Schools – Page 4 – Burton Grammar School History

Bond Street Creation

The Friars Walk School had been opened in 1834 for the princely sum of £600. Within a few decades, this was proving to be inadequate and as early as 1861, there was much discussion about the future of the school and the building of a larger one.

Aside from the capacity, one of the principal problems with the old school as some saw it was that there was no adjoining master’s house as was common at the time. This however, became its undoing since there was much opposition to the new development due to the cynicism that it was little more than a ploy to gain a substantial residence by the then headmaster, Reverend Henry Day. The Marquess of Anglesey was anyway approached to allow a piece of ground within Burton on which to erect a school and master’s house. The first proposed site was across the river on the island of Anglesey (which has great historical significance), this was however, rejected because the site had poor access with a simple footbridge, and was prone to flooding.

Mr Abraham Bass, who had gained much wealth from the Town’s brewing industrial growth, pledged £500, his partners offered to match the sum and Mr Henry Allsopp offered an additional £300. There were also lesser offers totalling just over £100, giving the school building fund an initial £1400; a not insignificant sum at the time.

Arguments continued for much time until in 1869, the ‘Endowed Schools Act’ came into being which dictated that among many schools to be founded was an ‘upper school for boys’. There were to be twelve Governors, including a Chairman to manage a single trust fund, including any charitable foundations. The Governors finally had control of a combined trust of just over £3000 and work on a new school to accommodate 120 pupils, double the current capacity, and a residence for the headmaster was to start as soon as a suitable site could be secured.

By 1873, the plans were complete for the erection of a school and headmaster’s house on the Bond Street site. This coincided with Rev. Day retiring as headmaster to be replaced by Charles Tripp who was to oversee the transfer to the new school. Two of the things he was responsible for at the time of the move were the introduction of a school cap to encourage pride, and the design of a brand new school badge to be adopted by the school as its emblem.

It would however, be 1877, after the foundation of the School Board in Burton following the Education Act of 1870, before the new Bond Street School was finally built and opened as part of a larger school development programme. It managed to include the contoversial grand Headmaster’s house which still caused some disquiet in some quarters.

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Friars Walk School

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Friars Walk – General History

It is not certain when it first came into being but there was a ‘school house’ on the site of the Friars Walk school in 1824. At that time, it was a large single classroom with a dwelling house on one side and stable on the other; it also had its own small garden. It stood next to the graveyard that served a church which occupied almost the same position as the current Saint Modwen’s church, which was itself built to replace part of the derelict Abbey.

The house at one time housed a schoolmaster but, by this time, it was no longer fit for such purpose. It was instead rented to a poor person and the schoolmaster rented a house in High Street, as did the usher – the only other member of staff.

In the early eighteen thirties, the aforementioned Parish Church needed a classroom to accommodate its Sunday school. The trustees were approached about building one but it was decided, given that the building would only be needed on a Sunday, the best proposition would be to extend the school building so that it could be used on weekdays.

The project grew to a complete, major, renovation in conjunction with the extension and including a new schoolmaster house. The plans were for the three gabled brick Tudor house more or less as it appears today.

In 1834, the extensive renovation was completed, much of the cost being borne by the church. The cost of the renovation was £600!

Thankfully, the building is sufficiently small to make it viable for modern commercial use. The right-hand section was the masters house, the left-hand section was the stables leaving the centre section for the school itself for around sixty pupils.

plate
Colourized reproduction (by me) of drawing by Buckler, 1830, of Friars Walk building in its
former heyday before eventually being renovated to form the ‘new’ Grammar School.

now
January 2008 photo following recent renovation work in order
that building could be preserved as a commercial property.

door
At some point, to suit the new usage after ceasing
as a school, the main doorway was relocated.

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David Moore (1954-61): First Day at Bond Street

Moore On the face of it there’s never been anything special about Bond Street. Nothing at all, except, that is, for many of us who used to turn up there from Monday to Friday each week, weighed down with bulging satchels wondering what the day held in store. No, not the fashionable shopping paradise situated in London’s West End. This Bond Street was, and still is, the Burton upon Trent version. Stretching from Lichfield Street to the old Ice Storage building it was a thoroughfare far less grandiose than it’s namesake in the capital. Gaze along it these days from a vantage point on the pavement near Peel Croft and you will notice the open ground on the left which is used as a car park. And, like me, you will probably wonder how a school with it’s sprawling collection of outbuildings could possibly have fitted into such a tiny piece of land. But it did, for this is where Burton Grammar School was situated – from 1877 until the new premises in Winshill were opened in 1957.

