Schooling Problems 90 Years Ago (13 August 1976)

Some weeks ago I told how, in the 1890s, the Bletchley Road Schools (now the Knowles School) were opened and how the old High Street National School and the British School (formerly a Lancastrian School, so-called after the celebrated educationist, Dr Lancaster) were then closed.

The new schools, however, were not occupied exclusively by the pupils of those old schools, for there was also one other day school in the parish of Fenny Stratford, about which little is now known.

Towards the end of the century a good deal of housebuilding was going on at the main line station end of Fenny, including Duncombe Street, Albert Street and Park Street.  The last-named street has now vanished.  It has become the paved area running alongside the Barclays Bank and other aligned premises.  Part of Albert Street still stands, including the former Primitive Methodist Sunday School and the former Co-operative Hall.  Those buildings have late 19^th century date stones on them and so have at least two of the remaining houses.  The siting of the Co-operative Hall there at that time is significant of the growth of the area in general.

DISTANT

The people going into those new houses soon began having Victorian-sized families.  This raised schooling problems.  The schools at the town end of Fenny and the National School in Church Green Road in Bletchley parish alike were too distant for young children.  Besides which, their mothers wanted them home for dinner.  Good, if plain, food for the kids has always been the first priority of respectable working class families.  Fifty or more years were to pass before school meals became generally available.

At this juncture the Church of England stepped in.  For £80 a piece of land at the top of Brooklands Road, now the site of the electricity showroom and adjoining premises, was bought and in 1885-86 a Mission Room was built on it at a cost of £259.  The trust deed, enrolled on January 9, 1886, allowed the room to be used for services of the Church of England, for schools, or for any spiritual, moral social or intellectual purpose approved by the vicar of the parish, but not for any purpose inimical to the Church of England.  The room, a plain, brick and stone structure set back a little from its Bletchley Road boundary, fulfilled all these purposes, not excluding that of a day school.

DEMOLISHED

Interesting evidence of this is contained in a bound volume of Fenny Stratford Parish Magazines for the year 1889 in the possession of Mr and Mrs Breedon, who used to live in one of the fairly modern, but now demolished bungalows at the top end of Water Eaton Road.

The July edition states:  “The Rurideconal Diocesan Inspector of Schools made his inspection of the Mission Room Infant Day School in June 26^th last.   His report is as follows:

“This school is carried on under great difficulties.  It is impossible for the teacher to keep due order among 90 little children, or to teach all effectively.  Considering this, I think the mistress has done well and great pains must have been taken to teach the Catechism, hymns, texts and private prayers which were all well recited by more than half the children present.”

There were other references to the Mission Room in the magazines, including one in the April issue which states:

“The Mission Room near Bletchley station, which has now been in constant use both on weekdays and Sundays for more than three years, can no longer be allowed to remain without the addition of a small chancel . . .

“Since the erection of the building a considerable population has sprung up in the district adjoining Bletchley station and the room has now become an indispensable part of the parish organisation.”

SACRAMENTS

In 1890 a chancel was added, the original small vestry or side-room was enlarged, and on October 8 of that year the premises were licensed by the bishop for divine service and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Altar.  There was also a later enlargement and eventually the premises became known as St Margaret’s Church, after the ancient chantry chapel of St Margaret and St Katherine at Fenny, which was pulled down in Reformation times and which stood where St Martin’s Church now stands.  Services, and Sunday school were still held there up to a comparatively few years ago.