An Extract from:-
The History of Slough: Maxwell Fraser.
Published by 'The Slough Corporation' 1973.
EARLY SLOUGH SCHOOLS
Nothing is known of schools in the parish of
Upton-cum-Chalvey until the 19th century.
Various private schools are mentioned in the
1830's — Mrs. Penley's at Upton, (1) and Mr.
Wade's in the High Street (2) — and
presumably there were Dame Schools where a
few pence secured a grounding in 'The Three
RV, but the majority of the earlier schools
were denominational, the 'National' Schools
being promoted by the Church of England, and
'British' schools by the Nonconformists. (3)
CHURCH OF ENGLAND SCHOOLS
The Church of England schools were
originally held in a building at Arbour
Vale. Infant schools were first opened in
England in 1815, but it is not known when
they were opened here. All that is known
at present is that Infant Schools were built
at Chalvey and Slough, with the boys and
girls remaining hi Arbour Vale.
The Report of the Commissioners on popular
education, in the second half of the 19th
century, and an increased interest in
education, co-incided with the rapid
increase of population in Slough. The
Arbour Vale building was sold, and other
school rooms were built successively at
Slough and Chalvey, most of which were still
in use until a few years ago, although many
new schools were built after the enlargement
of the town's boundaries. ,
These early school buildings, although they
had not got the amenities considered
necessary in modern schools, were
substantially built, and are remembered
nostalgically by many who received their
education there. It is interesting to
compare the cost of building them, with the
cost of schools today.
The Slough Girls' Schoolroom, which was
originally an Infant's School, was built at
a cost of £509. 3s. 3d., including £100 for
the site, and was opened on 9 November,
1864. An additional classroom and
cloakroom were added in 1885, at a cost of
£226.
The Slough Boys' Schoolroom and Master's
House, which cost £1,136. 19s. 10d., was
opened on 5 April, 1869.
The Slough Infants' Room, which cost £331,
was opened in January, 1869; and a new
Infants' Room, which cost £341. 14s. 2d. was
opened in July, 1878. (4)
St.Paul's Schoolroom was built in 1885, and
new Sunday School buildings were opened in
1933.
ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
When Baylis House was opened as a Roman
Catholic School and Centre in 1830, it was
not within the Slough boundaries, but the
school had a close association with Slough
from the first, as the only centre of
worship and instruction for Slough Roman
Catholics, and for the last seven years of
the school's existence, it was brought
within the town through the extension of the
Urban District boundary in 1900.
After the Reformation, the Roman Catholics
suffered many disabilities, including dire
penalties for giving instruction hi the
Roman Catholic religion, until the passing
of the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829,
yet the school which came to Baylis House
began its existence at Richmond, Surrey, six
years before the passing of the Act, through
the enterprise of William Henry Butt (born
1787) and his brother, James Palmer Butt
(1789-1873). Their success led to a need for
larger premises, and the removal of the
school to Baylis House hi 1830, together
with the Preparatory School kept in early
days at Spring Terrace, Richmond, by the
Misses Adams, sisters of Mrs. James Butt,
and afterwards known as the 'Little School'
of Baylis House.
William Henry Butt withdrew in 1835 to
Norwood, Surrey, but James Palmer Butt
remained at Baylis House as Principal, and
after some years, was assisted by his sons,
James William Butt (1821-1861) and William
Henry Butt (1829-1909). The latter
succeeded his father as Principal. He and
his wife Mary (1841-1906) had a son and four
daughters, Mary, Agnes, Gertrude, and
Cecilia. (5)
The history of Baylis House School has been
told by Canon Edwin Burton in Baylis House,
Salt Hill, Slough: Catholic School and
Catholic Centre, 1830-1907, (6) in which he
says: 'Baylis House was always much more
than a school, it was a centre from which,
for many long years, flowed charity and help
for the spiritual and corporal needs of the
scattered flock of Christ which in that
neighbourhood held to the ancient faith'.
Miss Cecilia Magdalen Butt, the last local
survivor of the Butt family, gave
interesting details of the school when
interviewed in August, 1957, by Mr. D. Rowe,
of Urwick Orr and Partners, Ltd., (7). She
was then about 80 years of age. Her father
and uncles ran the Senior School, and her
mother and sisters the Junior School.
