Oh, how I want to go to the Lancashire Record Office for a day. See, their catalogue shows that they hold the complete records of the “Liverpool Juvenile Reformatory Association”, comprising:

Minutes 1855 – 1924, 1934 – 1956, letter books 1872 – 1919, log books 1909 – 1954, admission registers 1892 – 1955, licence register 1900 – 1914, medical reports 1903 – 1911, 1926 – 1934, punishment books 1909 – 1924, various registers 1904 – 1940 (Including Red Bank School, Newton-le-Willows; Akbar training ship/Heswall Nautical Training School; Liverpool Girls’ Reformatory; and Nile Street and Grafton Street Industrial Schools, Liverpool.)

Punishment books? For the Girls’ Reformatory? Wow!

A little more digging shows that said establishment was located at 6 Mount Vernon Green, Liverpool. It opened in 1857 for 80 girls then expanded in 1912, closing four years later. The staff list for 1891 made me smile: “Superintendent, Mrs Dearle ; assistant superintendent Miss Ferguson ; schoolmistress Miss Callis ; Chaplin Rev. R.G. Breary.” I’m rather curious as to whether Rev. Breary might have been called on to help with matters disciplinary as well as spiritual.