| Description | Aston Union was responsible for founding the children's homes at Erdington, in 1899. Previously, the Union had boarded children out in Wolverhampton Union's cottage homes at Wednesfield (see GP AS/2/1/39), but in 1893-4 the Board of Guardians began discussions with the Local Government Board to find a suitable site for the Union's own cottage homes (see GP AS/2/1/40). A site was eventually agreed upon, close to the existing workhouse at Gravelly Hill, and the Board began accepting tenders for their construction.
The earliest reference to Aston Union's Cottage Homes committee occurs in November 1899, when it was referred to as the Building and Cottage Homes Committee (see GP AS/2/1/46). However, after the cottage homes had fully opened and begun accepting children in larger numbers, a separate committee was established in the April of the following year (see GP AS/2/1/46). The volumes themselves contain details on all aspects of the homes, dealing with their income and expenditure, the paid members of staff employed to run the homes, and information on the children themselves, including applications from relatives to remove them from the Union's care, and the transferral of children into other homes and in some cases into service. |