The former Victorian School

The lodge became a school in 1854 when Mary Carpenter and Lady Byron transformed it from doctors’ flats.

It was established as the first ever girls’ reform school – before this the Victorians had thought that girls didn’t need reforming!

Today you’ll see a workbook from the school, Mary Carpenter’s piano and an early 20th century photo of schoolgirls cross-stitching in front of The Great Oak Room fire.

Make sure you take a trip to Bristol Archives to read the revelations in Mary Carpenter’s diary – she came across a human foot when first looking around the lodge!

 

Find out what else is here.