paupers, vagabonds and oliver twist an investigation of public perceptions of 19th century...
TRANSCRIPT
Paupers, Vagabonds and Oliver Twist: An Investigation of Public
Perceptions of 19th Century Orphanages in the North West Constructed Through Landscape and Spatial Settings
By Gwendoline Naylor
Submitted for the degree of MSc in Archaeology
April 2015
i
‘I confirm that this dissertation is all my own work and that all references and
quotations from both primary and secondary sources have been fully identified
and properly acknowledged in footnotes and bibliography.’
Signed.............................................................. Date......................................
ii
Abstract
The nineteenth century marked extensive social changes and an influx of institutions in
Britain. The use and adaptation of institutions throughout the nineteenth century
emphasize the complex social attitudes towards the non-conformers of society. Through the
use of spatial and map analysis, this research identifies the segregation and control that
occurred far and wide. More specifically, this research uses this approach to investigate the
social stigma attached to nineteenth century institutions and if these social attitudes were
shifted to intuitions designed specifically for children. Hereafter, this research challenges
contemporary perspectives of children and institutions to discern if orphanages and orphans
adhered to stigmas acquired by other nineteenth century institutions such as workhouses.
iii
Acknowledgements
Without the support of many people over the last few years this research project would
have never been able to develop and take form. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor,
Dr. David Robinson. Without your support throughout a few hectic years, I would have given
up but you gave me the care and motivation I needed to keep going. I would also like to
display my gratitude to all the other archaeology teaching staff at the University of Central
Lancashire; Rick Peterson, Dr. James Morris, Dr. Duncan Sayer and last but not least, Dr.
Vicki Cummings. It has been due to their amazing duty of care, support and guidance to
their students that has allowed me to grow in confidence and achieve things that as a
hesitant eighteen year old when I first joined UCLan, would never had imagined.
I would like to acknowledge Katherine Fennelly, who through a brief encounter at the
beginning of this project, gave me advice and ideas that allowed me to shape and form this
research in to a workable project.
I would like to thank my family who have supported me throughout the last four years and
provided me with the love and support I needed. I am grateful to my parents who have
pushed me to succeed and keep going through tough times; I wish to display a great
appreciation to my father who through his own love of learning and history would talk at
great lengths with me about my project, displaying a great interest and urged me to
continue just as he taught me since a child, to question and discover everything possible.
To end, I need to thank one special man in my life, my partner, Theo. His incredible love and
care has made it possible for me to conquer all challenges thrown at me. I am forever
thankful to your colossal heart. I love you.
iv
Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. ii
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... iii
List of Figures ......................................................................................................................................... vi
List of Tables ......................................................................................................................................... vii
Glossary ............................................................................................................................................... viii
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1
2. Oliver Twist and Other Orphans in Victorian Literature ................................................................... 2
3. Methodology ...................................................................................................................................... 7
4. 19th Century Ideology of Orphans and Institutions ......................................................................... 10
4.1 The Ideology of Orphans ................................................................................................................. 10
4.2 The Ideology of Nineteenth Century Institutions ........................................................................... 17
5. Victorian Town and Cityscapes ........................................................................................................ 22
6. 19th Century Orphanages in the Northwest .................................................................................... 24
6.1 Case Study One: Manchester, Greater Manchester...................................................................... 24
6.1.1 Bethesda Home ............................................................................................................................ 28
6.1.2 Rosen Hallas ................................................................................................................................. 29
6.1.3 George Street, Chatham Hill ........................................................................................................ 30
6.1.4 Galloway Home ............................................................................................................................ 32
6.1.5 Central Refuge ............................................................................................................................. 34
6.2 Case Study Two: Liverpool, Merseyside ........................................................................................ 35
6.2.1 Fazakerley Cottage Homes ........................................................................................................... 36
6.2.2 Nazareth House ............................................................................................................................ 38
6.2.3 Royal Seamen’s Orphanage ......................................................................................................... 39
6.2.4 Scholfield Home for Girls ............................................................................................................. 39
6.2.5 St Vincent’s .................................................................................................................................. 40
6.3 Case Study Three: Blackburn, Lancashire ...................................................................................... 42
6.3.1 Blackburn Orphanage .................................................................................................................. 44
6.3.2 Blackburn Cottage Homes............................................................................................................ 45
6.4 Case Study Four: Edgworth, Lancashire ....................................................................................... 45
6.4.1 Edgworth Children’s Home .......................................................................................................... 46
6.5 Case Study Five: Rochdale, Greater Manchester .......................................................................... 47
6.5.1 Rochdale Home for Boys .............................................................................................................. 47
6.5.2 Buckley Hall Orphanage ............................................................................................................... 48
6.6 Case Study Six: Formby, Merseyside ............................................................................................. 49
6.6.1 Victoria Home .............................................................................................................................. 49
v
6.7 Case Study Seven: Carlisle, Cumbria .............................................................................................. 50
6.7.1 Harraby Hill Orphanage .............................................................................................................. 51
7. Discussion ......................................................................................................................................... 52
8. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 55
Bibliography.......................................................................................................................................... 56
vi
List of Figures Figure 1: The Age of Innocence by Sir Joshua Reynolds 1788. Tate Gallery London………………………... 12
Figure 2: Plan of Manchester and Salford 1750 .................................................................................... 25
Figure 3: 1750 map of Manchester and Salford –‘Daube Holes’……………………………………………………….25
Figure 4: 1750 map of Manchester and Salford - 'Kay' ......................................................................... 25
Figure 5: Google map displaying the location of some of the earliest poor law institutions and
workhouses in Manchester. Manchester City Council .......................................................... 26
Figure 6:1890s OS map of Swinton Industrial School ........................................................................... 27
Figure 7:1840s OS map of Swinton Industrial School ........................................................................... 28
Figure 8:1890s OS map of Bethesda Home, George Street/Coke Street, Cheetham Hill ..................... 29
Figure 9: 1908 OS map of Rosen Hallas Home, George Street, Cheetham Hill .................................... 30
Figure 10:1908 OS map of the George Street homes for children, Cheetham Hill ............................... 31
Figure 11:1908 OS map of Oakhill Salvation Army Home, George Street, Cheetham Hill. .................. 32
Figure 12:1890s OS map of Galloway Home, Whalley Range ............................................................... 33
Figure 13:1884 map of Manchester, detailing Upper Chorlton Road, the location of Galloway
Orphanage ............................................................................................................................. 33
Figure 14:1892 OS map of the Central Refuge, Manchester ................................................................ 34
Figure 15:1908 OS map of the Central Refuge and surrounding industries ......................................... 35
Figure 16:1899 OS map of the Blue Coat School, School Lane, Liverpool ............................................ 36
Figure 17:1908 OS map of Fazakerley Cottage Homes, Liverpool ........................................................ 37
Figure 18:1891 OS map of Fazakerley Cottage Homes ......................................................................... 37
Figure 19:1908 OS map of Nazareth House, Great Cosby, Liverpool ................................................... 38
Figure 20:1908 OS map of the Royal Seamen’s Orphanage, Liverpool ................................................ 39
Figure 21:1908 OS map of Scholfield Home, Liverpool ........................................................................ 40
Figure 22:1908 OS map of St Vincent’s Home for Boys, Liverpool ....................................................... 41
Figure 23: Home for Destitute Children ................................................................................................ 42
Figure 24:1848 OS map of Blackburn, Lancashire ................................................................................ 43
Figure 25:1847 OS map of Blackburn Workhouse on Merchant Street
(known later as Workhouse Lane)…………………………………………………………………………………….43
Figure 26:1893 OS map of Blackburn Orphanage, Wilpshire ............................................................... 44
Figure 27:1911 OS map of Blackburn Cottage Homes .......................................................................... 45
Figure 28:1891 OS map of Edgworth Children’s Home ........................................................................ 46
Figure 29:1893 OS map of Rochdale Home for Boys ............................................................................ 48
Figure 30:1893 OS map of Buckley Hall Orphanage ............................................................................. 49
Figure 31:1908 OS map of Victoria Home, Formby .............................................................................. 50
Figure 32:1901 OS map of Harraby Hill House ..................................................................................... 51
vii
List of Tables Table 1: Population change in England 1700-1970 created by D.B Grigg…………………………………………13
Table 2: Distances to/from urban features……………………………………………………………………………………..53
viii
Glossary
Term Meaning Cottage Home Series of housing in which 20 – 30 children were housed. Many
cottage homes had their own facilities such as schools and hospitals
Destitute Without food, money, a home or possessions
Ideology A set of beliefs or values Industrial Revolution The period of time in which new manufacturing processes were
introduced and the majority of work was done in factories by machines
Industrial School Boarding schools for destitute and orphaned children that provided education and a trade to a child
Institution A large organisational building. When focusing on 19th century Britain, it is largely used to describe a place where a person is sent to receive care or charity. Often, such institutions would govern the behaviour of individuals as a means to social control
Landscape Visible features of an area of land, including environmental and human elements
Morals The standards of good and bad behaviour which a person believes in/ follows
Orphan A child whose parents are deceased. In the 19th century, the term also included children with just one deceased parent and the remaining parent having no means to provide or care for the child
Orphanage A home for children whose parents are deceased or unable to care for them
Perception A belief or opinion held by a person which is based upon how something appears
Ragged School Church and volunteer ran schools for the very poor and destitute children
Social Class Different groups of people whose class is decided upon by household income and values
Social Control The management of individual or group behaviour in the pursuit of submission to the regulations set out by a society, governing body or social group
Spatial Relates to the position, size and area of an object, location etc. Stigmatisation To unfairly behave towards another person, place or item.
Often disapprovingly Town/cityscape The urban equivalent of landscape. Refers to the organisation
and built form of a city or town as well as the interstitial space Urban An area which is characterised by a high population and a large
number of buildings compared to areas surrounding it Workhouse A building where the very poor live and work in return for
shelter and food
ix
1
1. Introduction
The Victorians, especially the middle class sector lived for their morals; family, religious,
educational and cultural morals made them upstanding citizens in a world corrupt with the
lower classes who did not abide by such morals and threatened the ideology of the middle
class Victorian family. Orphans who were abandoned by their parents or whose parents had
passed away were creating their own nature by association with other poverty-stricken
children and adults and thus did not fall into any moral class by the standards of the middle
class. With being homeless, classless and associated with criminals, orphans were regarded
to be the greatest threat to the ‘domestic’ and ‘social’ bliss of the middle class.
The archaeology of institutions is a subject which in recent years has been receiving more
attention from scholars alike; ranging from historians, archaeologists to literary scholars.
