Over the past couple of weeks we have uploaded the full details of another 1000 boys who were interred at Saltley Reformatory. The records carefully transacribed by Fred Miller over a number of years are a truly fascinating record of what life was like for younger people in Victorian times and detail punishments that could never happen today including imprisonment, the birch and the Reformatory for such minor offenses as stealing a game bird.

The records detail some very sad circumstances from one 10 yr old whose father had disappeared, whose mother was an alcoholic and he had lost a leg in an accident. On the other hand the records detail what appear to be successful rehablitation of boys who had previously lived in dire circumstances but went onto to live a fruitful life, many of them in Canada or Australasia. Although based in South Warwickshire the school inmates came from all over the country.

Do you have relatives who seem to have disappeared between census?, perhaps they were in Saltley - search for them by clicking here.