Children's homes or orphanages in Sheffield

[brian1941 11]

yes it was marske...it belonged to the ymca..it was good of them to let 300 loony kids stay there..i can remember walking out onto the field from the wood sheds and down a steep cliff path to the right..the views were breathtaking looking out to sea..when you reached the bottom turned right it led to redcar ...everybody looked forward to going there...i often say i am going to go back up there to see the place again but i would think its built on by now...some good memories i always remember about fulwood...the snow was so deep every winter...going up blackbrook road as it started to rise the snow drifted and was as high as i was tall..took us ages to get to the top but we all enjoyed doing it .........and ............going to school on the two buses every morning when the drivers kept overtaking each other on redmires road , all the kids went berserk as they passed one another...it made everybodys day ...i also remember picking the blackberries every sunday morning that grew at the roadside when we all went to the chapel on david lane

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anlabystreet, i have just been looking way back in threads page1-no15.

you remember quiet a lot of things, i had a little chuckle to.

will i know you as i was in there 1942/54,---i remember tuffnells taking all

holidays stuff in though`s wooden tea chests, redcar- marske by the sea.

and the wooden huts we slept in- 3 houses in one, what else do you know.

[b.ali 10]

mr& mrs Smith did 11 & 12

Miss Rose 14

Miss Bull 18

cyntha heliwell 20

[CathS 10]

Hi Brian

Just popping in as i saw there were some new posts.

Wondered if you remembered any of the Gowers?

there were Irene, Iris, Sandra, Doreen, Rita, Michael and Gordon.

 

Thanks

 

Cath x

[bellis 10]

i was at shire hill at nether edge in 1973 really horrible place

 

and was at todwick grange from 74 -82

 

i really hope they treat the kids better now in childrens homes:(

[anlabystreet 12]

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anlabystreet, i have just been looking way back in threads page1-no15.

you remember quiet a lot of things, i had a little chuckle to.

will i know you as i was in there 1942/54,---i remember tuffnells taking all

holidays stuff in though`s wooden tea chests, redcar- marske by the sea.

and the wooden huts we slept in- 3 houses in one, what else do you know.

 

i remember how we all stayed up late at night in those wooden huts and had supper....luxuries we never had at fch.....and i remember how sad i was to come home when we got on the coaches ...wondering if we might ever come back.....i looked on google earth and i can,t find those ymca huts.....theres a housing estate there now.....but the path to the beach is still there

[bresail 10]

Brian, at last you've become computer savvy. My other computer went down completely and all your details with it.

I just decided to have a look around the forum and there you were. Have you heard from Glen yet? She's still carrying a crush.

Rex.

[bresail 10]

I have just read the the threads and see that Glen and Sputnick have found you.

Maybe they will contact me again, if I shame them enough.

[bresail 10]

I have just finished going through this thread completely and I have thought about the cruelty that went on in FCH. In No. 8 we were relatively sheltered from this.

Miss Humphreys was not a cruel person but she had one fault that I believe should be ignored.

Sputnic said that the times were different, where cruelty was concerned. It was!

Unfortunately a lot of us were already schooled in cruelty, we, my siblings and I, lived through, watching the torture of my Mother and as he was at the time, my baby brother. Here on this thread I have three members of my family plus myself. I know for certain that the family outside of the home knew of the cruelty that went on because, I told them.

They chose to ignore it.

We had no option but to go into the home and quite honestly we were better off there. Our real Mother was, at the time, unable to take care of us. She had been made an outcast by our outside family long before this and because we were her children that was our fate too.

No one in our outside family have ever apologised to us, because they would have to look deep inside of their selves. In fact when I did contact one of them to try to find our roots again. I received a friendly reply, marred by a nasty remark about Mum.

I met my Mother for the first time for 30yrs a couple of years ago and she died a few months after this. During the last visit to her to her, she said, "I don't suppose, that I did everything I should have done." My reply was, that at the time she was a young woman and that now with age I could understand why she did it.

What she did do was to make a new and better life for us, which we would not have achieved if we had not been outcasts.

I am positive that this post will be echoed by other inhabitants of FCH.

Some of us were better off in the home on reflection.

I am happy that I have got this off my chest and if there is a heaven, Mum will be there.

