when indeed they cry... John Webster
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FIRST IMPRESSIONS...
I was sent to St. Joseph's Home for Girls in 1947 at the age of four and was put into the nursery, known as 'Nursery Babies'. It was not too bad there; not too much bullying. I would say that at that time the home was something like out of 'Tom Brown's School Days' or from one of Charles Dicken's stories I will always remember the first time I walked through that front door with my two sisters who were ten and eight at the time: there was a very gloomy-looking hallway wih a young girl scrubbing the dark red and blue tiled floor.
I was sent to St. Joseph's Home for Girls in 1947 at the age of four and was put into the nursery, known as 'Nursery Babies'. It was not too bad there; not too much bullying. I would say that at that time the home was something like out of 'Tom Brown's School Days' or from one of Charles Dicken's stories I will always remember the first time I walked through that front door with my two sisters who were ten and eight at the time: there was a very gloomy-looking hallway wih a young girl scrubbing the dark red and blue tiled floor.
THE TRAITS OF A ST JOSEPH'S GIRL...
The first thing the nuns did was make you take off your own clothes and change into the 'Home' clothes they gave you. Your own clothes were never seen again - I wouldn't have cared but mine were all new clothes and I had never had anything as nice.
We were all dressed uniformly, always very dark in colour and we all had the same, short haircut. At the age of five, you started schooling at the Holy Family School, and you then became known as a 'Cockerton' - that's where the Catholic School was in Darlington. Once a 'Cockerton' you were given a number - mine was 48 - all your clothes had that number and when in a group you were referred to by number, not by name. |
ROUTINE...
In the home you would be woken up in the morning to the sound of a nun loudly clapping. You would then get straight out of bed and down on your knees to say morning prayers out loud. Afterwards you had to strip your bed, turn the mattress and make up the bed again. Then you'd get washed and dressed and wait until the bell rang to go down for breakfast. After breakfast each girl would do what chores shed was assigned to do. This was every morning. On school days a bell would ring at 8.30am for you to get ready for school; go downtairs to the cloakroom to put on your shoes and coat and then go outside to line up. 'Cockertons' would be walked in twos in a long 'crocodile line' by one of the older girls who had left school. At noon you'd be walked back to the home for lunch, back to school and again back to the home at the end of the school day. |
THE SOUND OF BELLS and CLAPPING...
We lived our lives by the sound of bells or clapping and it always seemed that we were changing into different clothes. We had uniforms, play clothes and chapel clothes which had to be changed for the occasion. There were about eight nuns who ran the home with an additional six female staff and other girls who had already left school and who were waiting to leave the home; most thereafter finding jobs as a live in domestic. Sister Theresa was the Head Nun when I first went into the home. She has to have been the cruelest person I have ever known, especially to have been in charge of defenceless children and called a nun. She would nip your neck or shake you by the cheeks and 'God help you' if you wore your shoes down; she would hit your hands with a hammer. The older girls were just as bad; as the saying goes 'Monkey see - monkey do'; they were forever taking our sweets off us or if anything was served up at the table that they liked, they would take yours. |
THINGS GOT BETTER...
Things did get better when Sister Cecilia came and took over as Head Nun. She changed just about everyting - amongst others we could grow our hair longer and a lot of the bullying stopped. We had some real nice days going for day trips to Saltburn or Seaton Cruse; we'd sing all the way there and back. I think that every St Jospeh's girl of my time would remember the song we always sang at the start of each trip hoping for good weather; 'Causa Nostrae Laetitiae' (Mother of all that is pure and glad, all that is bright and blessed...). We all looked forward to our Holy Communion Day as this was a day when 'nice' things happened, a day we received attention and felt 'important'. We would get dressed all in white and wear a veil. We'd even get a cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs and for tea, jelly and custard and cakes. Then to end the day we were allowed to dance and have fun in the big playroom. |
Some of us had dancing lessons and Brownies once a week.
Then there was the May Procession which we all looked forward to and secretly wished to be chosen Queen; again we'd dress in white with a veil and flower hair bands on our heads - such a contrast to the usual dull, dreary clothes we wore. Around 1956 things in the home changed again with Sister Anthony as Head Nun with the first efforts to 'humanise' life in the home. We were all put into groups of 20 - 25 called 'Family Houses' which were; 'St Vincent de Paul', 'Louise de Marillac', 'Maria Goretti' and 'Loretta', Loretta House being my family group. Sisters were now kept together in the same group regardless of age, up until then having been kept completely separate even though in the same home. We also ceased to be numbers; instead we went by colours; red, yellow, green and blue (these being for laundry reasons). |
Father Cunningham, Head Master at St. Mary's Grammar School, was a common figure in the home and came to say Mass each morning in our chapel.
He also took most of the pictures of any special events we had. We would put on plays every year and he would do the lighting on the stage. |
The annual play was an occassion attended by the boys from St. Mary's Home Tudhoe near Spennymoor. This once a year event was the only time those of us who had brothers would get to see them.
The home was, I believe, funded by Newcastle Authority and various charity organisations.
I left St Joseph's in 1962 before it closed in the late sixties due to lack of funding. The home was then demolished and a housing estate built on its former site; the only part remaiing is a section of wall where the 'hen run' used to be. |
Account submitted November 2013 by Alice (Hannah) Francis, ex-St Joseph's girl now living in the United States.
January 2017 - Alice got her own angel's wings.
Note: All photographs on this page are actual photos of St Josephs, Darlington and St Mary's, Tudhoe and staff/children placed there. (Excepting the second photo)
January 2017 - Alice got her own angel's wings.
Note: All photographs on this page are actual photos of St Josephs, Darlington and St Mary's, Tudhoe and staff/children placed there. (Excepting the second photo)