This research will be examining if these ‘undesirable’ members of society were consequently
placed in orphanages and similar institutions that through their architect, spatial and
landscape settings, reflected the stigma placed upon them or if this stigma was one that has
been forged through modern historical and archaeological constructs. In particular, this
research will focus on if a degree of separation occurred from the public through examining
the distance from other housing and public facilities. Also considered is external and internal
(if any) landscape and architectural features as well as amenities within the institution that
could have potentially hid the building from public eye or kept the residents inside. I will be
using a range of historical and archaeology data to understand the public perceptions of the
people in institutions and if this could of effected the determining of the location and
setting of institutions.
2
2. Oliver Twist and Other Orphans in Victorian Literature
Oliver Twist, the nineteenth century orphan who lives a miserable and destitute life is a
novel written by the English author, Charles Dickens. The story of Oliver Twist and modern
theatrical adaptations have inspired and influenced the modern ideologies of nineteenth
century institutions and life; capturing a scene of stark contrasts between the social classes,
the effects of poverty and the ‘harsh’ Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 which saw the
creation of Poor Law Unions and workhouses. A recurring theme throughout the novel is the
mistreatment and derogative behaviour towards Oliver; from the workhouse board of
guardians, staff, Mrs Sowerby and members of Fagins gang, including Fagin himself. For
example, Oliver is named by Mr Bumble, a parish beadle, when asked about why he chose
‘Twist’ he said it was made up and ‘we name our foundlins in alphabetical order’ (Dickens
1839:17). In the nineteenth century, ‘twist’ or ‘twisted’ was a common slang word for
hanged, the punishment for most crimes, including theft and pick-pocketing. Throughout
the book, various people who Oliver meets presume he will be hanged one day; although it
is slightly unclear, this could be due to his name or a general assumption that institutional
orphans turn into criminals and eventually receive such a death sentence (Andrewes
1809:22). This theme of negative attitudes towards orphans is a regular occurrence in
nineteenth century literature and occurs in many famous works of the period; Jane is
despised by her aunt and cousins in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Pip in Great
Expectations and Esther Summerson in Bleak House are both taken in by resentful relatives
when their parents die. Although this negative attitude is apparent throughout the books,
the main orphan is regarded as a hero/heroin of some-sort for defeating the Victorian
ideology and negativities to finally live a happy life to some degree.
Orphans hold a particular place in nineteenth century novels, one that although slightly
sentimentalised, portrays the social history of the conditions that Victorian orphans
expected to experience whilst growing up. These social conditions displayed in nineteenth
century literature however, have been analysed and interpreted in alternative ways by
various historians and academics involved in literature studies. Laura Lynn Peters in her
study ‘Shades of the Prison-House': The Disciplining of the Victorian Literary Orphan’
discusses the use of orphans within nineteenth century literature as creating a prevalent
socio-political meaning rather than the use of orphan in the literal sense and reflects the
3
ideology of the age(Peters 1994:1) Peters initially approaches her analysis by identifying the
forging and characteristics of the middle class in the early nineteenth century; arguing that
as the middle class gained power, they sought to separate themselves from the working
class and claim authority through moral and cultural ideologies; particularly through
education and religious beliefs (Peters 1994:3).
Much research has been conducted on the emerging classes of the late eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries; mostly covering how it developed, its effects and the results. Edward-
Palmer Thompson in his book ‘The Making of the Working Class’ explains how class did not
just appear, but it formed and developed through human relationships. Classes would
develop through social and cultural formations due to different humans sharing common
life experiences and interests which they would express. These shared interests or opinions
would differ from other people and hence differentiation between groups of people would
occur. Thompson further explains that an individual assumes a class role by becoming
conscious of their own class and interests which is consistent with the expectations and
opinions of the governing bodies (Thompson 11:1968).
To be considered middle class in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as Davidoff and
Hall defines, the annual income had to range from a couple of hundred pounds to
thousands (Davidoff, 1987:23). However, to reiterate Peters, the most important factor of
being middle class was to differentiate themselves from the working classes and also the
aristocracy by creating the moral ideology they laid claim to and thus deemed themselves
thoroughly superior than other classes. (Peters, 1994:3).The separation from the lower
classes eventually transformed into the separation of space. Firstly, it was the separation of
physical space, by moving away from the working classes. In the late eighteenth century, the
working classes and middle classes lived in close proximity to one another which created a
diversified scope of economic and social relations. By the early to middle nineteenth
century, the arrangement is different, with the working classes living in the centres and the
middle classes on the peripheries of town, allowing them to be separated from the lower
classes, have better living conditions and more space. (Dennis, 1986:3-5).
The second form of separation as Peters lays out, is a social separation; perhaps considered
a religious separation by creating alternative social communities through the church –
separating themselves from the ‘impure’ lower classes. Christianity, family and godliness
4
were all crucial aspects in the middle class life. Family being perhaps the most important as
it allowed a foundation to be placed for moral order and faith to be maintained and
expressed (Peters, 1994:5).
Peter’s idea of the orphan becoming a socio-political meaning within nineteenth century
literature is based upon this middle class importance of family. The orphan is not just a
physical being anymore, but within literature represents the marginalised poor, lower
classes and all those who are affected by the state of the Victorian welfare system who are
marginalised from the dominant ideology of family. Peter also suggests that the ‘family’ also
assumes a metaphoric condition to represent the nation state and those who are different
or create some threat to the ‘family’ are ‘orphans’; thus using orphans as a scape goat
(Peters, 1994:6). For Peters, orphans are not just threats to the family unit– but can be
validations and reassurance of their family legitimacy (Floyd, 2011:20). Peter also discusses
the importance of orphans in literature through the notion of romantic beliefs and sacred
child figures through the concept of an orphan holding a literal meaning. Nineteenth
century fictional orphan figures are empowered through personal powers as a spiritually
and harmoniously redemptive figure. The middle class view children as easily corrupted by
the lower classes and orphans who lack a family, also lack the proper family structures as
the middle classes do, to allow for moral and religious role models. However, it is this easily
influenced child whose ‘redemptive powers’ that can be used to influence others and begin
to change the next generation through moral behaviour. So although the middle class were
threatened by the orphan as an individual and metaphor, they wanted to possess the
redemptive power, it is these contradictory desires according to Peters, that saw the
progressive use of orphan figures in nineteenth century literature (Peters, 1994:12).
Similarly to Peters, in her work ‘The Contested Castle’, Kate Ferguson Ellis argues that the
middle class family fear of an outsider allowed for the orphan to fall as a target of this fear.
One novel which Ferguson Ellis focuses upon is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) in which
she demonstrates how Shelley exhibits the middle class domestic structures, in particular,
‘divided selves’ (Ferguson Ellis 1989:197). This division is a means to create a protective
barrier around the family home; harmony and unity of the family are retained within the
household whilst conflict and that created by the orphan is kept out. Ferguson Ellis notes
that Shelley portrays the anger and conflict created by the orphan is done so as the orphan
5
is outside of the protective barrier of the family and thus is able to generate such feelings
and action which those within the family are unable to do so in order to maintain their
harmonious domestic space. Hence, ‘divided selves’ – repressing emotions in order to
preserve the composure of the family (Ferguson Ellis 1989:197).
It is clear to understand that the majority of nineteenth century literature replicates the
social concerns of the society which the author resides. The narrative voice of the literature
is perhaps the main concern when focusing on the ideas of orphans in nineteenth century
literature, as it is the author who creates the stories and will often have a motive or gain
influence from their own surroundings. Returning to the work of Charles Dickens, Dickens
was a self-proclaimed social critic, aiming to challenge middle class ideas about poverty and
express the criticisms of social stratification he held through his own narrative voice.
Dickens ideas and work is often regarded as Marxist, however due to the chronology of his
work compared to Karl Marx’s or Friedrich Engels, it could be regarded as pre-Marxist
writing. Oliver Twist (1839) is deemed by some critiques as being perhaps not ‘Marxist’
enough, Shari Hodges shares her opinion that after criminals such as Fagin and his gang is
introduced, the Marxist predispositions begin to decline and/or fail. The main issue
occurring due to Dickens avoiding to properly answer the issue of workhouses, whether
they should be reformed or abolished. Hodges argues that this changes the narrative of the
story as the hero orphan who asserts himself against the more dominant class eventually
commences to personify the ‘bourgeois ideals’ (Hodges 2010:255). What needs to be
considered then is to what extent Dickens social agendas influenced his narrative voice for
each piece of writing he published. Hard Times (1854) is considered as Dickens’ most
strident presentment of the working class and also Dickens’ only novel that fully in length
examines the marginalised industrial working class. In particular he illustrates how the
majority of them were not really treat as people, but as extensions to machines they used.
For Hard Times to be his only full length novel dealing with class inequalities and social
issues of the time, this seems to display a motive behind most of Dickens’ novels. The novels
tend to touch upon such issues which Dickens aims to put across to the public but they
remain as background issues to the main story at hand, so it is interesting that almost
twenty years after the success of Oliver Twist he published such a novel as Hard Times.
Perhaps his own narrative steadily became stronger and more confident to express his
6
thoughts and feelings within his novels with trips across the country influencing his work
more so.
William Floyd (Orphans of British Fiction 1890 – 1911), just as Peters and Ferguson Ellis have
expressed, agrees with the concept that nineteenth century literature and the vastitude of
orphans present within them creates metaphoric inferences and relates to contemporary
social concerns. However, Floyd examines nineteenth century literature in a slightly
different manner, his main research argument is that the social conditions in which orphan
fiction is a literary response to, changes drastically towards the end of the century and thus
the depiction of the orphans does too (Floyd 2011:5). It appears through Floyds analyses
that orphan literature in the early nineteenth century portrays the orphan as in pursuit of
their identity or through their socio-political meaning aim to create a form of social
improvement. This contrasts with later nineteenth century literature which deems orphans
as foreboding characters, degenerative morally and psychically as well as holding a
somewhat unreconciled orphan position. Consequently, the benevolent character of the
early century orphan which ensured the validity of the family became an unstable,
individualistic and often threatening entity. Floyd maintains that the change in character
speaks to social problems near the end of the century. Where the orphan was regarded in
early literature as capable of redemption, it was later deemed a persisting and unalterable
problem. This symbolic shift according to Floyd, was due to a reduction in the urgency for
morals and emphasis placed on potential new societal threats such as the New Woman or
the ever evident implications of the lower classes (Floyd 2011:9).
An examination of orphans in nineteenth century literature bears an insight in to the
meaning and perceptions of orphans in the nineteenth century. It displays the Victorian
middle class urge to sustain the family ideal in which even in literature, orphans are exiled
from. The orphan figure serves as a strong symbol relating to the class, financial state,
reform and other social concerns affiliated with the nineteenth century in Britain that in
turn aims to create a change in the society by appealing to the middle class, depleting their
anxieties; dealing with the implications of self-definition away from determined context of
the family ideal.