So you. you outside and righteous family. You will never meet her!

And, you, you cruel and sadistic house mothers, who took advantage of innocent, vulnerable, frightened and outcast kids, who had suffered more than they should have, already. Did you treat your children well? I doubt it!

To the none cruel house Mothers.

Why did you not report it?

[brian1941 11]

i remember how we all stayed up late at night in those wooden huts and had supper....luxuries we never had at fch.....and i remember how sad i was to come home when we got on the coaches ...wondering if we might ever come back.....i looked on google earth and i can,t find those ymca huts.....theres a housing estate there now.....but the path to the beach is still there

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anlabystreet,-----good holidays though,---yes sad to come back to f,c.h.

i did go back to redcar in the 1980s, and the field was bare-all them huts

had been knocked down.----hey,--yer right that path to the beach is

still there and the gate that took you through to the path.

i remember writing on that gate---brian was here.----

i surpose the weather will have washed it off now.

[brian1941 11]

i remember how we all stayed up late at night in those wooden huts and had supper....luxuries we never had at fch.....and i remember how sad i was to come home when we got on the coaches ...wondering if we might ever come back.....i looked on google earth and i can,t find those ymca huts.....theres a housing estate there now.....but the path to the beach is still there

--------------------------------------------

that other thread you sent about homes--but first you said about your

sister lived about 13, do you mean she lived in no13,

when i was a little boy of about 2/3- i was brought up in no13--

miss scrimshaw was house mother.

--would i know this lol you mentioned,

---you should try and visit the homes, i was up there 2 weeks ago.

what i like is that the structure of the houses is still the same.

the big field in the middle of the houses what was our sports field are

now gardens (i dont like it --rubbish)

playing fields where swings was , is still same

anlabystreet, dont bother about buying one

--bri

[SputnikBoy 10]

I have just finished going through this thread completely and I have thought about the cruelty that went on in FCH. In No. 8 we were relatively sheltered from this.

Miss Humphreys was not a cruel person but she had one fault that I believe should be ignored.

Sputnic said that the times were different, where cruelty was concerned. It was!

Unfortunately a lot of us were already schooled in cruelty, we, my siblings and I, lived through, watching the torture of my Mother and as he was at the time, my baby brother. Here on this thread I have three members of my family plus myself. I know for certain that the family outside of the home knew of the cruelty that went on because, I told them.

They chose to ignore it.

We had no option but to go into the home and quite honestly we were better off there. Our real Mother was, at the time, unable to take care of us. She had been made an outcast by our outside family long before this and because we were her children that was our fate too.

No one in our outside family have ever apologised to us, because they would have to look deep inside of their selves. In fact when I did contact one of them to try to find our roots again. I received a friendly reply, marred by a nasty remark about Mum.

I met my Mother for the first time for 30yrs a couple of years ago and she died a few months after this. During the last visit to her to her, she said, "I don't suppose, that I did everything I should have done." My reply was, that at the time she was a young woman and that now with age I could understand why she did it.

What she did do was to make a new and better life for us, which we would not have achieved if we had not been outcasts.

I am positive that this post will be echoed by other inhabitants of FCH.

Some of us were better off in the home on reflection.

I am happy that I have got this off my chest and if there is a heaven, Mum will be there.

So you. you outside and righteous family. You will never meet her!

And, you, you cruel and sadistic house mothers, who took advantage of innocent, vulnerable, frightened and outcast kids, who had suffered more than they should have, already. Did you treat your children well? I doubt it!

To the none cruel house Mothers.

Why did you not report it?

 

Well, that was well said, Rex, and, as your 'baby brother', I'm seeing for the VERY FIRST TIME in a 'millennium' your views on the FCH experience. By the way, this is NOT the only thread on FCH that I and others have contributed in ...you might want to check those out also. I'm not sure how you navigate to them ...just type 'FCH' in the search box, I guess.

 

Yes, while we can't change the past I can say that FCH left a lasting impression on me that is not ALL bad if the truth be known. Sure, like life itself, it was a mix of both good and bad and everything in between. I was fortunate for the most part that my house-parent (Miss Bower) didn't exhibit the sadistic traits of some of the other house-parents that I've read about. Make no mistake ...she COULD be strict but she tended to err more consistently on the side of reason than the alternative. But not always.

