         
|
|
|
|
|
Hutton Poplar School 1907-1930 - Poplar Training School Poplar Board of Guardians 1930 -1965 - Hutton Residential School London County Council 1965-1982 - Hutton Poplars London Borough of Hackney |
|
I give no email addresses on this site
except my own (sunningdale8@hotmail.co.uk).
Please contact me in |
|
|
General Information
One thing we need to establish from the outset is that for most of the time between the WW1 and WW2 "the Workhouse" and "The Poor Law" were not usually the Dickensian institutions many people today tend to assume they were. Admittedly they could be very hard institutions. Social attitudes to the disadvantaged were not as forgiving as they are today, but we must remember that for many life was very hard outside such institutions as well. Relatively speaking, though often spoken of in ancient terminology more appropriate to previous centuries, the Workhouse and the Poor Law were the social services of their day, and like the social services of our day, they could be good, bad or indifferent. Many of the Poor Law hospitals and institutions that became part of the National Health Service and the social services after WW2 had, relatively speaking, achieved a level efficiency and professionalism before the war, and especially during it, that many social care and medical institutions couldn't remotely match today. Hutton Poplar Training Schools were a case in point.
Hutton Poplar scholars were, by the standards of the day for working-class children, well looked after and educated. If their careers after leaving HPS are anything to go by they were better prepared for life than many children from happier family circumstances in many of the working class areas of London. Many Old Scholars have happy memories of Hutton Poplar, and their continued wish to meet and remember old times testifies to how, in a hard world, HPS provided a refuge of safety, stability and education that many children living with their parents would have envied. Even if up to the 1940s, in some of the less enlightened (or poorer) towns and parishes, there were still workhouses Dickens would have recognised, this was not typical. At the other end of that spectrum there were institutions that paved the way to the future even if - like Hutton Poplar School itself - they were always not destined to be part of it.
Even though I was never a Hutton Scholar myself I can't help looking at the Hutton Scholars I know and the society around me and wondering if we got a good exchange for the values of old we so happily discarded. It is humbling to read the words of the The Poplar Tree by R. Jones and realise that there are still people who can read, and even sing, such words without sniggering or feeling uncomfortable. To breed such people Hutton Poplar was doing something really important really well and, whether it was called a Poor Law institution or not, Hutton Scholars have every reason to be proud of what they became and continue to be.
BRIEFLY AND OFFICIALLY
Eric Keys tells me that the official names and administration of of the school was as follows:
1907-1930 Poplar Training School (administered by Poplar Board of Guardians)
1930-1965 Hutton Residential School (administered by London County Council)
1965-1982 Hutton Poplars (administered by London Borough of Hackney)
AT LENGTH AND UNOFFICIALLY
Hutton Poplar School (HPS), as I shall refer to it throughout this list, seems to have variously known as:
Ÿ Brentwood Poplar School - I've only come across this once so far (on a photographic publishers website listed below). Can't find anything on Friends Reunited under this name but haven't looked elsewhere. Worth keeping a lookout for though in case other people have used this name.
Ÿ Hutton Poplar School - This is the most common term I have encountered among ex-scholars although it may be technically incorrect. Scholars only went to "a" school, but there were actually separate schools for boys and girls. Despite there being several male and several female establishments (double cottages) called schools (five for each sex) scholars seem to regard the school as the organisation as a whole, or at least their sex-specific part of it. Girls and boys seem to have mixed reasonably freely and ex-scholars looking for one another often search for friends of the other sex.
Throughout these web pages I use the term "Hutton Poplar School" or "HPS" to refer to the establishment at any time, in any of it's various uses or configurations, without being specific about the girl's or boys' school.
Ÿ Hutton Poplar School (Orphanage) - One current Friends Reunited title that I have not found anywhere else. I suspect this title is used to make it clear that, although it is sometimes referred to as a "Training" school the Poplar School was not a reformatory. In the context of the times "Training" was a positive word - a sort of working class version of "Preparatory". The Poplar School was not a secure establishment for bad boys and girls.
Ÿ Hutton Poplar Residential School - This seems to be an attempt to edit the name of the school to suit modern taste and avoid any reformatory connotations.
Ÿ Poplar Training Schools, Hutton - This seems to be the most common term used by non-scholars. I am not clear if the plural refers to the cottages (five double cottages per sex) or the separate male and female schools.
Ÿ Poplar Poor Law Homes - This name is used on another major site - Rossbret Institutions Website - on page http://www.institutions.org.uk/workhouses/england/lon/poplar_workhouse.htm. Like Peter Higginbotham's website, this site is a definite must for anyone wanting to get a grounding in the Poor Law from the web.
Ÿ Hutton Poplars Children's Home - the final phase of HPS. Largely demolished after being decommissioned as a children's home.
Ÿ Hutton Populars Childrens Home - A misspelling, but so easy to make that others may make it too. Worth looking out for.
Ÿ Poplar/Poplars - Remaining buildings of HPS sometimes have the Poplar Poor Law Union connection changed so that Poplar in the sense of a parish in Middlesex becomes Poplars in the sense of trees. This is not entirely unreasonable since the parish of Poplar probably got its name from the trees of that name, and the HPS school song uses the qualities of the poplar tree as an analogy for personal qualities.
