Description:This opened as a purpose-built home for eight children in 1953 on the newly-built Woodthorpe Farm Estate.
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. These homes were designed to be 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 followed, one of which was 196 Sunderton Road.
A year earlier, another children’s home was opened on the same road – at 18 Sunderton Road.
Because of the pressure for beds, the house next door to 196 Sunderton Road was rented from the owners and the two houses were used as one unit. This increased the number of beds available to 12. The home accommodated both boys and girls.
By 1981, 196 Sunderton Road, like 18 Sunderton Road, was being used as a residential nursery. However, this role did not last long as the Council closed all its redidential nurseries at the start of the 1980s. Instead, very young children were to be found foster homes.
196 Sunderton Road reverted to being a children's home for older children until it closed in 1988.
The building was demolished when the area was redeveloped in the early 2000s.
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Image: A publicity shot from a 1967 Children's Department leaflet. At this stage, the Birmingham Children's Homes Project does not have any photographs of this 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.