Hazelwood School – A Catalyst For Reformatory Education?

Abstract

Hazelwood School was established at the beginning of the nineteenth century, in Birmingham, by the Hill family. This paper argues that the ethos and unique practices adopted at the school by the Hills, together with their individual activities, which were influenced by a series of socially-minded individuals with whom they came into contact, can be seen as contributing to the choice of Birmingham as the location for the first national conference on the reform of juvenile criminals, held in 1851, and to the development of the reformatory and industrial schools that were later established to accommodate criminal children. Additionally, the efforts of successive generations of the Hill family, who continued to work to improve the treatment of neglected and criminal children, were so progressive that their influence extended beyond Victorian Britain.