Industrial Workhome for Women, Uddingston

[AndrewP]

Some items from The Scotsman archives regarding Viewpark Home, Uddingston.

The Scotsman, 27-Jan-1909

• ECCLESIASTICAL - DIOCESE OF GLASGOW AND GALLOWAY
  
  CHURCH OF SCOTLAND'S NEW SOCIAL SCHEME
  
  Yesterday the Hon. Walter G. Scott, the Master of Polwarth, addressed the presbytery of Hamilton on the resolution of the Church of Scotland's Social Work Committee to remove the rescue home from Glasgow to Viewpark House, Bothwell, of which a lease had been taken for that purpose. Though the new home was within the bounds of the Presbytery of Hamilton, the Committee did not ask the presbytery to assume any financial burden with regard to it, in view of the Presbytery's splendid social scheme for men at Cambusnethan, but he sought their sympathy and their co-operation. The Committee had deemed it desirable to remove their large home from the very heart of the city, where it was impossible for women and girls to go outside the building without being exposed to the tremendous temptations, to a suburban or country district. They had now just concluded the lease of Viewpark House, Bothwell, where, when the alterations were completed, the Church hoped to find accommodation to women and children confined to her care from any part of Scotland. The Committee were hopeful, he said, that in its new surroundings they would be able to make the home one of the best of its kind in the country, and be able also more than they had been in the past to do their share of this noble rescue work among women. The Presbytery, while thanking the Master of Polwarth for his address, unanimously agreed to give the Committee all possible co-operation in making the scheme a success.

The Scotsman, 02-Sep-1911 and 05-Sep-1911.

• Christian worker, Presbyterian (or Baptist) preferred; strong energetic, required as needlework matron, &c. Applicants to state experience, age, salary expected to Matron, Viewpark Rescue Home, Uddingston, by Glasgow.

The Scotsman, 29-Sep-1911 and 30-Sep-1911.

• Matron of Viewpark Rescue and Industrial Home, Uddingston, wishes re-engagement; large sphere, not necessarily rescue.

All the best,

AndrewP

[adgilcan]

Thank you for that, Andrew

Are you able to suggest where the records of the inmates would be kept, if they are still in existence? Similarly, can you suggest where to find the criminal records, if it was that which sent a person there.

I have made an online search through the NAS online catalogue with no success. Would I get access to more results if I were to physically visit the records office? Is there anywhere else I should try?

Many thanks, again

[Currie]

Nice find Andrew. The Glasgow Herald carried the story on the same day (p.5, col.7) but it seems to be the same. I had a look in the Scotsman for anything about the move to Pollokshaws in 1914, but no luck. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=G ... page&hl=en

Location of Viewpark House.
http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/24 ... ark+house/

The trouble with this particular Rescue Home is that it didn’t stay in the same place very long before it moved elsewhere. Possibly what’s needed are the records of the COS Social Work Committee, who appear to have controlled the place. Perhaps they are still held by the Church.

One COS Rescue Home was probably much the same as any other and there appear to have been quite a few of them scattered about.

It seems that no-one could be forced to go there. I suppose the Social Workers just used persuasion. See the following.

The Scotsman, 28 March, 1913.
"GREATER POWERS WANTED BY EDINBURGH MAGISTRATES.—The fifty-second annual meeting of the Falconer Rescue Home, 18 St John's Hill, Edinburgh—was held yesterday afternoon—Bailie Stark presiding. The report stated that 70 inmates had been admitted to the home during the year, and that 25 were there on the last day of December. The year's work was encouraging. The yoke of domestic service willingly accepted by thirteen inmates, and the return of fourteen others to their friends, indicated the fruit of wise discipline; others by tactful handling were now in situations of orderly and useful living. The amount of washings done during the year was £1021, which was a gratifying increase on last year of about £60. The ordinary subscriptions received amounted to £35, compared with £39 for 1911. The expenditure on the ordinary upkeep of the Institution and the cost of turning out the work—apart from special repairs—amounted to £1120. Bailie Rose, in moving the adoption of the report, said he had not been many months a Magistrate, but he recognised that the methods adopted, and the only methods they could adopt by law, in dealing with these girls who came before them in the police courts were utterly useless and hopeless, if they were to have any good results. In the case of nine females who had been convicted within the last few months, they had a terrible number of convictions, no fewer than 1581. Often when on the bench he had longed for the power to send these girls even to such a home as this for a stated period (Applause.) He made a point never to fine the women, and the only alternative he therefore had was either to send them to jail or to let them go. Had the Magistrates power to send the girls to an institution he was sure they would be able to save many of them from a life worse than death, and rid their streets of a great danger He intended to make a strenuous effort, along with his colleagues, that such powers be invested in the Magistrates. (Applause.)."


The COS had a variety of Homes, as mentioned here.

The Scotsman, 08 November, 1911.
Part of a statement by the Master of Polwarth regarding the social work of the church.
“With regard to work for women, their Church for long had, he said, done very little towards meeting that great and terrible problem of the social evil in their great cities. He was glad to say, they had got one large rescue home at Uddingston and a receiving home in Glasgow. They had also a home for younger or preventive cases, near Haddington, where the results had been wonderfully encouraging. Another branch of their work was the Women's Bureau in Bank Street, Edinburgh. They had also lodging homes, which had likewise justified their existence.”

Alan

[adgilcan]

Noticing that this home was called a "Rescue Home" in Alan's newspaper article, I found the following in a google search:

The Church of Scotland has, of late years, taken a special interest in social work, and nowhere has there been more noticeable progress. The assembly of 1903 appointed a committee to consider "whether the institution of central agencies such as an inebriate home, labor colony, and rescue home for women would support and develop the social work of the church in the parishes." The committee reported that the institution of such agencies ought to be adopted and furthered. The development has been exceedingly rapid. In Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Peebles, and Ayr, and Perth there are now labor homes in which are received men who, either from misfortune or from fault, have fallen upon evil days and are anxious to retrieve themselves, and suitable ex-prisoners are also received into some of the homes. There are also homes for boys in Glasgow and Aberdeen, where employment is found for them in various trades, and at Humbie, Upper Keith, where they are prepared for farm work or for emigration. At Cornton Vale, near Stirling, there is a market-garden colony at which men are " employed at garden work and trained for a country life at home or in the colonies." Much is done for the protection or reclamation of women by means of homes both in town and country. In the police courts of both Edinburgh and Glasgow, cases are not infrequently handed over to the care of accredited agents of the committee, thereby not only preventing the stigma of conviction, but opening up the way to a better life. The Colonial Committee, formed in 1836, seeks to minister to the spiritual necessities of parts of the colonies where as yet congregations can not be self-supporting. Help is sent to many new settlements in Canada, Australia, and South Africa. By the aid of this committee Scottish services are maintained at various stations in India, Ceylon, Egypt, the West Indies, and East Africa. A sub-committee provides permanent chaplaincies at Paris, Dresden, Venice, Brussels, and summer chaplaincies at Geneva and Homburg. Another sub-committee is occupied with the spiritual oversight of Presbyterians in the army and navy; and the statement is justified that "no committee of the church, with an income which has never exceeded �600 a year, has ever accomplished a larger amqunt of good Work."

As Alan suggests, perhaps the records for the Social Work Committee should be searched.