7
3. Methodology
In order to create a detailed spatial analysis of orphanages in the north west of England and
analyse surrounding landscape, this research has primarily focused on the use of ordnance
survey (OS) map data. The maps used have been provided, analysed and annotated through
Digimap, an online service provided by Edina that holds collections of OS and historic maps.
Annotation occurred through creating one quarter of a mile (402.34m to 2dp) buffer zones
around the orphanages and analysing the landscape and spatial settings within and outside
the buffer zone. The scale of one quarter of a mile has been used to allow for different visual
stimuli of the building to be taken into account, such as the interface with public space, the
size of the building itself, its location and topographical features; permitting for perceptions
of the building to occur at different angles and range of distances. The OS maps used are
from two published dates. The earliest OS maps used are from the 1890s Lancashire county
series, first edition at a scale of 1:2500. Although some orphanages within the research
were established at earlier dates than the 1890s, the 1890s first edition OS maps provide a
clearer and more detailed map than previous editions that allows for an easier and more
effective analysis of the building and immediate surroundings of the orphanages. To account
for orphanages built in the late 1890s, 1908 Lancashire county series OS maps, first revision
editions at a scale of 1:2500 have also been used within the analysis. The research will
attempt to incorporate earlier editions of OS maps within the analysis where appropriate to
examine the changes over time within the surrounding landscape.
The majority of archaeological landscape, architectural and spatial research articles use a
variety of maps and plans. The use of maps is perhaps one of the most effective visual
techniques of presenting a site, potential questions and potential answers to research
questions. Examples include Katherine Fennelly’s ‘Out Of Sound, Out Of Mind: Noise Control
in Early Nineteenth-Century Lunatic Asylums in England and Ireland’ (2014) where Fennelly
uses a range of asylum plans to discuss asylum architecture and how the built environment
had an effect on light and sound. Flexi Driver’s ‘The Historical Geography of the Workhouse
System in England and Wales, 1834-1883’ (1989) uses maps to display various information
such as the location of poor law unions, workhouses and to explain which areas of England
held which regulation when it came to outdoor relief. Yet another example of maps and
plans used in academic work is found within Charlotte Newman’s ‘To Punish or to Protect
8
The New Poor Law and the English Workhouse’ (2013) where plans are used to display the
adaptation of workhouses over many decades and how policies of surveillance and
segregation are used to promote control and care and architecturally reflected
contemporary attitudes of workhouses.
Primarily within this research, the surrounding features such as proximity to other buildings
and public facilities etc. will be identified and analysed as well as internal features belonging
to the orphanage, such as courtyards, health and laundry facilities etc. The analysis of these
features within each site can determine what degree of separation occurred from the
surrounding public. Historical articles and information of each site has been obtained
through local libraries, local archive offices, the National Archives, the Archaeological Data
Service (ADS), and previous archaeological and historical case studies. A combination of
historical and archaeological data has allowed for thorough and comprehensive research
studies.
Primary data surveys have not been used within this research as the urban and rural
landscapes surrounding the orphanages have changed dramatically since their construction;
modern day landscapes have altered the effect of the orphanages and thus accurate spatial
analysis cannot occur. This is reason for the use of OS maps, as previously discussed, the
1890s OS maps have been used and although these too are years after the orphanages have
been established, the surrounding landscape for many have not changed so much within a
few decades leading up to the 1890s so historical inaccuracies are not much of a concern as
it would be to use primary survey data.
This research has also used the archaeology of townscapes to perform the task of not only
analysing the buildings themselves but understanding the way that towns were constructed
in the nineteenth century in order to interpret the reason for the location of the buildings.
This has been executed through the use of maps, historical documents and current
archaeological, historical and geographical research. The use of archaeological and historical
data is a common method amongst archaeologists researching townscapes. Archaeologists,
such as Christopher Phillpotts who wrote ‘Landscape into Townscape: An Historical and
Archaeological Investigation of the Limehouse Area, East London’ create settlement models
9
using a range of archaeological excavation data to understand the building and
development of a town/city and how these events occurred.
A common occurrence when analysing nineteenth century towns is the use of the social
sciences and economical history to determine how social control occurred through the
urban design of towns and how class, economical stance, and employment affected where
residents resided, conducted their business and related to the urban landscape. The use of
social sciences have been of highly important use to this research as it focuses on the public
perception of nineteenth century orphanages; determining if the landscape – physical and
social moulded the public perception which affected the building itself by reflecting the
stigma placed upon its occupants or if this stigma was one that has been forged through
modern historical and archaeological constructs.
The location of the orphanages used within this research have been Blackburn, Bolton,
Carlisle, Edgworth, Formby, Liverpool, Manchester and Rochdale; all major or near major
cities in the nineteenth century north west of England. The locations used are fairly spread
out from another barring Manchester, Rochdale and Bolton which occur as a cluster of three
large cities in the south Lancashire/ Greater Manchester county borders however the results
will still display definite social and geographical distinctions between the public and
orphanages.
10
4. 19th Century Ideology of Orphans and Institutions
4.1 The Ideology of Orphans
The definition of an orphan in the nineteenth century differs to what is commonly
conceived as an orphan in the twenty-first century. In the nineteenth century, an orphan
was a child who one or both parents had died.
To fully understand what the public perception of orphans was in the nineteenth century it
is necessary to examine childhood for all children from the eighteenth century to
understand the cultural perception of a child and childhood. Through doing this a
comparison may be created between orphans and non-orphaned children to comprehend
the different opinions and expectations of them; thus explain how orphans failed to fulfil
the society norm of being an innocent child.
In the middle to late eighteenth century emerged new notions of childhood from what is
known as the enlightenment era. Historian Philippe Ariès famously argued that childhood
as a recognisable distinct from adulthood did not fully exist until the eighteenth century
(Bicks 2011:142). Ariès explains that before this time, children were viewed as ‘miniature-
adults’ and thus often treat this way, made to dress, speak and behave as one as the general
rule was that once they left infancy and the dependency of a parent, they were in and
belonged to the society of adults. According to Ariès, there were two main imperatives
which led to the developing notion that childhood was a separate life stage; these were the
idea of a child being sweet and innocent and thus a source of relaxation and amusement for
adults and the second reason being educational dimensions, encouraged by the church to
discipline and seize control of the congenital misdemeanours of children and reinforce
knowledge of humanities, the sciences and theology. Although the educational aspect was
initially an upper-class phenomenon, this aspect eventually spread to all classes and
established childhood within society (Scraton, 1997:2).
The view that children held congenital misdemeanours was a popular idea until the middle
eighteenth century, particularly due to religion, the thought was that a child was born bad
and needed nurturing and education to become ‘human’. Genevan philosopher and writer
Jean-Jacques Rousseau published a novel (Emile) in 1760 in which he challenged societies
11
view of children, he suggested that children were in fact born good and if educated can be
moral and productive adults.
‘We are born sensitive and from our birth onwards we are affected in various ways by our
environment. As soon as we become conscious of our sensations we tend to seek or shun the
things that cause them, at first because they are pleasant or unpleasant, then because they
suit us or not, and at last because of judgements formed by means of the ideas of happiness
and goodness which reason gives us’
(Rousseau 2013:7)
Rousseau’s ideas were revolutionary at the time and had an impact within the Romantic
Movement as well as an influence which changed the idea of children and childhood (Crook
2000:20). Childhood was no longer a period to educate children and remove the evil they
were born with, but instead a time to nurture and influence the good they were born with
as it is the environment they grow up in that effects the type of adult they become. These
new mindsets can be recognised through a rise of artistic portrayals of children at the time.
Children were no longer painted in poses identical to adults but were instead increasingly
being depicted as emotionally and physically separate to adults and were often symbols of
innocence. Sir Joshua Reynolds displays this perfectly in his 1788 painting titled ‘The Age of
Innocence’ (Figure 1 below) which emphasizes the innocence and natural grace of a child
who is sat down and dressed in child appropriate clothes and wearing no shoes, suggesting
freedom or play, unlike previous paintings of the eighteenth century which had shown
children in adult-like clothes and poses, seemingly un-naturally for a child.
12
Figure 1: The Age of Innocence by Sir Joshua Reynolds 1788. Apparently well-loved in the 19th century, so much so that the National Gallery records reveal that 323 full scale copies of the painting were made before the end of the 19th century
The advancement of child and childhood ideologies as previously discussed, are largely a
middle and upper class phenomenon; the classes who realised that they had perhaps the
most to gain through social advancements of a child’s education and lived experience. For
the lower classes, the capital and time needed to provide a stable future for a child were
less available, the main source of education in the eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries were Sunday schools which was an unregulated state and in terms of quantity
and quality were unequal between the classes (O'Malley 2005:3).
Many children thus did not attend school or attended briefly. Instead, children of the lower
classes were often put to work support the family income and/or ease the workload for the
rest of the family. Research by historians have shown that many children before the
industrial revolution was in full force in the late eighteenth century worked in workshops or
home-based industries; agriculture, wool and cotton workshops were the most common
home based industry due to the products being England’s largest export at the time
(Honeyman 2007:1).
13
The history of child labour generally raises questions regarding exploitation - if the children
were exploited by both parents and employers. Issues occurring are if the parents and
employers benefitted the most from child labour; if parents used children as a means to
afford their own leisure’s or if the child’s wages did improve the standard of living and thus
the child benefitted also. Similarly, the employers benefitted from the labour due to low
wages and high income but also benefitted from using children in the workforce for jobs
that may be trickier for adults due to their size or simply the jobs that adults did not want
(Humphries 2010:3).
There was a large increase in child labour in the late eighteenth century/early nineteenth
century which can be partly due to the increase of factories and therefore jobs and the need
for cheap labour which also coincided with a large population increase. Statistics show
(Table 1 below) that between 170AD and 1800AD, there was a 0.69% average annual
population increase rate which grew to a 1.34% rate per annum between 1800AD and
1850AD.
DATES POPULATION (1000s) RATES OF INCREASE: AVERAGE PER ANNUM (%)
1700 5800 -
1750 6500 0.23
1800 9200 0.69
1850 17900 1.34
1900 32500 1.2
1950 43700 0.59
1970 48600 0.53
1700-1800 - 0.46
1750-1850 - 1.01
1800-1900 - 1.27 Table 1: Population change in England 1700-1970 table created by D.B Grigg using various statistical and
government sources.
Coinciding with the late eighteenth century and the increasing use of child labour was the
election of William Pitt as prime minister of Great Britain in 1783. In 1796 Pitt introduced a
Poor Law Bill where he proposed that children from the age of five should be sent to work.
