Description:In the early 1960s, there were significant increases in the number of children coming into care in Birmingham. Despite the new family group homes, the city felt that it still had insufficient children’s homes.
The search for new children’s homes went farther afield.
In February 1961, the Council took over from Kesteven County Council use of a former children’s home on Huntingtower Road, Grantham, around 70 miles from Birmingham.
The home was used to accommodate up to 16 children – intermediate cases – whose stay at the home was likely to be between 12 and 18 months.
This was by no means the first, or the only time, that Birmingham children were placed in residential care away from the city. In the 1920s, for example, when there was overcrowding in the cottage homes of Shenley, Marston Green and Erdington, children were sent to Wavertree Cottage Homes in Liverpool.
In July 1963, because more of the new family group homes had been opened in Birmingham, the Grantham arrangement was stopped and the remaining children were brought back to Birmingham.
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Image: Map showing the approximate locations of Birmingham and Grantham. Outline map reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data by permission of the Ordnance Survey © Crown copyright 2010.
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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.