Scattered Homes

The following source list was originally available only on paper in one of the West Yorkshire Archive Service offices. It may have been compiled many years ago and could be out of date. It was designed to act as a signpost to records of interest on a particular historical subject, but may relate only to one West Yorkshire district, or be an incomplete list of sources available.

The "isolated homes" or scattered homes system was devised in 1893 by J Wycliffe Wilson, Chairman of the Sheffield Board of Guardians. These homes removed children from the main workhouse buildings. Wycliffe Wilson criticised the earlier system of cottage homes as isolating children from the real world in which they would eventually have to make their way. See Cottage Homes. He also saw large cottage homes sites as a breeding ground for infectious diseases such as ophthalmia and ringworm.

Isolated homes, or scattered homes as they became more commonly known, placed small groups of children in ordinary houses scattered around the suburbs of the city, under the care of a foster-parent employed by the union. Unlike cottage home village sites which usually had their own schools, the children in scattered homes attended ordinary local Board schools and mixed with other children in the local neighbourhood. The placing of homes was arranged such that there were never more than 30 scattered homes children attending any one school.

Similar schemes were adopted by many other unions beginning in 1897. In some cases, a union would take over or even erect a small row of ordinary houses in a normal residential area. Unions which had a large number of scattered homes usually erected a headquarters home which acted as a receiving or probationary home for new arrivals, short-term inmates, and those requiring special supervision. The headquarters home also providing an administrative and supplies base for the outlying homes.

In some cases, the distinction between cottage homes, scattered homes, and what might be just called "children's homes" became very blurred. So-called scattered home developments might actually be a substantial block of houses situated in an urban rather than a rural location. By 1914, over 90 unions were making use of scattered homes.

Wakefield Union Workhouse (ref: C1012) includes records of children in the Scattered Homes in Wakefield area. Admission and Discharge registers (1902-1929) and register of children (1930s) include some details of children living in these homes.

Also see Children's Homes