Pitt also served as prime minister during the French revolution when Great Britain formed a
coalition with other neighbouring countries of France in 1793 to defeat the French Republic.
These revolutionary wars continued until 1803 when peace between Britain and France
collapsed and the Napoleonic Wars began (1803-1815). The Napoleonic Wars in particular
14
were a factor in the increase of child labour. During the Napoleonic Wars, approximately 1
in 10 men were away from Britain fighting. The adults who remained behind not only cost
the factories money due to wages but higher wages than normal due to labour shortages
and thus increases in the workload. To combat the strains in Britain’s economy and to meet
demands for extra money to continue fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, Pitt is famously
quoted as to saying ‘We must yoke up the children to work in the factories’ (Humphries
2010:9). The expected result was that factories would have more money to keep producing
goods to keep Britain’s economy afloat as children were paid less wages than adults and
there would also be an increase in men available to fight.
Although there was a profound change in the idea of childhood in the eighteenth century
due to the work of Rousseau and other romantic philosophers, by the nineteenth century,
there appears to be still class divides in the view and role of children in society. Children of
the lower classes were made to work to support their families but were forced into work at
early ages by the British government. This can thus create problematic notions about lower
class children being seen as subservient to the middle and higher classes, denied a proper
education and made to work from a young age to support themselves and their families but
ultimately British industries and their owners.
Although lower class children were exploited, it was the orphans who were at more risk of
exploitation. Due to being in the care of the parish, they were often either sent to the
workhouse or orphanages (if there was a space available) or obtain by factory owners to
become pauper apprentices where they would also live besides the factory in what were
known as apprentice houses. The latter route for orphans and destitute children meant
signing yourself over in a contract which made you the belonging of the factory until you
turned 21. Due to being easy workforces to obtain by industry owners, at even younger ages
than other children, orphans would be made to work for up to twelve hours a day in poor
conditions.
Many adults, especially middle and higher class adults would have seen the use of orphans
as labour as an action of the highest importance and value. This was due to adults
possessing the image of orphans as problematic figures. The orphan was often separated
into two categories; the criminal and the endangered. Both categories shared similar or
perceived characteristics – working class, poverty stricken and unacceptable housing
15
conditions. The criminal orphan was one who was seen as a danger and looked down upon
as they represented the opposite of the romantic notion of children and the endangered
orphan was one who was at risk of falling into criminal ways due to association with
criminals and their personal circumstances (Flegel 2009:163). Adoption was not legal in
England until the twentieth century as it was believed that a child inherited their social class
from their biological parents and to adopt an orphan from a lower class meant risking the
chance of opening yourself up to the issues of the lower class. Despite these issues with
social class and juvenile criminality, by the end of the nineteenth century, Rousseau’s
romantic notion that children were born good was fully replacing the idea that children
were born bad, especially those from lower classes and every child deserves a good, safe
home (Crook 2000:21).
Social and economic problems are a well-documented history in the nineteenth century
and the contemporary government gave these priority in parliament; despite the apparent
priority they gave these issues, many acts and laws were not passed for quite a few years.
Regardless whether for philanthropist or social class issues, the government aimed to
change the lower class by starting with the children, like Slaney said, to break the chain of
pauperism. By the 1860s, many poor law guardians preferred to follow a plan that was
presented by the then assistant poor law commissioner, James Kay in 1838. Kay proposed to
separate all children from workhouses and send them to separate schools and homes in
order to create a more efficient education for poor children and separate them from the
bad influence of workhouse adult paupers (Murdoch 2006:6).
In 1870 the government passed an education act which created school boards within local
authorities which were to provide education for all children aged 5 to 13 years. Parents still
had to pay fees to send their children to school but if a child was from a poor household
then the board would their fees. Another education act of 1880 made school compulsory for
all under 10s and in 1891, education became free for all children in board and church
schools. The 1870 Education Act was initially objected to and feared by the middle and
upper classes as they believed allowing the working classes to ‘think’ would lead to social
unrest as they would begin to think of their lives as dissatisfactory and factory owners
feared the loss of cheap labour (Shaw 2011:4-5). As previously touched upon above, many
orphans would be sent to live/work in orphanages and factories. Such institutions often
16
contained their own school and would allow the child to receive a basic education and/or
training. Such schools became the norm after the 1870 education act and almost all
orphanages after this date had a school.
The government and local poor law boards wished to reduce expenditure on poor relief by
referring the poor to charities. The nineteenth century saw an increase in the fascination of
orphans and ‘waifs and strays’ which coincided with rising cases of physical separation of
children from their parents. Child welfare reformers and charities attempted to present
children from poor backgrounds as orphans or endangered by abusive parents. The British
public supported many charities and state aid for children due to being made to believe
what the reformers presented to them (Murdoch 2006:7). Philanthropists heavily relied on
melodramatic images in order to attract the attention of the charitable public. By producing
images of poor children in a melodramatic manner, they composed narratives of rescue and
reformation that focussed on the individual child and family rather than the more extensive
causes of poverty. It appeared to be a priority to remove the parents from poor children’s
narratives in order to provide and care for them through charitable means. One charity
which was heavily investigated in the nineteenth century and has been the focus of many
historical studies for such melodramatic manipulation of photos and fundraising approaches
was Barnardos. Particularly focused upon is Barnardos court case and perhaps biggest public
scandal of 1877. During the court case, Barnardos photographs were heavily focused upon
as he was accused of profoundly exaggerating the condition of the children in his care
(Murdoch 2006:12).
Whether Barnardos and other philanthropists had the best intention or not regardless of
melodramatic practices is one that is questioned in social historic discussions. It is argued
that wealthy contributors to charities and institutions did so in order to receive good
publicity. Such a case can be argued about one newspaper article from the Illustrated
London News in 1850. The article describes an evening of fireworks and entertainment
placed on for the children of the Merchant Seaman’s Orphan Asylum in London. What is of
interest within this article is that it mentions all of the men who organised the evening with
little mention of the orphans. It is highly likely that this was done somewhat with a
purposeful intent to publicise the benefactors as charitable people, and create a favourable
name for themselves amongst the middle and upper classes (Boyd 1993).
17
4.2 The Ideology of Nineteenth Century Institutions
Charitable deeds and donations despite vast increases in the nineteenth century had been
present in Britain for hundreds of years beforehand. In Christian and Jewish communities,
especially in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, helping the poor was a natural and
religious duty. In 1597 and 1601, the first English poor laws were issued, sanctioning each
parish to take care of their paupers and introducing taxes to support this. Before the
introduction of taxes to support the poor, the public donated and supported the poor
through a sense of duty to god, rather than a duty to the poor. It was believed that giving to
charity aided a person’s soul whereas supporting able bodied people and promoting
idleness through the means of compulsory tax troubled a person’s soul (Szasz 1998:18). This
created a resentment of sorts of the paupers as people no longer felt that they were doing
‘godly’ work by helping the poor whenever they desired and by involuntarily donating
money through taxes they were being defrauded of Gods reverence.
This is potentially why society began to look down on and despise paupers, alongside the
increasing demonization of pauper children parents in the nineteenth century. It was the
1834 Poor Law Act that came as a final quest to remove the moral threat that paupers
presented. The examination of nineteenth century institutions can disclose the
contemporary normative perspectives of social control, moral standards and power
relations.
It is often said that the 1834 Poor Law Act created the workhouses and similar institutions,
but workhouses had been around as far back as the fourteenth century. What the 1834
Poor Law in fact created, were the Parish workhouses. These new parish workhouses were
built in abundance to adhere to the needs of the local poor boards and were designed
architecturally to serve different purposes, something that had not particularly been done in
workhouses before 1834. The New Poor Law Commissioners felt that existing workhouses
were like almhouses – cheap or free housing for the poor to live in. They believed that such
places encouraged idleness, vice and ignorance with those able bodied to work (May
1987:122-123). The commissioners proposed that all workhouses built after 1834 should
create segregation of paupers; the aged and incapable, children, able-bodied males and
able-bodied females. The early parish workhouses were constructed with central buildings
and surrounding exercise and work yards, all enclosed within a brick wall. Early architectural
18
designs include Sampson Kempthornes design (Figure 2 below) of a cruciform central three-
storey building with separate wings and yards for each segregated group.
Figure 2: Kempthornes cruciform design of a workhouse
Segregation occurred for three main reasons, to properly administrate help to those in most
need; to discourage others against pauperism and as a physical confines to separate those
with illnesses; physical and mental (Driver 2004:64).
Some commissioners believed that the architecture of the new workhouses were symbolic
of the changes to poor relief provisions and would be something that the paupers would
find difficult to argue against if they wished to receive poor relief. There was, naturally,
those who were opposed to the design and architect of the new workhouses. One assistant
commissioner was quoted in saying that the new designs were intended to deliver terror
upon the able-bodied population and architect George Scott made it public how he felt that
the designs were ‘of the meanest character’. Other critics noted the similarities between
19
Kempthorne’s designs and prisons and argued that they were not just coincidental (Driver
2004:59).
The contemporary opinion was that environmental manipulation was the prime method for
social improvement. The many forms of a nineteenth century institution were the
mechanisms used for the moral improvement of society with architecture that reflected the
contemporary opinions of paupers and moral conditions. Archaeological approaches to
nineteenth century institutions, led by academics in Australia and the United States and in
recent years, Britain, have indicated that the architecture of institutions were dominant
elements in concluding the experience and treatment of the institutionalised. Charlotte
Newman in her archaeological studies of workhouses in West Yorkshire noted the use of a
single cell system which segregated the paupers from each other. In Ripon Workhouse, she
observes the use of frosted windows to prevent the public from looking in and the inmates
looking out, thus also segregating the inmates from society (Newman 2010:82). Teresa
Ploszajska’s research into Redhill industrial school reveals that the accommodation, lifestyle
and daily routine was intended to mirror the life of a ‘respectable’ working class person
(Ploszajska 1994:6). The inmate’s experiences differed from one workhouse to the next as
each workhouse implemented segregation, surveillance and specialised institute facilities
differently depending on the date of construction or extension and the guardians values
(Newman 2014:130). As previously mentioned, the numerous architectural techniques to
segregate the paupers from society was done on purpose; architecturally, institutes were
purposefully built to look foreboding and to dissuade others from pauperism. Those built in
urban landscapes stood out against the adjacent buildings and those in rural landscapes
stood out considerably due to factors such as size, topography and style. Topographically,
some institutions had elevated positions in the landscape which evoked appearances of
authority and dominance. The elevated position in the landscape which allowed everyone
to see the building also served as a reminder to the townspeople what pauperism can lead
to and furthered the social stigmatisation attached to such places. The image of the
warehouse was also effected by the treatment of its inmates. Early nineteenth century
workhouses were established and ran primarily for the improvement and teaching of
morals, the needs and care of the paupers were not placed as a priority and as a result many
of the institutions declined soon after opening with poor hygiene, lack of space and food
20
and became notorious for having strict staff who made the paupers abide by strict rules. The
domineering architectural design and style in correlation with the harsh conditions created
a stereotype of all workhouses that placed horror and thoughts of repulsion in pauper’s
minds. For those on the fringes of poverty, the workhouse was a place to avoid as it was
deemed shameful and harrowing (Livingstone 1993:5).
