Schools, Part I , Blisworth, Northamptonshire, UK.

All pictures are presented at relatively low resolution.  There will be hundreds of pictures on this site - there is an economic limit to the webspace available.  The point of this presentation is that you can see for yourself the extent of the collection and return later as the collection expands - as it surely will.  Any interest in copies of a picture at a higher resolution (ie. clarity) should be directed through contacts given in the Blisworth "Round and About" parish council publication or using the comment form on the home page.  In some cases the pictures are not available due to copyright restrictions.  However, permission has been obtained, where possible, to include them here.  Printed below each image is the photographer's name, if known.

Back to INDEX page                   This is Part I                   Part II             Part III

Index Pages for Book 1                                Index Pages for Book 2

It is intended to abstract a few short "Round & About"-Style articles from the main text of the log books. The articles will have their links on this page as well as being included in the historical index.

Medical Entries, School log books (not finished)        Selected Entries, Log book 1   1900 - 1922

Selected Entries, Log book 2   1922 - 1958               The Great War through the School Log Book

36-01   Blisworth "Old School" 1952.  By this time it had become disused as a school for 40 years but continued as a meetings place for the village and a base for Sunday schools until the 1970's.  The right hand part of the building has also been a residence.

In front there was a water well intended for the school but not put out of commission until about 1953.  As a Village Hall, the wall with the right hand window now has the main entrance.

 Embedded in the short pathway up to the door is a modern manhole cover.  Under that cover the well is still there.

A Short History of Blisworth Schools

The first recorded school in Blisworth was one endowed by Roger Wake in 1504.  It was a free school with annual financing of £11 which was expected to have attracted a teacher of quality such as a Graduate of Oxford.  The charter was to teach children to read and write, to learn certain scriptures, in Latin, and provide a church choir.  As many poor children as brought to the school would be taught alongside the paying scholars.  With the passing of centuries the annuity had diminished due to inflation - by 1710 the curate was headmaster and the school had then effectively become a C.of E. school.  The endowment had been commutated by single payment to the church but the school was still referred to as an "endowed" school.  George Freeston spent much time in London copying extracts from the Episcopal court hearings and so revealed a couple of dubious schoolmasters from the past, viz. Mr Wiggington (c.1594) and Mr Perman (c.1650) - both serious drunkards!  Despite George's efforts, information prior to 1800 is very sparse though two extracts, one of which paints an impression of 17th century neglect, are here reproduced from his 2002 collection.
    From the earliest times the school might have occupied the same site in the Stoke road as the "old school" shown above - next to the Westley's house and bakery.  In the great fire of 1798, Westley's property was destroyed along with the school.  Joseph Westley snr. immediately re-built his house, end-on to the road, and to do so he bought a strip of school land to accommodate it.  The side of the house can be seen in the left of the picture above.  Westley's purchase was generous, £40 being paid, and it allowed the church to rebuild the school within a short time.  It has also been stated that the school was not rebuilt until 1815 but document NRO35p/197/2 seems to contradict this.  The building looked something like that shown above and set right against the side of the Westley house.  By 1845 an additional school was required but the Duke of Grafton refused to sell the land.  It was to be another "church school" and the Duke found fault with those directing education at the time (ie. the Rector) on the grounds that the school should be managed with inputs being heeded from all the ratepayers.  He was concerned that Baptist family children would not be treated well but unfortunately this principle was not heeded.  Families that could afford it would send their boys (perhaps only first born) to Courteenhall School and the Baptists set up a junior school for their children adjacent to the Chapel.  A few sent their elder children to a non-denominational 'National' school in Roade.
    With the expansion in the village due to the railways, space must have been very short.  In 1861, in response to the Elementary Education Act of that year, a board of managers was elected from the ratepayers.  The structure of this new management is more complex than first thought - a member of the Wake family signed approval for the Rev T Barry to be headmaster in 1861 (NRO, 35pc/197-1) which suggests ongoing trouble for Baptist children.  Also in 1861 to satisfy the new Act, the school building was extended to provide more space and light, ie. to the form pictured above rather than one which stood back from the road.  In 1874 an extension building for infants was agreed (a later Duke!) and was built directly on the other side of Stoke Road.  With the management of Blisworth school, designated by then as "Endowed School No. 20", being shared by church, the board of ratepayers and the county authorities in the early part of the 20th century, the inspectors found considerable fault as they did of the schools in most villages.  Because of a countrywide overhaul of education, a completely new school was proposed in 1907.  It was designated as a "County Council School" being at last formally able to cater for children from Anglican and non-conformist families.  It was finished in 1913, situated at the Old Elm Tree corner after briefly considering a site further up the Courteenhall Road on the opposite side.

    In the next picture, 36-02 taken in 1918, the school is to the left and the head-teacher's house to the right.  Below that is 36-03, taken in 1952, showing the main entrance of the school on the Courteenhall Road.  It is thought that the main building in the Stoke Road was closed in 1913 but the infant school remained in operation until 1915 whereupon all children were transferred to the new school which was, from then on, to be run as a single department.   Since then there have been numerous improvements and extensions to the new school.   Meanwhile the "Old School" has been under-utilised and the infant school has become a residence.  In the 1970s, the "Westley" house, then owned by Buswell's (the British Bacon Company), was pulled down to leave the gaunt flat side of the the old school.  In 1977 the old school was renovated and extended to become the Village Hall.

Footnote:   Some school architects plans, dated 1911, have been discovery along with an interesting early aerial picture of the school taken circa 1930.

36-04   Date c.1900 (possibly 1907, just before Mr Authur Green took over) - Mrs Hockaday with her class of infants (referred to then as the "babies").  The class occupied the house opposite the old school.  The headmaster, Mr. Hockaday, taught the older boys and girls in the old school until May 1907.  There is no photograph of him but there are words in Walter Alexander's memoirs about him and his irascible nature.

Try this page to identify some 1960s children

36-05  Date 1909.  The teacher is a very young Mr Green, without moustache, with a class of older children.  The board says, "Blisworth End School, Standard II? 1909".  Only very few of the names are known.  End. means "Endowed".

The following four pictures were taken at the same time.

36-11   Class No 4,  The teacher is headmaster Mr Arthur Green who generally taught the senior children.  The boy at the right-hand end of the back row is Leonard Perkins.  In the middle of the rear row is Ted Monk.

36-14   "Old Masters!"

  Mr Anthony, Milton School, on the left, and Mr Arthur Green (Boss Green), Blisworth School - date uncertain, they appeared to have holidayed together.

Arthur Green was headmaster from 1907.

The old school was closed in 1912 when the new school was opened on Courteenhall Road.  It had been used for meetings and Sunday schools but since 1960 it had gradually descended into disrepair.  

36-18  Similar view a few days later.