Educating Arksey

The Old School in 1895

The Endowed School

Arksey Primary School today is a modern building tucked away in the very centre of a 1970's housing estate. However, Arksey has had a school for a lot longer than the present building suggests. A former Costcutter store, the old stone building on the corner of High Street was Arksey's first purpose built school, here is something of it's history.

Contents

• Early Schooling
• Schoolmasters Of Arksey
• George Chadwick
• Henry Woodhouse
• Old School Photos
• A New School For Arksey
• Class Photos From 1971
• 1970's School Photos
• A New Headmaster
• 1980's School Photos
• New Life For The Old School

Early Schooling

Location of the school on a map of 1891

School would have been a luxury few poor families could afford in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and even after King Edward VI (reigned 1547-1553) introduced 'free grammar schools' in Tudor England, many families could not spare their children's labour in the fields to allow them to attend. Their labour being more valuable to them than their children's education.


Early schooling in Arksey was probably held in the church porch, (a common practice in medieval England) which still has the stone benches they would have sat on to this day. The porch dates from the early 13th century, but it is unclear when the classes began. If there was a school it would have been run by the church with the emphasis on religious education.

Church porch with seating

In 1660 Bryan Cooke (1620-1660) left a will with a bequest to build twelve Almshouses for the poor and widowed, as well as a stipend to provide £40 a year to be paid to a schoolmaster, as mentioned in the following passage from Vol 1 'Endowed Charities of West Riding, Yorks' (parliament papers): 

'- £40 yearly should be paid to a schoolmaster to keep school at Arksey for the better breeding and education of youths at Arksey, in learning and literature, and he desired the trustees to see the premises settled according to his instructions.'

The Almshouses were built on land opposite the church in 1660, following Bryan Cooke's bequest. 

Arksey Almshouses

In 1661 Bryan's brother George became the 1st Baronet of Wheatley, and his will dated 1683 bequeaths two cottages, a house and land near the Almshouses for the purposes of building a school.

The house and cottages were demolished and the school was built in 1683 at a cost of £217. £200 of that being endowed by the trustees of the Cooke Charity.

The vicar was usually appointed master of the school, except on one occasion when another person was appointed with the vicar's consent. Schoolmasters were licensed by the Archbishop of York. In the licence of 1671 the school was named 'The School at Arksey', and in 1690 it was named in another licence as 'the Free School', otherwise it was known as 'The Grammar School at Arksey.'   

The school in 1992

In 1827 the schoolmaster was Rev. Alexander Cooke, vicar of Arksey. Although he didn't teach personally, he oversaw the conduct of the school and employed a curate to teach. It was noted that the curate did not attend the school every day, or for many hours at a time. Instead, he had an usher, or assistant to teach in his place, but this assistant, a former scholar at the school, was regarded as an inefficient instructor who was too young for the role. The school was not conducted well, parents neglected to send their children regularly and teachers neglected to enforce attendance, sometimes only 20 children would attend. As a result, the school had a poor reputation. The curate claimed he had tried to establish a reputable school, but had failed.

The school was free for the instruction of reading, but a charge for writing and arithmetic was withdrawn by Rev. Cooke 'for the sake of peace' rather than doubt over the right of the school to demand payment. All the children received free instruction from then on.

It was decided that Sir William Bryan Cooke (1782-1851), as patron and trustee, and Rev. Cooke should appoint a person to govern and teach at the school. The person chosen should be 'properly qualified by education' and have the authority to exclude children of parents who did not compel them to attend school regularly. The vicar of Arksey would then superintend the school, with the power to remove the teacher should it become necessary.

Sir William Bryan Cooke

 

Rev. Cooke resigned his post as schoolmaster following the poor report in 1827, and a person unconnected with the rectory was appointed to the post with a salary of £40 a year.

The school was able to accommodate 141 pupils, but throughout the 19th and early 20th century numbers varied from around forty eight in 1841, to seventy eight in 1901. The lowest number of school age children occurred in 1871 and amounted to only thirty four. Over forty children of school age lived in the village in 1911. Children from Bentley also attended Arksey school until a non-fee paying one was built in Bentley in 1877.

The school from the church gate

  

Schoolmasters of Arksey

In 1876 an 18th century house was purchased across from the school on Station Road (or Village Street as it was known then). At a cost of £420, the house would become the residence of the schoolmaster and his family.

