Our Western Home - British Home Children

Our Western Home - British Home Children. . Our Western Home , On this 2-acre site once stood the Town's Court House and Gaol. In 1869 the property was purchased by the London social reformer Maria S. Rye (1829-1903), after whom adjacent Rye Street is named. She converted the premises into a home for orphaned or abandoned British Children and named it Our Western Home. It had a capacity of up to 120 (mostly girls) aged typically from 5 to 18. By the time of her retirement in 1896 over 4,000 children had been housed and received training here. Subsequently, the Church of England acquired the premises and a further 1,500 British Home Children came through the premises before WW1. The home attempted to be self-sufficient with a vegetable patch, a small greenhouse, an orchard, and a poultry coop. In 1916 the building briefly became a residence for Polish Army officers and staff in training at Camp Niagara. It was demolished in 1923. , British Home Children , Sponsored by aristocrats, the Church of England and public generosity in Britain and Canada, Maria Rye founded Our Western Home on this site in 1869. She, her staff and, after 1896, the Church of England's Waifs and Strays Society placed over 5,500 impoverished, abandoned or orphaned children (mostly girls) into adoptions, foster homes and indentured service in eastern Canada by 1914. Over 80 percent of them were trained or transited through here. They came from Miss Rye's Avenue House for Gutter Children in Peckham, London, or from workhouses throughout Great Britain. Most of the indentured children received a wage from age 15-18. Maria Rye was one of the most prominent organizers of British child emigration in the 19th century. Child emigration was encouraged by the British government as one means of populating the new countries in the Empire. It enjoyed much popular approval and charitable generosity.