Drawing of a Church by Jessy Watt
Dormitory, Sir Josiah Mason's Orphanage by Sir Benjamin Stone
As Mason’s Orphanage was so large the dormitory could accommodate three rows of beds. The room is essentially bare except for a few reproduction paintings. There is no evidence of any personal belongings ...
Dormitory rules in Norton Reformatory
Domestic Economy Lesson, Somerville Road Board School, Birmingham by William Woollaston
This photograph has been carefully constructed. It was taken to be displayed or circulated as evidence of good educational practice. The blackboard is used to describe what is happening. The subject is ...
Daily routine in Norton Reformatory
The boys’ lives were strictly regulated. Activities were timetabled for each day between waking up at 6am and going to bed at 10pm. Cleanliness was required at all times. The boys were under constant ...
Cyril Burt, Report of an Investigation on Backward Children in Birmingham
The idea of the ‘normal child’ was reinforced by research by psychologists in the early 20th century which identified and categorised some children as being ‘abnormal’. Cyril Burt designed tests to identify ...
Children’s Hospital Special Appeal
In 1886 the Children’s Hospital organised a campaign to raise funds to stop a ward from closing with the loss of ten beds. The Children’s Hospital was dependent on charity and donations in order to deliver ...
Children with their family on a canal boat
There have been Romany travellers or ‘gypsies’ in Britain since the 1500s, and from the beginning they were suspected and persecuted.
Other children lived in barges. Their families made a living ...
Children taking part in May Day celebrations at Knutsford, Cheshire by Sir Benjamin Stone
Many of the boys are dressed as soldiers or in patriotic outfits. This is probably a reflection of the fact that Britain was fighting in the South African (or Boer) War at the time.
Children taking part in a protest for the introduction of road crossings
Children playing on Suffolk Street by A. G. Davis
Children playing in street by Nick Hedges
Children’s play was often determined by gender, both at home and in the street. Here the boy plays with a wheel barrow whilst the girls play with dolls and prams.
Children on the street in Aston
Children on a Birmingham Co-operative Society float at the May Day parade
Children in Summer Lane
Many of the back-to-back courts in the city had a large number of children living in them. The children of Summer Row were among the poorest in Birmingham, as we can see from their clothes and the boy ...
Children in Classroom, Sir Josiah Mason's Orphanage by Sir Benjamin Stone
This photograph shows that all of the girls are dressed uniformly and the age range of the girls in the orphanage. It also shows school desks and some teaching equipment. The space is large but is heated ...
Children chopping wood at home from Edward Cadbury, M. Cecile Matheson, and George Shann, ‘Women’s Work and Wages’
For poor children the home was often a place of work, alongside their mother. Children as young as five contributed to the family’s income by helping with unskilled work such as tying up bundles of chopped ...
Children carrying bricks, from George Smith, ‘The Cry of the Children from the Brickyards of England’