The workhouse stereotype was sustained through recurrent scandal publications in the
media. The most notable to many was the Andover Workhouse Scandal which occurred
1845. The scandal occurred due to rumours amongst the local population of atrocious
conditions in the workhouse. The local Board of Guardians claimed to enquire about the
rumours and found them fictitious, however a thorough inquiry by local MPs found severe
shortcomings in the building and the care of the inmates. The national newspaper, The
Times, at the time reported how the master of Andover Workhouse had committed
brutality, negligence and maladministration and his actions had been overlooked by the
Board of Guardians as the local poor rate had been low due to the stigma of the workhouse
created by the master’s actions (Anstruther 1973; Newman 2010:27).
The landscape setting of workhouses aided the nature attached to the building. Many
institutional buildings were located away from large populous areas. The secluded location
of these buildings physically removed the people of the institutions way from society. The
isolation emphasised the status of inmates, people who did not conform to the ideals of
society and were thus outsiders (Newman 2014:125). However, the rural location of these
buildings may be due to contemporary social reformers connecting the physical and moral
health of people with the physical location. The city was argued to be a place of urban
slums, with a habit of corrupting inhabitants and crime increasing in correlation with an
increasing population density. The antidote to such anti-social behaviour was believed to be
a ‘well-ordered domestic environment’ (Ploszajska, 1994: 416) in a rural landscape. The
rural landscape was to be the exact opposite of the inner-city and would provide good and
simple morals aswell as an improved and happier lifestyle (Ploszajska 1994:418).Newman in
her 2014 analysis of the new poor law and workhouses outlined there there were two
typologies of workhouse locations; those located on the edge of urban centres and near
significant local features and the others located out of city/town and were isolated
(Newman 2014:125).
21
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, attitudes about institutions and how they were
run, perhaps spurred by scandals such as at Andover, were becoming more sympathetic
towards paupers and a general shift occurred, from improving moral conditions to taking
care of the paupers and giving them a chance to work and hopefully break from pauperism.
This did not necessarily mean conditions improved greatly or that they received great
names for themselves, as they still held a stigma but there was some improvement
throughout.
Archaeologist, Katherine Fenelly has conducted research on nineteenth century lunatic
asylums. She discovered that the historic data detailing the shift to looking after people
properly rather than focusing on morals, is apparent in the architecture of mid-century
asylums. The architecture and material culture of the asylums changed to become ‘sound
friendly’ for inmates.
For the purpose of this research, the stereotype of all institutes have been considered. The
most famous type of institute, the workhouse has been the driving force in discovering the
stigma attached to institutions. This research has considered the stigma and attempted
through landscape and spatial analysis to understand if this stigma was attached to other
institutes; orphanages. As presented heretofore, children were identified as the basis to end
the cycle of poverty and need nurture and education to become valuable members of
society. Children throughout the nineteenth century lived in institutions such as workhouses
which were deemed as bad places full of lazy and criminal adults, so therefore did
orphanages – the purpose built institution for children hold the same stigma as workhouses
and were the children stereotyped as much as the inhabitants of workhouses?
22
5. Victorian Town and Cityscapes
The study of townscapes is a major subject within urban geography, history and archaeology
studies. These studies tend to partition towns into segments due to location and the locus
of public structures. Much of these studies focus on the built environment with a lack of
emphasis on the actuality that the built environment is a structural expression of time-
specific cultural, social and economic contexts.
When examining nineteenth century townscapes, approaches include structural and
economical directions. Structural approaches review the built structure and can be
compared to other buildings within the same townscape or another through functions such
as architectural characteristics, use and standards. There is a weakness within using
structural approaches in that it mainly solely examines the built structure and to provide
detail analysis there must be reference to economics such as the social and economic
organisation of the inhabitants/building itself (Holt 1979:105-106).
Many analyses of nineteenth century British buildings dictate that the built structure is not
an artefact within the townscape placed due to its style or function, but is the outcome of
local, regional and national economic contexts. Housing and industrial development held a
relationship which built upon one another to ensure that they benefitted from local land
use and capitalist markets (Holt 1979:107).
British industrialisation was followed by an extensive increase in the population and the
acceleration of unplanned and unregulated building and expansion of towns and cities. In
regard to housing in the early nineteenth century, the planning and construction was
regarded as a capitalist development; a response to an influx of workers to make money
through rent and also obtain a barrage of workers who live nearby to the factories and mills.
It was this capitalist drive that saw the development of towns and urbanisation rather than
the social and philanthropic needs of the population (Gunn 2008:242).
The introduction of a new middle class in the nineteenth century lead to a whole new class
of people who had more money and more pleasure time to enjoy that money.
Accompanying this new class and leisure time, were the erection of new types of buildings
in cities and towns. These buildings included market halls, bazaars, hotels, bars, theatres
and pavilions. The above-mentioned buildings allowed for the transformation of the
23
architecture of nineteenth century towns and were not just productions of new demands
for leisure activities but benefits of new, improved and cheaper travel methods such as the
railway. As previously discussed in section 2 (pages 2 - 6), many historians agree that in the
mid-nineteenth century there started a trend for the middle class moving to the outskirts of
towns and cities. Reasons for emigration to the outer suburbs of towns and cities included
more space and the search for fresh air – the belief that town centres were dirty and
polluted from factories and high population density. These new suburbs assisted the
expansions of towns and cities (Rodgers 1962:3).
New towns and cities alongside increasing suburbs, were introducing the use of green
spaces to provide a healthier area for surrounding inhabitants. Green spaces allowed for
exercise and fresh air, in the early century only the middle class were privileged enough for
such conveniences however towards the end of the century, the benefits of such areas were
realised and green spaces were available for everyone.
One could describe the nineteenth century town as a vast cover of buildings and chimneys
with every class imaginable residing within its parameters. Buildings were generally built
narrow and were sites of overcrowding. However, by the mid-nineteenth century, buildings
of all types, became increasingly private places and the structure of towns became further
socially ordered.
24
6. 19th Century Orphanages in the Northwest
As previously displayed in chapters two, four and five, the development of orphanages in
the nineteenth century is a very complex study. Nineteenth century political, social and
economic expansions led to many children’s institutions establishing and incorporating
varying architectural designs, social and economic conditions. The diversiform conditions of
orphanages in the North West display contrasts and similarities between one another. The
village of Formby has always been what can be termed a rural location however it
experienced growth and change in the nineteenth century due to the introduction of the
railway and road improvements which transformed it into a market town with an increasing
middle class society. Edgworth similarly has always been a rural location and also
experienced change in the nineteenth century due to industrialisation in the form of textile
mills. However, change was limited in both locations unlike more urban towns and cities
such as Manchester, Liverpool and Rochdale that had been accompanied to industrialisation
and urbanisation long before the nineteenth century and the increase of industrialisation in
this period. Local governing and private charitable run orphanages were a part of urban
culture and had long been established. These contrasting economic and cultural conditions
made varying levels of requisite for orphanages and effected the way each town perceived
orphans and orphanages. The following case studies of fifteen orphanages in eight locations
across the North West will demonstrate the results of the research as it aimed to fulfil the
aims and questions as previously discussed (Chapter one and three above). Ensuing these
case studies is an in-depth study of one industrial market town in Lancashire which will
further draw on any preliminary results from the case studies and fulfil the research’s aims.
6.1 Case Study One: Manchester, Greater Manchester
Documentary and mapping research of Manchester from the eighteenth century onwards
have confirmed that the sites recorded upon available maps correspond with known
archaeological evidence for the city and the archaeology is mostly dominated by the
remains of industrial and urban features such as canals, the railway, textile mills and
housing. The earliest detailed map of Manchester dates to 1750 (Fig 3 below) before the
major industrial changes of the nineteenth century and therefore does not display such
industrial activity albeit through records we know they were already some existent.
25
Figure 3: Plan of Manchester and Salford 1750
However, there is evidence within the map for some industry occurring in Manchester
before 1750; detailed is ‘daube holes’ (Fig 4 below) that was used as a clay pit which
suggests possible construction work and also pottery uses. Also detailed is a ‘Kay’ or as
known today as a ‘quay’ (Fig 5 below), which creates links to transport, fishing industries
and also trade occurring.
Figure 4: 1750 map of Manchester and Salford –‘Daube Holes’ Figure 5:1750 map of Manchester and Salford - 'Kay'
26
Before 1800 there is little documentation to give an accurate population of Manchester
however there are few census records that survive, or their results do so. One such census
puts the population of Manchester at 19,839 in 1757. Another census created in 1774 raises
this number to 22,481 and an 1801 parliamentary census places the population at 84,020
for Manchester and Salford combined (Baines 1836:332). Such large population increases
lead to expansion of the town and new facilities being built for those effected by the social
conditions brought on by industrialisation and the large population density. A parliamentary
report of 1776-77 listed a workhouse located in Manchester which held 180 inmates which
is possibly the oldest workhouse in Manchester to house the poor/homeless. By 1860 there
was at least 15 intuitions in open in Manchester including orphanages and industrial schools
for children (Fig 6 below). Manchester was one of the first poor law unions to erect a
separate institution specifically for children in 1846.
Figure 6: Google map displaying the location of some of the earliest poor law institutions and workhouses in Manchester
This institution was located in Swinton, just outside of Manchester and Salford. This
institution was an industrial school and home for children who were destitute; after the
1857 Industrial Schools Act, any child who had been charged with vagrancy were sent to an
industrial school. In 1861 a further act was passed to include all children under the age of
27
fourteen who were homeless, caught begging or committed a crime (Duckworth 2002:219).
Swinton was a fairly rural area until the mid-nineteenth century when it became a town
with various factories and mills but as you can see from the map (Fig 7 below), even in the
1890s the area was not subjected to dense urbanisation.
