When running a number of children’s homes across the country, it is vital that a good standard of living is maintained in every single home. For The Children’s Society [previously known as the Waifs and Strays Society] one way of maintaining standards was to periodically inspect the conditions in each home.

There are inspectors’ or visitors’ reports for a large number of our children’s homes, dating from the late-19th Century right up to the 1990s. When these reports were created, they were used to check that the children’s homes were running well and that the children in them had a good standard of living. The reports give a fascinating insight into life in the homes, the health of the children, and what living conditions were expected at different points in history.

The following image is a page from an inspector’s report for Gordon Boys Home, Croydon, 1909.

This page covers the health of the boys, noting what medical care was available for them and what sanitation was provided. Here it is stated that the boys were bathed every other night, with 3 or 4 boys using the same bath water in turn, but with each boy having his own towel.

Other pages in the report note what facilities were available in the different rooms of the home, the cleanliness of each room, and how the home was run.

Not only do these reports give information about what it was like to live in each home, they can also give some insight into what it was thought worth inspecting at the time. For example, from the above image it can be seen that in 1909 it was thought important that each child had a pocket handkerchief and two pairs of boots. Other parts of the same form check the children had access to a supply of Bibles and prayer books and that grace was said before meals, suggesting that the religious education of the children was considered an integral part of the life in the home.

One part of the ‘Unexplored Riches in Medical History’ project is to catalogue the records of The Children’s Society’s children’s homes.

In 1882, The Children’s Society (then known as the Waifs and Strays Society) opened its first two homes; a home for girls in Dulwich, London, and a home for boys in Clapton, London. From that point onwards, the number of children’s homes continued to grow until The Children’s Society was running a whole network of children’s homes in England and Wales.

The Children’s Society continued to operate children’s homes until the late-20th century, at which point it evolved away from residential child care to start working with children and young people in new and more innovative ways.

Now that The Children’s Society’s homes have closed down, their memory survives in the documents and records that they left behind. These records were created during the day-to-day work of the homes and so can shed light on all aspects of the way the homes were run, from anything as varied as the layout of the buildings to what the children ate each day.

Amongst the records of the children’s homes are many items that can be used to study medical history and childhood diseases. For example, the image below shows a page, written c1896-1901, from the medical register kept at St Oswald’s Home For Girls, Cullercoats, Whitley Bay, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland.

In this register, an entry was made for each child in the home in the 1890s, detailing their medical history. The above entry states:

[The child] – 12 years of age.
Father died of consumption
brother suffers from temporary
insanity. Other members of
family well. Had measles
& whooping cough. Small
not well developed for age.
Tongue clean. bowels regular.
teeth some decayed.
Heart & lungs normal.

Admitted into Hospital. Jan 13th. 01 suffering
from irreg. temp & some pains in the joints.

One of the aims of the ‘Unexplored Riches in Medical History’ project is to catalogue the records from The Children’s Society’s children’s homes, including medical records like the one above. The catalogue will list exactly what records we have for each home, which will make it much easier to use the collection to research medical history as well as a large number of other topics.