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Thanks Don - got the pics, thanks. I'm too young to remember any part of this, of course; the house will have been demolished around the time I started school (not in Bourne End). My mother and her sister are both puzzled as to why your enquiries should have been met with the response they did. After all, the place and its occupants were far from being a secret in Bourne End, and local businesses both served the Homestead, and as it appears, employed some of the boys. And of course, you all went to school in the town!

GRAHAM

Well Don: my mother's sister remembers the Homestead and the two Schafer boys.
The eldest was in her class at school. She (her name was Ruth Hodges) recalls
that they were fair, and a bit 'rough and scrappy'.

Her brother was at that time working for Spindlers the bakers, and will have been down at The Homestead sometimes in the van, delivering bread. Apparently, the place wasn't always too prompt paying ! Ruth asks if you remember the penny chocolate buns, which the kids took turns in sneaking over the road from school to buy at break time?

The Homestead was a big house directly behind what is now (and has been for many years) Bourne End Yacht Club. One way to reach it was to cross a humped-backed footbridge over a stream (I think this is what you're trying to describe - not sure if this was the Abbots Brook or not) which lead down the yacht club buildings and the river.

Haven't yet been in touch directly with my mother's brother, so I'll keep you posted.

Barbara has a good point about the London Metropolitan Archives by the way - if it was under the auspices of  LCC, then it's less likely that Bucks Archives will have anything, if the County weren't involved.

GRAHAM

Don - my mother was born in Bourne End, and lived there till she married my father in 1951. When I asked if she could remember a boys home there, she couldn't, but assumed it to be in one of the big houses on the Abbotsbrook Estate (as it appears is the case). Evacuees were quite a common sight in Bourne End at the time, and she's quite intrigued by the official silence. She offered to talk to her brother, who is a few years older, and was probably already working when you left and might possibly have been aware of it - might possibly even have delivered bread there - he worked at the bakery.

For background, can you remember the names of any of the other boys who were there with you? And Mrs Memoriam - how sure are you of the name (sorry, it has the ring of a character from a novel by Trollope!). Also, as a matter only of curiosity, with whom were you enquiring in Reading? I ask simply because, as Barbara has implied, Bourne End is in Bucks, and Reading in Berks. I go to the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies quite frequently, and so could enquire to see if they have anything at all on the place.

GRAHAM

Hi - you may find some interesting background in Blomfields History of Finmere, downloadable from Google Books, link below. John Newman is mentioned on pages 24 and 26, but it's possible to search the book using various terms:


http://books.google.com/books?id=H_kVAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Blomfield+History+of+Finmere&lr=&as_brr=1#v=onepage&q=Newman&f=false

Graham