The schoolmaster's house, shown on the right of this 1970's photo.

The first schoolmaster to be mentioned in the census returns is John Barraclough, who was schoolmaster on the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses; the 1861 census also names Ann Goodworth as a teacher there, she was also Mr Barraclough's daughter-in-law.

George Chadwick

George Chadwick 1919

On the 1st of October 1865, Sir William R C Cooke, Bart (1827-1894), appointed George Chadwick as the new schoolmaster. Mr Chadwick was born in Duffield, Derbyshire on the 5th of February 1843. He held the position of schoolmaster until 1902. As well as being the schoolmaster, Mr Chadwick was organist and choirmaster at Arksey church. He was also Assistant Overseer for many years, and Clerk to the Parish Council from it's formation, until the Urban District Council superseded it. He was also secretary of the Dole Charities from 1878, and Overseer of the Poor, since giving up as Assistant Overseer.

He married Ann Scholey in 1868, and they had four children, three surviving. George Chadwick died in 1923.

Among the teachers at the school during Mr Chadwick's time were, Margaret Keld and Elizabeth Scholey. 

School Log Book 1872-73

By the 1870's the school was almost 200 years old, and repairs must have been frequent and necessary. In 1872 George Chadwick wrote in his Log Book:

'Jun 6 - A portion of the school roof gave way during a heavy storm of rain, which caused suspension of lessons for a time.'

The roof was duly repaired on June the 18th that year. However, it was entirely re-roofed by the trustees in 1879, at a cost of £125.15s.0d. The trustees borrowed £100 over 15 years to meet this cost. The money was repaid out of the Charity's earnings.

For more on the school log book go to Victorian Life At Arksey School.

Henry Woodhouse 

Henry Woodhouse 1906

Taking over from George Chadwick in 1900 was Henry Woodhouse. Henry was born in Arksey in 1861 to James Woodhouse, a master tailor, and his wife Harriet. Henry studied at Arksey School under his predecessor George Chadwick, and had become assistant schoolmaster by 1881. 

He married Sarah Emily Parkinson from Napton, Warwickshire in 1888 in Doncaster, and moved to Naburn, near York sometime before 1891, they never had children and Sarah worked as a teacher alongside her husband. At Naburn he held the position of headmaster, and remained there until George Chadwick retired from Arksey school in 1900. 

Arksey resident Edith Colman wrote in her memoirs of her time at Arksey school under the stern eye of Mr Woodhouse:

'Children were admitted from the age of three and a half, and there, in a small classroom, they were taught their first lessons by a very patient and kind young lady who was very much liked by her pupils.  

There were three classrooms, the other two being in charge of the headmaster and headmistress. The atmosphere, alas, was found to be very different when the pupils moved into the headmistress's room. There, discipline was enforced in no small measure, the cane often being used.

The mistress was very clever but lacked patience with any of the pupils who were rather slow to understand the lessons.

All the girls wore buttoned boots, long frocks, white pinafores and black stockings. The headmistress always wore a blouse and skirt and she had a long gold chain to which was attached a gold watch. 

This was kept in a small pocket inside the skirt top and the watch was frequently taken out and the time checked. This procedure never failed to fascinate the pupils... 

The school rooms were heated by large coke stoves, each girl having to take her turn to sweep up the ashes and tidy the hearth at 12 noon before going home for dinner. This was a task which we all disliked, but we had to do it properly, with the headmistress looking on. 

From there we were moved into the headmaster's classroom, to experience even stricter discipline - our lessons being much harder and the headmaster usually standing (at any rate in the winter) with his back to the stove, keeping an eagle eye on the class.

The "cane" was very much in evidence and used for such offences as poor, untidy work, any misbehaviour and talking in class. Occasionally an inspector visited us and we really had to try very hard to do some good work for his inspection. This became rather a dreaded occasion. There were times during lessons when the headmaster would go into one of the other classrooms for about ten minutes. On these occasions we were put on our honour not to talk. Usually, on his return, one of the boys would stand up, saying, "Please, sir, so-and-so has been talking". This tale-telling always ended in a fight.'

The patient and kind young lady teacher Edith mentions, could be Agnes Hale. Listed on the 1911 Arksey census, she was 22 years old and the daughter of a grocer.

