Memories of Fulwood Cottage Homes

[Huthwaitelas 10]

looking for information on Brenda Briggs who was in the home from December 1941 to May 1943

 

Hello TrevJan, I have just come across your post while looking for information about the Fulwood Cottage homes. I hope you get this message, I would love to talk to you about Brenda, I have known her for 50 years. Hope you get in touch, unfortunately I can't send you a message as I am a new member on here, please respond to this post :-)

[marybotham 10]

Just to let anyone who knew Tommy Botham from Sheffield ( Fulwood Cottage Homes from 1945 to about 1953) that he passed away in The Pilgrim Hospital Boston on February 27th. 2016. He had been ill for some time.

[brian1941 11]

Enclose my condolence Mary, R.I.P. Tommy

[Ukstande 10]

Hi, we are new to this forum. My mum born 1930 was put in the cottage homes in 1933, her name was Lily Priest, she was in house 15 with Miss Eden as her Foster mother. As her daughter I don't have any images or information about my mums family or why she was put in the home at such a young age when she tells me her mum and half brother both used to visit her. From the age of about 16 she worked in the nursery and finally left fulwood at 19, she waited until she was 21 to marry my dad so she didn't have to ask permission from anyone at full wood. Can anyone help me with links of best places to get information please?

[retep 68]

Hi, we are new to this forum. My mum born 1930 was put in the cottage homes in 1933, her name was Lily Priest, she was in house 15 with Miss Eden as her Foster mother. As her daughter I don't have any images or information about my mums family or why she was put in the home at such a young age when she tells me her mum and half brother both used to visit her. From the age of about 16 she worked in the nursery and finally left fulwood at 19, she waited until she was 21 to marry my dad so she didn't have to ask permission from anyone at full wood. Can anyone help me with links of best places to get information please?

 

What was the name of her mum and half brother.

[Ukstande 10]

Her mum was called Lily and half brother was Stanley both called Roebuck

[retep 68]

Her mum was called Lily and half brother was Stanley both called Roebuck

 

Available on FreeBMD

Births Dec 1894

Priest Lily Sheffield 9c 613

 

Births Sep 1930

Priest Lily Priest Sheffield 9c 834

 

Marriages Mar 1934

Priest Lily Roebuck Sheffield 9c 1003

Roebuck Stanley Priest Sheffield 9c 1003

 

Births Sep 1934 (>99%)

Roebuck Stanley Priest Sheffield 9c 736

 

also as a possible,

Deaths Jun 1972

Roebuck Lily 3Au1894 Rother V. 2c 1655

Edited July 16, 2016 by retep

[Ukstande 10]

Thank you very much for the info.

[retep 68]

Thank you very much for the info.

 

To give it a jump,

You need to find the marriage for Lily to Stanley to find her father.

[Ukstande 10]

Duh, didn't think of that Thanks so much for your help retep, you're a star. Sometimes you can't see the woods for the trees.

[Kevin Wilson 0]

Hi. My mum, Elsie Gregory born roughly July 5th 1930, was in the Fulwood Cottage Home for all of her childhood. She and her brother, Arthur Gregory, were put into the Cottage Homes when my mother was just a few days old. She never knew why but her brother was taken out shortly afterwards and she was left in. It appears that her birth was never registered as we have never been able to find any records. I remember that a lot of correspondence took place between my Dad's sister and the Education Authority in Sheffield and it seems that the only records for Elsie were held in the Education Authority building in Sheffield which was bombed and destroyed during the war, so there's no surviving information on her family or as to why she was put into the Homes .

She always suffered with a very sensitive scalp which she puts down to being pulled around by her hair by the House Mother! Elsie was always cheerful but she could be a hard woman when it came to emotions or dealing with a child who's hurt himself somehow. One of my earlies memories was her telling me " Never let anyone know you're upset or hurt" and this is undoubtedly from her times in the Homes.

She only spoke a couple of times about her life in the Homes. One was that she couldn't keep her mouth shut and stop answering the House Mother back and this led to her being beaten frequently. The other was a happy memory of her walking to school, which entailed her walking through the fields, and being chatted up by the Italian prisoners of war who were working on the fields.

