Leeds news on today's date (August 30) in 1873.

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Thu 30 Aug, 2012 12:19 pm

The following is from John Mayhall’s ‘Annals of Yorkshire’ vol 3.August 30 1873. “A newly-erected Home for Orphan Girls was opened in Cliff Road, Leeds. It had been erected by subscription, and cost £1,450 exclusive of the site”.Using an inflation calculator in the Bank of England website the £1,450 is equivalent (at an average inflation rate of 3.3% a year) to about £129,357 in 2011, which is not as much as I would have guessed.I have not been able to readily find much about the orphanage, such as when it closed. I have though found that it is now a nursing home for the elderly (very probably Halcyon Court). There seems to be only three photos in Leodis that have mention of the orphanage. The following link should bring up a photo (taken on March 5 1943) in Leodis that best of the three shows the orphanage during the construction of a nearby radio station on Woodhouse Cliff area for the Leeds City Police and National Fire Service. http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... ifier=6968

biofichompinc · Post by **biofichompinc** » Thu 30 Aug, 2012 12:36 pm

The following text is from an entry on ancestry.co.uk.....My late father was admitted to Headingley Orphan Home in Leeds in 1913 and stayed until 1919 when he went to Canada. If anyone has a photograph I would be grateful. This is the information I have been given in case anyone is interested."Headingley Orphan Homes was founded by Anna Rebecca Whiting in 1865. In 1873 it moved to 55 Cliff Road in Headingley. The homes grew in size and by 1915 they had 4 separate buildings, one for small children, 2 for girls and another for boys. Mrs. Whiting was a Quaker and after she died in 1897 and her husband in 1899 her daughter took over control of the orphanage. Children at the orphanage attended day schools and Sunday school and did not wear a uniform. Many of the children were not orphans but came from disadvantaged backgrounds. The home closed in 1959 and a Trust was formed, to be known as the Headingley Orphanage Foundation, to administer the income from investments. This income was then used to make charitable grants to other orphanages or special schools that were charitable trusts."

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Thu 30 Aug, 2012 1:32 pm

Thanks for that interesting information salt 'n pepper, which is appreciated.

Jogon · Post by **Jogon** » Thu 30 Aug, 2012 4:54 pm

Found this"..The house is a two storied one, and is partially cellared. Built of red brickwith stone dressings and dark blue Staffordshire brick arranged in bands diaper and arch voussoirs with moulded bricks freely used for jambs of windows doors and arches the external appearance of the building is highly pleasing. On the ground floor are schoolroom, dining room, scullery, kitchen store room, invatory, matron’s room etc; in the basement pantry and coal place. On the chamber floor are 3 unusually high lofty and well ventilated dormitories for the children, bedroom for the matron, nursery linen room, lavatory bath room etc,. The dormitories and staircase are ceiled half way up the roof, the former plastered the latter with the rafters exposed and plastered in between. The passages and lobbies are laid with red tile quarries. Bed tiles are also used the floor the kitchen and scullery; and another simple but highly effective improvement well worthy of more general adoption Is in Mr. Thorp’s having adopted the plan of varnishing the whole of the internal woodwork without staining it. The staircase is lighted by three long lancet windows, glazed with cathedral-tinted rolled plate-glass in geometric patters supplied by Powell brothers of Park place Leeds. The gas fittings are of plain mediaeval character. The plot of land admits of ample space for a playground behind the house.There were (on the opening date) 26 girls as inmates, most of whom went into domestic service.."

Cardiarms · Post by **Cardiarms** » Thu 30 Aug, 2012 6:12 pm

Leodian wrote: orphanage during the construction of a nearby radio station on Woodhouse Cliff area for the Leeds City Police and National Fire Service. http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... ifier=6968 I don't think the picture above is captioned correctly. This is another pic of the orphanage with its distinct roof:http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?reso ... er=6479and todayhttp://goo.gl/maps/X48bQIf I remember correctly the radio station on Woodhouse cliff was on the site on Bedford Fields, eventually becoming the site of the middle School and now City of Leeds.

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Thu 30 Aug, 2012 6:49 pm

Thanks Jogon. Your searching is clearly better than mine. Thanks also Cardiarms. I am though now confused because the Leodis link you give shows the Headingley Orphanage for Boys, not for girls. I would be grateful if someone could please definitely identify which building today was the orphanage for girls (assuming that it still stands). I suspect my thought that it probably is the Halcyon Court nursing home may be wrong.

drapesy · Post by **drapesy** » Thu 30 Aug, 2012 7:46 pm

Property and building prices have increased way over inflation since the 1980s - so the inflation indicator doesn't really work for them.

Cardiarms · Post by **Cardiarms** » Thu 30 Aug, 2012 10:23 pm

Leodian wrote: Thanks Jogon. Your searching is clearly better than mine. Thanks also Cardiarms. I am though now confused because the Leodis link you give shows the Headingley Orphanage for Boys, not for girls. I would be grateful if someone could please definitely identify which building today was the orphanage for girls (assuming that it still stands). I suspect my thought that it probably is the Halcyon Court nursing home may be wrong. Ah, there's more than one. According to the Godfrey 1908 map, the building with the distinctive roof is the boys home and the building you've identified as Halycon Court is for the girls. So the caption could is right.http://goo.gl/maps/U3IG4

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Thu 30 Aug, 2012 10:55 pm

Cheers Cardiarms. With more than one orphanage in the area it's all very confusing!

biofichompinc · Post by **biofichompinc** » Fri 31 Aug, 2012 12:22 am

It seems simple enough to me.The orphanage for girls opened some time before it moved to 55 Cliff Road in 1873. At that point in its existence, it was still a girls orphanage. We don't know where it was situated before the move.Forty two years later the orphanage had grown and was made up of four separate buildings - see above. Between 1873 and 1915 it became 'mixed'.Here is another link to the same ancestry.co.uk thread I quoted earlier. This one has photographs. And one looks like Cardiarms' building at the junction of Cliff Lane and Grosvenor Mount. Probably the boys building. The link is here......http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/topics.orp ... .ashxThere were several buildings which made up the entire orphanage. They were in pretty close proximity to each other but not within the same boundaries.