Edith Colman was born in Norfolk in 1901; moving to Arksey in her childhood, she could have attended the school from as early as 1904, and may even be among the pupils in these photos of 1906, and possibly 1907 (below). 

Henry and Sarah Woodhouse with the pupils outside the school in 1906

Sarah Woodhouse with a class of younger pupils, about 1907

Henry and Sarah Woodhouse can be traced to the 1911 Arksey census, where Henry, now aged 50, was still head of Arksey school.  Records show that the Woodhouse's moved out of the schoolhouse in 1923, moving to 100 Bentley Road. Sarah died in 1927, but Henry lived to the ripe old age of 88, and died in 1949.

The next occupiers of the schoolhouse were Henry Vincent Simmons and his wife Edith. Presumably, Henry Simmons was the next Headmaster at the school, although nothing else could be found out about him. The Simmons's remained at the schoolhouse, which became number 57 Station Road, until 1953. 

Following the departure of Mr and Mrs Simmons the house ceased to be a Headmaster's residence and the last occupiers there were Dorothy Pierce-Price and son Michael. Dorothy was the widow of former Arksey vicar John Pierce-Price (1894 - 1953). When Dorothy died in 1979, Michael lived in the property alone until he eventually moved out in the 1980's to lodge elsewhere, he died in 1991. The abandoned house became derelict and was eventually demolished for the building of a new housing development in 2005. 

Old School Photos 

 

Arksey school pupils in 1930 (courtesy of Den Lowe)

Arksey school pupils c1937 (courtesy of Phillip W Atick)

Possibly 1930's.
Photo courtesy of Phillip Willy Atick

Arksey Garden Party on the school field in the 1960's.
Photo courtesy of John Hufton

Mrs Spence's class c1965, pictured outside the portable classrooms (see below).
Photo courtesy of John Hufton

Another shot as above.
Photo courtesy of John Hufton

A New School For Arksey

As the village of Arksey expanded during the twentieth century the number of pupils steadily grew. Temporary portable classrooms were built to the rear of the building, which ended being permanent. By the end of the 1960’s the numbers of pupils had outgrown the size of the school entirely. 

1970's aerial view of school, showing wooden classrooms (with a skip in front)

I started at Arksey School in the late 1960's. I was taught in the portable classrooms and we used the main room in the school building for indoor P.E. lessons and assemblies etc. The only toilets were in an outside block and I went home for my lunch everyday. 

Old brick toilet block at rear of school

The rear of the school in 1988

One summer's day when I was almost eight years old we were all taken on a walk down Station Road to the cemetery. From there we had to cross a field to reach a large new building which had just been completed. It was summer 1970 and we were there to have a look at our new school which would be opening for lessons the following September. 

Arksey Primary School 2009

 

The new school was built on the edge of the new housing estate on Brook Way. Just why we were taken via the fields and not Ings Lane/Ings way, I have no idea, but that is what I remember.

The school opened with six classes of a proposed eleven class junior and infant school. The six classrooms provided accommodation for 240 children, each class was self contained, with a cloakroom and toilets. Four of them opening on to a shared dining and activity area, and a further two opening on to a smaller shared area. At the centre of the school was the hall, complete with physical education equipment. Showers, the school kitchen, offices and staff areas were also included.

The building was constructed of prefabricated concrete and steel, with large windows and light interiors.

Arksey school classroom 1970

 

The new school was officially opened by Councillor W. H. Degville-Hayes on the 9th of July 1970.

Page from the school opening booklet

The head teacher was Irene Toomer, who had also been the head at the old school. She was born in Monmouthshire in 1915. She never married or had children of her own. I don't know how long Irene was head at the school, but she probably took over from Henry Simmons when he left in 1953. I remember Miss Toomer as a quiet, fairly strict headmistress, but kind too. I remember her driving me home one day when I had one of my debilitating migraine attacks. 

Irene Toomer retired in 1974 and lived alone. Nothing more was heard about her until December 2007, when, at the age of 92, she was found deceased in the front porch of her home in Swinburn Avenue, Adwick-le-Street. She had become trapped in the porch because of a faulty door lock and had tragically died of hypothermia; she had been there for some days. Her only family travelled from Aberdeenshire for the funeral.

The teachers from 1970 are pictured below.

