Description:This children's home in the Tile Cross area of the city opened a purpose-built children's home with eight beds in 1962. It was designed to be a family group home on the newly built Tile Cross Estate.
The home was part of a programme of new children’s homes in Birmingham, each built on newly developing housing estates. As small family homes, these were a move away from the larger children's homes favoured in the first part of the twentieth century.
The family group homes were built on the principle of a small ‘family’ unit in a house that looked much like any other on the estate. The first of these homes was completed in 1951, and a further 11 were built over the following eleven years. A second children’s home was built on the same estate in Tile Cross at the same time – on Tile Cross Road.
The family group homes were characterised by having live-in houseparents - a married couple - who managed the home. The housefather would generally have full-time work outside the home while the housemother would work in the children's home.
After this date, no further live-in staff are listed. In common, with most other City Council children’s homes, the practice of having live-in staff was stopped.
In 1990 or 1991, the number of beds in the home was reduced from eight to seven.
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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.