There were 80 in the house, of whom 60 were
pupils, and it was 'like a village, with its
own brewery, bakery, wash-house, dairy,
scalding-house for pans, apple-house, and
potato house'. They farmed 99 acres,
including pastures.
The boys had their own pack of beagles, like
the Eton College boys, and 'had beer with
their dinner'. The Eton boys used to come
over to Baylis House to watch cricket there
on Sundays, as cricket was not allowed at
Eton on a Sunday.
The Butt family also ran an import-export
business, and from this built up foreign
connections. Many pupils came from France,
Spain, Brazil and Trinidad, including
several generations of the Domecq family of
Jerez, Spain. The school excelled at
book-keeping and languages, Spanish and
French being spoken
as
much as English. (8)
Among others who received their schooling
at
Baylis House were (Sir) Seymour Hicks, the
popular actor-manager, George Edwards, the
theatre manager and his son Darcy; (9) Sir
Henry Bedingfield of Oxburgh and Leslie Ward
(the famous cartoonist, 'Spy'). (10) Six
former Baylis House boys represented foreign
countries at the coronation of George V.
(11)
By far the
greater
number of Baylis House students who achieved
distinction in after years became Roman
Catholic priests, including several of the
Butt family. John Butt, who was
a
Chaplain in the Crimean War, became fourth
Bishop of Southwark, and his nephew, Joseph
Butt (born 1869) became Vice-Rector of Beda
College in Rome, and later Auxiliary to
Cardinal Bourne at Westminster. When
Cardinal Bourne died in 1935, Joseph Butt
administered the diocese until the
appointment of Archbishop Hinsley. In
1936, on Joseph Butt's Silver Jubilee as a
bishop, Pope Pius XI created him an
Assistant at the Pontifical Throne. Bishop
Butt resigned his bishopric the following
year, owing to ill-health, and in 1938 was
created an Archbishop (See of Nicopsi). He
died in the early 1940's. (12)
Among many other pupils who achieved
distinction in the Roman Catholic Church
were Bishop Keatinge, C.M.G., afterwards
Archbishop of Liverpool; John Crook, (13)
President
of
St.Edmund's College, Ware, Hertfordshire,
from 1887-1892, and Canon Edwin Burton, who
was President of St.Edmund's from 1916-1918,
(14) but the most celebrated was Rafael
Merry del Val (1865-1930), Cardinal
Secretary
of
State to Pope Pius X. He was ordained
priest in 1888; Secretary to the Papal
Commission on Anglican Orders in 1896; and
went as Apostolic delegate to Canada in
1897. He was Consistorial Secretary in
1903; Pontifical Secretary of State 1903-14;
Cardinal priest of the titular church of
Santa Prassede in 1903; Archpriest of
St.Peter's in 1914; and Secretary of the
Holy Office from 1914 until his
death
in Rome. (15)
In spite of this distinguished record of
students, Baylis House declined. (16)
William Henry Butt became bankrupt, and gave
up the school in 1907, when he was 78 years
of age. He died two years later. (17)
His eldest daughter, Miss Mary Butt, who was
Lady Principal of the Preparatory School,
carried on at Milford House, Windsor Road,
(18) where many foreign pupils still came.
(19) She was awarded the Medal Pro
Ecclessia et Pontifice by Pope Pius XI
—
probably on the recommendation of Cardinal
Merry del Val. She retired in 1930, when
the school celebrated its centenary, and
lived to be over 90 years of age. (20)
Father Clemente, who had been appointed
Chaplain at Baylis House in 1882, and had
established the Roman Catholic Chapel in
Herschel Street in 1885, was instrumental in
having a school built
next
to the chapel, and fronting on Victoria
Street, in 1886, with a large donation
from
the Dowager Duchess of Buccleuch, of Ditton Park, who had been
converted to Roman Catholicism. (21) The
school opened with 25 children. A new
schoolroom was added in 1889. It was
re-built and re-opened in 1894 to take 140
children, and final extensions were
completed in 1949. The St.Ethelbert's
Junior School moved from Victoria Street to
modern buildings in Wexham Road in 1967, and
the St.Ethelbert's Infants' School moved to
another new building there in 1972. (22)
St.Bernard's Convent School was opened in
1897 (see p. 94).
