"A home away from Home"

A review of Broome House by Bronwynn Jones written on Thursday 17th of April 2014

I was in Broome house along with three other siblings in 1956 (or 1957?) My older brother Mike, my younger sister Babs, and younger brother Col.

We made friends with a kid called Kenneth and I can't remember his sisters name, but she was really kind to me on my first day there.

It was strict compared to home, but the routine was reassuring. It was nice to have 3 meals a day, although I am told by an aunt that we went on a hunger strike when we first arrived. The boys were taken there the day before my sister and me.

It was lovely to have clean cloths every day. I liked the home schooling atmosphere better than regular school, as it had more close contact with the teacher and therefore more one on one help we needed.

I liked lining up for pocket money on Saturday mornings. We got one shilling and three pence. Six pence went in a post office savings book, sixpence for the Saturday pictures, and three pence for an ice lolly at the pictures.

I remember there was a goat there!

We went for evening walks, taking the dog captain with us. I think along a canel? We had a ride on the donkey in the paddack at the back, and we played on swings and played other games outside.

On Sunday mornings we went along to church service.

The only thing wrong with the system at that time was lack of explanations requested by us kids. Children's physical needs were taken care of, but emotionally we had to keep a lid on it. No one answered my questions when I was worried about where our 6 week old brother was. As the eldest girl who looked after my siblings, this caused me a great deal of concern and made me a bit of a problem child.

The best part of our stay there was a camping type holiday at Tintwhisle. The boys slept in tents and the girls in a type of hut with beds. That was our first ever proper holiday. Unfortuneatly, that was also the week our parents got us back.

Although we all wanted to go back home, we didn't want to go during our holiday. .

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