Rock Ferry Home For Boys

There is some confusion about where Rock Ferry Home for Boys was originally located. It is thought that the Home was in Highfield Crescent, but the June 1890 edition of the Society's magazine Our Waifs And Strays indicates that it was (perhaps initially) in Well Lane. Whichever is true, we know that a lady called Miss Sutcliffe offered the building to the Society, rent-free, for five years. The Bishop of Chester opened the Home on 28 May 1890, and it was quickly converted it into a cottage home for Boys.

The first matron, Miss Hamilton, left soon after the opening, being replaced by both Miss Price and Miss Thomas. Sometime before 1900, Miss Letts became the Matron. Unfortunately she was taken down with pneumonia and pleurisy plus bronchitis in 1890, leaving Miss Ashton and Miss Turner to run the Home while she recovered.

Rock Ferry Home could accommodate 10 boys, from the age of five and upwards. When the lease expired in 1897, they moved to a more spacious building at 12, Derby Place. Miss Smith was appointed as the new Matron.

Just as in other Society homes, the children were expected to help with the housework. Saturday was cleaning day at Rock Ferry and all the boys were involved, even the little ones. However, boys being boys, none of them minded because after they had finished brushing and scrubbing and everything was presented to the Matron's satisfaction, they were allowed to play football all afternoon!

Sometime between 1923 and 1924, the lease on 12, Derby Place expired so the Home had to close. A new Rock Ferry Home at Dacre House was opened in February 1926 and continued until 1976.