St Joseph's Roman Catholic Secondary School
was opened in Shaggy Calf Lane in 1958. (23)
THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH SCHOOL
In 1854, the Congregational School at
Chalvey was removed to Slough, where the
schoolroom i the new church was used as a
day school, and the Chalvey British School
removed there in the following year.
According to the financial records of this
school, the teacher's salary, apart from
scholars' pence, was £15 a year in 1863.
In 1870, the Head Teacher's salary was £21 a
year, and the children's pence amounted to
£31. lls. 0d. The first Government grant,
of
£4.
5s. 0d., was made in 1871, and the master's
salary was increased to £70 inclusive.
Penny readings accounted for £16
of
the receipts of the school in that year.
The Church Schoolroom was continuously in
use until 1871, when it
was
objected to by H.M. Inspectors of
Schools. The foundation of a new building
for
the Slough and Chalvey British Schools was
laid in 1873 in Herschel Street, on the site
now occupied by St.Mary's Church
Institute. Government grants and
teachers' salaries increased
in successive years, until the records
ceased in 1894. (24)
ALDIN HOUSE
Aldin House was originally built for the
Baroness Burdett-Coutts, a member of the
great banking family, who was at one time a
close friend of Queen Victoria. The
Baroness, however, never lived there, and
various stories have been told to account
for this. A generally accepted version is
that Queen Victoria so strongly disapproved
of her marriage that the Baroness came to
the conclusion it would not
be
agreeable to live so close to Windsor
Castle.
The house was standing empty when the Rev.
John William Hawtrey, who had been an
Assistant Master at Eton since 1842, decided
to open his own school. St.Michael's
School was opened in Aldin House on 22
September, 1869, and continued there for 14
years. At that time, the old Dolphin Inn "
was still standing beside the main road,
but, after some alterations by the Rev. John
Hawtrey, the inn eroded its existence in the
same year as the school opened.
The full story of St.Michael's School (25)
is told by the Rev. John Hawtrey's son,
(Sir) Charles Hawtrey, the popular
actor-manager in his reminiscences The Truth
At Last. (26) He says: 'Aldin House was, I
think, the most comfortable house I was ever
in, and quite the ugliest'.
Soon after the school was opened, the
Tetsworth water, which flowed through the
grounds, was .widened out to make an open
air bathing pool, and Pearce, who had been
an Eton waterman, came to teach the boys
swimming. He used to take
care
of the boys' watches, wearing a dozen or so whilst they were
bathing. One day, one of the boys got into
difficulties, and the Rev. John Hawtrey
jumped into the pool and waded with him to
land. Just as he did so, Pearce, loaded
with watches, took a majestic header' into
the water, and swam to the other bank !
Sir Paul Waterhouse, at one time President
of the Institute of British Architects, went
to school at St Michael's, and it was his
father
—
also in his time President of the Institute
—
who made plans for beautifying and enlarging the then
extremely ugly chapel of Aldin House. The
dedication service was taken by Bishop
Wilberforce, then Bishop of Oxford.
Among pupils who passed from the
St.Michael's Cricket Eleven to the Eton
Eleven, were Lord Hawke and Percy de
Paravinci. Other pupils who attained fame
were 'Badger' Slade and George
Warrender, both of whom attained the highest
rank in the Navy; and three who were
afterwards owners af Derby winners: George
Alexander Baird, better known as Mr.
Abington, whose horse, Merry Hampton,
won
in in 1887; Sir James Miller, whose horse
Sainfoin won in 1890; and Rock Sand in 1903;
and Major Eustace Loder, whose horse
Spearmint won in 1906.
Another pupil, Bill Browning (later Lord
Lurgan) was the son of the Lord Lurgan whose
horse,
Master McGrath, was the first to win the
Waterloo Cup more than once
—
having carried it off in 1869,
1870 and 1872. The horse was brought to
Windsor in March, 1871, to be shown to Queen
Victoria,
and
was brought over to Aldin House afterwards
to be shown to Billy's school friends.
