Lumber, Lime Plaster and 47 Children: The Salvation Army’s Plans for Hanbury Home

• The Salvation Army runs Hanbury Home in Kendal, Manchester, on a hilltop site with early 20th-century buildings
• The home cared for 47 children, from a three-month-old baby to 17-year-olds
• New administrator Lt Adrian Edwards wanted a modern kitchen and a multipurpose hall
• A US religious charity had funded earlier buildings on the site

On a hilltop in Kendal, about 15 minutes north-east of Mandeville, the Salvation Army runs one of Manchester’s children’s homes. In December 2019 the Jamaica Observer’s Jonathan Morrison visited Hanbury Home and its new administrator, Lieutenant Adrian Edwards, who had taken up the post about six months earlier with his wife, Lieutenant Denise Edwards.

The property shows its age. Several buildings date from the early 20th century and are built of lumber and lime plaster. The kitchen and dining area were built in the mid-1960s by boys from the Cobbla Youth Camp. Plaques on the site record buildings contributed by Son Servant Ministries, a US-based religious charity.

At the time the home cared for 47 children, from a three-month-old baby to 17-year-olds, who attended schools including Holmwood, Bellefield, Christiana and Mandeville Institute.

Edwards wanted to upgrade the kitchen to modern standards and build a multipurpose hall. The home had once kept livestock and produced biogas, but those operations stopped after the Child Protection and Family Services Agency raised health concerns. He also said he saw sporting and musical talent among the children that he wanted to develop. His plans would depend on finding donors willing to invest in the site’s buildings as well as its programmes.

Old buildings, growing needs and a limited budget are a familiar mix for Jamaica’s church-run homes. Hanbury shows how much depends on outside partners, from overseas ministries that fund buildings to local donors who keep the kitchen running. For church groups and diaspora associations in North America and the UK looking for a practical project, helping replace an ageing kitchen or build a hall at a home like Hanbury is a clear way to improve children’s daily lives.

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