Author Topic: St Michael's Home, Axbridge. Some help please  (Read 1137 times)

Offline Lidfam

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St Michael's Home, Axbridge. Some help please
« on: Saturday 20 October 18 19:49 BST (UK) »
I am hoping that someone can help me with the final years of my Great Aunt's working life please. A deeply religious person, she never married and devoted her life to caring for others. Between the years 1931 and 1947 she worked with the Sisters Of Charity at St. Agnes House Of Charity at Knowle, in Bristol where the family lived. St. Agnes was a home for poor and orphaned girls and young ladies, and they were taught domestic duties, nursing, gardening and business skills. My great Aunt became a Girl's Matron, basically looking after the girls meals, laundry, and caring for them if they were sick. The last known recording of her living and working at the Home was in the Electoral Register for 1947, after which time she disappears. The Home itself was in decline at this time anyway, with the introduction of the Welfare State, and improvements in Social Services following the War.
Now to the point of my post. Among the items given to me upon beginning my family history, was her collection of photos etc, and she had kept postcards with views of St. Agnes Home on, and also three postcards of St. Michael's Home in Axbridge, near Cheddar, including one of the Chapel. St. Michael's, at that time, had become an old people's home. She didn't move into the house that we remember her living in, until 1952 and stayed there till her death in 1969. That makes her whereabouts between 1947 and 1952 unknown.
Given that she had kept the cards of St. Michael's, Axbridge till her death, and the fact that on her Death Certificate her occupation was Matron, Home For The Aged, (retired), I am edging towards her working there until 1952, when she was 62 years old. The problem is that no older members of my family, including my mother who knew her well, can remember her ever talking about this.
Does anyone know how I can go about proving that she worked at Axbridge, and does it seem likely that she did, given the information I have. Thankyou.
                                                Dale

Offline arthurk

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Re: St Michael's Home, Axbridge. Some help please
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 20 October 18 20:27 BST (UK) »
There's some information about St Michael's on the page about its listing as a historic building. It's mostly about the buildings, but there are also some possibly useful bits about who was running it and when.

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1425501

Researching among others:
Bartle, Bilton, Bingley, Campbell, Craven, Emmott, Harcourt, Hirst, Kellet(t), Kennedy,
Meaburn, Mennile/Meynell, Metcalf(e), Palliser, Robinson, Rutter, Shipley, Stow, Wilkinson

Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline Lidfam

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Re: St Michael's Home, Axbridge. Some help please
« Reply #2 on: Sunday 21 October 18 11:10 BST (UK) »
Thanks for that link Arthur, I hadn't seen that one .

Offline Ruskie

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Re: St Michael's Home, Axbridge. Some help please
« Reply #3 on: Sunday 21 October 18 13:18 BST (UK) »
Have you tried contacting St Michaels itself in case they know the whereabouts of any archival material or employee records?

I don't know if voter's lists are available for that area and time frame?

In the grand scheme of things you only have a few missing years you are not sure of her whereabouts which is pretty good really.  :)