Arnott Holme (1885), 12 August 2007, courtesy of Macr, Marc McIntosh, Wikimedia Commons.
Details
St. Elizabeth's Home for Girls was opened at Mayfield in 1926 as a home for orphan and destitute girls, by the Church of England Diocese at Newcastle. It was relocated to Singleton in 1942, and closed in 1977.
St. Elizabeth's Mayfield was located in a property owned by the Church of England Diocese of Newcastle. The house was built in 1886 and was once the residence of William Arnott, who named it Arnott Holme. In 1898 it was sold to Isaac Winn, who named it Winn Court. In 1921 it was sold to the Newcastle Diocese.
The house was first opened as a hostel in 1923 but the Diocese of Newcastle converted it to a girls' home in 1926. The day to day management of the Home, including the care and supervision of children, was done by the Sisters of the Community of the Holy Name until 1937. The Church Army, a new organisation supported by the Diocese of Newcastle, was invited to take over the day to day management of St. Elizabeth's in 1937, and oversaw day to day operations until 1961. From 1961 until its closure, staffing of the Home was provided directly by the Diocese.
In 1942, due to the threat of invasion from World War II, the Diocese decided to move the children who were in its care out of an area considered of possible threat. St Elizabeth's Home for Girls was moved to Singleton, where it remained until its closure in 1977.
Sources used to compile this entry: 'St Alban's Muswellbrook', The Muswellbrook Chronicle, 28 August 1942, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/107694611; 'New Purpose for Stately Home', Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 2 May 1953, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134269403; Arnott Holme (1885) [Image], Date: 12 August 2007; Thinee, Kristy and Bradford, Tracy, Connecting Kin: Guide to Records, A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records [completed in 1998], New South Wales Department of Community Services, Sydney, New South Wales, 1998, https://clan.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/connectkin_guide.pdf; Information provided by custodian of Newcastle Diocesan Archives, August 2020, held in Find & Connect project files.
Prepared by: Melissa Downing and Naomi Parry
Created: 3 March 2011, Last modified: 17 August 2020
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/biogs/NE00080b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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