The first lecture of the 2017/18 Civic Society Programme  was given by Rudi Steen, a well known, but now retired, business man. His talk to a packed audience, was in two parts and he began with 110 Scartho Road.

Rudi, asked the audience, ”Does anybody know what was 110 Scartho Road?”
 
It was the address of the Grimsby Work House, which opened its doors, in the 1890s providing shelter for the poor and destitute. The Gate House to  the Work House can be seen from Scartho Road (opposite the Cemetery entrance)
 
Vagrants could, hopefully get a bed for the night, but they had to earn this by breaking rocks into small stones. If a family came to the Work House, men, women and children were separated and the elderly infirm were placed in separate quarters. The adults had to work either on the land or in the laundry and children received an education. Life was tough, the diet was poor and discipline was harsh with punishment cells. An easing of the discipline began in the 1930s, eventually becoming Scartho Road  Hospital  (with nurse training). The NHS took it over in 1948.
 
After a tea break Rudi talked about St Anthony’s orphanage on Victor Street. This was taken over by a nursing order before being closed in the 1950s and it was demolished in 1995 following a fire. Rudi lives in Island House, which is one of the oldest houses in Scartho, that had been rescued and made habitable by a previous owner. It boasts a cast iron staircase rescued from the former St Anthony’s Orphanage. Rudi has since put his own stamp on the property.
 
Rudi Steen

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