Records of Marston Green Cottage Homes and Marston Green Cottage Homes School

BCC/10/BCH/1 Records of Marston Green Cottage Homes

BCC/10/BCH/1/1 Registers of children

BCC/10/BCH/1/2 Admission and discharge registers

BCC/10/BCH/1/3 Register of children sent to service - boys

BCC/10/BCH/1/4 Register of baptisms

BCC/10/BCH/1/5 Punishment book

BCC/10/BCH/1/6 Ophthalmic register

BCC/10/BCH/1/7 Records of Marston Green Cottage Homes School

Records of Coleshill Hospital, including the Marston Green division, are held at Warwickshire Record Office.

Material relating to the administration of the Cottage Homes can be found in the records of Birmingham Poor Law Union (GP/B/2/6) and Birmingham City Council (BCC 1/BH/5). There are reminiscences and a commemoration booklet in MS 1601.

'My life as a child at Marston Green Cottage Homes', reminiscences written by a former resident, can be found at MS 2838/2/2.

'Marston Green Cottage Homes Reports 21-32, 1900/01-1911/12' are in the Local Studies collection at L41.31.

Birmingham Miscellaneous B/4 contains a booklet entitled 'Souvenir of Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Laying of the Foundation Stone, 12th July 1928'; and 'Das Birminghamer Kinderhein zu Marston Green', a pamphlet in both German and English, c.1911.

The National Archives holds 'Birmingham Union: alterations to Children's Homes at Marston Green', 1921-1923, in its collection of Ministry of Health correspondence with Poor Law Authorities, ref MH 68/331.

Between 1797 and 1852 the Overseers of the Poor and, later, the Birmingham Board of Guardians provided accommodation for 400 children in an 'Asylum for the Infant Poor' at Summer Lane, where the children worked at tasks such as pin making and straw plaiting. When the new Birmingham workhouse was built in 1852, provision was made within it for children, but it was quickly realised that segregating children from the undesirable influence of the adult poor was impossible. A system of boarding out children was tried, but proved unsuccessful.

The Board of Guardians decided to provide entirely separate accommodation for children. They chose the cottage homes model, still a relatively new concept in England, and based the new homes on the 'Home for Little Boys' at Farningham in Kent. To this end, 16 acres of land at Marston Green were purchased in 1878 and construction began on an artificial 'village'. Building was completed in late 1879, and comprised 14 cottages (seven each for girls and boys), each having accommodation for 30 children; a house for the superintendent; a school for 420 children; an infirmary; stores, workshops and a bakehouse; and a swimming bath. The transfer of children from the workhouse began in January 1880.

Over time the site was expanded, covering 43 acres by 1882. The addition of a lodge and superintendent?s office was made in 1881, followed by a laundry in 1899; two additional cottages and a church with seating for 550 people in 1905; two cottages for infants in 1912, allowing the homes to admit very young children for the first time; the assistant superintendent's house was converted into a convalescent home in 1913; and a new swimming bath and assembly hall was provided in 1924, with the old swimming bath being converted into offices. By the early 1900s the estate was over 80 acres and included a farm, which was large enough to supply much of the produce for the homes and allow them to be self-sufficient in milk.

Children in the homes were isolated from the outside world. They attended school on the premises, and boys would learn a trade or farming, while girls were usually trained for domestic service. The homes were designed to provide an experience more akin to a 'normal' family life than would be found in a traditional orphanage: each cottage was intended to house around 30 children, with a house-mother acting as head of the household.

In 1905 a house, Summer Hill Lodge, was purchased by the Board of Guardians to provide a temporary and probationary home for children entering the workhouse system; it was felt that homes like those at Marston Green were suited to children who would stay for a long period of time, and children who needed to be in the care of the Guardians for only short periods were an unsettling influence in the Cottage Homes.

A further home was established at Balsall Heath in the early 1900s with the object of providing a 'refuge' for girls who had left Marston Green Cottage Homes and were in service. The home provided them with temporary accommodation, for example when moving between jobs or when they were ill; the matron also acted as a substitute mother figure, giving help and advice and corresponding with former residents. Sunday tea was provided for former residents, and the attendance at these teas seems to have been relatively high. In this way, attempts were made both to maintain the community of Marston Green and to prevent the girls' re-entry to the workhouse system.

By the late 1920s the number of children in the Cottage Homes had begun to fall, and in October 1930 a report was submitted to the Education Committee from the Chief Education Officer regarding the future of Marston Green. The report recommended that, as a wider programme of boarding-out was under way, and in view of the available accommodation at Erdington and Shenley Fields Cottage Homes, cottages at Marston Green should be closed when the opportunity arose, and it was likely that the homes could be closed entirely within four years. Following the report houses were closed in 1930 and 1931 when house-mothers left their positions. Eventually the decision was taken that there was sufficient space available within the council's other children's homes, and the remaining children at Marston Green were boarded out or transferred to Erdington and Shenley Fields in the early months of 1933. The homes closed in April 1933, and the site became part of Coleshill Mental Hospital.

AdministrationThe Cottage Homes were administered by the Birmingham Board of Guardians (see GP/B/2/6) until 1930, when, following the 1929 Local Government Act, control passed to the Education Committee of Birmingham City Council (see BCC/1/BH/5).

Marston Green Cottage Homes SchoolA school was in existence at the homes by 1884, initially with separate departments for boys, girls and infants. The school was reorganised in about 1908 into an Infant Department and an Upper Department. Evening classes were also established for the older children in 1912. The school closed on 31 March 1933.