Description:This children’s home on St Athan Croft was opened in 1967.
When it opened it was a new build – a large detached house - on the newly built Castle Vale housing estate. It was in close proximity to another children’s home, built at the same time, on Valencia Croft.
The home was part of a programme of new children’s homes, each built on newly developing housing estates, which were to be family group homes or scattered homes. As very small units, they were very different to the large children's homes favoured in the first half of the twentieth century.
The first of these homes was completed in 1951 and, in all, twelve were built in the 1950s and early 1960s. St Athan Croft was part of a second phase of building family group homes which took place in the late 1960s. These homes adhered to the same principle of a small ‘family’ unit in a house that looked much like any other on the estate but the number of beds was increased from eight to twelve. A total of three such children’s homes were built on the Castle Vale Estate in the 1960s.
While the home had beds for 12 children initially, this increased to 14 in the late 1970s, and then was reduced back to 12 beds in 1980. It was always a mixed home – taking in both boys and girls (of unknown age range). In November 1980, six boys and six girls were in residence, one boy having arrived that month.
The family group homes were initially characterised by having live-in houseparents - generally a married couple.
James Connolly and Patricia Connolly were the first live-in houseparents in the home and were registered as voters at that address from 1969 to 1990. This is perhaps unusual as most of the other Birmingham children’s homes no longer had live-in house-parents after the early to mid 1980s.
In the late 1980s, the home was used to accommodate ‘young family groups and the occasional young mother and baby’ but was developed to take on more of the group 2 children’s home role after the closure of Valencia Croft in 1987.
In 1993, St Athan Croft is listed as being for younger children – sibling groups, rehabilitation (10 beds). In 1998 the number of beds had been reduced to eight.
St Athan Croft closed as a children’s home in 2004 when it was replaced by the purpose-built Viscount House, also in Castle Vale.
34 St Athan Croft was later demolished.
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Image: Architect's drawing of the Castle Vale children's homes, 1966. Reproduced courtesy of Birmingham City Council.
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Source: This history was compiled by the Birmingham Children's Homes Project, an initiative to explore Birmingham City Council-run children’s homes between 1949 and 1990.