Changing uses ................ the village school on the green

I had mixed feelings when I heard that the old school on the green was to be developed and turned into four homes.

It had been built in 1878 and replaced an older one dating from the 1840s. The conversion of any old building is a source for sadness, partly I guess because in its original form it has out lived its usefulness and will be lost to the community. In the case of the school this is particularly so given that I know people who attended it, have spoken to others who remember it as the venue for the Penny Savings Bank and hold one wonderful picture of the VE Day celebrations held inside in 1945.

But then as ever I am too romantic. After its closure as a school it had a number of uses and has been empty for years. I remember back in the '80s one discussion between friends to turn it into a restaurant which of course predated the transformation of Beech Road as a place of wine bars, cafes and restaurants by a decade. Rhona had the right idea but maybe we were ten years ahead of the game.

Still there was a danger that the place would if it remained empty begin to deteriorate and become a focus for vandalism. So at least this way the core of the building has been retained and has come back to life.

All of which is a way of introducing the map and picture of the proposed extension of the school in 1897. The plan was to add another floor and double the accommodation. It says much for the rapid growth of the township that this was necessary. As the authors of the report commented that the 1878 building “was thought suffice for many generations. However the abnormal growth of the parish within the last five years, has rendered a further enlargement imperative.”


The cost was estimated at £2,000 the bulk of which was expected to be raised through voluntary subscriptions. Today it seems rather odd that a public building like a school should depends on this form of funding but this was the norm, and both the two older National Schools and the three Methodist chapels and church along with Sunday schools had been built by such contributions.

Pictures; proposed plan and drawing for the enlargement of the village school, from the St Clements Bazaar Handbook, 1897, by kind permission of Ida Bradshaw