The Hall That Was A School 77 Years Ago (4 June 1976)
A recent news item that caught my eye concerned the local Freemasons’ acquisition of the former urban council offices at the junction of Queensway and Victoria Road, Fenny Stratford, and the sale of their former hall in the High Street.
To many elderly local people, of course, the High Street hall is still known as the High Street School, or the National School, though it is now 77 years since it was used as such.
Some mystery surrounds the origins of regular day-school education in Fenny. In his “History of Fenny Stratford,” published in 1911, Dr William Bradbrook wrote as though no school other than a National School had ever existed.
It seems, however, that for many years the National School stood almost side by side with a British School. This school was on the site of Bletchley Motors’ High Street garage and could even have pre-dated the original National School, which was provided around 1815 and was succeeded by the present premises in 1861.
National Schools were originated by The National Society for the Education of [the] Poor in the Principles of the Established Church throughout England and Wales. The society’s formation meeting was held in 1811, it was incorporated in 1817 and later became known simply as the National Society.
British Schools were originated by The Institution for Promoting the British System for the Education of the Labouring and Manufacturing Classes of Society of Every Religious Persuasion. The institution was founded in 1808 and its formidable name was shortened to the British and Foreign Schools Society in 1814.
In 1815 the National Society granted £30 towards building the original National School at Fenny. This was largely maintained by the local gentry and clergy. In 1819 the school reported 107 children on the books, but by 1832 the number had been reduced to 52 – all boys – and shortly afterwards the school seems to have temporarily fizzled out, for in 1839 a public meeting was called “to establish in this place a Day and Sunday School.”
The ground for the 1861 school was conveyed freely for that purpose to the Minister and Churchwardens of Fenny by the trustees of the old Brynes and Willis Charity.
The Education Act of 1870 made school attendance compulsory up to the age of 10. School boards were subsequently inaugurated and in 1887 the Fenny premises were rented by a school board from the Vicar and Churchwardens to whom they were restored in 1899 when the school finally closed there and went to the new Bletchley Road (Queensway) premises.
In those last years sectarian differences were largely overcome and the old British School became a sort of infants department of the National School. But Fenny’s grand old man, Mr Frank Howard, clearly remembers that it was still known as the British School and that he himself attended it before passing on to the National School.
After their closure as a day school the National premises were used for years by the church as a Sunday School and general meeting place. Some meetings of the urban council were also held there before the council offices were opened in about 1902.
The connection of the Freemasons with the property goes back to 1900, when the St. Martin’s Lodge was consecrated. A special Masonic Room was constructed for the lodge and used for the first time in October, 1907. In that same month – possibly on the same day – the Oliver Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons was consecrated and also began using the premises.
And now the good old building is in the hands of the Development Corporation to become – who knows what?
No Comments
Add a comment about this page