THE HEADLANDS SCHOOL IN PENARTH

I am unfamiliar with most of Penarth, so the ‘Headlands School’ building on Paget Place was a discovery for me when I accompanied my wife Valerie on her recent reconnaissance in the town, as she searched for a new route for the Wednesday Walkers’ Group.

Built 1868 as the 'Penarth Hotel' by the Taff Vale Railway Company, the building cost £27,000. Featural similarities with the Marine Building (also once a hotel and now Grade II-listed, but in a poor condition), adjacent to the ‘Custom House’ pub/restaurant in Penarth, suggest possibly the same, unknown architect was involved.

In 1918, the ‘Penarth Hotel’ was bought for £15,000 by Gladys, widow of Major J A Gibbs.

A rear view of the Penarth Hotel 1880s

The Marine Building in Penarth

Major John Angel Gibbs

In memory of her husband, who, aged 37, had been killed near Ypres in September 1917, when serving with the 9th Welsh Battalion, Mrs Gibbs (née Morel) presented the building to the major Methodist body working with children, the National Children’s Home and Orphanage. It was intended by the donor that the building be used for the education and the training of boys for the sea and engineering trades, preference being given to the needy sons of men who had fallen in the Welsh Regiment.

This organisation (which later became known as the National Children’s Home and later still as Action for Children) officially opened the 'J A Gibbs Memorial Home' as a nautical training school, in July 1921.

Mrs Gladys Gibbs

Major and Mrs Gibbs with son John

A Royal visit

The Home was an unusual, but effective, type of war memorial. It was not just a sculpture or a roll of honour but a place where useful service could be carried out.

In 1936, the home became an Approved School for 'delinquent' boys aged from 10 to 13, placed there by magistrates. Known by then as the ‘Headlands School’, the establishment housed 95 boys. By the 1970s, the number of places had fallen to 55.

Following the abolition of Approved Schools in 1973, the establishment became a ‘Community Home with Education’ under the control of Glamorgan County Council, but closed in the early 1980s.

A recent view of the Headlands School

The outbuildings of the school

Although the old hotel (now a Grade II listed building) has been boarded up for many years, other parts of the site have continued to be developed by Action for Children. ‘Headlands School’ now provides support for children aged 8 to 19 with a variety of behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.

Mrs Gibbs died in 1952, aged 71, having maintained a life-long relationship with the Action for Children organisation.

Steve Monaghan

• Major Gibbs is buried in Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery, which is 8 kms south of Ypres.