Nottm Children's Home Skegness


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Good idea only if the person requesting the information was an inmate, can't see the point of "Joe Public" wanting to know.

More specifically the home was funded by Nottm City Council's Education Committe if I remember correctly.

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Until I joined Nottstalgia several years ago I’d never heard of this Skegness place, nor Pinewood.   The reason being, I suppose, I was brought up in a working class household with 2 very loving paren

Whilst visiting Skeg today we had a wander down Roseberry Avenue. The old place has changer a bit but the main structure is the same, As Davep1549 says now council offices. This was never there.

Similar to me, Lizzie.   I know I was fortunate to be brought up by 2 loving parents - the only difference was that we DID have a car as my dad worked for the Ministry of Food  in the forties and then

I was indeed a beneficiary of this memorable Council service.

I expect the response will be one of:

(1) Records were lost/destroyed during relocation/flood/fire/plague.

(2) The cost to retrieve the data exceeds that permissible under the FOI rules.

(3) Your request includes Personal Data and as such is an exception under FOI rules.

(4) We can only disclose summary data (number of attendees per year).

(5) Don't hold your breath.

(OK, probably not the last one)

............a few minutes later.................

Automated response:

Nottingham City Council acknowledge the receipt of your email. Your enquiry has been given the reference number [deleted]. A case officer will be assigned to your request and you will receive a response in due course.

Please note that for requests that fall under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 you should expect a response within 20 working days commencing the next working day following receipt of your enquiry. For requests that fall under the Data Protection Act 1998 you should expect a response within 40 calendar days from the day your enquiry was received in the Authority.

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From the BBC's 'Doomsday Reloaded' project:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-556000-360000/page/2

1986 CHILDRENS HOME SKEGNESS

Roseberry House was opened in 1928. Children from Nottinghamshire come here for a holiday in which they do a topic on the seaside. As well as being a holiday for the children it is also a study centre. The children are in three age groups called the beachcombers, the coastguards and the surfers. The children come here because they are from unhappy homes or from broken families and they come for a break by the sea. Roseberry House can hold 56 children at the most. There are sixteen staff: 1 head teacher, 1 teacher, 1 chef, 1 chef’s assistant, 1 matron, 1 deputy matron, 4 care staff, 5 cleaning ladies and 1 gardener. The children visit Natureland, Gibraltar Point and the beach. Other activities are craft and swimming. Mr.D.Meadows is the Warden. The children get five pounds pocket money for two weeks.

Here's link to a couple more comments:

http://www.francisfrith.com/skegness/holiday-home-for-under-privileged-children_memory-231401

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#117.

I wouldn't have believed that if not in "Black & White" !

Crap & Bull Shit spring to mind.

Five Pound pocket money in for two weeks in 1928 ? Who are they trying to kid, parents would never have been able to afford that. When we went in the late '50s we had to take Fifteen Bob (75p) to last three weeks, which our mother had to scrape together & hand over when we got there, being the last time we saw it

That BBC article paints a very different picture to what that place was REALLY like. !

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#117

I think the article refers to 1928 when the home opened and also to 1986 when the article was written.

In 1928 a skilled man's wages would be less than £5 per week and that would be for 6 days work. It is still not clear, but it seems to suggest that the council gave the kids £5 spending money in 1986 for 2 weeks in which is much more believable.

There is also a statement that the children were from unhappy homes or from broken families, I don't know how this worked as I was from neither and I was not conscripted, and I've no idea why but I volunteered.

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# 119

Don't think you'd want a holiday at that place. I've seen documentaries about YOI's & it looked about the same, only we had corporal punishment..

# 122

My home wasn't broken or unhappy, although Mam was ill in hospital quite often so I was fostered out to relatives a lot, maybe that was considered a broken home, I just don't know..

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Having a brother & two sisters my mother applied for us to go there, mother being a widow meant we were poor.

The benefit system then was never generous like today's system where it can in many circumstances be more beneficial than working, to be unemployed.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just to add a little to the forum a few years ago I visited Pipewood - the complex was still there and used for a special school.

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Pipewood was a totally different ball game all together, my sisters went there before it closed down, I remember visiting there.

Pipewood was for anyone, no particular criteria requested. The regime there was much more friendlier than Skegness Childrens Home believe me.

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Yes my sister also went to Pipewood but me and my brother went to good old Skeggy. I seem to remember that for the first two weeks you missed all your family then on the third you were looking forward to going home.

The school masters name was Mr Topham who taught the boys half a day and the girls the other half. One day during your stay you had a brief visit to the fun fair.

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Catfan, #121, fully agree, i had one week, skeggy, i remember i had a bladder problem, so one night, monday think it was, wet the bed, was only about eight/nine, deeply ashamed then, and now still, was made, in front of everyone, to strip the bed, wash the sheets and blankets, mangle em, bloody mangles, hated them ever since, and hang them all out to dry, had to eat on my own, walk on my own, and sit on my own all day, That night had to wait till everyone had gone to bed, then remake my bed, whilst they all watched, and only then could get in bed, also comes to mind one day we all went to the swimming place, i think it was where the Embassy is now, i had no swimming gear, couldn't afford it, so they lent me something to put on, shorts about three sizes too big, god embarrased aint in it, Best bit about Skeggy Holiday Camp, arriving home

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#21

Like Terry I fully agree with you Catfan.