Figure 7:1890s OS map of Swinton Industrial School
Swinton is approximately 4.2 miles from Manchester which was a fairly long distance in the
nineteenth century considering that in 1846 the railway had not made it to Swinton yet and
the only other mode of transport was horses or walking. The purpose of industrial schools
were to separate children from the environment they were growing up in and give them an
education and learn a trade. This could explain the distance from Manchester. The home
has a fairly large area of land surrounding it which was a common occurrence for homes to
have gardens. The 1840 OS map of Swinton (Fig 8 below) shows Swinton as an even less
populated area and beyond the gardens of the home even more land between the home
and local buildings. Also located on the map surrounding the home, is various churches,
chapels, halls and farms which suggests Swinton was a rural village with a high population of
religious people. Slightly southwest of the home, in Figure 8, there is in a village very close
by, a workhouse. It is quite possible that these institutions were placed nearby due to being
28
located in a rural and religious area, attempting to avoid the ‘bad’ environments of the cities
such as Manchester and Salford.
Figure 8:1840s OS map of Swinton Industrial School
6.1.1 Bethesda Home
Bethesda Home was opened in 1890 upon land bordering on Coke Street and George Street
in Cheetham Hill. It was established and ran by the Manchester charity - Manchester and
Salford Boys' and Girls' Refuges who set up many homes across Manchester in the
nineteenth century. The home was specifically for children who were considered disabled or
obtained an incurable disease. Although this home is not an orphanage per se, it is a home
for children who may perhaps receive the most stigma and alienation from society. The
home is located on the edge of a park (fig 9 below), with roads on all other sides separating
the home from other housing. The land which the home is located has a surrounding fence,
using the fence as a border marking, houses opposite the road to the north are
approximately 9.44 metres away, to the east 36.77 metres and 8.83 metres to the south.
The home, excluding the fence boundary, is set back approximately 41.52 metres from the
main street (George Street) and from no direction is it directly visible from inside
surrounding housing.
29
Figure 9:1890s OS map of Bethesda Home, George Street/Coke Street, Cheetham Hill
6.1.2 Rosen Hallas
Rosen Hallas was built in 1886 at the corner of George Street and Cheetham Hill Road (Fig
10 below). It was a form of orphanage known as an emigration home. Specifically, Rosen
Hallas was for girls only who would be trained in domestic skills before emigrating to
Canada.
The home sits back from its main entrance on Cheetham Hill road (a main road) by
approximately 18.03 metres, surrounded by trees/hedges and a driveway leading up to the
house. This would have made the house fairly inconspicuous to onlookers from Cheetham
Hill road. The home is also at a distance of 24.63 metres away from George Street to the
south of the building. To the north of the location is a series of different churches, Sunday
schools and parks; to the south is a series of housing that made up the main town.
30
Figure 10: 1908 OS map of Rosen Hallas Home, George Street, Cheetham Hill
6.1.3 George Street, Chatham Hill
George Street was quite an unusual street. It held in the late nineteenth century, eight
different children homes. There was Bethesda and Rosen Hallas, the two just covered and
also number 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 George Street (Fig 11 below). Opened in 1882, each of
these homes were named after the benefactor who gave money to allow the purchase of
the already existing buildings. The houses were designed to provide a home like
environment for the children who were required to be ten years of age or under and with
both parents deceased. Each home could accommodate sixteen children and had a matron
in charge who was often referred to as ‘mother’ by the children. All of the homes had
playgrounds at the rear and small lawns with shrubs planted across the front. Each home
was approximately 3 metres wider than others in the street, this could have been the
reason for the purchasing of these specific houses.
31
Figure 11:1908 OS map of the George Street homes for children, Cheetham Hill
On the OS maps can be seen a Salvation Army Home for unmarried mothers at the bottom
of George Street (Fig 12 below). Opened in 1898, the home came later than the children’s
home upon George Street. Such a facility would have received a poor reception due to
premarital pregnancy shamed upon and heavily stigmatized whilst provoking issues about
sexual intercourse, religion and morality.
This stigma can be seen in the spatial organisation of the building. The main building is set
back from George Street to the west by 27.4 metres, from Tetlow Lane to the north by
21.43 metres and by 45.13 metres to the east on Cheetham Street East. To the south of the
building and almost adjacent is Mandley Park, tennis courts and bowling greens.
Majority of the children born in such an institution would be given up for adoption.
Therefore it is quite an according appurtenance that this institution lies upon the same
street as eight orphanages. This research has not thoroughly looked into any records to
detect such links between the institutions in this location however it is possibly a base for
further research in to the subject.
32
Figure 12:1908 OS map of Oakhill Salvation Army Home, George Street, Cheetham Hill.
6.1.4 Galloway Home
Opened in 1883, the orphanage and training institution for girls upon Upper Chorlton Road,
Whalley Range (Figure 13 below) had originally been located at Greenhill Street in
Greenheys, Manchester. Whalley range in the 1880s was a suburb on the outskirts of
Manchester, approximately two miles from the city centre. It was an expanding area as can
be seen from figure 14 below, in Bacon’s 1884 map of Manchester, which shows how no
building or adjacent buildings existed just nine years before the orphanage was built. The
orphanage is a distinctive building compared to neighbouring buildings, the orphanage is
approximately 14.34 metres wide whereas two of the neighbouring terrace houses side by
side span to 11.24 metres. Such a large detached building in the middle of the street would
have made the building noticeable. However, it does sit back from Upper Chorlton Road at
the same length of the other houses, 13.74 metres and similarly, 29.6 metres to Crofton
Street at the back of the house. Behind the orphanage was a large area of open fields which
was not built upon until the late 1890s/early 1900s.
33
Figure 13:1890s OS map of Galloway Home, Whalley Range
Figure 14:1884 map of Manchester, detailing Upper Chorlton Road, the location of Galloway Orphanage
34
6.1.5 Central Refuge
The Central Refuge was opened in 1871 by the charity Manchester and Salford Boys' and
Girls' Refuges, the same charity who opened previously spoken about homes such as
Bethesda and others upon George Street of Cheetham Street. The central Refuge is
important to the historical and archaeological record as it is one of the first orphanages to
be built in relative proximity of the centre of the city (Figure 15 below) rather than the outer
city suburbs.
Figure 15:1892 OS map of the Central Refuge, Manchester
Strangeways, where the orphanage was located was an area of North Manchester known
for its industry, which was boosted due to the nearby Victoria train station (Figure 16 below
displays all different types of industries surrounding the orphanage). The area also has a
workhouse (just above Victoria train station, can be seen in Figure 15), approximately
202.99 metres way from the orphanage and a famous prison, approximately 145.96 metres
away, which is still notorious today due to its long and often violent history (can be seen in
Figure 15).
The orphanage was originally established by the joining of four three-storey houses which
were later expanded and by 1883 were able to accommodate 120 boys.
35
Figure 16:1908 OS map of the Central Refuge and surrounding industries
6.2 Case Study Two: Liverpool, Merseyside
Just as is the case with Manchester, Liverpool also has a history and archaeology largely
dominated by industry. However, the main focus within Liverpool is in regards to its famous
maritime history. During the eighteenth century, eight of the first docks in Liverpool were
built, which also coincides with a large population boom from 6,000 to 80,000. Liverpool’s
docks allowed for international and national trade, largely based around slavery and cotton
in the 18th century. Liverpool developed into an important financial centre by the end of the
eighteenth century and in the nineteenth century, growing demands for docks, trade,
imports and warehouses caused a great increase in the building and expansion of Liverpool
(Belchem 2007:12). It is speculated that many of the poor or destitute children of Liverpool
were created due to losing fathers who were involved in maritime work. The social
conditions of children in the city, their lack of education and the reoccurring middle class
theme of a bad upbringing were recognised fairly early in the eighteenth century. One of the
first institutions, the Bluecoat Hospital, to help disadvantaged children was built in 1718.
The school provided accommodation, education and training for orphaned, fatherless or
36
poor children. It was centrally located (figure 17 below) close to the docks, Central train
station, public buildings and factories.
Figure 17:1899 OS map of the Blue Coat School, School Lane, Liverpool
Through documentary and mapping evidence, it appears to be the case that majority of
other similar institutions for orphaned or destitute children were established in the mid-
nineteenth century onwards.
6.2.1 Fazakerley Cottage Homes
Fazakerley cottage homes were opened in 1898 by the West Derby Poor Law Union. There
was a total of 24 homes that housed up to 25 children each. Like typical cottage homes, it
was a self-sufficient society, the complex held a central hall, school, swimming baths,
hospital, refuse destructor and workshops. Figure 18 (below) is the 1908 OS map of
Fazakerley cottage homes, just north of the cottage homes is the Liverpool, Bolton and Bury
train line and to the south is the suburb of Fazakerley, the cottage homes are placed just
outside of the Fazakerley.
37
Figure 18:1908 OS map of Fazakerley Cottage Homes, Liverpool
The 1891 OS map of the cottage homes (figure 19 below) shows the expansion of the
cottage homes. In the 1891 OS map, the school is to the west of the central hall but by the
1908 OS map (figure 18), the building is an isolation hospital, an additional hospital to the
one that is already located in the southeast of the complex. The school is now in the
northeast of the complex, as a part of a new expansion to the cottage homes.
Figure 19:1891 OS map of Fazakerley Cottage Homes
38
6.2.2 Nazareth House
Nazareth House in Great Cosby, Liverpool was opened in 1897, Great Cosby is known as a
town however it is still a suburb of Liverpool. The institution provided care and
accommodation for orphans, destitute children and also the elderly poor. Nazareth Houses
existed across the UK and were ran by a religious order of nuns known as the Sisters of
Nazareth. The 1908 OS map (figure 20 below) is the earliest detailed map available for the
Nazareth House, before it was taken over by the Sisters of Nazareth, the building was known
as Crosby House.
Figure 20:1908 OS map of Nazareth House, Great Cosby, Liverpool
The home is surrounded by fields and a farm to the north and east. To the west is a private
boarding school and six terrace houses. To the south are what appears to be rows of back to
back houses that were not seen in the 1893 OS map of the location (when the location was
known as Cosby House).
39
6.2.3 Royal Seamen’s Orphanage
The Orphanage was opened in 1874 after building work took placed using funds donated by
local ship-owners and merchants. Before the construction of this orphanage (figure 21
below), there was no institution in Liverpool that solely focused on helping orphaned
children of seamen.
Figure 21:1908 OS map of the Royal Seamen’s Orphanage, Liverpool
Liverpool town council donated 0.6 hectares of land north east of Newsham Park which is
why the orphanage is situated there. Directly adjacent to the land is the Edgehill and Bootle
railway line. Over the train line is a recreation ground and housing that was first developed
in the late 1880s/ early 1890s. The orphanage has its own chapel and sanatorium attached.
The orphanage appears to be tucked away on between the park and the railway line.
6.2.4 Scholfield Home for Girls
Opened in 1897 by the Waifs and Strays Society, the building was originally a home that was
donated to the society. Located south east of the city centre on the outskirts of the city, the
orphanage is surrounded by recreation grounds and other big houses/mansions. The 1908
OS map (figure 22 below) has been used due to the 1893 OS map being of too early of a
date from when the orphanage opened. The house sits back from Church road at the front
by approximately 19.97 metres. The garden extends to the back from the house by 55.59
40
metres. 17.71 metres to the south is a school for blind children which was opened in 1898.
