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1911 Birmingham Orphanage

Robert Holland

master brummie
It appears, from the 1901 census, that Kate Pearson, a great great aunt of mine, was running a small orphanage in Lee Crescent Edgbaston by the name of Crowley or Bromley Orphanage. Any ideas where I might find out more?
 
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Thanks for that. She moved to Bearwood sometime in the next ten years, as her address at the time of the 1911 census was Galton Road.
 
It appears, from the 1901 census, that Kate Pearson, a great great aunt of mine, was running a small orphanage in Lee Crescent Edgbaston by the name of Crowley or Bromley Orphanage. Any ideas where I might find out more?
If you don't know this already, Kate A Pearson appears as a Governess in the 1881 Census for the Huffam children at Duncombe House, Clifton, Yorks. There is also a death recorded for a Kate Adeline Pearson on 28 May 1913, living at 57 Islington Row - just around the corner from Lee Crescent. She sounds an interesting and well travelled lady. I have an interest in Pearson's but she doesn't appear to be related to my Black Country ones.
 
Crowley's orphanage for Poor Girls March 1869.

Note “the establishment and maintenance of an orphanage for poor girls born in wedlock.”

4F350F5A-7B2B-4ADA-AF83-157291020742.jpeg
 
The 1910 Kellys, which would probably refer to 1909, lists Miss E.Cross as matron at Lee Crescent.
 
In post 2 Frostnot gives a link for Children's Homes and info concerning Crowley's Orphanage. At the end it states that the orphanage was thought to have closed around the time of WWII.

Paul Cadbury stated in to an article for the Eugenics Review of April 1958...

“Twenty five maladjusted families have been cared for at Crowley House and Lee Crescent in Birmingham during the past two years. At Crowley, mothers and younger children are cared for. At Lee Crescent there are five flats in which whole families are living....Crowley House and Lee Crescent are owned by the Trustees of the Middlemore Homes....The Middlemore Homes were started over eighty years ago as an emigration home for deprived children. Crowley was an orphanage for poor girls.These two old Birmingham charities which were amalgamated about ten years ago have secured the agreement of the Charity Commissioners and the Ministry of Education to change the nature of their work.

(The role of the Cadbury family in Eugenics !)
 
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