Bradstock Lockett Hospital Home And School Of Recovery, Southport

The Waifs and Strays' Society was one of the first charities to work with children and young people with disabilities. The year 1887 saw the opening of the Society’s first home for children with physical disabilities at Upper Tooting, Surrey - these were quickly followed by homes in Surbiton and Croydon.

The Society noted in 1895, that these homes were all in the south of England, and a home of this type was required further north. Southport was chosen as a suitable location and building work started on a house on St Anne’s Road in 1899. The building was finished by the end of 1901 and officially opened on July 22nd 1902 by Viscount Cross. The Home was named after Mr G. Bradstock Lockett who was Chairman of the Northern Children’s Union, which had undertaken a lot of fundraising for the new building.

Originally the Home only took children from the north of England. From 1917 it began to take children from all over the country, when the Board of Education officially recognised the Home as a boarding school under the terms of the Elementary Education Act (1899).

Around 1954 the Home changed its name to Bradstock Lockett Special School, and in 1968 the Home was closed as a centre for children with disabilities.