PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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Work started in 1833 on a new building that would accommodate 100 boys on the ground floor and 80 girls on the first floor. It was due for completion in the summer of 1834 but it was not opened until 1835. Although it was originally intended to make Stoke Public a "National" school, the committee of management instead made it a British and Foreign one, whereby the Bible was read every day but no lessons were given about it. The cost was expected to be £465 of which £42 was to be the cost of providing an apartment for a schoolmistress. £100 was received for the sale of the previous building. The rooms were 36 feet by 24 feet by 13 feet high. The building bore a stone which was inscribed “Stoke Public School for Poor Boys and Girls”. On September 29th 1835 Sir Molesworth St Aubyn leased the land in Keppel Place to the Trustees of the school for 99 years at an annual rental of one shilling. When the Western Daily Mercury did their survey of local schools in 1868 it revealed that the boys occupied the ground floor while the girls were on the top floor, reached by means of a separate entrance. There was no playground attached to the School, which was not found to be a convenient situation. There was accommodation for about 340 children but there were 360 on the register. In the boys' school there were 240 children on the books, with an average daily attendance on 190. This was twenty more than the regulations of the time permitted. The girls' school had around 120 on the register and an average daily attendance of 100: it could accommodate a further 70 pupils. There was no infants' department, which was found to be wanting. Apparently one of the reasons for the low attendance at the girls' school was that mothers had the tendancy to keep their daughters at home to help with household duties rather than send them to school. Because the majority of the children were from families whose employment was in the government establishments of Devonport, the Admiralty gave an annual donation to the upkeep of the School, which in 1867 amounted to £15. As a result, boys who aspired to become engineers, for instance, were taught algebra and Euclid in addition to the normal English History, geography and grammar. Another feature of the boys' education at Stoke Public were the "object lessons", on subjects such as bread and water, etc., and drawing, which was considered to be beneficial for those wanting to become designers or cutters working in such trades as wood engraver, stone-masons, statuaries, designers and cutters for calico, chintz, etc., patterns for paper-hangers' blocks, as well as drawings for upholsterers, silversmiths, or goldsmiths. The uses of drawing were endless. The results of this experiment were very encouraging. In May 1866, 83 boys were examined, of which two obtained prizes, 27 received cards of merit, and a further 34 satisfied the examiner. In the following May, 100 boys were examined, 12 obtained prizes and 27 got cards of merit. A further 45 boys satisfied the examiner that they were competent. Stoke Public were top of the three schools in Devonport that were examined. The School Committee provided all the necessary apparatus for the lessons, including carved works in wood and stone and specimens of blocks used in the paper printing trade. There were a certified master and mistress in charge of each of the Schools, with three pupil teachers and four paid monitors in the boys school and three pupil teachers and two paid monitors in the girls school. Miss Mitchell was the headmistress in charge of the girls' school. The school fees varied according to the parents' ability to pay. The minimum was 1d per week, the highest was 5d. The amount paid made no difference to the education received, though. The boy who paid a 1d sat alongside the boys who paid 2d, 3d, 4d, or 5d. There were only 15 to 20 boys paying 1d per week in 1868. It is interesting to look at the School's income. In addition to the already mentioned grant from the Admiralty, there were in 1867 voluntary contributions of £50. The school pence raised incomes of £60 from the boys and £23 12s 2½d from the girls. The grant from the Government, after a successful examination, amounted to £76 11s for the boys school and £39 12s 8d for th girls. It is worth mentioning that when Mr Rider took over the running of the schools in 1863, the Government Grant amounted to only £29 6s for both schools and receipts from school fees were only £19. Following the adoption of the Education Act 1870, which introduced the Devonport School Board, the school was extended in 1871 to take an additional 100 boys. STOKE PUBLIC HIGHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL The Board of Education introduced a new Code of Practice in 1876 that required schools to split into Higher and Lower divisions. A partition was therefore constructed which put 170 boys in the Lower School and 100 in the Higher unit. Direct admission to the Higher School was allowed by means of an 11+ examination. The fee for boys in the Higher School was nine