Asylum for Deaf & Dumb Children Old Kent Road & Margate

15/08/2024

15/08/2024

It can be argued that the history of what was later to become the Royal School for Deaf Children, is the history of deaf education and welfare in this country with its establishment coinciding with 19th-century emphasis on philanthropy and progress.

Before the establishment of schools like the Asylum, the ways in which a deaf person could learn to communicate with the world were severely limited. Any teaching or help that was available tended to be the preserve of the rich.

In fact, there were only 12 deaf schools in the whole of Europe; and except for one school in Paris founded in 1779, they were all fee-paying and only accessible to those who could afford their fees. The Asylum was, therefore, the first free school in England, and only the third in the world, to provide education for deaf children from poor families.

Learn more in the comments under each image.

15/08/2024

Please note this study is in its infancy, I am busy collating info from the many surviving records, and will be posting interesting facts uncovered during my research, so do please check back for latest updates, if you are interested.

If I can help you at all with your own research on you ancestors who attended the school please do get in touch.

15/08/2024

Welcome to the page for my One Place Study for the Asylum for the Education and Support of Deaf & Dumb Children of the Poor, Old Kent Road & Margate (later to become The Royal School for Deaf Children, Margate).

I discovered the school when I found one of my ancestors on the 1891 census attending the Asylum in Old Kent Road, before transferring to Margate later that same year.

My study begins with pupils who attended the school between 1891-1901, but will over time work back to the earliest days of the school's formation, records permitting.

Please do get in touch if you have an ancestor who attended the school or indeed if you were a pupil at the school in its later years..