Ashford residental home . middlesex

[frederickay]

My father and three siblings were bought up in the Ashford Residential home . he was put there as a two year old in 1927. i have been on old school friends to no avail . is there anyone here that may know something of the pupils at this school . he was there as James(jimmy ) Wharton 2 years old , with two older sisters and another older  brother Arthur .i think . he left to go to  war 16years later . thanks for any ideas .. Jan

[jorose]

This may have been West London District School in Ashford?  LMA (London Metropolitan Archives) has a register of children there going up to 1931.

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?WestLondonSD/WestLondonSD.shtml - here it is labelled on the map as 'Ashford Residential School'

http://www.missing-you.net/NoInfo.php?startnum=28320 - there is someone listed here who was there from 1945.

You're going to need a lot of luck to find someone - but if you find a list of names of those who were there with him in 1927, you might be able to locate their children or grandchildren.  Are you trying to track what happened his siblings as well?

[sharifa]

My Great Uncle and later hos daughter taught at the home and another relative by marriage was the engineering superintendent [I think] I have some photos stored away somewhere of various children at the school but don't have any names I am afraid. I think the school was actually called

The West London Residential School and housed around 600 pupils from very young babies until late teens. My aunt always said that there 200 of each and 200 infants whether this is true or accurate I don't know. Her father retired around mid 1930's

[frederickay]

Thank you both for your answer . dad has passed away now . i would love to make contact with anyone who had attended the school or like you had photos . all dad told me was it was Ashford residential school . middlesex .
I went looking for it but couldn't find it in the street i looked in . the only place that looked remotely possible was a 1960's type salvation army establishment which made sense . maybe i was in wrong place .
Thank you . Jan

[Uncle Reff]

My grandfather and his brother were at this school around the turn of the century and I was able to find their names in the school registers at the LMA.

The site is now a small prison I believe...

John

[sharifa]

 

The photos are on the mainland and I am living in Alderney but am waiting for my things to arrive over the next few months. Will let yopu know when they do. The building I believe were demolished after the War and were at the bottom of Woodthorpe Road I think. Does that agree with what you knew?

My great uncle taught carpentry I think amongst other things.

regards

Martin

[Florentina]

I was in Ashford Residential Home for approximately 2 years around 1950 - 1953. It was a huge building, and housed children from babies to 15 year olds.

It was very 'dickensian' and doesn't bring back very happy memories to me, but I would be interested in hearing from anybody else who may have been there during that time.

A few things I recall - There were boys one end and girls the other end of the building, with a huge corridor in between. (I recall this particularly, because one of my punishments for running away, yet again, was to get on my hands and knees and scrub the whole corridor - can you imagine an 11 year old doing that now?)

I also recall, that there were long dormitories (which we had to clean daily with a huge ronuk(?) polisher, and we had special name for the mice! I was beaten up on my first day. We used to go scrumping fruit in the orchards at the back of the building. We were always hungry. I got 1shilling and threepence for pocketmoney, and periodically got beaten up in the air-raid shelters and relieved of said money! If not, I, and others got over the wall into the village to buy some cigarettes! Oh, and I recall the 'blacking room' where all shoe polishing was carried out, and I still recoil in horror at the hundreds of cockroachers that scattered on turning the light on!

Apologies for going on a bit, but it's quite theraputic for me I suppose.
When I left there, I was sent to another 'Home' in Banstead till I was 15.
This was all because of my parents splitting up - it was certainly all different in those days................

[sharifa]

Florentina, Sorry life was so harsh makes me worry what sort of regime was in  place during my relatives time. Always posed by daughter as being good but what she knew was only what her father told her and what little she saw during the war. All my limited info is from the 30's well before your time

Martin

[stonechat]

I lived in Ashford for years and it was a REMAND centre. This was flatteded then a women's prison was built.

I never knew it was a school. My mum moved there in abt 1924, I'll ask her if she knew it

 Bob