Hempstead C of E School: 1854-1946
Hempstead’s original school was attached to St Andrew’s Church. In 1768, the Reverend Philip Morant described it thus: “On the north side of the Chancel, and part of the Church, is a brick building, or Chapel; one part of it is used for an unendowed School.”
In 1852, it was agreed to raise funds to build a Church school. This opened in 1854 on the site of what is now the Village Hall: it is shown as a boys’ and girls’ school on the detailed OS map of 1876. That map shows the land now known as the Glebe as being attached to the school; we know from the Tithe Map of 1842 that this land formed part of the Drummon estate and was occupied by George Moore, the miller: we don’t currently know if it was conveyed to the school on opening, or at some time during the 20 years afterwards.
The buildings and School House (now Trevor House) were etensively refurbished in 1925: the Parish Magazine for April of that year welcomes a new Head Teacher, Mrs Curtis and refers to a new chimney stack to the house, new railings erected around the schhol yard and house garden by Mr Fred Hall, new drain pipes and ditching to carry away surface water. The same issue refers to the work being done to erect the new village War Memorial, as well as the slow start to the fund for rebuilding the church tower.
The school closed in 1946. The old Salvation Army hall [ at ] was donated to the village, A charity was set up and, after a fundraising campaign, the school was bought for £300 by the new Village Hall trust. Part of this was recouped in 1958 when the former Salvaton Army plot was sold for £180. Various improvements were made over the years, including a kitchen and the replacement of the old ‘bucket and chuck it’ toilets. In 1980, the hall was taken over by the Parish Council and was used until the construction of a new, lottery-funded Hall which opened in 2000.
The photographs below give some idea of how the school building would have looked.
Reminiscences
Conversation with Ian Beaton, 4 July 2024
Staff
The list below has been put together from census returns and Kelly’s Directories and shows the staff employed at the dates shown
| Date | Source | Schoolmistress | Infants’ mistress |
| 1841 | Census | Ann Hibblethwaite | |
| 1861 | Census | Mrs Louisa Willis | |
| 1874 | Kelly’s | Miss E Wright | |
| 1882 | Kelly’s | Miss Elizabeth Lloyd | |
| 1891 | Census | Miss Barbara Boyd | Miss Clara Metcalfe |
| 1901 | Census | Miss Barbara Boyd | Miss Clara Metcalfe |
| 1902 | Kelly’s | Miss Barbara Boyd | Miss Clara Metcalfe |
| 1911 | Census | Miss Barbara Boyd | Miss Clara Metcalfe |
| 1914 | Kelly’s | Mr Charles Fife | Miss Amy Till |
| 1922 | Kelly’s | Mrs Carlotta Alexander | Miss Gladys Coe |
| 1939 | National Register | Mrs Edith Funston |
Miss Winifred Foster is also recorded in one of the news clippings below as having taught in the school for some 15 years until about 1937, before moving to the Boys’ British School in Saffron Walden.
School photographs
We know that the above photo was taken before 1915 because that was the year that Margaret Drane’s mother [ ] left to go to South Road School in Saffron Walden at the age of 12. The schoolmaster on the right was Chas. F. Fyfe, a Scot.
As well as the children named in the cutting, the above photo shows:
Middle Row, L-R: Leslie Turner, Thelma Andrews, Dorothy Andrews, Dorothea Lashmere, Joan Coote, Betty Johnson. Edith Purkiss, Audrey Turner, Gwen Foster, Sid Foster, Ellis Andrews, Tom Blackmore.
Front Row, L-R: Harold Purkiss, Leslie Coote, ? Blackmore, Jack Turner, George Wright, Ron Foster
“Demand”? What Sauce!!!
On 8 October 1937, the Essex Chronicle carried this short report. The mothers’ direct appeal to the Bishop of Chelmsford appears to have been an ambush which took the school Managers completely by surprise. “Demand”? noted the Chairman. “What Sauce”!!! The exercise book below reveals a fascinating exercise in pre-war public relations and a good example of the principle that a first draft should be written to improve one’s temper before being filed in the waste paper basket. We start with the the first outraged draft response (“libellous perversion of facts”, “trumped up yarn”, “a put up job organised as a local government vote catching device” and proceed through a series of more moderate amendments. Sadly the final letter is not available, but it seems that no urgent action was found to be necessary.
