CONTENT WARNING – Please be advised that for historical accuracy this article contains some offensive or harmful language which is used to provide social context of a specific time and the attitudes and opinions of the people. Teesside Archives is committed to being fully transparent and acknowledging the use of harmful language in our collections and catalogue descriptions. We are working on a policy to address and rectify this.
Early Life and Education (1905-1920s)
Freda Gray was born Freda Donaldson in 1905 in Stockton-on-Tees. But by the time of the 1911 census, her family had moved to Middlesbrough. Freda went to Hugh Bell School in the town where two of the classrooms were used for the School for the Deaf. Freda admired the teacher, Ruth Dawson, and decided that she wanted to follow in her footsteps. At 13, she won a scholarship to Kirby Secondary School and then at 15 took the University of Cambridge exams for Junior Students to become a pupil teacher. Whilst cycling to her job at St. Hilda’s Church of England School she noticed many ‘ineducable’ children in the slum streets of Middlesbrough.
Historical Context: Education Acts and ‘Ineducable’ Children
The Education Act of 1870 stated that all children over the age of five had to be educated. But the 1899 Elementary Education Act stated that “defective and epileptic” children were unfit to attend primary schools. Local authorities had to assess these children and were given the option to provide suitable education for them. By 1913 an Act was passed that these children had to be classified into categories according to the severity of their disability and their ability to protect themselves from danger. Only the highest grade were eligible for a place at a special school, leaving the rest without any form of education at all – being classed as ‘ineducable’.
Beginning Her Mission (1931)
Freda took it upon herself to enquire about these children who had been left without support. She approached doctors, parents and the local authority to see what help she could provide. But it wasn’t until 1931, when she got a job as a Supervisor at the town’s Occupation Centre that she was able to help these children that had fallen through the cracks. The idea for the Occupation Centre came from Lady Dorman and Ruth Pennyman who decided that the mothers of the ‘ineducable’ children needed a break to be able to do their shopping and housework. The centre in Middlesbrough was a single upstairs room in the Settlement Hall on Newport Road – shown on the plan above as the meeting room. Freda’s initial role was to teach six children 9.30am-12pm Monday to Friday.
By 1938, the number of children attending the occupation centre had grown to 24. They were also given physical education and speech training. Success was slow but noticeable as Freda worked out a schedule of activities which included singing and dancing games that helped the children with co-ordination. She worked mostly alone with some support from a nursing friend, Ann Oxbury, who helped the children with epilepsy until the late 1940s when the class became too large for one person to handle. She hired an assistant, Ena Dent. There was so much stigma and fear surrounding the treatment and support of people with disabilities that Freda sometimes had to persuade parents that letting their children attend the centre was not the same as placing them in an institution.
The room in the Settlement centre was severely restricting and Freda was determined to do something about it. On 13th July 1949, a concert was performed by the children with members of the audience including the mayor, councillors and a journalist called Constance Foley from the Evening Gazette. A few days later Foley, published an article on the great work that Freda was doing and said that priority should be given to sorting out their accommodation issues. A few months later, councillors attended a Christmas Party at the centre once again witnessing the cramped conditions Freda was working in. As a result, in late 1950, they moved to the Baptist Church Schoolroom in Southfield Road. They had more room to move but had to tidy everything away each night because of other Church functions needing to use the space.
A Permanent Home at Blairgowrie (1953-1954)
After 21 years of working in rented rooms, in 1953, Freda’s dream became reality. The Ministry of Health had given Middlesbrough Council permission to the purchase “Blairgowrie”, 3 Park Road South, Middlesbrough which is just down the road from the archives’ base at the Dorman Museum. The house had previously been used as a store for the Health Department so the rooms were fairly sparse, but it provided the much needed space that the children needed to flourish. They moved into the building in 1954 with a nurse provided by the Health Department, who visited once a week.
In our collections we hold the building plans that show the conversion of Blairgowrie from residential to educational for the Occupation Centre. In the accompanying paperwork it gives a detailed list of uses for each room after ‘simple conversion’ as well as the staffing requirements, which included a cook to prepare a midday meal. It was planned that up to 50 children could be accommodated.
More and more children were admitted to the centre and by the mid 1960’s they were again struggling for space. In 1966, the children were split, with the girls moving to 1 Albert Terrace, formerly the Middlesbrough Food Office, and the boys moving to a classroom in Victoria Road School. A Special Care Unit was also started for those children who needed extra medical support.
The Erimus Training Centre (1968)
In her quest to find a bigger home for the centre, Freda enlisted help from members of the Parents’ Association, doctors and local councillors. Councillor Huggins, Chairman of the Mental Welfare Sub-Committee, took up the cause and found a 7.5 acre site at College Road in Thorntree. In March 1968, the Erimus Training Centre was opened by MP Arthur Bottomley OBE with Freda in charge. In our collections we hold the opening brochure which states that the centre was “planned and built for the specific purpose of providing the very best facilities for those children and adults” with learning disabilities. There was also a special care unit for those with additional physical needs and a nursery for pre-school children.
Legacy and Retirement
Unfortunately, shortly after the opening of the Erimus Training Centre Freda’s health declined and two years later, on her 65th birthday, she retired. As reported in the Evening Gazette, the 80 children that attended the centre thought it would be closed down if their beloved ‘Nana Gray’ was leaving. However, Freda said “I have fought all my life for these children and tried to educate the public into accepting [children with learning disabilities]. I think the battle is now well on the way to being over”. She died on April 1st 1980.
We are going to be celebrating Freda and the incredible work she did for the children of Middlesbrough by including her in our Sisterwood. You can find out more about the project here.
Written by Lara Moon, Archivist, Teesside Archives