Access to the school was through an entrance about half way along the street. Immediately on the left was a door leading into the main building itself. Then it was along a corridor and past the changing rooms with their distinctive odour. Sharp right and then straight in front, the main hall where assembly was held each morning. At the other end of the hall, a narrow dark corridor leading to the chemistry laboratory and G-Room with it’s rows of desks arranged in tiers. Upstairs, another sprawling maze of corridors and rooms. Then there was the old headmaster’s house which had been converted into classrooms and a library. Situated outside, in what had previously been a garden, were some rather dilapidated prefabricated huts – more classrooms. There was a playground, of course, and in the far corner the bicycle sheds leading to two more places of learning some distance from the main school building itself. And a few hundred yards away, an old chapel. This was to be our form-room three years later. One thing is certain, the whole complex would be condemned as totally unsuitable these days.

Rather like eighty-nine other boys back in early September 1954 I was feeling excited and, I have to admit, rather pleased with myself, as I made my way to Bond Street for the very first time as a Grammar School student, but slightly apprehensive and a touch nervous too. Smart navy blue jacket, red and blue striped tie, grey shirt and grey trousers short ones – but most important of all, that distinctive cap with it’s red flashing across the back, proudly perched on my head. You could always tell where your mum had bought it from, the depth of the red band was slightly different depending on whether it came from Ellis’s or Tarver’s. Things like that seemed very important.

Yes, I remember that first day vividly. Forcing down my eggs and bacon seemed slightly more difficult than usual. An anxious wait for the maroon double-decker bus in Bearwood Hill Road, the journey down from Winshill across the Burton bridge, along High Street past Bass’s offices where the clerks would soon be taking up their positions on their high stools, finally climbing from the bus at the junction with Station Street. From there it was a short walk along the far end of High Street, past Oakden’s shop with that wonderful smell of roasting coffee beans and then sharp right into New Street. Across the old bus park into Lichfield Street before finally ending up at my destination of Bond Street itself.

I think most of us had some idea what to expect when we made our way through the entrance gates and along the short passage into the playground that morning. There had been rumours of some sort of initiation ceremony so it wasn’t totally surprising to find ourselves subjected to what can only be described as a pseudo public school welcome which involved “running the gauntlet” through a group of older boys who gave us a not so gentle clip across the head which didn’t do a lot for the condition of our smart new caps most of which finished up scattered along the ground and trampled on.

Soon it was into assembly in the main hall and a short welcoming address from the headmaster H.H. (Horace) Pitchford before moving off to Z-room, one of the huts behind the bicycle shed. This was to be our form room, a sort of home base, for the next two years. Pupils had already been divided into three classes and for me it was the middle one – B-stream. We knew which of the four houses we would compete for too, Clive, Drake, Nelson or Wellington. I would be wearing the green of Clive, at least that was the colour of the rugby and cross country shirts. Named after Clive of India, at the time it had the reputation of being the weakest of the four in terms of sporting achievements. If only they played soccer instead of rugby I might have been in Wellington instead or so I kidded myself. Apparently Wellington was the strongest but what was the basis for selection, were there mischievous forces at work?

Our form master was Mr Ward who taught French. We called him Ernie, not to his face of course, that was “sir”. Only later did we find out that his real name was Ellick, one that I’d never come across then and haven’t since. We liked him straightaway. Soon we would come to respect him too. One of the first formalities was to have a desk allocated to each of us. Seating was arranged in alphabetical order, that’s why I became friendly with a boy called John Monk. I guess it was just hard luck if you didn’t get on with your alphabetical neighbour; fortunately we seemed to hit it off, partly because we were both keen on football and cricket. Not rugby football but the version played with a proper ball, a round one. Before long we would be under no illusion as to which code was encouraged at this particular school.

Soon it was time for the mid-morning break and a first visit to the tuck shop run by Miss Rawlins and situated on the other side of Bond Street. Decision time, was it to be a jam doughnut or a sticky iced bun? Or maybe both! Ninety minutes later it was lunchtime and, for me, a second bus ride of the day – back home and an interrogation from mum. How did you get on? Have you behaved yourself? What on earth have you done to that cap? I don’t know what happened in the afternoon, I suppose we must have had a lesson or two. But looking back now it was a very special day. I certainly slept soundly that night. As for the joys of freezing cold cross-country runs ending with the acrid fumes from the paintworks the occasional visit to the headmaster’s study, ups and downs on the cricket pitch, detention, school reports and, best of all, that wonderful feeling at the end-of-term assemblies – all of those, and much more, would come later.

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1865 – School Inspection

In 1861, the government set up the Clarendon Commission to inquire into public schools and make recommendations about the needed changes, in particular, any reform required to broaden education from ‘classic’ to ‘modern’ subjects such as mathematics, science, history and modern languages. In 1864, this was followed by the Taunton Commission (named after the chairman Baron Henry Taunton, not the town!) to inquire into grammar schools.