Back row, left to right - Gordon Evans, Betty Spence, Howard Connell, Brenda Barker, Mike Townsend. Front row, left to right, Linda Northcliffe, Irene Toomer, Angela Hartley.

Class Photos From 1971

Brenda Barker's class

Back row, left to right - Brenda Barker, Philip Foster, Darren Genders, Keith Smeaton, Graham Stephenson, John Gray, Paul Bishop, ??
Middle row, left to right - Ian Temple, Andrea Mcewen, Jackie Potts, Sharon Genders, Jill Breach, Debbie Cowlbeck, Sandra Dolan, ??
Seated, left to right - Debbie Thornton, Karen Sockett, Wayne Jones, ??, Tony Parfitt, Sarah Cant, Vicky Higham. 
 
 

Howard Connell's class

Back row, left to right - John Thompson, Andrew Mcewen, Andrew Simpson, Paul Varley, Alan Berry, John Taylor, Nigel Foster, Howard Connell.
Middle row, left to right - John Hall, Janice Kirton, Tracey Smith, Julie Schofield, Karen Palmer, Gail Vessey, Julie Potts, Sharon Gray, Amanda Kirby, Graham Force.
Seated, left to right - Sunita Laws, Lorraine Saunders, Carol Cutts, Christine Rollitt, David Leigh, ??, Jacqueline Wynn, Sharon Atkins, Yvonne Swain.

 

Betty Spence's class

Back row, left to right - Betty Spence, David Hemsley, Graham Taylor, David Smeaton, Ian Howard, Stephen Foster, Alan Drysdale, David (or John) Feeney, Steven Perkins.
Middle row, left to right - Robert Stokoe, Stuart Housley, Carole Thompson, Carol Genders, Wendy Berry, Vicky Wright, Joy Charlesworth, Wayne Genders, John (or David) Feeney.
Seated, left to right - Beverley Cowlbeck, Sharon Saunders, Alison Breach, Tony Farrah, Paul Swain, Stephen Atick, Kim Taylor, ?? 

1970's School Photos

Reading area, mid 1970's

Christmas party 1970

Rounders lesson, late 1970's

 

Class photo from about 1977. 
Back row L to R: David Frost, Sean Evans, Paula Sanderson, Keely Smith, Sarah Holloway, Graeme Jones, Geoff Burkill. 
Second row L to R: Martin Towlers, Kevin Dolan, Gary Ford, Mike Ward, Wayne Vessey, John Hodgson, John Bradshaw, Adrian Walker.
Third row L to R: Tina Southwell, Diane Force, Joanne Sockett, Susan Evans, Jodie Hodgson, Karen Ward, Angela Thompson.
Front row L to R: Richard Stockdale, Adrian Cann, ??

Many thanks to Wayne Vessey for the photo.

A New Headmaster

Richard Brookes took over as head around 1974, and it was only a few years later that the school chimney started to look a little unsafe. Despite the council declaring it safe and sound, the top of the chimney snapped off and landed in the car park one day.

The broken chimney

The teachers from 1974 are pictured below.

Teachers, c1974. Back row, left to right - Jean Cranshaw, Betty Spence, Howard Connell, Brenda Barker, Angela Hartley. Front row, left to right - Gordon Evans, Sarah Crighton, Richard Brookes, Jenny Bradshaw, Ann Fogg.

 

1980's School Photos

Angela Hartley with the school choir c1980

Graeme O'Connor (left) and Howard Connell (right) with the school band in the early 1980's

For more old school photos go to Old Photo Gallery.

New Life For The Old School

When the old school closed as a school in 1970 it became used as a youth club and a venue for the annual Arksey Gala among other things. In 2011 permission was granted to convert the grade II listed premises into a convenience store and post office. The store was privately owned and part of the Costcutter franchise. The business also had a tea rooms attached, called 'The Old School Tearooms'. It was run by two sisters initially, but in 2013 they moved their business to the church hall further down High Street, and named it 'The Village Teapot', whilst the Old School Tearooms continued with new owners. In 2018 the store and post office were relocated to Station Road and there are now plans to expand The Old School Tearooms into the larger building where the store was.

This old school register from the final years of the old school is available to view in the Old School Tearooms.

The old school register

__________

Many thanks to Howard Connell for contributing staff photos and information for this article.

Alison Vainlo 

First written 2015, updated 2018, revised 2019.