On this day in Yorkshire

January 16, 1940

Unoccupied for eleven years, Cottingley Manor, with its spacious grounds, large ornamental lake, row of “monkey trees,” and shrub plantations, is now the temporary home, school, and hospital of more than 40 deaf or crippled boys and girls from neighbouring Bradford.

The crippled children had previously been moved on the outbreak of war from Lister Lane School for Physically Defective Children to Earbv and Bracewell; and they became so accustomed to travelling that one of them recently asked Miss L.H. Hine, the headmistress, whether they would “stay in this country long.”

They were happy and contented at Earby and Bracewell - and they are just as happy and contented at Cottingley.

When I visited the Manor today - it has some magnificent chandeliers, fine mahogany woodwork, and a great mahogany staircase, said to have been specially imported from Italy - the young crippled children were having a mid-morning snack of milk and malt, and four-year-old Doreen Riley was following her custom of asking for a big spoon of malt.

The staff at the Manor includes a trained nurse, and regular visits are paid by a doctor and by an orthopaedic surgeon.

Miss Hine told me that some children can be cured sufficiently to enable them to go to an ordinary school; for others, at Lister Lane School, vocational classes were held. At the manor, boot repairing lessons have started for the older boys. There are no girls old enough for dressmaking lessons.