 

My father, John Wilson born June 30th 1911, went into the Cottage Homes along with two of his sisters when his father was killed in 1917 during the WW1. He was one of six children but when his father was killed his mother kept the three oldest siblings and the three youngest went into the Homes. Dad was six when he went in and never talked about the Homes at all. Ever! After leaving the Homes, i think he got a job at a cutlery foundry, and in 1929/30 he joined the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and was posted out to the North West Frontier of India in 1930 ( think Pakistan/ Afghanistan region today). In the late 30's he left the army and rejoined the foundry, becoming a crane driver. In 1939, he was called back to the Army and was posted to the Northumberland Fusiliers and was sent over to France as one of the British Expeditionary Force. He was a machine gunner in the rearguard at Dunkirk and was captured by the Germans. He spent five years as a prisoner of war before being repatriated back to England. That was when he found out that his wife had taken up with another man so he divorced her. After several months in hospital, he was discharged from the Army and he got a job as a gardener back at the Fulwood Cottage Homes. I think this was where he first met my Mum, Elsie, and, depite the age difference, they married in 1953 and later had one son, me. Despite both of them having had no experience of normal family life, i don't think they did a bad job of raising me!

 

Life was hard for both of them and it's been illuminating to read the previous threads on this site. It has helped me understand my parents a bit better.

Edited May 27, 2019 by Kevin Wilson
Improve title for searching purposes

[Bash Street 10]

26 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Hi. My mum, Elsie Gregory born roughly July 5th 1930, was in the Fulwood Cottage Home for all of her childhood. She and her brother, Arthur Gregory, were put into the Cottage Homes when my mother was just a few days old. She never knew why but her brother was taken out shortly afterwards and she was left in. It appears that her birth was never registered as we have never been able to find any records. I remember that a lot of correspondence took place between my Dad's sister and the Education Authority in Sheffield and it seems that the only records for Elsie were held in the Education Authority building in Sheffield which was bombed and destroyed during the war, so there's no surviving information on her family or as to why she was put into the Homes .

She always suffered with a very sensitive scalp which she puts down to being pulled around by her hair by the House Mother! Elsie was always cheerful but she could be a hard woman when it came to emotions or dealing with a child who's hurt himself somehow. One of my earlies memories was her telling me " Never let anyone know you're upset or hurt" and this is undoubtedly from her times in the Homes.

She only spoke a couple of times about her life in the Homes. One was that she couldn't keep her mouth shut and stop answering the House Mother back and this led to her being beaten frequently. The other was a happy memory of her walking to school, which entailed her walking through the fields, and being chatted up by the Italian prisoners of war who were working on the fields.

 

My father, John Wilson born June 30th 1911, went into the Cottage Homes along with two of his sisters when his father was killed in 1917 during the WW1. He was one of six children but when his father was killed his mother kept the three oldest siblings and the three youngest went into the Homes. Dad was six when he went in and never talked about the Homes at all. Ever! After leaving the Homes, i think he got a job at a cutlery foundry, and in 1929/30 he joined the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and was posted out to the North West Frontier of India in 1930 ( think Pakistan/ Afghanistan region today). In the late 30's he left the army and rejoined the foundry, becoming a crane driver. In 1939, he was called back to the Army and was posted to the Northumberland Fusiliers and was sent over to France as one of the British Expeditionary Force. He was a machine gunner in the rearguard at Dunkirk and was captured by the Germans. He spent five years as a prisoner of war before being repatriated back to England. That was when he found out that his wife had taken up with another man so he divorced her. After several months in hospital, he was discharged from the Army and he got a job as a gardener back at the Fulwood Cottage Homes. I think this was where he first met my Mum, Elsie, and, depite the age difference, they married in 1953 and later had one son, me. Despite both of them having had no experience of normal family life, i don't think they did a bad job of raising me!

 

Life was hard for both of them and it's been illuminating to read the previous threads on this site. It has helped me understand my parents a bit better.

Nice read mate, well done. I hope you're OK.