This involved a school visit from assistant commissioner, T.H.Green who made an inspection of all grammar schools in Staffordshire. Below is his report of Burton Grammar School in September 1865.

BURTON FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Headmaster: Rev. Henry Day, LL.B.
Usher: Henry Hodson

In 1861, the government set up the Clarendon Commission to inquire into public schools and make recommendations about the needed changes, in particular, any reform required to broaden education from ‘classic’ to ‘modern’ subjects such as mathematics, science, history and modern languages. In 1864, this was followed by the Taunton Commission (named after the chairman Baron Henry Taunton, not the town!) to inquire into grammar schools.

This involved a school visit from assistant commissioner, T.H.Green who made an inspection of all grammar schools in Staffordshire. Below is his report of Burton Grammar School in September 1865.

The grammar school at Burton consists of two departments. At the time of my examination, there were 26 boys in the upper department and 48 in the lower. All the boys in the upper department were learning Latin, and more than half of them Greek. English grammar and analysis, French, geography and English history, as well as arithmetic, are attended to. Considering the number of subjects taught and the age of the boys, I thought the standard of this department satisfactorily high. There were only four boys turned 14. These together formed the 1st and 2nd classes. Two of them translated for me on paper 20 lines from the First Iliad, which they had been reading, with only one serious mistake each, and with considerable general neatness and accuracy. Exactly the same may be said of a translation which the same boys did from the First AEneid. Two others did a very fair translation from Caesar. The 3rd class, however, forms the hope of the school, consisting mostly of boys about the age of 12. These did translations from Ovid’s Heroides for me, both on paper and viva voce, in a way that showed a very careful grounding.

In arithmetic six boys of the upper department did the most difficult sums I could set them quickly and correctly. The rest were not so advanced, but what they did was generally done correctly.

I examined the upper four boys also in history and the analysis of Goldsmith’s “Traveller.” In history they were not positively deficient, but their knowledge did not seem fresh. In English analysis they seemed as well up as need be.

The whole upper department, I understood, did a written examination every Saturday morning. The result of this appeared in the neatness with which they did work on paper. Their writing I thought generally good, and their spelling and grammar were correct.

The lower department seemed inferior all round. Many of the boys in it were very young, and apparently of very humble parentage, who had scarcely yet learned to read properly. The upper classes did decently in history and geography, and both their ordinary writing and their writing from dictation were pretty good. The arithmetical standard I thought scarcely so high as it ought to be. Very few of the boys attempted the more difficult sums that I set them; what they attempted, however, they generally did correctly. The general tone of the school, so far as I could see and hear, was good.

The school building is very unsatisfactory for the purpose. It consists of two long, low rooms, the upper of which is used as the ordinary schoolroom, the lower as a class room. The ventilation is bad, and the offices not in a proper state. There is no playground, not even a yard, nor any house for the master. The school adjoins the churchyard, and is low and damp in situation. A man likely to know told me that he could recall 16 boys who had been taken from the school within three years on account of the situation.

On the whole, if the number of boys in the three higher classes of the upper department were more in proportion to the population and wealth of the town, the state of the school, as compared with others, might be reckoned satisfactory. As it is, the size of the upper department (which, however, had risen from 17 to 26 in a year and a quarter) scarcely suffices to justify the state of the lower.

The population of the town is supposed to be nearly 20,000, and for several years it has been eminently prosperous. On the Marquis of Anglesey’s property there, land for 500 new houses had been let during the six months previous to my visit. The magnates of brewery, of course, live in country houses elsewhere, but there are a good many professional men in the town, and a large number of men who get incomes of £500 a year and upwards as managers in the breweries. This part of the middle class seems as yet to make very little use of the grammar school, though perhaps more than it did, while on the other hand the temptation of lucrative employment at the breweries draws all the boys from the school at the age of 14.

The absence from the school of those boys who ought to fill its upper department I heard accounted for chiefly on two grounds: (1.) The professional and more respectable mercantile men objected to the mixture of their sons with those of a lower class; an objection which the separation of departments and the imposition of a £7 annual fee on boys in the upper one, established in 1858, have not yet removed. (2.) The grammar school, with its bad building and situation, could not compete with the attractions of cheap boarding schools. I also heard it stated that the head master, whose ability as a teacher all acknowledge, was thought scarcely to give enough of his time to the school.