18.42 metres to the north is a church. 615.94 metres south of the orphanages is an
industrial school which was established in 1899.
Figure 22:1908 OS map of Scholfield Home, Liverpool
6.2.5 St Vincent’s
The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul was a group of nuns founded by St Vincent de
Paul in the seventeenth century who worked to help the poor. The catholic encyclopaedia of
1913 claims that by 1907 they worked 23 orphanages; 7 industrial schools; 24 schools; 1
school to train teachers; 3 homes for working girls or female ex-convicts; 8 hospitals, and 35
soup-kitchens in Britain. There were two St Vincent orphanages in Liverpool. One, purely for
boys, was located on Shaw Street (figure 23 below).
41
Figure 23:1908 OS map of St Vincent’s Home for Boys, Liverpool
The home is located in the middle of the street amongst terrace buildings that differ from
other streets around it, the buildings are wider, longer and have enclosed land at the back
of the building. This suggests that the buildings were originally made to contain some form
of public building rather than normal housing. 14.24 metres north from the home is a
Women’s Hospital, 41.31 metres away, next to the hospital is a school. 61.38 metres to the
south is a Methodist chapel and 83.85 metres further south is a drill shed which served as a
headquarters for the 8th King's Liverpool Regiment. Across the street, slightly north-east of
the home was a church, 54.09metres away. The area which Shaw Street resided in was just
outside of the city centre, surrounded by houses, industry and public buildings/parks. The
area was also renowned for its large population of Irish immigrants.
6.2.6 Sheltering Home for Destitute Children
Built in 1889, the sheltering home for destitute children was aimed for boys and girls who
had lost either one or both parents (Figure 24 below). They would be provided an education
and a short industrial training before being emigrated to Canada. The home relied entirely
upon charitable donations.
42
Figure 24: Home for Destitute Children
Due to its central location, the home is surrounded by various other institutions.
Approximately 80.14 metres away from the home on Mulberry Street is a catholic
orphanage for girls. 109.54 metres away on Falkner Street is a female penitentiary and
168.16 metres away on Hardman Street is a school for the indigent blind. 182.50 metres
way from the home was a set of almhouses which was a Christian institution aimed at
allowing the poor to live in cheap or free housing and in a certain area. The home is also
surrounded by various churches, schools, hospitals and also a concert hall.
6.3 Case Study Three: Blackburn, Lancashire
Blackburn has a long history reaching as far back as the middle ages. As with the majority of
Lancashire towns and cities, it has a high percentage of industrial history and archaeology.
The industrial revolution brought a trading and manufacturing boom to Blackburn, whose
main industry had become textiles, mainly cotton. This is evident in early maps of Blackburn,
particularly figure 25 (Below) which is the 1848 OS map of the town where the word ‘mill’ is
apparent across Blackburn.
43
Figure 25:1848 OS map of Blackburn, Lancashire
In 1777, a parliamentary report recorded there being one workhouse located in
Blackburn, a second built in the town in 1791. The 1847 OS map (figure 26 below)
provides great detail of the layout of the 1791 workhouse located on Merchant Street.
The existence of a weaving shed suggests that adept bodies were accommodated in
addition to the elderly and the debilitated. Similarly, the presence of the school signals
that children were also accommodated at this site.
Figure 26:1847 OS map of Blackburn Workhouse on Merchant Street (known later as Workhouse Lane).
44
The Blackburn Poor Law Guardians formed in 1837 after the introduction of the New Poor
Law Act of 1834. Despite this, it took until 1864 for a new purpose built workhouse to be
completed and until 1892 for an orphanage to be built in the town under the Poor Law
Union. The first ever orphanage was built in 1886, Blackburn Orphanage (figure 27 below),
and established by philanthropist, James Dixon, just outside of Blackburn.
6.3.1 Blackburn Orphanage
The orphanage provided a home to orphaned boys and girls, with a committee who selected
the most needing cases to allow entry in to the orphanage, priority given to children whose
both parents were deceased.
Figure 27:1893 OS map of Blackburn Orphanage, Wilpshire
The orphanage was located on the north side of the village of Wilpshire, just outside of
Blackburn. It was located at a distance of approximately 3.2 miles from Blackburn town
centre. The orphanage was surrounded by farms and fields, the nearest building to the
orphanage was Holes House, a farm house located approximately 312.18 metres slightly
north west. The home sat back from the road by approximately 18.24 metres. Between the
house and the road were trees that lined the edge of the road.
45
6.3.2 Blackburn Cottage Homes
In 1892 the Blackburn poor Law Guardians built cottage homes for children in the south east
of the town on Queens Road, near to the Queen’s park and north of the Blackburn Union
Workhouse (figure 28 below). Figure 27 is the 1911 OS map for Blackburn which is the
earliest map available that displays the cottage homes and also displays how the home was
surrounded by undeveloped land. The next available map of the location is the 1932 OS Six-
inch map where the land is still undeveloped barring the section of land to the slight north
west of the homes which is turned into a recreation ground.
Figure 28:1911 OS map of Blackburn Cottage Homes
No map of the cottage homes display any inner or outer building that suggests the cottage
homes are self-sufficient such as at Fazakerley. However, it is presumed that they would
have such on-site facilities as many other cottage homes did.
6.4 Case Study Four: Edgworth, Lancashire
Edgworth is a small village in Lancashire located in between Bolton to its south and
Blackburn to its north. The village has always been rural in nature but during the nineteenth
century, a number of textile mills were built in and around the village. The village was
greatly affected by one local wealthy businessman during the nineteenth century, James
46
Barlow. James Barlow funded many projects around the village including the building of a
Methodist chapel in 1863 and the children’s home.
6.4.1 Edgworth Children’s Home
The home was originally on moorland just north of Edgworth village. James Barlow donated
the 70 acres of moorland to be used as a children’s village to provide education and
accommodation for orphaned boys and girls (figure 29 below). In 1872, construction began
with the main taskforce including the original first 24 occupants of the home.
Figure 29:1891 OS map of Edgworth Children’s Home
Barlow pictured the home being a children’s village, its final result contained different
houses for the accommodation of the children, a school room, a hospital, a laundry room, a
dairy, a bakery and other facilities including a carpentry shop and a swimming bath. These
facilities that made the home almost self-sufficient is similar to cottage homes, although the
home was never named one. This could be due to the layout differing and with Edgworth
Home portraying a village layout rather than the small and compact layout of cottage
homes. The complex was surrounded by local farm land, the nearest building to it was the
Willows farm house which was 274.27 metres away from the main central building.
47
6.5 Case Study Five: Rochdale, Greater Manchester
In the nineteenth century, Rochdale was a major mill and market town in the North West.
Rochdale had been known for trade and industry before this period due to its once thriving
woollen industry. Rochdale was full of manufacturers, labourers, chartists and middle class
people which is why there was much opposition in Rochdale for the New Poor Law 1834 and
Rochdale Union was set up in disregard to the local opposition. Despite opposition for
reasons such as the New Poor Laws being inhumane, not much work was done upon the
workhouses and there was great reluctance to build a new and improved one despite the
terrible conditions of the older workhouses. With so much objection and hesitancy
regarding the poor law union it was not until 1898 that Rochdale poor law union erected an
orphanage. Before then there was only two other orphanages established for a population
that had increased from 46,440 in 1831 to 146,107 by 1891. All but one orphanage and one
of two new workhouses after the 1834 new poor law were located in areas between
Wardleworth and Wardle, villages located outside of Rochdale.
6.5.1 Rochdale Home for Boys
The Rochdale Home for Boys opened in 1891 by the Waifs and Strays Society in the south
west of the city, near the then city limits (Figure 30 below). This was the only Rochdale
orphanage built within the proper city limits. It was located approximately 0.37 miles away
from the central Rochdale train station. Official records state that the first five boys sent to
live in the home had originated from Rochdale Workhouse.
Within the quarter of a mile buffer, the home is close to two schools, a park, a chapel,
Rochdale Castle, a skating rink and many private properties. Both schools are almost
adjacent to the home which could suggest a link between the two.
48
Figure 30:1893 OS map of Rochdale Home for Boys
6.5.2 Buckley Hall Orphanage
Following the death of the halls owner, the Bishop of Salford and the Congregation of the
Brothers of Charity bought the hall and officially opened it as a boy’s orphanage in 1888.
Buckley Hall was located in the north east of Wardleworth, approximately 1.1 miles from
Rochdale city centre (Figure 31 below). Six months after it was opened, the number of boys
at the home increased from 28 to 80 and building extensions took place to accommodate
increases in boys. In the late nineteenth century the home was extended further to increase
the total number of spaces available to 300 and provisions were made to turn the home into
an industrial school for boys. Records show that plumbing, printing, joinery, woodcarving
and shoe repairs were all trades taught at the home. Extra-curricular activities at the school
included a choir, a football team and a cricket team. The hall is surrounded by fields and
Buckley Hall farm, as can be seen within the quarter of a mile buffer around the orphanage.
46.99 metres west of the orphanage is a 233.47 metre long reservoir which presumingly
would have supplied the hall with water.
49
Figure 31:1893 OS map of Buckley Hall Orphanage
6.6 Case Study Six: Formby, Merseyside
Formby is a coastal town located in the north west of Merseyside. Records show that
Formby has always been a fairly wealthy urban town with the main industries in the
nineteenth century consisting of cockle raking, shrimp fishing and arable ventures. Despite
no major industrial changes in the town in the nineteenth century, mapping evidence
displays a steady increase in the town’s population and housing.
6.6.1 Victoria Home
Built and opened in 1897, Victoria Home in Formby near Liverpool was a home as a part of
the Waifs and Strays Society. The home was specifically for infants, aged 2 to 7 years. It was
located in the south west of Formby town centre (Figure 32 below). The home was built
amongst new housing in the town that were built between 1893 and 1908. The house sat
back from the road Andrew’s Lane by 10.81 metres. 95.69 metres west of the home with a
field separating the two is the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport railway line. The home sat
upon 3103.24 metres squared of land. All surrounding houses were located approximately
29 metres away from the home and none of them faced directly at the home, the views
from the surrounding houses would have been from their back windows and gardens; in the
50
case of neighbouring houses on Andrews Lane, it would have been side windows if any that
allowed a view of the home.
Figure 32:1908 OS map of Victoria Home, Formby
6.7 Case Study Seven: Carlisle, Cumbria
Carlisle is the largest settlement within the county of Cumbria. The earliest history of the
town of Carlisle dates back to the roman settlement it once was. Hundreds of archaeological
excavations have taken place in and around Carlisle, the majority producing roman remains.
