH from the age of 3-9. We left just before the Coranation. My sister and youngest brother must have been about 12 or 13.  My eldest brother had some sort of "learning difficulties" so was used as free labour.  I know he had problems but i remember seeing him painting windows. I think the second eldest had to leave when he was about 15 but I know he used to do jobs in the village to earn money ie deliver milk collect papers and post from railway station and help at local church on Sunday. My sister and I both lived in "B" house the second on the right on the www Styal pictures.  my youngest brother  was in "A" house the first house.  the first house on the left just as you as look in the intrance is where we would see our parents. We would sit on wooden benches just like those in railway staition waiting rooms. If children wet the bed they had to take them to the laundrey and wash them by hand but take them just as other children were on the way to school (to shame them). This happend to the twins so they missed a lot of education, couldn't read or write when they left.  I remember having my feet scrubbed with a big wooden brush till little beeds of blood coverd my feet. Alway falling down polished stairs spraining my ankle my sister haveing to force my shoes on my fett. I still have my toes curled under.

By the way although it was a children's home it was not an orphanage.  My parents were alive infact if you look on the www for Styal Children's home you ill see red brick buildings.  The first one on the left is the one used for visitors.  When our mum came to see us that is where we would see her. We would all have to sit on the woodenbenches.  Rather like those used in train station waiting rooms. I believe some of the children in Styal ended up being sent away abroad (migration).