Shenley Fields Cottage Homes: Home 3 / Rosemead

Description:Home 3 was one of the first homes built in the Shenley Fields Cottage Homes complex and was initially built to house 24 girls. It remained an all-girls home until the 1930s.

One of the first housemothers at Home 3 was Miss Field. In the 1930s Miss Warburton was housemother. It was the practice before the 1950s that each of the cottage homes was run by a single woman.

In the 1940s , Mr and Mrs O’Donnell became house-parents. After their time at Home 3, they moved to a new family group home in Kings Heath where they stayed for 24 years.

In 1949, Home 3 was given the name Rosemead.

In 1948, the home had accommodation for 22 children and took in younger boys (aged 3 to 6) and girls of all ages (3 to 15). By 1970, the number accommodated in the home had been reduced to 12, both boys and girls.

In 1982, the home is listed as being due to close by Social Services.

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Image: A publicity photograph of Rosemead taken for the Children's Officer's report, c1950.
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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.