Excavations in 1970s upon Annetwell Street allowed for the dating of the Roman timber fort
which sat upon land where the current Carlisle castle sits. Carlisle served as a strategic
centre of the north for the Romans, as it did in the medieval period when it was the centre
of tension between Scotland and England who laid claim to the city and parts of the north.
By the nineteenth century, the city was no longer an important military town, but was
becoming an industrial city focusing on textiles, engineering and food manufacturing.
When the Carlisle Poor Law Union was set up in 1838, the Carlisle parish already had
approximately thirteen active workhouses. The union sought to build newer and more adapt
workhouses and this lead to a few of the current workhouses to be converted for other
51
uses. One was used as a hospital, another solely for able bodied paupers and another used
as an orphanage (Harraby Hill Orphanage figure 33 below).
6.7.1 Harraby Hill Orphanage
The Harraby Hill orphanage was originally built as a workhouse which served between the
years 1809 and 1863. After a new workhouse was built, the Harraby Hill workhouse became
a home for the union’s pauper children and orphans.
Figure 33:1901 OS map of Harraby Hill House
The orphanage was located in Harraby, a suburb of Carlisle located in the southeast of the
city. The orphanage is approximately 165.03 metres away from the large Lancaster and
Carlisle Railway line and the goods lines. 19.02 metres behind the house is service reservoir.
Adjacent to the land that the orphanage stands on is an area known as Gallow Hill, where
executions would take place, it was named Gallow hill after mostly hosting hangings for
hundreds of years. Approximately 174.25 metres south from the home are railway and
goods warehouses. Records and mapping show that there was a separate school building on
the site which served as a school from the time the building was a workhouse to it
converting to a home. Due to the 1870 education act, the school closed down however by
1901, the home had become industrial school (Bulmer 1901:881).
52
7. Discussion
The research areas studied in this project have been based in the North West of England; a
location that dealt with similar social, economic and industrial changes in the nineteenth
century. This should allow for an examination that produces similar results or will display
differences depending on the local board and opinions. Each orphanage has very similar
landscape settings to the next, for example, Blackburn Orphanage is located just outside of a
village which is on the edge of Blackburn, surrounded by fields and Edgworth Children’s
home is also located just outside of a village surrounded by fields. The Central Refuge, Royal
Seamen’s Orphanage and Fazakerley Cottage Homes all have railway tracks that run
alongside the institution.
Below (table 2) is a table with the approximate distances and total averages (in metres)
from other urban features that surround each orphanage within the quarter of a mile buffer
placed around them. For the purpose of analysing public perceptions, the closest distance
has been chosen from each one and any feature outside of the quarter of the mile buffer
has not been included. The average distance away from domestic housing is 56.89 metres,
for transport links such as railway tracks, stations etc. the average is 51.27metres. Although
these are not great distances, they are far higher than the averages for institutional
buildings (39.6 metres) and recreation (39.62 metres). This suggests that the majority of the
orphanages chosen within the data, were located close to other institutional buildings. This
could be due to physical landscape features such as clean and fresh rural air or the
intentional grouping of stereotyped institutes. All but two of the orphanages were placed on
the outskirts of the town or city they were to serve. This is very likely due to towns and cities
expanding and the search was on for extra space to build as the inner cities were becoming
cramped. The matter of space within Victorian towns and cities is a complex one, towns
expanded due to the need for space but also for reasons thought of by contemporary
reformers, to reduce health problems, crime and poverty. However, in the case of two
orphanages, Blackburn Orphanage and Buckley Hall in Rochdale, the orphanages are
actually located drastically away from the city compared to the others placed on the
outskirts. This distance allowed for the physical separating of the institutions depending on
the local institutional and reformer views. However, the most likely cause of the locations is
due to both institutions being ran by charitable organisations rather than the Board of
53
Most same landscape
Most in outskirts
Social reasons such as health reasons
If all built the ame then all look and traet same
54
Guardians and thus they seized and used any land donated to them. Some of the
orphanages such as Harraby Hill was opened in the same building that an old workhouse
had been. Any social negativity towards that orphanage would have stemmed from the
previous workhouse on the site. The use of the same site for different types of institutions
leads to varying summaries about that location; the location is perceived as a suitable place
for an institution or architecturally, the building is most effective as an institution.
The vast majority of orphanages chosen in this research have shown signs of reclusiveness,
by placing fences and hedges around the building/s, either to decorate the surrounding land
or to obscure public viewing in or residents viewing out of the property.
Through documentary information of the orphanages, it is possible to examine orphans
holding a social complexity that was produced through their social status and surroundings.
There was a documented shift in attitudes towards to orphans in the mid-nineteenth
century. As mentioned before, the notion of nurturing and caring for children came to a
head and it was deemed suitable to take orphans away from workhouses and other
institutions where pauper adults mixed to solely take care of children. Figure 34 (below) is
of a coronation day celebration at Bethesda Home in Cheetham Hill in 1902. This invite is
valuable material evidence as it displays the involvement of the local public with the home
despite the home containing children who would have received more stigma than other
children (see section 6.1.1).
Figure 34: Bethesda Home Coronation day invite
55
8. Conclusion
Despite profound changes in nineteenth century law, social attitudes and philanthropy, the
orphanages of the nineteenth century north-west of England exposes the divergence
between institutions aimed solely at parentless children.
Documentary and other material sources have revealed the social implications of being an
orphan in the nineteenth century. In literature, the orphan figure is emphasised and played
upon as a lone figure in need of sympathy of some-sort, albeit portrayals of orphans always
in counterbalance to contemporary issues of class, financial state, reform and other social
concerns. The nineteenth century orphan figure is in fact a complex social class, a class of
their own, disregarded by other social classes and demonised, but also heartened by the
middle classes.
Spatial and mapping evidence have provided information based on the location of
orphanages which when used in conjunction with documentary data has supplied answers
to the settings and perception of the orphanages.
This research has displayed that despite nineteenth century social stigmas of the lower
classes, orphanages did not possess a strong public perception unlike other institutions e.g.
workhouses. Instead, due to the focus being upon children, the perception was one of
reforming society by beginning with children. Majority of the orphanages in this research
have been located on the outskirts of towns and cities, unlike the stereotypical perspective,
this was not to distance these children away from society but is more likely due to
maintaining a pleasant environment for the children to grow up in.
This research brings attention to the complexity of nineteenth century life. The approach
maintained within this research uncovers the perception of nineteenth century institutions
and orphans to assist in the understanding of the public perception of orphanages. By
applying combined spatial, documentary and typological approaches to orphanages, the
research has delivered a new context to the life of a nineteenth century orphan residing in
an institute.
56
Bibliography Andrewes, G., 1809. A Dictionary of the Slang and Cant Languages: ancient and modern, as used by
... every class of offenders. London: George Smeeton.
Belchem, J., 2007. Irish, Catholic and Scouse: The History of the Liverpool-Irish, 1800-1939. Liverpool:
Liverpool University Press.
Bianes, E., 1836. History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster. London: Fisher & Son.
Bicks, C., 2011. Producing Girls on the English Stage. In: N. &. Y. N. Miller, ed. Gender and Early
Modern Constructions of Childhood. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, pp. 139-156.
Bulmer, D., 1901. History and Directory of Cumberland, s.l.: s.n.
Crook, M., 2000. The Face in the Mirror: Teenagers and Adoption. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press.
Davidoff, L. &. H. C., 1987. Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780-1850.
London: Routledge.
Dennis, R., 1986. English Industrial Cities of the Nineteenth Century: A Social Geography.. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Dickens, C., 1839. Oliver Twist. London: Richard Bentley.
Driver, F., 2004. Power and Pauperism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Duckworth, J., 2002. Fagin's Children: Criminal Children in Victorian England. London: Hambledon
and London.
Ferguson Ellis, K., 1989. The Contested Castle: Gothic Novels and the Subversion of Domestic
Ideology. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Flegel, M., 2009. Conceptualizing Cruelty to Children in Nineteenth-Century England. Farnham:
Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Floyd, W. D., 2011. Orphans of British Fiction, 1880-1911, Stirling: s.n.
Griggs, D. B., 1980. Population Growth and Agrarian Change: An Historical Perspective. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Gunn, S., 2008. In: C. Williams, ed. A Companion to 19th-Century Britain. Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing, pp. 238-252.
Hansard, T., 1833. Hansards Parliamentary Debates: Forming a continuation of "The Parliamentary
History of England, From the Earliest Period To The Year 1803". Volume XIII, pp. 421-442.
Hodges, S., 2010. 'Please, Sir, I Want Some More': Clive Donner's Marxist Adaptation of Oliver Twist.
Literature/Film Quarterly, 38(4), pp. 254-268.
Holt, S., 1979. Continuity and Change in Durham City: An Historical Geography of a Nineteenth
Century Small Town, Durham: s.n.
Honeyman, K., 2007. Child Workers in England, 1780-1820: Parish Apprentices and the Making of the
Early Industrial Labour Force. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
57
Humphries, J., 2010. Childhood and Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Livingstone, J., 1993. Pauper Education In Victorian England: Organisation and Administration Within
The New Poor Law, 1834 - 1880, London: London Guildhall University.
May, T., 1987. An Economic and Social History of Britain 1760–1970. London: Longman.
Newman, C., 2010. The Place of the Pauper: A Historical Archaeology of West Yorkshire Workhouses,
York: s.n.
Newman, C., 2014. To Punish or Protect: The New Poor Law. International Journey of Historical
Archaeology, Volume 18, p. 122–145.
O'Malley, A., 2005. Historical Essays. [Online]
Available at: http://www.representingchildhood.pitt.edu/eighteencent_child.htm
[Accessed 5 March 2015].
Peters, L. L., 1994. 'Shades of the Prison House': The Disciplining of the Victorian Literary Orphan,
Kent: s.n.
Ploszajska, T., 1994. Moral Landscapes and Manipulated Spaces: Gender, Class and Space in
Victorian Reformatory Schools. Journal of Historical Geography, 20(4), pp. 413-429.
Rodgers, H., 1962. The Surburban Growth of Victorian Manchester. Journal of the Manchester
Geographical Society, pp. 1-12.
Scraton, P., 1997. "Childhood" in "Crisis"?. London: Routledge.
Shaw, S., 2012. History of Education. In: H. Cooper, ed. Professional Studies in Primary Education.
London: SAGE Publications, pp. 3-17.
Stephen Szasz, T., 1998. Cruel Compassion: Psychiatric Control of Society's Unwante. New York:
Syracuse University Press.
Thompson, E. P., 1968. The Making of the Working Class. New York: Pantheon Books.