Description:The building on Valencia Croft opened as a children’s home in 1967. It was a purpose-built 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 to the same design, on St Athan 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 – a move away from the pre-Second World War larger children’s homes. The first of these homes was completed in 1951 and, in all, 12 of these homes were built in the 1950s and early 1960s. Valencia Croft was part of a second phase of building family 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 like any other with live-in house-parents. The number of beds in this phase, however, was increased from eight to 12. A total of three such children’s homes were built on the Castle Vale estate in the 1960s.
It had beds for 12 children and was always a mixed home – taking in both boys and girls.
In 1987, it was closed as part of the planned programme of closures to accommodate a greater focus on fostering rather than residential care.
Since its closure, the building has had a variety of functions, including a police station.
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Image: A street sign in 2010. For a plan drawing of the building, see the entry under 'St Athan Croft children's home'.
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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.