Stoford House Industrial School, South Newton

This establishment was also known as Wilton Industrial Home for Girls. In 1883 a residential industrial school at Stoford House was certified for a maximum of fifteen girls. Such institutions were certified under the terms of the Industrial Schools Acts of 1857 and 1861. The creation of such schools followed that of reformatory schools to which juveniles convicted of crimes were sent. The 1861 Act consolidated and extended the provisions of the earlier legislation and related to any child apparently under the age of fourteen found begging or receiving alms; any child apparently under the age of fourteen found wandering and not having any home or visible means of support or in the company of reputed thieves; any child apparently under the age of twelve having committed an offence punishable by imprisonment or less, or any child under the age of fourteen whose parents declared him/her to be beyond their control. In such cases magistrates could commit the juvenile to a certified industrial school.

The census of 1891 indicates that whilst the school at Stoford House, known as the Wilton Industrial Home for Girls, was only small with, at that time, no more than ten pupils, three of whom were voluntary rather than committed by the courts, it followed the pattern of other schools by accepting girls from all over the country. This was due in part to a belief that removing young people from their home area and enabling them to mix with other improving inmates would be beneficial to their moral growth. At Stoford three of the committed girls had been born in Southwark, London; one in Woolwich, north Kent; one in Bristol and two in Southampton. The voluntary pupils had been born in Wishford, Wilton and Surbiton, Surrey - a suburb of London - respectively.

The school closed in 1892.