Industrial Workhome for Women, Uddingston

[adgilcan]

Hi

I am trying to find out more about the Church of Scotland Industrial Workhome for Women, Uddingston.

My great Aunt was an inmate there at the time of the 1911 census. The family story is that she did something terrible and was never spoken of again but no-one now knows what!

I cannot find any information on this institution bar a couple of references on google search. Does anyone here have any knowledge of this place, or can they suggest where I could turn to find out:

1) What life might have been like there
2) What"crime" my great aunt might have commited.

Is there any anywhere I might look up the actual trial and sentencing reports?

Many thanks

Duncan

[Currie]

Hello Duncan, and Welcome to TalkingScot.

Could you please supply a few more details?

What were the street address and any other location details given on the census form?

Could the occupation actually have been meant to read “Industrial work, home for Women”?

What were the sites you found when you Googled, and what was the exact name of the institution given there?

How old was she at the time? If you wish you could give some additional information, her name and a bit of background, such as where she was living prior to the census and so on. Was her family from Uddingston?

All the best,
Alan

[Currie]

It may have been the home for unemployed women mentioned in “Philanthropy in Victorian Scotland: social welfare and the voluntary principle” by Olive Checkland, published 1980, (p60). I don’t know which church is referred to there. See also the snippet.
http://www.google.com.au/search?tbo=p&t ... .osb&cad=b

“A good deal was done for women, including a bureau in Edinburgh (1905) to help unemployed women find work. This was still apparently operating in 1953. The Glasgow employment bureau was set up in 1929. In 1907 the church's first Rescue Home for Women was begun at Morham. In the same year the church's Social Work Committee took over a large Industrial and Lodging Home for 100 women, formerly run by the City of Glasgow. This was moved first to Uddingston, and later (1914) to Pollokshaws.”

Alan

[adgilcan]

Hi

Here is the information I have.

Her name was Elsie Lang b abt 1886 in Hong Kong to Robert Lang & Annie (nee) Handley. They were married in 1884 in West Ham, London. Annie was born in England but I have no record of Robert's origins.

Annie separated from her drunken husband and the Masons paid for her passage back to Scotland. She appears in the 1901 Scottish Census living with her sister in Edinburgh, who was married to a Robert Lowe, with 15 year old Elsie. By the 1911 Census, she (Annie) is living by her own means in Glasgow but Elsie by this stage is an inmate in the "Church of Scotland Industrial Home for Women", ?park, Uddingston in the district of Bothwell, Lanarkshire.

I have no further news of her since then, although my uncle remembers meeting her as a "cripple in a wheelchair" so she must have lived until at least 1938.

I'm not sure what would cause someone to be incarcerated in a "Work Home" and I would dearly like to find out. I would also like to discover what this young women did to be ostracised by her family for the rest of her days.

Very many thanks.

[adgilcan]

It may have been the home for unemployed women mentioned in “Philanthropy in Victorian Scotland: social welfare and the voluntary principle” by Olive Checkland, published 1980, (p60). I don’t know which church is referred to there. See also the snippet.
http://www.google.com.au/search?tbo=p&t ... .osb&cad=b

“A good deal was done for women, including a bureau in Edinburgh (1905) to help unemployed women find work. This was still apparently operating in 1953. The Glasgow employment bureau was set up in 1929. In 1907 the church's first Rescue Home for Women was begun at Morham. In the same year the church's Social Work Committee took over a large Industrial and Lodging Home for 100 women, formerly run by the City of Glasgow. This was moved first to Uddingston, and later (1914) to Pollokshaws.”

Alan

Alan

This sounds exactly the place.

Thank you so much

[AndrewP]

... but Elsie by this stage is an inmate in the "Church of Scotland Industrial Home for Women", ?park, Uddingston in the district of Bothwell, Lanarkshire. ...

Hi Duncan,

I've had a look at the header pages for the census book that includes Elsie. I am fairly sure that it is:

• Full Name and Description of Institution, etc., or large Establishment.: Church of Scotland Industrial Home for Women
  If maintained by a Public Authority of Philanthropic Association, name it: Church of Scotland Social Work
  Postal Address of Institution: Viewpark, Uddingston

The other information then goes on to describe the place as being in the Civil Parish of Bothwell and the Parish Ward of Tannochside.

If this 1911 census document is the one that told you that she was born in Hong Kong, then it is worth re-reading. Elsie Lang in Viewpark was born in Glasgow. The person in the line above was born in Hong Kong. Is this the right Elsie Lang, or was some misinformation given on the census? This also assumes that she had reverted to using her maiden surname.

All the best,

AndrewP

[Currie]

Hello Duncan,

The place gets a mention, along with some statistical information, in the 1911 Census report at Histpop.
http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/Pag ... 194&zoom=4

In Parliamentary Papers, “1910 [Cd. 4978] Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress”, in the Minutes of Evidence, there’s a brief mention. Royal Commissions tend to run for years so maybe that was the place before the move to Uddingston.

“The Church of Scotland Industrial Home for Women, Watson Street, Glasgow, while largely a rescue home, employs a considerable number of older women who, but for its help, would probably be destitute through spending any earnings they got in drink”

One of the reasons the rescue homes were set up was to save young girls from prostitution. There’s a report in this 1908 New Zealand newspaper about an enquiry by the COS into the lodging house situation in Glasgow. Perhaps prostitution was the reason she was ostracised by her family. http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bi ... 80521.2.39

All the best,
Alan

[adgilcan]

Andrew

Thank you for taking the time to look this up - and deciphering Viewpark. You are looking at the same census as me.

A search of ScotlandsPeople does not return an Elsie Lang born in Scotland in the period 1885 to 1890 but returns 4x Agnes Jeffery (the girl declared to be born in Hong Kong) of the correct age born in Scotland, one of those being in Lanarkshire. According to this census Elsie would have been born in 1888. Interestingly she appears living with her mother in the 1901 census but with a declared age giving a birthdate around 1886. On this basis, I suppose it could be the wrong Elsie but I found the reference to birth in Hong Kong compelling. I do not suppose that it was common for children to be born abroad and return to Glasgow in that era, so I have made the assumption that the entry was misattributed to the person above her on the list. After all the person filling in the census would not necessarily have known the inmates well and had a lot of entires to make. Do you think that is too much of a leap to make and that I am making the facts fit the story? It is difficult to know when it is acceptable to discount something as a mistake and when not. After all plenty of mistakes were made - sometimes deliberate and sometimes not.

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

I don't understand your coment regarding her reverting to her maiden name. I don't think she ever married and certainly is shown as single in the census. Am I missing something?

All the best

Duncan

[adgilcan]

Hi Alan

Thanks for that link.

I am finding it very difficult to get any substantive information on the place.

Duncan

[AndrewP]

I don't understand your coment regarding her reverting to her maiden name. I don't think she ever married and certainly is shown as single in the census. Am I missing something?

Hi Duncan,

My mistake. Now I have gone back and re-read your posts above, I see it was her sister who was married to Robert Lowe, not Elsie. So, ignore my piece about her maiden surname.

All the best,

AndrewP