EDUCATION.
A school-house which stood east of
the churchyard in 1572 (fn. 68) may have housed Enfield
grammar school until the erection of the surviving
building c. 1586. (fn. 69) Several private schools were
established in the 17th and 18th centuries, (fn. 70) when
the grammar school alone seems to have catered for
the poor. Mary Turpin, by will dated 1775, left £200
to teach three poor girls reading, writing, and
needlework. (fn. 71) In 1787 a school for poor boys and
girls was opened in premises in Baker Street which
had once formed part of the Old Fighting Cock
alehouse; the school, which was supported by
voluntary subscriptions, had declined by 1826 (fn. 72) and
disappeared soon afterwards. Its closure may have
resulted from the opening of two schools of industry
for girls, the first in 1800 by Anglicans and the
second in 1806 by nonconformists. An infants'
school was opened in 1824 and another, by nonconformists, in 1830. (fn. 73) The second school was at
Ponders End, where a part-time factory school was
also opened in 1830 (fn. 74) and closed with the jute
factory in 1882, by which time it had over 150
pupils. (fn. 75)
A National school opened at Enfield Highway in
1833 and was followed by several similar schools
both for Enfield Town and the remoter areas,
including Forty Hill and Cockfosters. Nonconformists opened a British school, at Chase Side, in
1838 and Roman Catholics opened their first school,
at Ponders End, in 1888. The government financed
a school at the Royal Small Arms factory from 1846
and a short-lived ragged school in Baker Street
offered rudimentary education to 'the poorest of the
poor' on Sunday afternoons and some evenings in
1859. (fn. 76) With those exceptions primary education
remained an Anglican monopoly until the foundation
of a school board, which occurred in 1894. (fn. 77) In 1893
all but three of the 17 schools receiving Parliamentary grants were controlled by the Church of
England. (fn. 78)
Five schools were built by Enfield school board
before 1900. One, at Bush Hill Park, was condemned
as extravagant in the local press, which accused the
board of trying to destroy the voluntary schools as
well as robbing the ratepayers. (fn. 79) The board ceased
to exist when Enfield became a Part III authority
under the Education Act of 1902. (fn. 80) Four more
schools were established by the U.D.C. before 1914
but only two entirely new schools were built in the
period between the World Wars; (fn. 81) in 1938 the local
authority controlled 19 schools. (fn. 82) Enfield became an
excepted district under the 1944 Education Act (fn. 83)
and at the end of the Second World War the
education committee embarked on an extensive
building programme: between 1945 and 1965, seven
primary and four secondary schools were built and
another four secondary schools were extended. (fn. 84)
In 1965 responsibility passed to Enfield L.B. and in
1967 a comprehensive system of secondary education
was introduced.
By 1964 there were three grammar schools:
Enfield (boys), the county school (girls), and
Ambrose Fleming (boys). Of the nine secondary
modern schools, four shared their premises with
primary schools: Bush Hill Park (mixed), George
Spicer central (mixed), Ponders End (girls), and
Suffolks (mixed). (fn. 85) All four schools lost their
secondary departments under the comprehensive
reorganization. In 1970 Enfield L.B. controlled 9
secondary and 28 primary schools and one special
school within the ancient parish.
Elementary schools founded before 1903. (fn. 86)
An Anglican school of industry for girls was opened in
1800 in premises in the churchyard belonging to
Prounce's charity and once known as the Old Coffee
House. (fn. 87) The school, supported by voluntary contributions and managed by a committee of ladies,
provided free clothing for 30 of its pupils. In 1876
new accommodation was found in a red-brick Tudor
style building in Silver Street but in 1909 the school
closed and the premises were divided between a
home for district nurses and a preparatory school. (fn. 88)
A nonconformist school for 50 girls was established
in 1806 in Baker Street. (fn. 89) The school, supported by
voluntary subscriptions and collections at local
chapels, supplied free clothing for 40 of the girls. (fn. 90)
In 1838, with the founding of Chase Side British
school, the building was converted into an infants'
school (fn. 91) which by 1911 had long been closed. The
premises, which later served as a garage (fn. 92) and a hall
for Jehovah's Witnesses, (fn. 93) were derelict in 1971.
