• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Josiah Mason's Orphanage

W

Wendy

Guest
Mason's Orphanage, Erdington

Sir Josiah Mason's Orphanage, Erdington was completed in 1860 at a cost of £60,000. The photograph was taken in 1896.
 
Nice photo.

A few years ago I helped build an extension to the back of a house in Godison road. Every time we dug into the soil we struck asphalt. It turned out , the houses where built on the old Orphanage playground, the builders of the houses put a foot of soil on the playground instead of digging it up.
 
Cold,Cold,Cold!!

Gosh, Moma P you have brought back some COLD memories by posting that picture of Sir Josiah Mason Orphanage!!

Many was the winter I was cold dispite the central heating in there!! The window was always open in the dorm!!

It was truely like that picture, a very scary building but home to me :)
 
Hello Rowan, I do hope there were some good memories. You will have to post some. I can remember as a child watching the childern playing outside when we visited my aunt who's house backed onto the playing field. I remember my Mom telling me what the building was. I remember I was always a little sad watching the children after that and asking if I could play with them. How some memories stay with you.
 
Josiah Mason's Orphanage was a very imposing place. The main door was very, very large(well, so it seemed to a 4 year old!)

The main corridor seemed endless and on the right hand side stood glass cases that housed stuffed animals and birds (a thing I still hate to see to this day).

At the end of the long, long corridor was a massive staircase that went up to the dorms. my first bed waas in the "Babies" section that was housed above the Chapel. In this room there were several beds and a fireplace with a huge old fashioned firegaurd surronding it.

The Orphange was sectioned into two halves, boys section and girls section.I was only allowed to go to see my brother once a week.

We were taught how to do housework and and laundrywork.
We went to Church on Sundays to Pype Hayes and then to Chapel in the Orphanage on Sunday Evening. My wonderful Grandparents tried to be there every Sunday night and if they couldn't make it I would cry!!

The orchards were my favourite place, I would love to wonder among the trees on my own and dream that I was there by mistake and my parents would come and find me.............childish dreams.

The children there were not all "Orphans", many had one parent and many had both parents and many had no parents. All of us were there for one reason or another and we became each others family.

We went down the huge play ground to the day school to be taught (Alberta.remember Mr Shillito?)

I used to think I was hard done by as I grew older but now I realize that I was proberbly very fortunate to have been raised in a place that taught me to be a good citizen and to try my best to live up to the school motto

DO DEEDS OF LOVE

So to Sir Josiah Mason Orphanage I say a big, big THANK YOU:)
 
I went to Yenton Primary which was at the side of the old Orphanage. There was a small gate in Orphanage Road and we walked the length of the Orphanage to get down to the new school ... I used to park my bike under cover in the Orphanage... where the bats were! My first class room was in the old orphanage... and we used the stage there. My dad went there too.

I remember Mr. Shillito.
Georgie
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Here are some pictures of Sir josiah Mason's Orphanage. First one is of the dinning room.
 
Picture no 5, The Chapel. The Bust of Sir Josiah can be seen in the foreground. The seats on the right hand side were for visitors and family to join in with the children. (sorry, I don't know how to post all the pictures in one posting)
 
Rowan these are lovely photo's of inside the orphanage, thanks for sharing them with us.
 
Great pictures! They give me a much better sense of what the orphanage was like. My grandfather David Bayliss, and his brothers Edward Bayliss and William Bayliss were sent to that orphanage soon after their father Frank Henry Bayliss was killed (in 1915), during World War One. Thanks for sharing
 
Josiah Mason

Thank goodness for Josiah Mason and people like him it certainly makes one feel humble, (so many children) but all looking really well cared for.

It's seeing pictures like that that make you feel how lucky you were to have parents. and to understand life a little more, thank you...........Cat:)
 
Sir Josiah Mason's

Read your comment and yes l agree up to a point. The question l would like to ask is do the the children who were in Sir Josiah Masons agree with you?:) The other question is ,was it built for his glorification?:rolleyes:
 
Anita, I personally have no first hand knowledge of life in Sir Josiah Mason's
Orphange. Others on this forum do have personal knowledge. I was brought up in Erdington, however, decades ago. I can honestly say that I have never heard Sir Josiah Mason and self glorification in the same sentence, paragraph, article, book, etc. This is my own opinion.

Being built in the times that it was the Orphanage was a fine model. I like this link for a nutshell type of background to Sir Josiah Mason's life. His legacy is carried on today in the Trust to provide sheltered housing in Birmingham and its suburbs plus his early influence in the creation of important Birmingham institutions https://www.birminghamcivicsociety.org.uk/josiahmason.htm
 
I believe Josiah Mason built his first orphanage with the best of intentions. His wife was also the person who pushed her man in this direction. His first alms houses and orphanage was built in Station Road Erdington in 1858. This was built to accomodate women and children as he believed that men could look after themselves. Acording to the book Josiah Mason 1795-1881 by Brian Jones. Mason had many arguments with the intersted parties of a group of men including the clergy and ministers, who at one point only wanted children from "the respectable class" not those from the "gutter". I have not finished reading the book but I will say so far the man was Birmingham's benevolent benefactor. We have to remember the time the only other alternative was the work house and they would not have been educated there.
One of the most famous or notorious residents was Horatio Bottomley who was in the orphanage from age 11. He became a journalist of some repute as editor of The Financial Times from 1898-1900. Involved himself, with Mr Vernon a solicitor, in the trial fo Dr Crippen the infamous murderer and influenced the famous advocate Marshall Hall so that he did not defend Crippen. He also created and edited John Bull. From 1906-1912 he was MP for South Hackney and was elected again in 1918. However he was constantly in court. In 1922 he recieved a 7 year prison sentence for his John Bull scheme to attract investment in government bonds, which was exposed as a fraud to divert money to his own use.
 
