I need to pick your brains!

[KGarrad]

From a Wikipedia article on Forced Adoption in UK:

Unmarried mothers
From the 1950s to the 1970s babies were frequently taken away from unmarried mothers without any other reason simply because unmarried mothers were considered unsuitable parents. The Catholic Church, Church of England and the Salvation Army ran, “mother and baby homes” and UK adoption agencies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_adoption_in_the_United_Kingdom

[Elswick]

I'm well aware of the history, I am the product of exactly what you've just described but having said that since the Adoption Act of 1925 there's no such thing as an illegal adoption (in theory).  All adoptions since then were conducted as per the law, are legal, went through the courts and were originally on record.  Whether those records still exist is another subject entirely.

"The Catholic Church, Church of England and the Salvation Army ran, “mother and baby homes” and UK adoption agencies".   

Mother and Baby Homes, yes, no argument with that detail at all. Adoption agencies though, well, this is a very grey area. All those institutions you mentioned were very closely connected for sure, and the agencies involved often had a religious ethos, and often they had the blessing of the church/local diocese, but to say the church ran such agencies is stretching the truth, and often it's simply wrong.

[hanes teulu]

 

hanes teulu:. Many thanks for the info, I'm well aware of newspaper articles like you posted, the question is who placed that piece in the newspaper?  From the 1925 Adoption Act there's supposedly no such thing as an illegal adoption, everything would have followed the law, and would have been recorded.  Therefore, the newspaper article you posted is likely to have been placed by an adoption agency of some kind, the very thing I'm trying to identify.

http://www.adoptionsearchreunion.org.uk/search/righttosearch/lawbasics.htm#:~:text=Until%201983%20private%20adoptions%20were%20legal.%20These%20were,placement%20of%20the%20child%20with%20prospective%20adoptive%20parents.

[Elswick]

Yes, private adoptions, but they were legal and legally formalised, no different to a more conventional adoption but without the middle man (adoption agency).

[fiddlerslass]

I don't know if you have already seen this

https://www.shropshirearchives.org.uk/collections/getrecord/CCA_XPS1_18_E_2

1927- 1944

"These registers contain information relating to cases heard at Juvenile court re the adoption of children. The layout includes columns recording information such as the name and age of applicant, name, sex and age of infant, name of guardian, name of other respondents, fees payable & when paid and the signature and other remarks of the Justice adjudicating."

Perhaps name of guardian or other respondents may include agencies?

Access is restricted and a readers ticket is required.

Perhaps contact the archives?

https://www.shropshirearchives.org.uk/contact-us/

According to Kelly's 1934 directory there was a waifs and strays home in Shrewsbury:
 St Saviour's in The Holly, Sutton Rd
As well as
 The Salop home for working Boys (police court mission) The Woodlands, Abbey Foregate.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1547/images/GB0085-00236?usePUB=true&_phsrc=Rjh890&pId=918201

[Elswick]

fiddlerslass: An interesting link, I'll investigate it further but for the moment let me make it blatantly clear to everyone that I am not looking for any adoption records.

[KGarrad]

I am confused as to what exactly you are looking for?
Why look for an Adoption Agency, if you aren't looking for the records?

Oh, BTW it was the Adoption of Children ACT 1926. 

[Elswick]

Indseed it was!

Regarding your confusion, I thought my original post was fairly clear.

"I'm trying to identify organisations/institutions involved with adoption in the 1940's in Shropshire, England.  Nowadays we'd call them adoption agencies, back then they went by many names".

I am not looking for mother and baby homes, orphanages, work houses or anything similar and I'm definitely not looking for adoption records.  I'm looking for the many organisations that existed that organised adoptions. 

I know this subject inside out, firstly I was born in a mother and baby home, secondly I was  adopted and lastly I've been through the process of obtaining my adoption records. My problem is in spite of my knowledge on the subject I only know about the agency that dealt with my adoption, now I need to learn about similar organisations in a different part of the country, hence my post.

Google Salvation Army plus my username and see what you find!

[hanes teulu]

Yes, private adoptions, but they were legal and legally formalised, no different to a more conventional adoption but without the middle man (adoption agency).

Daily Mirror, 29 Jan 1943