It definitely wasn't a holiday camp, it was the most degrading and humiliating institution I was ever made to go to.

BTW #122 I didn't come from a broken home either, we were just poor. My parents thought it was best for me at the time to go there and enjoy 3 weeks by the sea. It's a shame that I was too scared to tell them what it really was like when I returned home.

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These places, I think were swings and roundabouts, I always heard good things and bad about them in the fifties from poor kids at school...................Some of these kids never got a decent meal at home, no nice toys or clothes, lots of thrashings, no fun at all, these places were a respite to them, 2 poor girls in my class loved these places, they would never had gotten to see the sea or play on the beaches otherwise and they were always given new clothes by the education committee to take with them, that was at Hucknall Notts -Then other reports I heard from other's were bad ...................I think it depended on the teachers who took them, most of the teachers in those days were frustrated, power hungry, barstewards who took their frustrations out on the kids, especially male teachers, they always seemed to have to be picking on some poor kid............Times had to change, but has it been for the better, I wonder...............

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  • 2 weeks later...

You may recall earlier in this thread I mentioned asking the City Council for a list of Roseberry House attendees under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. They have responded with a refusal notice based on the anticipated cost of retrieval of data and also citing the Data Protection Act.

Dear Requester

Re: Request made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

This Authority has considered your request which was received on 10th August 2015 and our response to your questions are shown below.

A list of names of children attending Roseberry House Skegness during its operation by Nottingham City Council as summer holiday accommodation. Period unknown but spanning at least 1950s and 1960s. Information limited to list of names for each year.

We are unable to provide the information requested as we do not hold centralised records for this establishment. To do so would require us to review the individual records of all young people who received support during the timeframe that the unit was open.

Please note that were we able to locate the information within the appropriate limit, it may well be exempt from disclosure. Under section 40(2) of the Act, personal information about identifiable living individuals is exempt if disclosure to a third party would breach one or more principles in the Data Protection Act 1998. The individuals concerned would not expect this information to be disclosed to a third party. To do so would be unfair; therefore, disclosure would breach the First Data Protection Principle (fair and lawful processing).

As an example of the time that would be required in order to undertake this task we have focused on the number of children looked after by the authority during this period. This will only provide a partial picture as it is understood that not all of the children and young people who spent time in the unit were actually in local authority care. We do not have data on the number of children in care during the 1950’s and 1960’s so we have therefore based the time calculation on the current number of children who go into care each year which is approximately 800. We estimate that it would take at least 10 minutes to search each case file to see if the child attended the unit while looked after. This calculates to over 130 hours of continuous work.

Therefore on this occasion, the Authority has decided to exempt itself from complying with your request as the cost incurred in providing a response would exceed the appropriate limit of £450, which is equivalent to requests that would require more than 2.5 days' continuous work.

As the Authority is withholding the information as detailed above under section 12 please accept this letter as a refusal notice issued in accordance with section 17 of the Act.

We apologise for the delay in responding to your request. Please be assured that we are taking active steps to improve the processes surrounding our information requests to ensure we answer requests in a timely manner.

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  • 9 months later...

I was chatting to my sister, funnily enough at Skegness yesterday ! She remembered going to the girls home at the same time my brother & I were at the boys home. What she can't remember is where was the girls home situated ? We only saw the girls in church on a sunday but we were not allowed to talk to them.

I did know the name of the girls home years ago but sadly that memory has now gone.

Only in the later years,did both homes amalgamate at Roseberry House.

Can anyone help please ?

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Catfan. #133

I found an interesting artical on the Internet about the poor girls home,it has a few photos,it says the home closed in the 60s,I'm afraid I don't know how to put it on here....if you want to send me your email I could maybe send you a link to the artical.

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I went to this place in the early 1950s with one of my sisters ,I was nearly 6 the first time I went we went the following year as well ,I will be 69 this year and can still remember it,a nightmare from hell.I remember the "matron" well you held your breath when she went passed.

Breakfast a bowl of milk with cereal floating in it and a very hard boiled egg,there was always cabbage at lunch time and bread and marg or dripping at supper ,no talking at lights out or till you got up in the morning,Schhool for half a day it was the school holidays for godsake,church on sunday with scratchy grey blazer and a hat that kept slipping down .The first night you had to have a bath and every child had nit treatment whether you needed it or not.

When my own children got to that age I wondered how could my mum and dad send me to that place but i suppose you only remember certain things but those things made a lasting impression on me.

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Sounds delightful !

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#136.

So, so true.

I would never have inflicted that on my kids.

The one & only good thing I remember was never going to bed at night hungry.

When at school we existed on our free school dinner & that was it until the next day !

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  • 5 months later...

Here's a few pictures taken this week .

 

P1030207_zpsy0yok5sq.jpg

 

The dormitory was the other side of this wall.

P1030206_zpsm6huij3b.jpg

 

How it looks taday, years ago was a long dormitory with rows of single beds & all the decor was Nottm City Council's dark green & cream gloss paint !

P1030198_zpsvf9dqsm9.jpg

 

Nowadays the dorm is devided in to two area's.

P1030200_zpsjlyko5im.jpg

 

Old "Inmates" might remember the long passageway where we lined up in single file on arrival to be devided up into house groups, seemed to take ages. These days has also been devided into two work spaces where clerical work is undertaken of some sort.

P1030205_zpsclnl0xcj.jpg

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