Aberdeen Girls Industrial School

[JackieC]

Whilst having a look at my OH's roots, I found that his grandmother was in the Aberdeen Girls Industrial School on the 1901 census. As far as I can find out, it was a kind of workhouse for orphaned and destitute children that aimed to instil a work ethic in them and prevent them from begging or stealing. My OH has heard anecdotally that his grandmother's family were very poor, but as we can't afford certificates at the mo we can't find out if she was orphaned. I can't find where any of the school's records are deposited, does anyone know?

[gasser]

This should help with your query.....http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/AberdeenNH/

And found this which could be of interest.....http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/14th-june-1890/34/industrial-school-at-aberdeen

[JackieC]

Thanks for that Gasser, I did see those pages but they're about a Catholic school and I'm pretty certain that the family weren't Catholic at that time. There was another Girls Industrial School that seemed to have been for Protestants at Mount Street, but I haven't been able to find anything to say where the records of it were kept. This has been an interesting subject to explore - apparently Industrial Schools were started following the first experimental one that opened at Aberdeen.

[helachau]

I saw an 1901 newspaper article that mentioned 3 industrial schools at Aberdeen.

Scottish PO Directories www.nls.uk/family-history/directories/post-office

I searched the 1900-1901 Aberdeen Directory for "industrial school" which confirmed 3 at least.

[emmteeyess]

I have a pdf document 'The Classified List of Child Saving Institutions' printed 1897.
(I can't find details of where I downloaded this from - which is bad form I know - but.....)

This lists -
the Aberdeen Female School of Industry, North Lodge, King Street. for girls 7-13
the Aberdeen Whitehall Industrial School, Whitehall. for girls 10-14
the Aberdeen Industrial School (R.C.) Nazareth Hous. for girls 7-16
as well as the Aberdeen Reformatory, Mount Street.

The industrial schools admitted destitute children, referred by the magistrate under the Industrial Schools Act, who were (amongst other things) found begging, wandering, destitute or that 'keep the company of reputed thieves'. (ie what we would call today 'at risk'.)

The first two and the Reformatory taught 'Washing and Laundry Work', 'Plain Needlework' and 'Knitting'.
(although 'Washing and Laundry Work' and 'Plain Needlework' were taught in all Girls Industrial Schools)


Sorry this gives no indication of where any individual records are held, but it is a fascinating read for background information and they do seem to be benign establishments (born out by the item from The Tablet linked by gasser, above,) rather than the image that being in a Workhouse always portrays.

Cheers,

|cheers|

emmteeyess

[emmteeyess]

I'm going to try and upload an image from the pdf showing the types of schools and reasons for admission - as I said, they're what we would now call 'children at risk'

Cheers, emmteeyess


https://www.british-genealogy.com/extensions/uploads/fdb59d11-14b9-40e5-a02e-9cfa7841702e.jpg


https://www.british-genealogy.com/extensions/uploads/24fe58ef-fa01-4055-85d3-7cab41464ce5.jpg

[Lesley Robertson]

Children could be sent to these schools if the family was seriously poor - I seem to remember that their Parish Council had to agree, it was a way of reducing the load on the family and the Parish, and of getting the kids away from bad influences... In my OPS, there's a couple of families where a couple of kids were sent off to such schools, and there's no discussion in the Parich Council minutes about the kids (or parents) thieving or anything else, just that they were living off the parish.....

[JackieC]

Thanks to you all for your replies, it's all fascinating. It seems that these schools were maybe more benevolent than the workhouses, though my OH says that his granny always had a fear of destitution and ending up in the poorhouse (even though they no longer existed in the 1960s!), so it's probable that they nevertheless had some degree of stigma attached - a bit like getting free school dinners in the 70s.

[Peter Goodey]

it's probable that they nevertheless had some degree of stigma attached - a bit like getting free school dinners in the 70s.

Definitely stigma but considerably less mild than school dinners!

There was a distinction between Industrial Schools and Reformatories although the general public probably wasn't too clear about it. Eventually Industrial Schools and Reformatories were replaced with Approved Schools which were for both "juveniles in need of care or protection" and "juvenile offenders". The distinction between different classes of inmate would surely be lost on the public.

I've been talking about England and Wales but I don't believe the Scottish experience was wildly different here.

[JackieC]

Definitely stigma but considerably less mild than school dinners!

Not at the girls' school I went to, a gang of teenage girls can be unbelievably cruel! :)

I gather that the Scottish Industrial Schools and Reformatories were merged in the early 20th century too.

[gasser]

Whilst having a look at my OH's roots, I found that his grandmother was in the Aberdeen Girls Industrial School on the 1901 census.

Have you accessed the whole of the 1901 census return which includes his grandmother ie. the front cover which hopefully gives full address? The reason I ask is because I had a similar scenario with my OH's grandmother and it was only by going back previous pages of the census return, that I found out she was in an 'industrial school' that was RC....... there had been no evidence of her family being Catholic, before or since.

[JackieC]

Thanks for that Gasser, I haven't - unfortunately with limited means I can't afford subscriptions so I took advantage of Ancestry's free weekend but that didn't include the images. The address that Ancestry gave did say Mount St though - that's interesting that the RC school took in non-Catholics.

[Archives]

School records for Aberdeen / Aberdeenshire / Kincardineshire / Banffshire / Morayshire are held at Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Archives (www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/archives) though they don't have much for what were industrial schools. Some industrial schools became 'state' schools later on, in which case some records may have survived. As industrial schools were more like charitable organisations, there wasn't an overarching organisation like the School Board to manage them, and as such records were lost over the years. The survival of records from schools under the auspices of the various school boards is much better, though there are still gaps.