Rochdale !

[liverpool annie]

I was looking for something else and came across this ..... but then I spent quite some time looking at the rest of this site ....... I hope it can help somebody ..... we have so many lost children between us !! 

http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/homes/ROCHD01.html

Annie

PS And although I named this topic Rochdale ... there are photos and stories from all over the country !and even Liverpool !

Breaks your heart !

[Gillg]

Annie

Thanks from an former Rochdalian for this sad picture.  What heart-breaking photos on this site, as you say, and what an evocative term "Waifs and Strays" is!

Gillg

[Ecneps]

Thanks very much for this link, instead of wondering what life was like when you see census with children in homes,  you now know so much more - hoping to find a few of my lost children

Barbara

[Dibley]

Very interested to see this.  My father was placed in an orphanage run by Irish monks at Buckley Hall, Rochdale c.1931.  Does anyone have any other pics by any chance?  This is one taken during a visit to the orphanage by Jock McEvoy, the champion British Boxer - my father is one of the boys standing behind him but it's very blurred.  'Auntie Gracie' Fields also used to visit the boys.  I don't know whether it's true - you know what family 'memories' are like but my father said they only had eggs twice a year - Easter & Christmas!

[Dibley]

Sorry, I don't think my previous message linked with the pic.

[Gillg]

Hi Dibley

If you look on the Manchester & Lancs FHS page http://www.mlfhs.org.uk/Bookshop/local.htm there's a history of Buckley Hall for sale:

Buckley Hall Orphanage, Rochdale 1888-1947 - £3.50, 110gm
Pat Gallacher. The history of the above orphanage. Contains: The Bucklegh Family and Buckley Hall, Brothers of Charity, Orphanage and School, Benefactors, Resident Chaplains 1889-1947, Members of the Old Boys Ass. 1973-1976, Personnel and much more regarding the health, recreation, sports & pastimes of the pupils. A5, 55pp.

I remember my father talking about McEvoy "The Rochdale Bomber", and I can well imagine "Our Gracie" paying a visit to the boys.

As I'm sure you know,  Buckley Hall is a prison now.  I was rather amused to read this note on their website:

Due to the residential units being on a 1:15 incline; we are unable to accept prisoners with mobility or heart problems.

Health & Safety again, I suppose.

Gillg

[liverpool annie]

Here's somebody else who was doing Family History and was able to bring their family and others 

in from the cold !

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01wr/

Annie 

[LizzieW]

Very interesting.  My g.uncle went into an orphanage in Hull when he was 8.  He left in 1906 at 14 to join the Army and died in 1917 in WWI.

Liz

[bodger]

Orphanages,doe's any readers know of a group of 4 or 5 houses known as the Lees./ Leigh Homes, Scholes nr. Holmfirth, Yorks., children from there attended Hepworth school during the 1940/50 period, I drove past them a few years ago and they appeared to be closed, several of the children were school mates.
                                            Bodger