Louisville: The Children's Block

There was separate accommodation block for children built at Ponteland’s Workhouse on North Road.

Attitudes to the poor and particularly poor children were changing as the new century dawned in 1900. In 1903 the Newcastle Board of Guardians pioneered a new type of facility for homeless children called Cottage Homes (now Jameson Manor) just to the north of Ponteland.

Castle Ward District Council were concerned that children within their care, housed in the workhouse, were living alongside tramps and other unsuitable destitute adults. In 1913 they build a new facility for the children just to the north of the existing workhouse which they also confusingly called a cottage home. Unlike the better known Cottage Homes which are now Jameson Manor, this was a single block which was institutional looking, rather than the semi-detached villas which were such a distinctive feature of the better known Cottage Homes.

Facing the main road, it provided accommodation for twenty children on two floors. The architect was Newcastle architect C. S. Errington and the contractor was the Ponteland firm of E. Henderson and Son. It was built out of red bricks with Kenton stone dressings and the roofs covered in Welsh slates.

There was a common dining hall, kitchens, and other administrative offices. The boys and girls day rooms were arranged on either side adjoining the principle entrances and two staircases gave access to dormitories above.

At least from the 1920’s, the home became known as Louisville probably to avoid confusion with the nearby Cottage Homes.

In 1921 there as a report that the home had become something of a “white elephant” with a staff of four employed to look after only seven children who were housed there at the time. By 1936, the home was under the control of Northumberland County Council. After this, the average number of children housed in the home was around twenty.

By the 1980’s attitudes to children’s homes had once again changed with the emphasis on foster care or children being cared for in small groups in ordinary family home settings and homes such as this one were closed with this home being closed in 1983. Northumberland County Council put the building on the market in 1984. For a while, it was a hostel and then from 1995 a nursery for young children known as Cog’s nursery. In 2001, planning permission was given for 22 new flats to be built on the site which are known as Louisville after the children’s home.