Haus Freude

I visited Miss Folley at the weekend and had a good old talk with her about the group photo taken in 1945 that is shown on the Balcary Home. Miss Folley told me as much as she could about her time with Dr. Barnardo's and the circumstances for her leaving Dr Barnardo's.

Photo taken in 1945

The story of how she joined Dr. Barnardo's sums her life up really in that she was helping somebody when she became aware of the opportunity to join Dr. Barnardo's. Miss Folley had lost her job as a seed sorter at a seed merchant in Plymouth, after the building took a direct hit from a bomb during the war. She laughs that the owner had told her she could have the magnificent piano he had there, but she lost that due to the bomb. She then started taking care of one of her cousins who was ill and it was her cousin that spotted a leaflet that came with the post asking for volunteers to be among "the first trainees for Dr. Barnardo's". Her cousin showed Miss Folley the leaflet and said it was the sort of thing that would suit her. Miss Folley was delighted and applied.

Miss Folley did her training at The Girls Village Home, Barkingside, Ilford Essex. She said it had lots of cottages around three greens. She told me that she was in the first group of people to be trained by Banardos and that as well as having to learn about first aid and cooking she also had to learn how to do public speaking. Miss Folley said the idea behind the public speaking training was so that the staff could go to various institutes, town halls and meetings to raise people's awareness of Dr. Barnardo's and show them how they could help in various ways.

From Barkingside she was transferred to Kenward, Yalding. She recalls it was a marvellous house that used to belong to some gentry. She told me, when the Doodlebugs came over they would all have to hide under the massive wooden kitchen tables. The staff would try to grab some food to eat while they were under there or would sneak out to get some from the larder. She laughed that it would normally be mashed potato.

From Kenward, Yalding there was the evacuation to Balcary. Miss Folley did not know anything about the swap of location Miss O'Brien had made. On arriving at Balcary, a couple of things Miss Folley remembers are the beds were camp beds left by the MOD personnel who had left very recently and that there were lots of strange holes in the ceiling. They found out that the holes were from the servicemen firing their guns into the ceiling.

Miss Folley has a video of film taken by some cameramen who visited the Scottish Dr. Banardos homes in the 1950's. The cameramen took photos of all the homes, the children, staff and some of the activities they used to do. They were taken to raise the general publics attention to the homes and help raise funds. I think this is probably how the albums were produced and each Dr. Banardos home was presented with a photo album representing life there.

The video and the group photo you have posted in your piece relating to Balcary, both have my father in them, looking the same age. We have the group photo in our family album and it is dated 1947, he would have been aged ten, which would be about right as he has documented in his military service diary, that he had his twenty first birthday in 1958. Miss Folley told me that Balcary was a mixed home until the boys reach twelve years old, at this age they had to be transferred to another home. Which one she does not know. The baby on Mamagie's lap was the first baby to be looked after at Balcary as the home was not supposed to take babies. The situation with the baby became more desperate so Dr. Barnardo's placed him at Balcary. After Balcary had been seen to be able to care for babies, the home took in more toddlers.

One of the photos we have shows the children and staff entertaining the people of Hawick in the Balcary gardens with a play. Miss Folley said they used to do them every year and while she was there she used to do all the musical arrangements. I asked Miss Folley if she can remember the trips to North Berwick and she told me she can. She told me that when a local school in North Berwick had a holiday, the Balcary children would have theirs and take over the school. The staff and girls would sleep indoors and the boys outdoors in MOD tents left behind from the war. They would go paddling in the sea and also climb a big hill nearby.

I asked about the circumstances of her leaving Dr. Banardos and she told me that it was not originally to start a children's home in Germany but that's what eventually happened. Dr. Banardos had asked her if she would run a home in Cardiff but before she gave her answer she had the opportunity to go to Germany for three months. A German girl named, Dora ,who was about to finish a years training placement at Balcary, had been asked by her father if she knew of anyone who could assist him with the looking after of elderly clergymen and their families. Dora said she did know someone and asked Miss Folley if she would like to go. Miss Folley asked Dr. Banardos if she could take the time off and they agreed. The Germans would take holidays in the north of the country, at a group of islands, on the North Sea, for therapeutic bathing and while there Dora and Miss Folley, along with Doras father, would make sure everyone was taken care of.

It was while she was in Germany that both she and Dora saw a great need for a children's home. She wrote to Dr. Barnardo's to see if they could establish a home in Germany but they said no. So it was at this time that Miss Folley left Dr. Barnardo's and started to set up the home in Germany, which they finally achieved in 1954, with the help of Dora's father and local people, not forgetting the donations from people of Plymouth. The name of the Children's home they opened was Haus Freude, translated to English means Joy House. It was in a place called Oberstenfeld, about an hour away from Stuttgart.  The story of how she and Dora started up the home in Germany is a whole other chapter to her life. Just one of many.

She has cared for children most of her life, helping raise them in children's homes, looking after disabled children and helping take them on trip abroad. She has done lots of work for the Church and been awarded for doing so, an award she was rightly proud to receive but also of which she is most humble.

The names of the people in the photo above are: Miss O'Brien (Mamagie) Miss Folley, Miss Allen, Ado (sorry can't remember surname, she was a member of staff) Paul (Vincent) Alec, Patsy, Bob, Robert, Sheryl, Gillian, Heather, Jean, Beryl and Thelma. Were you in the photo? Can you add any names?

The above notes were taken by Paul Harrison.