George Bancroft, the son of Squire Bancroft,
went to the school in the autumn of 1879 and
it was through the encouragement of Mr. and
Mrs. Bancroft (later Sir Squire and Lady
Bancroft) that Charles Hawtrey took up
acting as a career, and made his first
appearance on the stage in September 1881.
St.Michael's School removed to
Westgate-on-Sea in 1883.
Mr. Gallop, who died in 1936 at the age of
89, had been in charge of the building of
Aldin House the bricks for which came from
the brickfield of Charles Holden, which was
on the site now occupied by the Diamond
Estate. Mr. Gallop acted as caretaker and
night nurse during the time St. Michael’s
School was at Aldin House, and on one
occasion when a severe epidemic of measles
had broken out the two Loder brothers were
among the patients. When Mr. Gallop went
to the engine house to tend the fire, he
heard a shout, and saw one of the brothers,
who had been given a dose of belladonna,
falling out of the window. He was able to
catch him and break his fall, and was
subsequently given a handsome present by the
boy's parents. A year or two before Mr.
Gallop's death, when he was on holiday at
Westgate, Mrs. Hawtrey sent for him, to
show him the grandson of the boy whose life
he had saved.
Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister, and
afterwards Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, also
received his early education at St.
Michael's School. When he paid a visit to
Slough in 1937, he told Cecil Warner then
Station Master, that he had very happy
recollections of his school days at Aldin
House, but remembered being extremely
gleeful when the great snowstorm of 1882
delayed the return of all the boys after the
Christmas holidays, owing to the suspension
of all local train services. (27)
After St. Michael’s School had moved to
Westgate, Mr. Gallop took charge of the
building for the Agents, and shortly
afterwards it was taken for twelve months by
the Rev. Studholme Brownrigg,
Superintendent of the Welsh Charity School
for boys and girls at Ashford, Middlesex,
during alterations to the Ashford buildings,
when the school was converted to a
Foundation School exclusively for girls of
Welsh parentage. (28)
The Superintendent of St.George's School at
Southwark also took Aldin House during
reconstruction of his school buildings,
after which Aldin House was put up for sale
by auction. It was bought by the Jesuit
Fathers as a College, and Mr. Gallop was
employed by them as an engineer for the
e:ight years of their stay. They gave up
their tenancy on their return to France in
the 1890's.
Aldin House was eventually bought by the
Bernadines in 1897, and given its present
name of St.Bernard's. A boarding school
was run in connection with the Convent, and
in 1904 the first local children were taken,
lessons being given in a room in the
Tower. St Joseph's, originally a private
house was taken over in 1906, and opened as
a Day School for local children of all
denominations. It was amalgamated with St.
Bernard's on 1 July, 1945, as a Preparatory
School.
HALIDON HOUSE
Halidon House High School for Girls was
founded by Miss Goddard in 1865 in Church
Stree:t but iis best remembered for its
subsequent years under Miss Webb in
Mackenzie Street, when it was
the
leading Girls' School in Slough. It
moved to its present home in Fulmer in 1948.
(31)
SLOUGH SCHOOLS TODAY
The Education Act of 1870 brought Local
Government also into the educational system,
and School Boards were set up where an
insufficient number of schools was provided
by the Churches, but comparatively few
School Boards were necessary in South
Bucks. The first State School in Slough
was originally built by the Stoke Poges
School Board, north of the railway, and only
came within the Slough boundaries in 1900.
In 1902, an Act was passed which made the
Buckinghamshire County Council responsible
for education, and this school (now the
Thomas Gray County Primary School) passed
under the control of the County Council.
The County Council was also required under
the Act to assist in large measure with the
financial cost of running the Church
Schools.
The 1902 Act also required local education
authorities to provide Grammar Schools, but
it was not until 1912 that the Slough
Secondary School was opened in William
Street. It was enlarged in 1910 and was
split into the Boys' Grammar School in
Lascelles Road in 1936, and the Girls' High
School in Twinches Lane in 1940.
Since the 1902 Education Act Buckinghamshire
County Council has been responsible for the
Education Service in Slough, but the
Education Act of 1944 gave Slough Borough
Council delegated control.extract
ends. |
