Ivy Pethick remembers having a miserable time at Müller's Orphanage. She was sent with her brother and sister when their parents died in 1910. The children were supposed to be separated into different buildings but Ivy's little sister refused to part from her and they were allowed to stay together. The sisters were numbered 381 and 382 and then clothed in a uniform, 'all our nice clothes that we had on were taken from us.' The children had to knit their own long black stockings 'and there hadn't to be a flaw in anything.' Ivy made a little mistake in the heel, 'nothing much', but had to unpick it all and re-knit them by a certain time. 'I was so fearful, I used to sit up in bed and knit in the dark to try and get it done in the time.' She says that two nervous girls who came in wet the bed and were humiliated, 'Really, it was inhuman.'

For others like Ellen who arrived at the orphanage in 1888, the routine gave a sense of stability. 'I was in the Nursery until I was six, needing special care under a dear old nurse, who I remember was very fond of me. As I grew, being so frail and small I was called Spider.' Years later she hoped for a husband, especially 'a former orphan boy' and had her prayers answered when she met William Tidball who introduced himself as "a former no.4 boy'. They married shortly after and lived in Horfield.