Gyde Orphanage, Gyde Road, Painswick, Gloucestershire

PAINSWICK ORPHANAGE - These buildings were started just as the war broke out and were allowed to be finished with the exception of the entrance lodge and the general lay-out of the grounds. It was no easy task to adapt the typical Cotswold style to the exigencies of institutional requirements. Orphanages and asylums are generally rather restless objects on the landscape and it is fortunate that the beautiful vernacular architecture of the Cotswolds at Painswick has been so faithfully extended to the site above the little town. Painswick stone has been used for the entrance building and old stone tiles for the roofing. The little entrance court, approached through the arched entry, is a feature of the planning, also the broad south terrace looking down over Painswick. The orphanage is built and endowed by funds left by Edward Gyde, who also gave the delightful cottage alms-houses on the road leading up to the orphanage designed by Mr. Barnsley. Mr. P. Morley Horder, F.R.I.B.A., was the architect. [The Builder1 November 1918 page 278]

The Gyde Orphanage — "for Protestant orphans of the locality and blind or deaf and dumb children" — opened in 1919 with money bequeathed by Painswick resident Edwin Francis Gyde. The home, which was intended to accommodate up to 70 children aged from 5 to 12 years, ran into financial difficulties and it was then taken over by the National Children's Home (NCH) in the early 1930s. It closed in 1997 and was converted to apartments in 2001.