Barnsley Orphanage

[ladylady47]

Hi. I dont have pictures of georgeville or maryville but there were plenty taken when i was there. when i find some of the old staff and see if i can pictures i will let you know.

[scandude]

Hi LadyLady

Thanks for the reply.

Did you manage to find any of the old staff?  Would be interesting to get some older pictures or even some stories of the place. I have managed to get a picture of the building from Bing maps using the birds eye view, but nothing going further back.  Would also like to know what the building was at the right hand side, I think it may have been an old folks home, but unsure.

Thanks Again

[scandude]

Does anyone else have any further information or pictures of Georgeville or MaryVille, in particular to the Annex/building mentioned by Wolley.  We have no idea who would have worked here and who ran the buildings.

Any help appreciated

Many Thanks

[weste]

We had a cert sent when we applied for what we thought might be one of our grandfathers which said smith workhouse. My sister got told off for writing to all three offices in the area at the time. We queried it and got told there was no smith workhouse in yorkshire and as far as the records show there had never been a master of the workhouse called george smith.  I've found these replies  very interesting and its given me a few ideas.  We are going to wakefield  within the next couple of weeks, i'll see what local history books and photos are available.  We are booked into the archives .My granddad was told he was born in stanley in wakefield (there were rumours of canada, although he was n't supposed to have been there, there is a stanley in wakefield in quebec). Also supposed his father is supposed to have changed his name from richardson to blake.  That means his father was charles frederick blake/ richardson depending where he was of which there are several.  Also supposed to have been in kettering of course there are some there as well!

[scandude]

I have been trying to find out more about Mill House in Smithies.  Thanks to all of you who have posted replies so far.

According to the electoral rolls for 1900 this was No2 Mill House which seemed to be a normal dwelling house and was around until 1954 in 1955 it no longer appears in the same area.  On the same electoral roll was a 'Club House' 'Railway Cottage' and 'Waterworks Cottage' I have got a 1930's map which shows 4 properties in the same area so we are thinking we now know where MillHouse is.

Railway Cottage still exists but the person that is currently living there was not living at Railway Cottage at the time and would not know anything about it.  3 people were living in Millhouse at the time and 6 people were living at the 'Club House' so we think it may be a home for the poor or even maybe where women went to live as they have no other place to live.

Any further help or information on MillHouse would be much appreciated as we have run out of further ideas to try.

Thanks in Advance

[babsder]

I have just come across your post Barnsley Orphanages. Georgeville and Maryville  a purpose built semi detached property was on Rockingham Street near the junction with Smithies Lane. They are now demolished. The homes were built to accommodate 12 persons. I was admitted to Maryville in 1942 until 1948 but during that time each house had 15 boys. Girls were cared for in Ashley House on Princess Street, and The Views on Gawber Road. Infants were cared for in Jorden House also on Gawber Road.
I do not know of a Mill House associated with the homes.
I would be interested to hear of or try to answer anything relating to the above

[scandude]

My dad was admitted there around April 1944 aged around 1 month and stayed there for approx 2 years.  We know very little about the place and have no pictures of what it looked like around that time.  Bing Maps has a birds eye view of what it looked like shortly before it was pulled down, and gives you a good idea of the layout and grounds.

It's interesting that you say infants were cared for in Jorden House on Gawber road as my father was told he was at GeorgeVille?

Were you old enough to know of any children in the home around the 40's?

I would be very interested in finding out what happened to children when they were fostered / adopted / or cared for by adults outside of the home?

Mill House would have been near the reservoir on Smithies Lane but was pulled down in 1954.  I have spoken to a chap that knew an awful lot about Smithies and he remembers Mill House really well, he says it was a massive house and in todays value would be worth close to a £1,000,000! unfortunately he has no photo's of the place.

[babsder]

I have seen the bing birdseye view of the children's homes Georgeville and Maryville (please note they were not orphanages). The view clearly shows the identical ends of the semidetached building amongst the trees. The flat roofed building, to the right, did not exist in the 1940's.

It is most unlikely that your father was in Georgeville. All the boys in Georgeville and Maryville were of school age.
In 1942 (aged 9) I was admitted to Maryville until 1948. My younger brother (aged 4) was admitted to the Views and transferred to Georgeville, at the age of 5, when he became of school age. My youngest brother (aged 9 months) was admitted to Jorden House nursery and adopted when he was 2 years old. There were no facilities for infants in either Georgeville or Maryville.

Children were rarely fostered and even more rarely adopted, remember this was wartime. I can only speak for boys, who when they reached school leaving age, often went to work in Black Dyke Mills near Bradford, mainly because the mill owners provided hostel accommodation.

Georgeville, Maryviille, Ashley House, The Views and Jordon House nursery were managed by the Housing dept. of and on behalf of Barnsley Borough Council, and day to day running was the responsibility of the Master of the Poor Law workhouse.

Whilst this does not answer your queries I trust it may be of interest

[scandude]

Hi again.

I classed these as Orphanages as from my understanding children were either fostered or adopted from this place as the birth parents didn't want anything to do with their children, so I apologise if I offended anyone.

My dad was adopted in 1946, his adopted parents told him that they got him from Georgeville when he was 2.5 years old (my dad was driving past Georgeville at the time when he was told), my fathers adopted parents were prone to stretching the truth sometimes so we are not 100% sure.

Thanks for the information, although it doesn't answer any questions it does give us lots more to go on so I do appreciate any information you can give.