Our Flanders Adventure I

Recently I was very privileged to take a trip to see some of the WW1 battlefield sites in Flanders (Belgium). This was a very personal journey for me as I planned to visit the Loos Memorial in France, too, where my two great-uncles are commemorated. Also, according to family tradition, my Pickvance ancestors, who were cotton workers from the Bolton area, originally came from Flanders, which was famous for its textiles. Flemish weavers came to settle in Britain early in the 14th century, but I have not been able to go back that far in the family tree yet!
My great-uncle Harry sailed for France in November 1915 with the 16th Battalion, 2nd Salford Pals in November 2015; they landed at Boulogne. His brother Herbert Dickman, who served with the 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, landed in France a few weeks later. You can imagine how anxious my great-grandparents would have been.
Our trip began at Hull, and we sailed on the overnight ferry to Zeebrugge. I'll be sharing some highlights from our Flanders trip with you, so watch this space!

Images: The author on the ferry.© Nigel Wilkes.

A WW1 family, photo postcard. Inscription on reverse reads 'L Stokoe'. Author's collection.

Jane Austen and the Great War

Check out my new blog post on my Jane Austen blog on Austen, her sailor brothers and the Great War. 

Waifs and Strays

In an earlier blog post, I talked about eighteenth century children's charities like Captain Coram's Foundling Hospital. In late Victorian Britain, there were still huge numbers of impoverished children. They survived by begging and stealing, or selling matches, sweeping the streets and shining shoes, etc. 

Evangelical philanthropist Dr Thomas Barnardo (1845–1905) opened his first children’s home, for boys, at Stepney in 1870; a girls' home was founded shortly afterwards at Barkingside. 

Barnardo took in children with disabilities and social handicaps like illegitimacy at a time when some other charities would not take them in. In 1884 Barnardo opened a ‘Babies Castle’ at Hawkhurst. But when he found that the infants did not thrive well in an institution, he later boarded out the children. If you have an ancestor who was a Barnardo's child, there's help here on the Barnardo's website. 

The Church of England Society for Waifs and Strays (1881) was another famous organization: it is now the Children's Society. You can find out more about the Society, its children and the homes it ran here on Hidden Lives Revealed. 

Barnardo's and other charities believed that poor children would have better prospects in life if separated from their impoverished parents, and they began emigration schemes to Australia, Canada and other Commonwealth countries. 
Some child emigrants were treated very harshly in their new homes overseas, and were used as cheap labour. Some emigration schemes ran until 1970. The Child Migrants Trust helps former child migrants find their origins, and provides counselling. The Trust’s website has information about tracing records and the history of child migration. Tracing Your Ancestors' Childhood also has tips about tracing ancestors who were in charities' care, child migrants, WW2 evacuees. Websites and archives for charities and voluntary organisations are listed in its research guide. 
Images: 
Postcard of the Babies’ Castle, Hawkhurst, Kent, a Dr Barnardo home, postmarked 1911. 
A photo postcard of a mother and daughters, c.1910. Author's collection.
 

Mansfield Park

This month is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park - you can read my blog post about MP here on my Jane Austen blog.

A Fresh Start

As we saw in an earlier blog post, child criminals were treated extremely harshly during Georgian and Victorian times. Some people argued that if poor and criminal children were taught right from wrong, given religious instruction, and how to make an honest living, they might avoid a life of crime and perhaps a dreadful end on the gallows. And once a youngster had been in prison, they found it difficult to get a job.

There was no government funding for 'reformatories', but there were charities for boys and girls like the ‘Temporary Refuge’ attached to the London Refuge for the Destitute (more info here on London Lives).  

Another early charity was the Philanthropic Society (1788): it aimed to reform criminal boys and girls, and to provide religious and moral education for the children of convicts. The Society, initially based at Hackney (it moved to Southwark 4 years later), took children between nine and twelve years old and gave them industrial training. In 1845 the Society stopped taking in convicts’ children, and female offenders, and concentrated on rehabilitating young male offenders. Four years later, the Society moved from Southwark to Redhill, where it founded a farm so that boys could learn agricultural skills to prepare them for emigration. The boys cultivated the land and cared for cows, horses, sheep and pigs. 

The good work done by reformatories persuaded the government to confer official status on institutions approved by the secretary of state.  Under the Juvenile Offenders Acts of 1853 and 1854, magistrates could send convicted children over ten years old to certified reformatories for two to five years instead of imposing a long prison sentence.  You can find out more about reformatories and their records in Tracing Your Ancestors' Childhood.

Image from author's collection: The Philanthropic Society’s farm at Redhill.  Illustrated London News, 14 June 1851.

Book Launch News

The latest news about my forthcoming title, A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England, is here on my Jane Austen blog . My new book is a follow-up to Michelle Higgs' Visitor's Guide to Victorian England, published by Pen and Sword's history imprint.

Street Sweepers and Shoe-Blacks

In my earlier blog posts I wrote about the poverty suffered by many Georgian and Victorian children and orphans. Many swept streets or cleaned shoes to earn a pittance. The shoe-black brigades were voluntary organizations linked to the ragged school movement. (As I've mentioned previously, child labour was all part of growing up during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries).

This week author Michelle Higgs, whose new book A Visitor's Guide to Victorian England is out now, has very kindly allowed me to write a guest post for her blog, and you can find out more about child street-sweepers and the shoe-black boys here. Michelle gives updates on her work and fun facts about Victorian England on her Twitter feed @MichelleHiggs11.

Image from my collection:   

Homeless street-sweepers sleeping under a railway arch in London in the 1880s. Cassell’s Family Magazine, Cassell & Co. Ltd (London, 1883).