Hidden Lives Revealed. A virtual archive - children in care 1881-1981 * Image of handwritten text

St Peter's Orphan and Convalescent Home, Broadstairs

No image of this Home exists in the Children's Society Archive. If you have an image of this home please let us know at hlr@childsoc.org.uk.

See also the medical book from this home in the Unexplored Riches section.

St Peter's Orphan and Convalescent Home, Broadstairs

Broadstairs, Kent

(1866 - 1942)

The Home had originally been established and administered by Catherine Tait, the wife of Archibald Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1866. The Orphanage was set up for the children of victims of cholera in Ratcliffe Highway, Stepney. Tait and her husband had been deeply affected by the experience of working alongside two East End clergymen who ministered to the victims of the cholera epidemic in 1866 despite the threat to their own health. In 1867 Catherine Tait asked the Sisters of the Community of St Peter to take over the running of the Orphanage as they were a nursing order and had experience of treating cholera patients.

In 1870 the Home moved to Lanthorne Road, Broadstairs, Kent because the premises in Fulham had become too small. The Sisters relinquished their involvement in the Orphanage in 1878.

By 1907 the Home accommodated 80 girls who were eventually found situations in domestic service. The Convalescent Home housed 24 women over the age of 14 years.

In 1942 the Home was transferred to The Children's Society and was renamed Tait Home. Shortly afterwards the Home was evacuated because of the Second World War to Tait Home, Mortehoe, Devon, but reopened after the war as Tait Home back in Broadstairs.



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