Unhappy Times At Delamere Forest School

Yes I hated DELAMERE it was a very cruel place and I had to endure it for two years...Knicker inspection what kind of a place puts a child through that on a daily bases especially if they wet their knickers and bed because I felt unloved and abandoned and that's just one of the horrendous experiences I had that has traumatized me throughout my life and I have plenty more to tell......Maxine...

I HATED DELAMERE

My mum and dad came to visit me in my dad’s black motor car once a month on a Sunday afternoon.

I was just 6 years old and hated Delamere and after a measly couple of hours they left leaving me behind so traumatized at seeing my mother and father going home without me with my younger and older sister that it has left a permanent scare of not being good enough, loved or wanted.

I remember screaming please take me home I promise I will be a good girl only to be dragged by the arm fighting to a small room hysterical and being told off for upsetting the other children but out of the 40 children living in Delamere most of them were also crying.
I remember being taken to a small room about a week after arriving in Delamere, they sat me down on a chair and put a basin on my head, I cried as I watched all my beautiful long hair falling onto the floor only to be told! We would be here all day if we had to plait the hair of 20 girls each day I was heartbroken.

The loneliest times were at night when going to bed, there was no mummy or daddy to tuck you in, no hugs or kisses and each night in a pitch dark dormitory made even darker by the thick blackout blinds left over from the war days and with only a tiny night light to guide you to the toilet I would cry myself to sleep, I could hear many other children also crying for their parents. Holding tight onto my teddy too young to understand why my mummy and daddy had left me here and for two long years I felt alone and abandoned and I couldn’t understand out of three children why I was the one chosen to be sent away, they mustn’t love me I thought.

I think I was sent to Delamere because I wet the bed and one of the most vivid memories I have and the cruellest was when they got all the children into the courtyard playground. The dormitory’s were above the playground with a bridge leading from the girls to the boys dormitory they hung my wet sheets over the railings for all the children to see, the children pointed and laughed and to this day when I am on stage singing as this ended up a lifetime career I would insist on no spot light as I would get flash back memories of that awful day of everyone pointing and laughing at me.

There are so many cruel things too many to mention… Like when twice they made me sleep in a dark corridor all alone at 6 years old on a camp bed because I tried running away, and another time for trying to hide my wet knickers on kicker inspection day, they got great pleasure in embarrassing me once again in front of all the children for trying to hide my wet knickers.

Another time was when they did not believe me when I had the most horrendous earache and was put in the side ward because I would wake up screaming in pain in the middle of the night, they said. This won’t get you home you’re here and here you will stay.
I became so ill that in the end I was rushed by ambulance to the Jewish hospital in Manchester for an ear operation only to see my parents visit me and as always leave me behind. I was returned to Delamere after my operation broken and disheartened, I in my childish mind thought because I had been so ill I would surely be taken home.

The education was appalling and when I left at 8 years old I could hardly read or write leading to more humiliation in The Temple School where I would be made fun of.

So you ask about my Delamere memories. The experience has scared me for life leaving me with little confidence but a stronger person able to stand on my own two feet and very independent. I have had to learn from a very young age the meaning of rejection and abandonment and through this I have survived many hurdles in my lifetime.

I don’t blame my parents they thought they were doing it for a good reason and unless you have been separated from your parents at a very young age without any explanation you will never know the hurt and pain.

I have had to carry this throughout my life and I am praying that releasing all the hurt and pain for the first time on paper ever will bring me some closure.

Hello Maxine I am very sorry to hear about your awful experiences at Delamere, but from my own memories, it doesn't surprise me that these things happened. Like you I also experienced much hurt and humiliation and had similar painful experiences around bedwetting etc. If it's any consolation, similar cruel treatment of young children was also going on in other schools at that time, especially at the Temple School which I also was sent to after Delamere. It seems that the 50s and 60s were not a good time to be a young child. Fortunately Delamere and similar institutions are now things of the past, but as we know from the news, child abuse in all its forms has sadly not gone away, especially if you're a vulnerable child in a residential home like Delamere.
It's good to hear that despite all these awful traumatic experiences you have had the strength to survive, even if the memories are still painful. I wish you well and hope that you will soon be able to forget the nightmare that was Delamere Forest School.

