Newspaper article 1897

Newspaper article 1897

This article did not have any information attached as to its origin,

only a hand written date of 1897.

Reproduced with kind permission from Romford Library

The Shoreditch Cottage homes are well know. They stand a complete hamlet in themselves in a pretty part of Essex, nearly fifteen miles from the grim, grey stones of the parish where the youthful charges get their first impressions of the world. Those impressions are not of the best, but they lie on the little mind; like the childhood memories of all mankind, never to be effaced. Not all the change and peacefulness of the Hornchurch homes can remove for ever the influence of the earlier days in the slums of Shoreditch. But the Cottage homes go a good long way in that direction. They certainly go more than the barrack school of abhorred memory.

The pretty little cottages, with the gardens and play-places, described and illustrated by us some time ago, form a haven of refuge for the neglected little lads and lasses of far-away Shoreditch. The Guardians cannot be too highly commended for the courage and wisdom they showed in establishing the system. They built the cottages several years ago, long before it had become popular to plead for the pauper child, and they have adminstered them since with unfailing sympathy and the kindliest care.

Even to-day while others are simply talking about the welfare of the parish child, the Guardians are up and doing. Only recently they erected two infirmary cottages at Hornchurch. These are not so much for the children of the cottages already down there, for they have had a small hospital of their own all along, as for the sick children who have hitherto been detained at the workhouse in Shoreditch. They are those suffering from ringworm and ophthalmia, (Definition: severe conjunctivitis) whom it has been the custom to keep away from the Cottage Homes.

It was long recognised that the workhouse was not the the place for these little people. The whole aim of the Guardians had been to keep their youthful charges away from the influence which they know to be unhealthy, and they have had the joy of knowing that the cottage life of the country they give their children has established them in independence and self-respect and placed them beyond the need of Poor Law aid for all time. So they wrung from the Local Government Board sanction to take the ailing youngsters away from the big building in KINGSLAND ROAD(still there - 2006) and house them in special cottages in the children's hamlet at Hornchurch. And there for some months they have been comfortable established.

Our representative paid a visit to the homes a day or two ago for the purpose of inspecting the infirmary cottages. There are two of them, pretty, homely, and attractive, as the one we show in our illustration sufficiently attests. They were built at a cost of £7, 559 , and have been erected at the southern end of the hamlet, away from the main avenue of the children's cottages; the play-rooms inside are light and airy; the walls prettily decorated; the play-rooms plentifully stocked with toys, books, and pictures.

Provision is made for about 22 children in each cottage. Each has three dormitories and two staircases and a playing-yard in the rear. It might be mentioned here that there is no stint of play-places at Hornchurch. Each cottage has its own play-yard, but apart from this the children have the run of a good stretch of greensward. When the Guardians purchased the site they took the precaution of acquiring a large area-so large, indeed, that it comprises an extensive farm, from which the cottages are supplied with the best of farm produce, to say nothing of milk, butter, and eggs, and the primest beef and pork.

The ground admits of unlimited extensions, and the provision of the two additional cottage homes seems to have made no material difference in the size or apearance of these little people's hamlet. Happily these two cottages have never yet been full.

On the day of our representative's call the first of the cottages, given over to the opthalmic cases, contained but 10 inmates, and none of them in bed. They were all up, and to all apearances looking well. One of the rooms becomes a little schoolroom, and the youngsters take easy lessons there. A doctor from Romford pays a daily visit, and also gives attention to any sick children in the other cottages. The children of each of the two infirmary cottages have two nurses to attend to them, and not the best hospital in London could secure them more care or attention. The cottage adjoining takes the ringworm cases, and of these there were some 20 patients, three only of whom were in bed, It was somewhat of a surprise to find but 30 cases in all of opthalmia and ringworm among something like 400 children under the Guardians' care. It was more of a surprise to learn from the matron of the Homes, Mrs Cowley, that the death-rate among this her large family averaged less than one in the year.

Reproduced with kind permission from Romford Library

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