Catalogue description Records of the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

This record is held by Liverpool Record Office

Details of 179 CRU
Reference: 179 CRU
Title: Records of the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Description:

1. Minutes of Meetings of the General Committee, 1 vol., 1883-1953

 

2. Minutes of Meetings of the Executive Committee, 7 vols., 1883-1957

 

3. Minutes of Meetings of the Visiting Committee, 3 vols., 1906-1920

 

4. Minutes of the Ladies Committee, 1 vol., 1939-1948

 

5. Minutes of the Linnet Lea Sub-Committee, 1 vol., 1947-1953

 

6. Register of Prosecutions, 1 vol., 1912-1953

 

7. Registers of Staff Salaries, 2 vols., 1949-1953

 

8. Correspondence relating to accounts, 1 bundle, 1950-1953

 

9. Matron's Petty Cash Book, 1 vol., 1951-1953

 

10. Correspondence, 9 bundles, 1894-1955

 

11. Newspaper Cuttings, 4 vols., 1896-1953

 

12. Scrapbook, 1 vol., n.d. [1933-1937]

 

13. Annual Reports, 8 vols., 11 pamphlets, 1883-1953

 

14. Printed Items, 2 pamphlets, 1 vol., 1885, 1936, n.d.

 

15. Miscellaneous Items, 5 docs., 1885-1954

 

16. Photographs, 12 items, n.d.

Date: 1883-1957
Held by: Liverpool Record Office, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children

Physical description: 31 vols. and other items
Access conditions:

Access will be granted to any accredited reader. 179 CRU/6/1 contains personal sensitive information of children and not available for public inspection for 100 years. This is in accordance with Section 1 (Principles 1, 2 and 7) of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The records of the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children were deposited in this library at some time prior to June 1954, presumably by the Secretary of the Society, A. Rawlinson, Esq.

Subjects:
  • Liverpool
Unpublished finding aids:

Old no. MD 46

Administrative / biographical background:

The Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded in 1883 as the result of a meeting held in the Town Hall of Liverpool on 19 April 1883. At this meeting it was resolved "to form a society for the prevention of cruelty to children". At the same meeting a Committee of the L.S.P.C.C. was elected, and this Committee met for the first time on 26 April 1883.

 

According to the minutes of a meeting of a General Committee held on 1 October 1883 6 Nile Street had been adapted into a Shelter in which children found wandering the streets could be temporarily housed. A Superintendent and a Matron were also appointed. In 1884 a Mr. Cliff presented a house at 3 Islington Square for use by the Society as a Shelter for Children.

 

The Liverpool Society was the first Society of its type to be founded in this country, within a few years, however, a number of similar Societies had been founded including London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The London Society became known as the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1889 and became responsible for cases in England, Ireland and Wales, except Birkenhead, Liverpool and Bootle where separate societies existed. An agreement was made between the Liverpool Society and the National Society on 10 February 1898 whereby the National Society agreed not to work inside Liverpool and the Liverpool Society agreed not to work outside Liverpool and Bootle. This agreement remained in force, with some alterations, until 1953.

 

In the Annual Report for 1944 a notice was printed stating that the Shelter in Islington Square was not suitable for long stays and that a Residential Nursery was being sought. By 1948 a suitable building had been located and The Children's Shelter was closed. The residential nursery in Linnet Lane, called Linnet Lea, was opened in December of that year.

 

In March 1953 the N.S.P.C.C. notified the Liverpool Society that they wished to terminate the agreement by which each Society limited its work as from 1 October 1953. As it was not practicable for the Liverpool Society to prevent the National Society extending their activity, it was therefore decided that the Liverpool Society should negotiate with the National Society with a view to the Liverpool Society's work being taken over by the National Society.

 

The nursery in Linnet Lane was not required by the National Society, and was officially closed on 31 July 1953 (it reopened in May the following year as the Sydney House Boys Residential Club). The N.S.P.C.C. officially took over the work of the Liverpool Society at the end of January 1954.

 

Details of the L.S.P.C.C. can be found in the following:

 

L.S.P.C.C. Jubilee Report, 1883-1932, 1933.

 

L.S.P.C.C. A Short Story, n.d. [1936].

 

Housden, L.G. The Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1955.

 

Liverpool Quarterly, v. 1., 1933, no. 4, pp. 22-26.

Link to NRA Record:

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