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FREE Community Display
Co-curated with the Edmonton Charity Girls' School Project, partnered with London Historic Buildings Trust and Learning for Life Charity
Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Architectural Heritage Fund
Located in the People Case at Museum of Enfield
The Girls’ Charity School on Church Street, Edmonton was founded in 1784 to offer poor girls from the area a basic education until the age of 14, when they would have left, usually to go into domestic service, and on to adult life.
Sewing skills were a key part of what they learned. Many hundreds of girls in their distinctive uniform went to the school until it closed in 1903; after that the school buildings were used as a Sunday School and community facilities until they too finally closed some twenty years ago.
Now, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and others, a scheme is being developed to rescue the school and the cottage next door, as a hub for Learning for Life Charity, which helps young people and especially those with special needs in the transition to adult life, and as a community café. If the scheme goes to plan the new facilities will open in 2026/2027.
This small display of three textile samplers, taken from the Museum of Enfield’s collection, has been co- curated with the Edmonton Girls' Charity School project, and highlights some of the skills the girls' would have gained.