Norfolk Reformatories

Norfolk Reformatories

Girls' Industrial School, Fakenham, Norfolk

Established, in 1858, by Mrs. Robert Hamond, who found that, on leaving national schools, girls often "went wrong." When this School was opened, with a dozen of the least hopeful girls in Fakenham, there were only two schools of the kind in England. There are now seventy inmates, and six hundred girls--a large proportion of whom have turned out well--have passed through the School. It complies with the Industrial Schools Act, and receives a proportion of pauper children. Most of the girls are fitted for
domestic service, but some are taught dressmaking, and a few who showed a decided turn for teaching have been trained as pupil teachers. An Orphanage, founded in connection with the School, is useful, not only in itself, but in keeping alive a kindly feeling among the elder girls for those of tender years; it also enables the superintendent and matron to discover those girls who have a special aptitude for taking care of young children. A hired cottage at Weybourne, on the sea-coast, is occupied by the orphans in August and September; it also serves as a sanatorium for any
girls in the School who need bracing air. The Institution is kept up by subscriptions and donations. Only girls of good moral character are admitted, and for each a charge varying from 3s. 6d. to 7s. per week is made.
Source: From "Woman's Mission," edited by Baroness Burdett-Coutts, (London: 1893), p 383.
Submitted by Marj Kohli

Page updated 06 August 2007 by ROSSBRET