Ÿ Poplars Lodge - Possibly a remaining part of HPS - maybe the Porter's lodge - Hutton Poplars Lodge, Rayleigh Road, Brentwood, Essex CM13 1BA http://www.brentwood-council.gov.uk/index.php?cid=517
Ÿ Poplars Hall - The boys' school's magnificent dining hall that has now been rejuvenated as a civic amenity http://www.brentwood-council.gov.uk/index.php?cid=512
http://www.shenfield.org.uk/map1.htm
Ÿ Hutton Poplars
Ÿ Name -
Ÿ Brentwood Poplar Training School, Hutton
Ÿ Poplars Drive, Hutton, Brentwood, Essex, CM13 1YU
Ÿ Rayleigh Road, Hutton, England
Ÿ Rayleigh Road, Hutton, Essex South East
Ÿ Shenfield Road, Shenfield, Essex South East
Ÿ Shenfield , Essex South East
Ÿ Address
Ÿ Peter Higginbotham [Oxford University] - Author of the encyclopaedic website cited below under the header "Poplar, Middlesex, London".
Mrs Elizabeth Chaston - Writing a book about Hutton Poplar School.
Dougie West [Hutton Poplar Scholar] - A Hutton Scholar who helps organise Hutton Poplar School events - also anonymously contactable directly through Friends Reunited.
Peter Stephenson MA(Edin) BA(Open) [webmaster] - Compiling a summary of Hutton Poplar Orphanage-related hits on the web. In contact with some other researchers. Mobile: 07931 376 498 Landline: 01754 89 6622 Email: sunningdale8@hotmail.co.uk
Ÿ Name -
Ÿ London Metropolitan Archives - http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Records_and_archives/
Ÿ Name -
Ÿ Name - Hyperlink
Text
Ÿ Mr Higden - Headmaster - a contemporary of Matron Knight.
Ÿ Matron Knight - Matron - a contemporary of Mr Higden
Ÿ Name - Maurice Horowitz
Ÿ Name -
Ÿ Name -
http://workhouses.org.uk/Poplar/Poplar.shtml
Very extensive research notes and many good pictures (past and present) at an extremely good Oxford University research site by Peter Higginbotham - who seems to be doing very wide and comprehensive research on the Poor Law and workhouses. The "Poplar, Middlesex, London" page is just one of a very wide range of offerings that are worth looking at on this large site. A very good starting point for people who want to get a solid grounding in the social and historical context of the school rather than just look at old photographs and read stories.
For more general information about this subject try his web page as a starting point. http://www.workhouses.org.uk
http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/data/discover/data/Poplar/index.cfm
http://www.mernick.co.uk/thhol/pbc1927(02).html
There is only a minor reference here to the Borough Librarian and the senior members of libraries staff giving lectures about libraries in Poplar at the Poplar Training School at Hutton. The title however is significant - "Public Libraries, their resources, and how to make the best use of them after leaving school". Clearly there is some concept here of scholars at the school being prepared for life in Poplar.
http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/
Hutton Poplar School has a great many individual entries under several heading in Friends reunited . There are three separate headings under PRIMARY SCHOOLS (although the School kept pupils until they were ready to start work). One of the entries is misspelled (Popular rather than Poplar). There are also two entries for the School/Childrens Home as a workplace.
This could mean that HPS students are split into several groups, and anyone researching them would have to consult all five entries. There may be other entries I don't know about (yet).
The entries are too long to be put on this page so I have placed them on a separate page you can access by pressing this button.
A photographic publisher's website. A this page give four external shots of Poplar Training School in 1909. No text or explanation.
Ÿ Mabel Cooper - Refers to being at HPS but does not describe it - http://www.open.ac.uk/hsc/ldsite/mabel/found_out.html
Ÿ Name -
Ÿ Name -
Ÿ Name -
workhouses.org.uk Guestbook 2005 - Although at the time of writing (16.8.06) there is no substantial entry relating to Hutton Poplar on this site's guestbook, this could change - especially if you have something to contribute.
Don't be afraid that what you have to say is uninteresting. Your reference to working for a while with John or Jane Smith in the cobblers' shop or the sewing room in 1947 may the very link that tells someone why their mother or father took up the occupation they did in Clacton, Canada or Australia in 1949. One person's throwaway remark is another person's vital piece of information.
If you want to add something to this very worthwhile site click here to see what is written there and then use the link at the top of that webpage to email you contribution to the author (or if you can't find the email link click here).
An account of a visit by a highly complimentary Canadian visitor to the Poplar Training Schools at Shenfield in July 1914. Briefly describes the schools and the population. Refers to the problem of poverty in Poplar. Also describes education and occupational training (possibly being a bit derogatory about the quality of the occupational training).
The remark about occupational training refers to it being "a great help to the children when thrown on their own resources either at home or in Canada." This could refer to children being "exported" from the home to Canada.
Source: Submitted by Marj Kohli http://www.ist.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/
I find that there was a considerable amount of child immigration from England to Canada - but have no specific information about Hutton Poplar School yet . The URL above will link you to the British Isles Family History Society of greater Ottawa - which is compiling information from all over Canada and has many useful links.
Given that Friends Reunited is global it may well be some of the individual entries there are Old Scholars who have left Britain (and are probably sickenly successful and healthy compared to those of us here). Please, overseas Scholars, if you've done well, try not to mention it too obviously!
All ex-Hutton people tend to call themselves "Old Scholars" of the place - but I think their name should be more specific. I'm trying to coin "Old Huttonian" as a phrase since you can fit that on a lapel badge, while "Old Scholar - Hutton Poplar Training School etc" doesn't have quite the instant recognisability. Behold a possible "Hutton Button". Perhaps I'm getting silly though.
Ÿ A Marxist View - A Marxist overview of what was happening in Poplar in the twentieth century can be found at the Workers Liberty site on page on page http://www.workersliberty.org/node/3156.
Ÿ workhouses.org - Text
Ÿ Rossbret Institutions Website - Text
Ÿ Header - Text
Ÿ Header - Text
Ÿ Header - Text
Hyperlink
Text
Site Disclaimers and Copyright Information
|