Sir Josiah Masons

I did not mean to upset any one l was only making a reaction to what was said.:) It has been surgested that it was built so large and reagal so it was noticable to all who could see it, therefore saying look what good l have done.;) With out places like this children like myself would have had little or no education, little food, and in many cases no where to sleep. I myself because of the goodness of others have had all of the above, l often wonder what would of become of me if there had not been a placement for myself......who knows?!! Many people will have an opinion and many will be different, only those who resided there will realy know, and many of those opions will differ greatly. The best thing l learnt through out my life is the scholl motto.:)
 
Anita welcome to the Birmingham Webring. You haven't upset anyone and you are entitled to your opinion. Its quite interesting that I have just started to read this book. From what I have read so far, a lot of the building work was supervised my Mason himself. The reason in his words he wanted a building to last and accomodate many children.

I am so pleased that your experience was good and you were looked after and educated. I am sure as you say some did not have such a happy time.:(
 
SJM's

Thank you for your kind reply glad you are enjoying your book. I can remember some good times and also some bad ones, as many of the children who entered the big heavy door into the long hall way can.:)
 
The difference between Josiah Mason's Orphanage and the workhouse surely is that the children who were given shelter in the orphanage had no family. The children who were in the workhouse had family although they were separated from them, and there were girls and boys schools on the plan of Dudley Road Workhouse posted by Judy.
 
Di thats what I always thought but apparently not so. The families wanted the children to go there to be taught and be looked after away from overcrowding and decease's. One of the punishments in the early days was if the child misbehaved they would be sent back home.
 
I believe Mason built the orphanage with only benevolent thoughts in mind.
The building was huge and imposing but buildings were in those days.

It is documented that in the early days some of the carers were brutal but sadly that sometimes did ,and does ,happen in institutions.

All I can say is that when I went as a day pupil to the orphanage in the 50s I can recall the 'orphans' spoke kindly about their houseparents and often were in a hurry to go 'home' for tea and whatever they were going to do in the evening.
Very few were orphans and looked forward to Saturday and Sunday to meet with 'usually' one parent.

Whether Mason built it for his own glorification or not it filled a need for hundreds of children for many years..

I feel the same about celebrities today, if they want to donate millions to charity and glory in it I don't mind,not so long as a charity benefits by millions.
 
Who knows

Hello Anita,
It makes me feel sad that you should have to ask these questions and leads me to think you must have a good reason for asking.
In answer to your first question, i have no idea, not having been one.
Secondly, Who cares about his glorification, i do many things for many folk no doubt some folk think i do it for glorification, but nothing could be further from the truth.........Cat:)
 
Hello again Anita,
I came in on the first page, now i understand.....Cat
 
Couldn't agree more Alberta. I don't care why they were built because the up side is that many of us wouldn't be here but for an institution. I would like to think that every child was given the best possible care and that non of them were ill treated. I know that isn't true, and neither is it true of children living with their parents.
 
SJM's

Reading all your thoughts are very interesting and subjects such as this can be debated forever. Many of the children who lived there and l have spoken to were older than myself and have said their time there was a happy one. Many of the children who were there my age group were not so happy. Its in the past and many say it should stay there "why rake up old coals"?;) Many of the things that happened to me would not go one today, yes but you could say its a sign of the times, its how sociaty as a whole percieved things, and how things should be done, this does not make them right.:shocked: Well its all to do with Social care, so many children must be sure we can controll them. Many children needed to get back to SJM's after being out ,because if they did not there would be no tea and punishment, also many were too frightened to report what was going on, even if they did who would they tell?
I have many things to be gratfull for because of SJM's l am here, alive with a good education, well fed and l am independent with a strong personality.
Just wanted to say the phot's that were posted were great so thanks.
Love your comments keep them coming :)
 
I have often wished that I could go back to Josiah Mason's to lay some ghosts from the past but I can't, because the building demolished in the '60's.
If I go back I know that the "big wooden door" wouldn't be so "big" and the "long, long" coridor wouldn't seems so long.

Being raised in an institution DOES leave you marred for life. You don't know how to love..........because you haven't been shown love, no cuddles, no one to "kiss it better". You find it hard to remember others birthdays...........because you were not taught the etiquette of sending cards.

But you do learn to stand on your own two feet and be independent and to rely on yourself.

I have found that many people who grew up in Mason's have made lots of mistakes with their lives, but would not change how they were raised.

Like Anita my memories are a mixture of good and bad, but not against the principal of Josiah Mason's Orphanage for had it not been for that place I would not be the person I am today.

I have, due to the Association, been able to get back in touch with the large family that we now regard ourselves.

So it isn't all bad and having tried to live by our motto and "Do Deeds Of Love" my life hasn't been TOO bad:)
 
I have been lucky enough to know a lot of friends from the orphanage, and have found them all to be hard working and extremely honest.
They are my friends for life, although we are not " touchy, clingy "type people, we are there for each other.
THANKS Josiah Mason.
 
SJM's

Thank you Rowan l think you have said it all. We were taught most things the only thing missing in our up bringing was knowing how to love, as you say no kisses goodnight, and some one to give you a hug when needed. Now you will have everyone crying:) Remember the lovely old trees we would sit under and we were never short of play mates were we.:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top