| AdminHistory | On 7 January 1868 the General Purposes Committee presented a report in which it recommended that an estate named 'The Shawberries' at Shustoke should be rented to build an Industrial School to take in boys deemed by the justices not to be criminals, but at risk of turning to crime. The report was approved, and the estate taken on a lease of 21 years, at an annual rent of £130. The school, usually known as Shustoke Industrial School, was established to provide an environment that would allow poor and vulnerable children the opportunity to learn skills that would help them to find useful work later on. Many went into employment such as tailoring, shoemaking, glazing and farm labour.
The Industrial School Committee was appointed in November 1868 for the purposes of overseeing and administering the Industrial School. The school itself was not self-supporting: each inmate cost 7s a week to support, towards which the government granted 5s per pupil, although the adjoining farm did yield a small profit that generated additional income. The farm had been purchased shortly after the school was opened, and remained a feature.
It appears that in the early years of the school, boys were sent there until they reached the age of 16 - for example, a child sent there at the age of 11 would have his 'sentence' recorded as 5 years, whereas a child of 8 would have his 'sentence' recorded as 8 years. (See BCC 10/BCH/11/3/1/1.)
The boys' progress was followed for at least two or three years after they left the school, and in some cases for decades. These follow-up reports generally showed that only a minority of boys failed to do well after leaving the school. Many leavers went into the trade they had trained for at the school, and many others joined the army. A trial emigration scheme to Canada was begun in 1883, with the assistance of JT Middlemore of Middlemore Emigration Homes, and between eight and twenty boys were sent to Canada each year.
The Reformatory and Industrial Schools Act of 1891 empowered local managers of Industrial Schools to apprentice or dispose of well-behaved inmates in trade, service or by emigration, before the expiry of their period of detention. With the passing of the Industrial Schools Amendment Act, 1894, it was stipulated that a boy sent to an Industrial School should remain under the supervision of the managers until he reached the age of eighteen years, giving the managers authorisation to recall the boy for three months if they deemed it necessary for his protection. From the late 1890s the practice of 'licensing out' was encouraged, with the prospect of a licence providing an incentive to good conduct, whilst keeping the boy under probation. The Industrial School Committee decided to grant the licence to all boys at the age of fifteen who were fit, and who had received a satisfactory character reference from the master of the school.
By the 1920s the school had become Shawbury School, and following the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 the title of 'Approved School' was introduced and the institution became Shawbury Approved School. In 1935 Shawbury became a 'short-term' school, providing a training period of six to twelve months, with the majority of boys being released on licence after nine months; by this time, most of those arriving at the school were over 15.
By the 1950s the school was catering for boys with a full range of abilities, from those who were illiterate to those who had previously been at grammar schools. Their common feature was that most of them had committed crimes. Education was largely practical, except for those boys with particular aptitude for academic work, and included cooking and kitchen work, engineering, gardening and farming, cabinet making and mechanical drawing. The school remained responsible for after-care of the boys until three years after they had left the school, or until they had reached the age of 21 (whichever was earlier). (See 'The First Four Years: the report of the Children's Officer of the city of Birmingham for the period from February, 1949 to January, 1953'.)
15 years later, the report of the Children's Department showed little change, with the emphasis of life at Shawbury remaining on practical education, with farm, building, kitchen, and engineering training still very much in evidence. By 1967 the school was certified to care for 88 boys, a decrease from the former figure of 100. (See 'Report on the work of the Children's Department of the City of Birmingham, three years ended 31 March 1967'.)
Under the Children and Young Persons Act 1969, approved schools were reclassified as community homes with education. Throughout the 1970s their use by local authorities decreased as other forms of residential care became more favoured. In February 1980 it was reported by Birmingham City Council's Social Services Department and the West Midlands Children's Regional Planning Committee that the West Midlands had too many places in community homes, and they recommended the closure of Shawbury (report to BCC Social Services Cttee, 13 Feb 1980). The school closed at the end of the summer term, 1980.
The school's isolated site 17 miles from Birmingham, along with other financial and operational restraints, meant that the council did not feel that the buildings could be retained, and they were sold. Most of the existing buildings, with the exception of some staff houses, were demolished, and new housing was built on the site.
Administration
From 1868 to 1903 the school was under the control of the Industrial School Committee (BCC 1/BB). In 1903 control passed to the Education Committee (more specifically, the Cottage Homes and Residential Schools Sub-committee, see BCC 1/BH/5/5). Following the passing of the Children Act 1948, the administration of Shawbury became the responsibility of the new Children's Committee (see BCC 1/CT/7, the Approved School and Remand Homes Sub-Committee). Finally, under the Children and Young Persons Act 1969, approved schools were reclassified as community homes, and became the responsibility of the Social Services Committee (see BCC 1/DJ/2, the Approved School and Observation Assessment Centres Sub-Committee). |