I was a Delayered from 1952 till 1955 suffering from breathing problems due to the damp Manchester air I disagree with your summation of abuse I personally and never saw any what you term as cruel treatment yes they were strong teachers but not abusive seeing your parents once a month was a bad thing but in those days look at the distance they had to travel by coach ..I was in Robin hood dorm and I remember they kept the windows open in all kinds of weather I used to freeze at night but the amenities were always clean .we always had a sleep in the afternoon but in the morning we had classes like a regular school .I cannot remember all the names of the staff except one nurse Dunston ,We had long walks through the forest and had fun in the valley behind the school .We also had spending money which our parents left for us and if we were good we would walk to the shop near the lake and by sweets. yes they were bed wetter I think I did it once or twice but never got in trouble for it .the food was plenty and wholesome .
so to sum up my experience was totally different from yours perhaps you were a bad girl and was angry that you parents sent you there at least I got cured eventfully .Remember we did go home in the summer for six weeks only to return .these are my memories of delamere.

Bernard Silvert Florida USA

Delamere is still something I cry about because every week, 11 years of mental and physical abuse. I am on Citlopram and struggle with alcohol addiction.

To Bernard Silvert Florida ..Re your "Perhaps you were a bad girl and was angry that you parents sent you there" You should be ashamed of yourself for writing such an upsetting remark..You are a male who always had short hair whilst mine was long and beautiful until they took me to a room and put a basin on my head and cut it all off then told to stop crying saying ...How are we supposed to comb 20 little girls hair if they all had long hair like yours... No I wasn't bad little girl just a frightened 6 year old who had been sent away from a home...

I agree with you as a boy that lived at Delamere from 1956-61. I neither saw or heard of any abuse others have claimed,my memory is that we were all close to each other & if someone would have experienced,seen or heard of any abuse they would told the rest of us. I have not read in all the comments any specific abuse that happened,just vague assertions that there was abuse. We were one big happy family that shared everything.

@maxinecwarner,,It is true that boys & girls had to have their hair cut because of lice which many of the children going to Delamere had,it hardly counts as abuse except in this day & age when putting your hand on a girl's back lightly 30 years ago is called 'sexual abuse'. Do you not have any good memories of Delamere or is everything coloured by that one experience ?. I was there from
'56-'61 & we were one big happy family who were,in many cases,like sisters & brothers throughout our stay there. After I was sent home in '61 I went to a secondary modern school in Moss Side where corporal punishment went on daily,now that was abuse,which I never experienced at Delamere & I got in as much trouble as anyone else there. We were all frightened children that felt abandoned by our parent,(s),you were not the only one,it was a common bond shared between all of us & we supported each other emotionally.

Delamere Forest, what a nightmare.

I attended Delamere from the age of 8 until I was 12.
I had severe ADHD which wasn't diagnosed until my 30s. I was just treated as a "Problem child" and never had a diagnosis or treatment to help with my condition.

The abuse from "care staff", teachers and students was ceaseless.

I remember Mr Frith liking to twist peoples arms and ears as punishment because it wouldn't leave a mark.

I remember Mr Leyland using his Chow to menace and scare me as punishment for opening my "big mouth".

I remember Mr Lewis grabbing a young girl with cerebral palsy and throwing her to the ground in the dining hall to set an example because she was caught making out with another boy.

The rooms were freezing with radiators that were never working.
I had things stolen regularly, gifts from my family especially.
The outer hallways were disgusting, infested with bluebottle flies and never cleaned.
Let's not even worry too much about the lead paint all over the fucking place.

Delamere was a horror story and I pray that it's either changed into something better or disappeared from the face of the earth.