More topics...
News
Exhibition: No Place Like Home
23rd Jun, 2010 to 4th Sep, 2010
A new exhibition at Chertsey Museum over the summer tells the story of the Princess Mary’s Village Homes in Addlestone.'No Place Like Home' brings together objects from the Museum’s collection and the Surrey History Centre archives with memories of some former residents. Pride of place in the display is the two-train clock from the community hall and made by Gillett & Johnston of Croydon.
Read about one former resident's memories of life at the Princess Mary’s Village Homes.
Find out more about Surrey History Centre's Princess Mary’s Village Homes archive.
Princess Mary’s Village Homes was the brainchild of two local ladies, Mrs. Meredith and Miss Cavendish, who conceived the idea of building cottages in a village as a home for daughters of women prisoners. Building work started on the homes in Addlestone in 1871. The deed documents state the purpose “shall be the bringing up, including board, lodging, clothing and education of female children who shall have had a parent convicted of crime,….who have no home or who are otherwise
circumstanced as to be peculiarly exposed to demoralising influence’. There had been no precedent for an institution of this kind and in late 19th century Princess Mary’s Village Homes was a hundred years ahead of its time.
The homes closed in 1981 and the site was redeveloped for housing.
For further information, please contact Emma Warren, the Curator on:
telephone: 01932 565764
e-mail: emma.warren@runnymede.gov.uk
Chertsey Museum
The Cedars
33 Windsor Street
Chertsey
Surrey KT16 8AT
Website: www.chertseymuseum.org.uk