 

There were times, for instance, when we kids had to sit quietly doing absolutely nothing - no talking allowed - for no apparent reason. I mean, we were kids. It's surely against nature for kids to be made to be quiet for extended periods of time for no reason. I recall one such occasion where I simply couldn't keep my mouth closed (alas, a trait that has grown older with me ) and I whispered to one of my house-brothers. I still remember (basically) what I whispered. I said, "I don't think that it's fair that we have to sit here like a bunch of zombies saying nothing." Honest! Miss Bower came into the room, she asked who had spoken, I reluctantly confessed to 'the crime', she asked what I'd said, I told her, and consequently I lost all 'privileges' for a week.

 

Strange times ..almost a 'Dickens-like' culture. Just as strange, I also find them somewhat compelling. I often recall those experiences in 'black and white' as if they were not real but were instead a movie in which I played the part of myself. But, that's just it. Times WERE different and what would not be accepted today by society was pretty well 'the norm' back then, rightly or wrongly. We can't change that fact. Sure, some of the experiences some of us had 'played with our heads', some kids more so than others. I know how naive I was when I first entered the 'free world' for the first time after many years of being institutionalized. I was 'dumb' in a 'worldly' sense, if not academic, and I was also somewhat emotionally effected by my FCH experience. I didn't quite know how to act in many social situations/relationships and I found it difficult to express 'love' or even 'friendship' adequately. While our weekdays allowed us to integrate for a few hours with kids at school who were non-FCH residents, the major part of our lives told a different story.

 

One experience that I recall so vividly concerned YOU, Rex! You were leaving the following day for the navy (?) and you promised to come and say goodbye to me that evening. At the time we kids were under the 'care' (loose term) of Miss Herring, a relief-mother, for a few days. At bed-time (probably around 7pm) I told Miss Herring that you were coming to say goodbye. She didn't care and sent me to bed anyway. Later, as I stayed awake to listen for you, I heard a knock on the door from just below my bedroom window ..the cottages were 2-storey. I heard muffled voices and guessed that you were at the door. After a brief time I heard the door close. I crept out of bed and headed for the window. It was still light. I could see you walking up the pathway to your cottage and I wanted so badly to let you know that I was there. But I couldn't tap on the window or call out to you for fear of giving myself away to Miss Herring.

 

The next thing I was aware of was this booming voice behind me. Miss Herring had evidently heard me get out of bed and had come up the stairs to see what was going on. She was mad! I told her my reasons for getting out of bed and looking out the window but she didn't care. That woman had a heart of stone and a very masculine voice ...I'm sure she must have been a guy in drag. I remember her words as though she spoke them just a few moments ago. She said, "You're about to get some Pol (Paul?) Thompson!" That was a favorite expresson of hers which basically meant that she was about to beat you up. And, that's exactly what she did. She left me a sobbing mess. While she slapped me around and it hurt badly (I was just a little kid remember) my main reason for the sobs was the heartbreak behind the fact that I hadn't said goodbye to you.

 

Now, isn't that a sad, sad story? I told it on one of the other FCH threads way before I knew you, Rex, were still around. You might want to check it out.

 

But hey, here we are ...we survived! And - some of us anyway - didn't exactly turn out to be basket cases even though we may well have been adversely 'affected' in some way by life within an institution that we were not responsible for. I know there have been some negative areas of my life that I could have attributed partially to my past and unusual upbringing. But, I quickly add, we're all personally responsible for our actions.

 

Please, anyone who might have shared Cottage #9 with me let me hear from you. Ernest Hill ...someone has spoken about you on the board several times but you still remain as elusive as ever. Talk to me!

[glen 10]

does anyone know the whereabouts` of a syliva westney, she was in folwood cottage

homes. i think syliva was in number17 house, and not sure if the mother was

miss highfield`s. and i think she wore glasses.-----syliva was in the home around

1942/3 but not sure when she left. ---i was in number6 ,how i would love to chat

to her. ---p.s we were childhood sweatheart`s

Hi Brian I was in cottage 17 and the excuse for a cottage mother was Miss Barnett.This was from about 1951 to about 1955.I am sure i have heard that name.kepp thinking