Abermere Receiving Home

Abermere Receiving Home, run by the government, opened in Mount Stuart in 1975. It provided temporary accommodation to children who were wards of state or supervised in other ways by the Social Welfare Department. In the early 1980s, Abermere Receiving Home became Abermere Family Group Home.

A married woman, known as a Receiving Home Keeper, managed Abermere with the assistance of her husband, who was in paid employment. In return, they didn’t pay rent.

The Home provided accommodation for new wards of the state of children on remand from the courts until the Department found a more permanent placement for them. It also took in children requiring temporary accommodation under the Domestic Service Assistance Act and in transit between homes.

The Department changed the name in the early 1980’s to Abermere Family Group Home apparently to emphasise its domestic environment and the fact that some children stayed in the Home longer if they got on well with the Receiving Home Keeper.