Boys accepted at the school early on were either voluntary cases at expiration of prison sentences , voluntary cases part paid for by parents who could not manage them at home, or very young boys sentenced to transportation. The Reformatory School Act of 1854 made changes that meant that in place of these three categories the school began receiving boys directly from the courts. The numbers of boys at the school rose considerably, and at the end of their time at the school many Victorian era boys were sent to parts of the British Empire.

The title of the establishment included the words 'Farm School' but the 'Farm' seems to have been dropped in the 1920s. The basic training for the boys continued to be working on the land,although there was at some time introduced for learning a basic trade, and farming activities gradually ceased to play such a large part at the school as the years went by. A major event in the calendar had been a 'Harvest Home' when the gates were opened to visitors and distinguished guests from the Borough and further afield. Precisely when the 'Harvest Home' days ceased is unknown but farming still seems to have been a major occupation in the 1920s and 30s, with Harvest Festivals continuing. They possibly ceased in the 1940s.

The school would have continued to produce food during the war as part of the economy and 'Dig for Victory' campaign, so perhaps the end of the war is a more likely date when the plough started to become slightly less heavily used. Farming did not cease altogether, but in 1975 a report mentions that the farm had not made a profit for two years, a cause for concern, and bearing in mind that the school had not very many more years to survive, this could well have been the last straw for the farm (to make a rather obvious pun).

Reform, or Reformatory, schools became approved schools under the 1933 Children's Act. In 1967 a book laid down new thinking concerning the activities and future direction of all the approved schools in the country. A1969 Act changed Approved Schools into 'Community Homes'. No longer an adjunct of the prison service, these homes, Redhill among them, now housed boys who were at the school under care instead of approved orders, and who were under the supervision of social workers.

Previous regimes had been hard and disciplined but major among the changes was the open door approach wherein boys stayed not because they were enclosed within secure walls but because they were a part of a trusting community, a situation achieved at a cost of increased staffing levels, one of the factors that contributed to the demise of the schools. Another factor was that the personal authority of staff members had been eroded and diminished.

These changes actually came into effect at Redhill four years after the 1969 Act. Part of the Act's effect was to put the control of the school into the hands of a new administrator, chosen from bids made by areas such as Wandsworth, Lambeth and Surrey, Wandsworth being successful. Although the Philanthropic Society no longer ran the school it was still very much involved in its management, but the resulting structure was heavy and unwieldy.

The burden of financial responsibility fell on its main administrator, Wandsworth Borough, which ran the school as a business, with profit in mind. It would offer places to other areas, such as local counties and other London Boroughs at so much per week, aiming to house and educate a boy for less and take the profit. Because the new system was inefficient these profits either did not materialise or were there at first but declined as time went by and costs soared.

Over the years the school had split into three parts: - The Classifying School, which opened in1955 and was known as the Assessment Centre from 1973 - The Training School, known as the Community Home from 1973 - The Secure Unit, opened in 1965 and becoming the Intensive Care Unit in 1973. Just before closure a new set of buildings was erected north of the railway for a new Community Home and all of the land to the south of the railway was sold, the proceeds going to fund new projects.

Due to much of the Society's old control being taken out of its hands problems built up, and in 1986 two year's notice to the Secretary of State for Social Services and to the London Borough of Wandsworth that it would cease to provide premises for the Community Home at Redhill. The building programme north of the railway was not completed due to closure of the Farm School in 1988, the Society's Bicentenial year. It had existed at Redhill from 1849, a period of 139 years. The Royal Philanthropic Society itself still exists, for details see bottom of this web page.

1920s tractor

1930s haycart