shillings a quarter. The school was renamed “Stoke Public Higher School”. An extension was ready for use in August 1877. Named the Nelson Extension after Major-General R J Nelson, it cost £270 to construct. In 1880 some adjoining land was purchased for the erection of additional classrooms for 130 boys and 80 girls. Although the tender was for £590 it actually cost £1,004. The building was opened in January 1881. Nos. 1 and 2 Keppel Place were purchased in 1884 for use as an Infants’ School but it is not clear at the moment as to whether or not this was actually opened as both properties are shown in 1890 as being otherwise occupied. In any case, there was talk of an infants school being formed when the Western Daily Mercury did their survey in 1868. Alonzo Rider and his wife, Mary, both resigned in 1896 in order to start their own school, the forerunner of Devonport High School for Boys. Mr Rider was replaced by Mr William Henry Crang, who moved into numbers 6 and 7 Keppel Place. All good schools in those days had "drill" as a part of the curriculum but in June 1901 the Devonport Park and Pleasure Grounds Committee of Devonport Corporation declined to give permission 'for the boys of Stoke Public School to be drilled in the playground at the Blockhouse'. Following the adoption of the Education Act 1902 on June 1st 1903, the School became a "Non-provided" School under the Devonport Local Education Authority. On November 23rd 1906 Stoke Public School was sold to the Devonport Local Education Authority, the part that was leased from the Manor authority being sold to the Corporation for £370. The Trustees gave the Corporation a cheque for £575 17s 11d as the balance of the School's funds. Thus the Borough gained a Higher Elementary School. DEVONPORT HIGHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Plans for a new building for the School were put before the Education Committee in September 1907. It was to have three floors, with a partly covered playground at ground level for the boys while the girls, being made of sterner stuff, had to endure the elements on the roof. It was originally planned to house 440 boys in eleven classrooms and 280 girls in seven classrooms but the number of boys was later reduced to 340. On September 1st 1908 the old school was moved to rooms in Devonport Technical School, the Exmouth Hall, the School in Paradise Road and Haddington Road Methodist Sunday School, amongst others. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Alderman Littleton, chairman of the Education Authority, on December 9th 1908. The estimated cost of the new building was £11,180. The new building was opened on September 6th 1909, under the headship of Mr G J Michell BA. It was for both boys and girls and the school hours were from 9am to 12 Midday and from 1.45 until 4.30pm. It was now known as the “Stoke Public Higher Elementary School”. One third of the places was to be filled by examination from the elementary schools and two-thirds would be open to fee-paying pupils at a cost of sixpence per week. At that time there were 10,463 scholars in Council elementary schools in Devonport and a further 3,416 in voluntary (church) schools in the area.
Two views of those hardy girls
using the rooftop Like most other local schools it was used as military hospital during the First World War, commencing from August 21st 1914. Classes were dispersed all over the Borough but this proved unsatisfactory so the school moved to Johnston Terrace School where the two schools operated a “double shift” system, with Stoke Public HES working from 1.15pm until 5.15pm. Full hours were resumed in June 1916.
Devonport Higher Elementary
School in Then at Easter 1917 the School was again on the move, this time to three Sunday School premises at Ford, where they remained until September 1919, when they returned to their own building. There was evidently a fee of sixpence per week to pay but this ceased when the Education Act 1918 came into force. The last fees were collected during the week of March 28th 1919. KEPPEL PLACE CENTRAL SCHOOL By July 1921 the title of the School had changed to “Keppel Place Central” but this was not recognised officially until March 5th 1923, apparently. Mr A L Strachan BA became Headmaster of Keppel Place Central School on June 23rd 1924. On September 9th the title went through another change, this time to the “Plymouth Devonport Keppel Place Secondary School for Boys”. Presumably girls were excluded from this date. But things happened quickly and suddenly in those days, as
they do today, and on July 26th 1926 it was announced that the School would be closing on
July 30th. The Headmaster may have known
about this decision as the Board of Education apparently approved it on July 13th. Some of the pupils became founder members of the
new Sutton Secondary School for Boys in Regent
Street, Plymouth. From August 1926 the building re-opened as Stoke Damerel Secondary School for Girls. [Part of this summary is taken from an article in the Western Daily Mercury for Monday May 18th 1868, courtesy of the Plymouth Central Reference Library].
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