The Girls' Village Home, Barkingside, Essex, Ca. 1890.
The property on which the Girls' Village Home was situated in the Essex countryside east of London was given to Dr. Barnardo as a wedding gift. He turned the estate into a children's village, complete with its own church (right background) and school. The view here is down a central garden which was surrounded by Tudor style cottages, each of which lodged twenty to thirty girls under the guidance of a cottage mother. Barnardo hoped that his female wards would grow up to be better mothers and housemaids if they were raised in household groupings in a healthy rural district rather than in an enclosed city institution such as Stepney. Later a similar institution, Woodford, was built for young boys. Girls were assembled for emigration at Barkingside. The Girls' Village still exists, and currently serves as the headquarters for Barnardo's fostering and residential care programmes. Several other emigration homes prepared their wards for emigration in cottage facilities like this one: the National Children's Home at Bolton, Lancashire, Mr. Quarrier's Homes at Bridge of Weir, Scotland and the Fegan's Goudhurst Farm in Kent.
