The Glasgow schools for 'homeless waifs' which helped feed city's poor

Glasgow Times

14-05-2025

In England, the Education Act of 1876 established the Day Industrial School system. It had not been put to very great use there, but the Glasgow School Board thought that it could be a device which would admirably suit those neglected and potentially delinquent children.
'A school situated in the denser parts of great cities and intended to attract from the streets,' reads one of the early records contained in Glasgow City Archives.
Rottenrow Industrial School (Image: Glasgow City Archives)
'The essential features of such a school were that it should deal with the lowest element in the urban population and that in many cases, it had not only to instruct but to feed and clothe its pupils.'
Day Industrial Schools opened in Green Street in 1887 in the Calton, followed by Rottenrow in 1882, and Rose Street in 1889. These schools were sometimes known as feeding schools, as they provided meals but not lodging.
The venture was a joint one by the School Board and the Delinquency Board, who, from old photos, seem quite terrifying.
Glasgow Delinquency Board (Image: Glasgow City Archives)
The buildings were provided by the School Board and then leased to the Delinquency Board at a nominal rent.
The school was either converted from an old School Board building or built specially for the purpose. While the superintendent was appointed and paid by the Delinquency Board, the School Board supplied the teachers.
A major part of juvenile delinquency consisted of very trifling misdemeanours such as stone throwing or petty thieving, and it was a great problem to know how to deal with them.
They often originated in truancy which, in turn was usually traceable to inadequate supervision at home.
At their Default Meetings the School Board soon realised that there were many homes where the parents simply could not be expected to exercise 'proper care and control of their children.'
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A common instance was the home with only one parent. Whether widow or widower they had to go out to work, leaving the children to fend for themselves early morning to 6pm or later. Another example of this class was the deserted wife, a distressingly common feature of Glasgow where it was so easy for a man to take a ship abroad.
Once delinquency developed, the child had to be dealt with in other ways, namely in in industrial schools and reformatories. The former were regulated by the Industrial Schools Act of 1854, and controlled after 1860 by the Home Department. They were intended for 'vagrant and homeless waifs', to prevent them sliding into crime.
Usually, no difficulty was experienced in getting the magistrates to commit a child, even when no actual offence had been committed.
Parents were extremely glad to come forward stating, as required 'in order that our minds may be at ease, will you commit this child.'
This extension of the law led to the suspicion that these schools were being used as a surreptitious means of feeding poor children at public expense (30 years before the Schools Meal Act). This was denied by the Boards.
The schools opened their doors at 6am to receive the children as parents went off to work. The janitor looked after them until lessons began at 8.30am and they could stay until 6pm and on Saturday till 1pm. They were given three meals daily which were regularly provided by charity organisations,
The Day Industrial Schools served a most useful social purpose. Unfortunately, the Delinquency Board was empowered by the Act to deal only with Protestants and so Roman Catholic children living in poverty were not supported.
Many School Board members felt that all children should receive equal treatment, however, and after much discussion it was decided to open Govan Street School as a Day Industrial School for Roman Catholics.
The more serious cases of juvenile criminal were committed to one of the residential Industrial Schools, boys to Mossbank and girls to Maryhill.
These institutions were run by the Glasgow Juvenile Delinquency Board, a quasi-public body, whose members were selected by the Corporation.
Once a child entered an industrial school, he was no longer the responsibility of the School Board.