Punishment on Barlow Home
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Record Number: 11.101
Record Type: Text/Image
Caption:
This photograph (described on the back as 'Campfire Picnic') is probably in the 1930s and somewhere in the Royal Albert grounds.
In the extract below Norman describes being punished on Barlow Home, the ward for boys opened in 1935.
Norman's memories probably relate to the 1940s and to a time when he may have been of a similar age to the boys featured in this photograph, only taken a few years earlier.
(© Lancashire County Museums Service Ref. LMRAH 367 – 3b Campfire Picnic (Although in the museum inventory they describe it as 'Cub Scout Photograph')
Summary:
"You’re in punishment."
Norman arrived at the Royal Albert in the early 1940s aged 4 years old. He went on the boys’ ward – Barlow Home – staying there until his mid-teens. In this extract, recorded in September of 2005, Norman recalls the system of privileges and punishments operating on Barlow Home in the 1940s.
What about behaviour on Barlow Home? How, how did boys behave on Barlow Home?
Oh breaking windows and that.
They broke windows?
Yes.
How did they break windows?
Put your hand through and your head. Sometimes use a, use a piece of wood sometimes.
You’re laughing. Did you ever do that?
I did, yes. Cut myself on glass…
So why, why would you do that?
Pinching food I was.
So you were pinching food?
Yes.
Where did you pinch food from?
Off somebody else.
That was at meal time?
At table, at meal time.
So what food did you pinch?
Ice cream and that.
Ice cream.
Yes.
Special food!
Yes,
Good food!… So you pinched the ice cream, but how did you smash the window?
Oh nurse took me away from table.
Where did she take you to?
To sit in a corner.
Right.
And a window. Like a door were there.
So you were sitting in the corner?
Yes.
And there was a window near you?
Yes.
And what did you do to the window?
Put your hand through it.
And that’s when you cut yourself?
Yes.
So why did you put your hand through the window.
I caught it.
Were you feeling a bit annoyed?
Yes.
And then the nurse – where did the nurse take you to then?
Nurse took me to the hospital at the same building (Royal Albert) ……………
And what happened to you after that? If you’d pinched the ice cream and smashed the window – what happened to you after that?
Oh I went back again to Barlow Home
And when you went back to Barlow Home –
Yes.
- Did anything happen to you?
No.
Were you punished in any way?
No, no privilege. You’re in punishment. You’re in punishment.
You’re in punishment.
Yes.
What did that mean?
No pleasure, no sweets, no spending money.
For how long? Can you remember?
A month it is.
For a month?
Yes.
So for a month you had no sweets –
No Privilege.
- no privilege.
No.
And no spending money?
No.
What were the privileges Norman?
Oh going out. Pictures and that. And dancing.
And so you weren’t able to do that on Barlow Home.
No, nothing, no.
(An extract from Interview September 15th 2005 Ref. No. 7.001)
Notes:
See Record No. 1.600 for a full summary of the interview from which this extract is taken.
Keywords:
Camp Fire Picnic Photograph Cub Scout Photograph Privileges Barlow Home
1930s 1940s Boys Food Meals Hospital Outdoors
Training Music Band School