The transfer of the school to a new building, with proper residence for the master and playground, in the suburbs would do a great deal to make it more popular with the middle class. Land for this purpose could, I believe, be readily obtained, and the feoffees of the town charities are said to have large accumulations, from which they have given freely to the elementary schools of the town. If, in addition to a new building, scholarships could be provided, tenable either at the Burton school itself, or at some other having better means of providing an education for the universities, the general character of the school, and with it the educational prospects of all the boys in the town, might be greatly raised.

Digest of Information

FOUNDATION AND ENDOWMENT. – By William Bean, Abbot of Burton Monastery, who, in 1520 built and gave money in trust for endowment of a schoolhouse for a free grammar school. Earliest deed in existence is a conveyance to trustees of land for benefit of school, dated 10th June 1745. Further endowment of £3 per annum for master and £6 for usher in 33 Eliz. (1590-1) by Elizabeth Paulett, out of a rentcharge of £10 on lands in Clerkenwell in Middlesex.

SCHOOL PROPERTY. – Farm at Breaston containing 112 acres, and another at Orton-on-the-Hill containing 120 acres. Also £187 3s.3d consols derived from sale of land to railway; and £333 6s.8d consols, called “Clerkenwell house dividends.” Annual income £452 gross, £439 net, all applied to purposes of school. Site good. Building inferior.

OBJECTS OF TRUST. – The maintenance of a free grammar school and schoolmaster in the town of Burton.
For all boys between the ages of eight and 16 years, of parents resident in the parish being able to read and write and knowing the first four rules of arithmetic, with a preference to longest residence. All (except five in each school, selected from poor as a reward for scholarship and good conduct) to pay capitation fees, viz. £7 for upper school, and for boarders and non-resident day scholars in lower school,£2 for day boys at lower school(scheme 1858).

SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION PRESCRIBED. – In the upper school, English, Latin, Greek, French, and German, arithmetic, mathematics, history, and geography. In the lower school, English and Latin grammar, with exercises and translation, elements of French, writing and arithmetic (with special reference to commercial rules), with rudiments of modern geography, and modern history (scheme 1858).

GOVERNMENT AND MASTER. – Scheme approved by Court of Chancery 2nd August 1858.
The trustees, 15 in number, appointed by the Court of Chancery, manage the school property subject to the scheme, appoint and dismiss the masters,and visit school. Head master required to be a member of the Church of England and a graduate of an English university. Head master has the internal regulation of the school. Cannot hold other preferment.

State of School in Second Half-year of 1864

GENERAL CHARACTER. – Classical. In age of scholars, third grade.

MASTERS. – Head master receives fees, and pays from them assistant masters and French masters. Of the surplus he retains two thirds for his own use. Total income from endowment £270 from fees £25. Usher, £140 from endowment, and may take boarders.

DAY SCHOLARS. – 74, from distances up to three miles. Upper school, 5 free; 29 paying £7 a year. Lower school, 5 free; 35 paying £2 a year.

BOARDERS. – A few boarders been with the master since Michaelmas 1866. (8th January 1868). Terms £60 to £70 per annum. Four meals a day. Meat once at least. Each boy has a separate bed. Boys rise at 7.00 a.m. and go to bed at 9.20 p.m.

INSTRUCTION, DISCIPLINE, ETC. – At admission must read and write and know the first four rules of arithmetic.
School classified by one leading subject chiefly.
School course modified to suit particular cases.
Scripture lesson Sunday for boarders. Day boys prepare lesson at home for Monday. Boys taught Bible and Church Catechism. Monitors appointed sometimes to assist in instructing the junior classes.
Promotion by marks, and examination held at Christmas by head master and at Midsummer by examiner appointed by trustees.
Marquis of Anglesey gives prizes of books to value of £5.
Punishments: caning on the hand in public and impositions.
No playground. No gymnasium. Drilling taught in summer.
School time 40 weeks per annum. Study from 28 to 30 hours per week.
The grammar school at Burton consists of two departments. At the time of my examination, there were 26 boys in the upper department and 48 in the lower. All the boys in the upper department were learning Latin, and more than half of them Greek. English grammar and analysis, French, geography and English history, as well as arithmetic, are attended to. Considering the number of subjects taught and the age of the boys, I thought the standard of this department satisfactorily high. There were only four boys turned 14. These together formed the 1st and 2nd classes. Two of them translated for me on paper 20 lines from the First Iliad, which they had been reading, with only one serious mistake each, and with considerable general neatness and accuracy. Exactly the same may be said of a translation which the same boys did from the First AEneid. Two others did a very fair translation from Caesar. The 3rd class, however, forms the hope of the school, consisting mostly of boys about the age of 12. These did translations from Ovid’s Heroides for me, both on paper and viva voce, in a way that showed a very careful grounding.