THESE children are pictured outside the Painswick orphanage where they lived in 1930.

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 not long after this photo was taken, 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.

Peter Higginbotham of the childrenshomes.org.ukwebsite has carried out research into the history of the orphanage.

He said: "During the conversion, personnel from the building company were said to have heard the sound of children's voices around the building, leading to claims that the building was haunted.

"It was also rumoured that, in former times, three children who had been abused at the home had hanged themselves from trees at edge of the property."

This image is part of the Museum in the Park’s Wilf Merrett Postcard Collection.