Catalogue description Records of St. John's Diocesan Home, and of its predecessors

Estate Records 1585-1902

Minute Books 1801-1977

Reports 1869-1972

Charity Commission: orders & correspondence 1893-1904

Admission Forms c.1935

Baptism Registers 1957-1964

Registers of Services 1924-1969

Deeds of Covenant 1966-1969

Bristol Refuge Society Report 1815

Bristol Female Penitentiary, 1801-1911

Bristol Female Penitentiary and Refuge, 1912-1916

Bristol Diocesan Refuge and Training Home, 1917-1923

Bristol Diocesan Refuge, 1924-1937

St John's Diocesan Home, 1938

Deposited in the Bristol Record Office by the Trustees of John's Diocesan Home per D.C.E. Pockney, Esq., of Messrs. Osborne Clarke and Company, and by Rev. G. Grant, Chairman of the Trustees, with a further deposit by Rev. G. Grant and an additional deposit from Mrs. A.Sutton, Secretary

The Penitentiary was founded after a meeting on 23rd April 1801 in the Vestry Room of St. James' had considered "the possibility of affording an Asylum to those unhappy females who have been seduced from the path of Virtue and may be found desirous of returning into it". Subscribers were sought, a plan was circulated, and a Penitentiary was set up in Upper Maudlin Street with accommodation for about forty women. They were employed in such tasks as shoe-making, needlework and laundering, and were later put out to service. The time spent in the Penitentiary was usually up to one year and sometimes up to two. In 1861 the Friends and Supporters of the Penitentiary formed a Committee to erect St. James-the-Less chapel, and the opening service was held there on 30th November 1867. The site was eventually sold and in 1899 a new home was started at Southfield, Westbury-on-Trym, which was in use as a Training Home until 1924. Refuges to receive women at any hour had been maintained at 40 Hampton Park (to 1906) and (from 1907) 13 Wellington Park, which was the foundation's only premises for both Hostel and Refuge after the closure of the Training Home in 1924. It was decided in 1936 to unite the Refuge and Hostel into a "Home" and in 1937 the shelter cases were eliminated so that the staff could concentrate on the long term care of mothers and babies. New premises were acquired at 29 Ashley Road, known as St.John's Diocesan Home.

Summary:

Bristol Female Penitentiary 1801-1911

Bristol Female Penitentiary and Refuge 1912-1916

Bristol Diocesan Refuge and Training Home 1917-1923

Bristol Diocesan Refuge 1924-1937

St. John's Diocesan Home 1938

The Bristol Refuge Society was a separate organisation with different officers and supporters but serving "the same benevolent purpose as the Penitentiary", as a contemporary Bristol Directory phrased it. This refuge was in 6 Lower Castle Street. Its first report has survived among the records in this deposit [35722(24)] possibly being mistakenly thought to refer to the Penitentiary.

• View Record
• View Record
• View Record
• View Record