Fabrics of the Foundling Hospital
Despite scheduled road closures 22 members managed to meet at Monkland Hall.
Notifications of forthcoming Cheltenham exhibitions were made available. A repeated request for help in finding a new home for the storage of the exhibition quilt stands was made. Andy from Crafty UK was running a workshop on 17 September, anyone interested was asked to add their name to the list provided. Additional details would be circulated shortly.
With the aid of a slide show members were treated to a very interesting and informative talk by Mags from The Patchwork Basket at Newent.
Mags explained how the Foundling Hospital had been established by the sea captain Thomas Coram who was appalled at the number of abandoned babies and children left starving and dying on the streets of London. Not a hospital as we know it today but an establishment offering “hospitality” for the less fortunate. The charity was set up in 1739 to care for the high number of abandoned babies in London. Infants were accepted by ballot and when they first arrived were baptised and given a new name. The mothers had the opportunity to reclaim their child in the future, when they were in a better position to take care of them, so they often left a small token with the child to enable future identification. On arrival at the hospital the babies were sent to the country to a wet nurse until the age of 4 or 5, and then returned to the hospital where the boys and girls were kept segregated in separate wings. They received a basic education in reading, writing and arithmetic and were often sent into service or to serve an apprenticeship.
The Foundling Hospital closed as a children’s home in the 1950s and was renamed the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children in 1954.
Mags was thanked for an absolutely fascinating talk and slide show and everyone agreed that it made us all realise how lucky we are today.
Leominster Quilters 