October 1991 The Village is officially closed after an internal Barnardo's report describes The Village as 'too isolated from the community and 'outdated' for the needs of modern child care. All children moved to fostering, adoption or short term residential settings.

1992 New Mossford closes. The sounds of children playing now only comes from Cairns House.

Cairns House was at one time in the centre of the Girls Village Home and was called the Cairns Memorial House built by the children of England in memory of the First President of Dr Barnardo's Homes The Right Honourable Earl Cairns. It was officially opened 6th August 1887. For more information on the First President of Dr Barnardo's Homes click here >>>>>

On the 9th July of 1876 the then Lord Chancellor of the day had been asked by Thomas Barnardo to open the first fourteen cottages at Barkingside, Lord Cairns had been detained with his parliamentary duties and had sent a telegram of his delay. Thomas arranged for Lord Aberdeen the grandson of the then Prime Minister to open Barkingside As the Girls Village Home. They are all standing on the stage listening to a song when Lord Cairns along with his wife arrived in the nick of time to have his name go down as the person who laid the foundation stone at Barkingside and opened the Girls Village Home at 3:30pm.

Cairn House is now a listed building for many years the chimes had been silent. Derek Wills with the help of others restored the clock and workings so that in 1995 the clock was restarted by the Lady Mayor of Redbridge and the then Barnardo's Chief Executive Roger Singleton. You can see Derek with all his fingers crossed, he is  the one standing on the right of the Lady Mayor of Redbridge and Rodger is touching wood for good luck? No luck was needed as Derek is a man who has an interest in all things that go Tick Tock or is it Tock Tick. The clock face now now shows the correct time and the chimes in the tower sound out as it did in the old days. Well done Derek and friends

The clock chime are a set of 4 are standard 1,2,3 and 6 of 6. were made by John Warner & sons, Spitalfields, London in 1890 Probably supplied by Thwaite & Reed with the clocks and workings which is also dated 1890.

Many of you may recognise Derek Wills from the days when he and his wife worked in the After Care Dept. Derek retired some time ago and in his spare time makes windmills to sell so it can fund his visiting of old boys and girls that he does all around the UK.

After Care move in 1997 into their new  premises which was converted from two cottages Ivy and Oxford that had previously been used as the new Australasian Medical Unit. This building looked after 16 severely handicapped babies and toddlers, the unit closed in 1975 when the children were transferred to New Mossford. Prior to this the cottages were not joined together and housed girls.

In past year Thomas was stopped from adapting photographs for sale. Barnardo's in 2003 showed some extreme imagery to push the point, some said they went to far. One campaign launched in November 2003 depicts babies with cockroaches emerging from their mouths, or clutching needles as if they are teddy bears. The effect of these images shocked many people which ASA banned the use of these images, but Barnardo's is still standing by this excellent campaign which most of the Old Boys and Girls of Barnardo's are 100% behind the showing of these images, yes the truth hurts sometimes but these images are no where near as obscene of the pictures of war that are seen in the papers and television. Barnardo's are petitioning to be allowed to continue the campaign. In a recent interview with the Guardian newspaper a Barnardo spokesperson said:

 "We had to find a way of cutting through the apathy and this disbelief and demonstrate how being born into poverty stacks the cards of life against you. Yes, we have scared a few horses but we would do so again in the fight to support the most vulnerable children in our society,"

In the winter of 2005 it was reported the church bells at The Village church were being restored after many years of silence. For some more information on The Children's church and the staff members who now have practiced in their spare time the bell ringing can Read more >>>>>>

In 2007 I arranged to meet up with some of the matrons, helpers of past years and Julie Smith who with her husband Keith were the last people in charge of the Village Home and used to reside in Cairns House. Sadly Keith has passed away. The photo below shows front row: Jenny Harris, Lillian Kemp and Olwen Collet. Back row: Julie Smith and Janet Cozens . If you would like to contact any of the above please send via web site Lillian has a computer and Julie is thinking of getting a computer so she can stay in touch with her Grandchildren while Jenny, Janet and Olwen have decided to keep their piece of Black slate for writing down their memories.

The above photo was also published in The Barnardo Guild along with why Cambridge cottage moved to the babies green which can be seen on the 1970 to 1980 pages. One other little fact Aunty Janet was a star of a Dr. Barnardo's silver screen along with some of the children of Kenwood Yalding

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