Reformatory School Calder Farm
The following source list was originally available only on paper in one of the West Yorkshire Archive Service offices. It may have been compiled many years ago and could be out of date. It was designed to act as a signpost to records of interest on a particular historical subject, but may relate only to one West Yorkshire district, or be an incomplete list of sources available. Please feel free to add or update with any additional information. |
In November 1854, a committee of the county magistrates was formed to arrange for the establishment of a reformatory school for the West Riding, probably as a result of the 'Act for the better Care and Reformation of Youthful Offenders in Great Britain' (17 and 18 Vict cap LXXXV1) which had become law three months earlier. The act laid down that anyone under the age of sixteen when convicted of a crime which merited a sentence of at least fourteen days could afterwards be sent to a reformatory school for between two and five years, and also offered financial assistance from central government to any suitable institution established by a voluntary association.
The Committee failed to find a site, but its more persistent members, with other interested individuals, finally obtained the lease of a site at Mirfield, and in November 1855 the school was opened [see the annual report for 1856, RT1/45]. In the following month it was certified as 'useful and efficient' by the Home Secretary under the terms of the 1855 act [see RT1/170]. When fully operational, the school took around a hundred boys from all parts of the country, although about half came from West Riding. Inmates were taught farming and gardening, joinery, tailoring and shoemaking in addition to conventional schooling.
Accumulating financial difficulties led the committee to approach the county council in 1909 to ask for a capital grant for new buildings. The council found that the terms of the lease gave insufficient security for such a loan, and in 1911 agreed to remove this difficulty by purchasing the property and leasing it back to the managers. Two years later a capital grant of £5000 was made on condition that the council were allowed to nominate a third of the management committee. A second approach to the council in 1919 for financial aid led to an arrangement whereby the council took over the institution entirely. The purchase was completed in 1920. Various schemes for re-organisation were considered, but ultimately opposition from the Reformatory and Industrial Schools Department of the Home Office led to the decision to close the school in 1922.