St. James's National school, Enfield Highway,
was founded in 1833. Brick buildings, containing
schoolrooms for boys and girls, opened in the
triangle formed by Old and Hertford roads in 1834 (fn. 94)
and held 90 pupils in 1853. An infants' department
in a separate building was opened in 1841, with 45
pupils, and a new boys' school was opened in 1872
on a site nearer St. James's church. (fn. 95) The total
attendance was 659 in 1893 and 440 in 1919. In 1970
the school, which had Voluntary Aided status,
occupied premises in Frederick Crescent and had
274 juniors and infants on the roll.
Edmonton union school opened in the former
workhouse in Chase Side after Enfield joined the
poor law union in 1836. It was extended in 1839, (fn. 96)
an infirmary was built in its grounds in 1844, (fn. 97) and a
new workhouse school for 500 children was opened
at Chase Farm on the Ridgeway in 1886. (fn. 98) Chase
Farm school was later converted into an old people's
home and, in 1939, into Chase Farm hospital. (fn. 99)
Chase Side British school, a brick building with
separate schoolrooms for boys and girls, was opened
in 1838 by local Congregationalists with an attendance of 158. (fn. 1) There were 320 boys, girls, and
infants in 1893. In 1895 the school became a board
school and in 1901 the pupils were transferred to the
new Chase Side board school in Trinity Road; (fn. 2) the
old building survived in 1971 as a depot for United
Dairies.
St. Andrew's or Enfield National school opened in
1839 in a detached brick building in London Road,
with separate schoolrooms for boys and girls. (fn. 3)
Evening classes for adults were being held there in
1858. (fn. 4) An extra classroom and an infants' schoolroom were added in 1868 (fn. 5) and separate boys'
accommodation was opened in Sydney Road in
1879, the older building continuing in use by girls
and infants. (fn. 6) The total attendance was 606 in 1893
and 264 in 1919. In 1891 the girls moved to the
former Wesleyan church at the corner of Cecil and
Sydney roads, (fn. 7) which they left in 1926 on the
opening of a new junior and infants' school in
Sydney Road. (fn. 8) St. Andrew's school, which was
Voluntary Aided, moved to no. 116 Churchbury
Lane in 1972 and had 339 children enrolled in 1974.
The former girls' school served in 1971 as the parish
hall of St. Andrew's church.
Trent Church of England school was founded for
girls and infants of Cockfosters in 1838 by R. C. L.
Bevan of Trent Park, on land near Christ Church
but within the parish of East Barnet (Herts.). (fn. 9) A
boys' school, built by subscription, was opened near
by in Cockfosters Road, Enfield, in 1859 (fn. 10) and had
attendances of 67 in 1893 and 76 in 1919. The boys'
school closed in 1938 (fn. 11) on its amalgamation with the
girls' and was later demolished. The old girls' school
was rebuilt in 1957. (fn. 12)
St. Matthew's National school for infants,
Ponders End, opened in South Street in 1840. (fn. 13) In
1873 it was described as a mixed school for 120
children (fn. 14) and in 1882 the infants, numbering about
100, were moved to rented premises ¼ mile away. (fn. 15)
In 1906 junior girls and infants were reunited in
South Street, where there was an attendance of 291
in 1919. In 1970 the school, which was Voluntary
Aided, remained in the building of 1840 and had
103 infants enrolled.
The Royal Small Arms factory school, financed by
the government, opened within the factory for
juniors and infants in 1846. (fn. 16) A separate infants'
school was built in 1870, when evening as well as day
classes were being held. (fn. 17) In 1893 there was a total
attendance of 501 but by 1899 the pupils had been
transferred to the new Chesterfield Road board
school. (fn. 18) The original building then became a police
station guarding the entrance to the factory. (fn. 19)
Love's Row Church of England infants' school
originated in one of two infants' schools opened in
rented premises by the vicar of Enfield c. 1847. (fn. 20)
One of the schools occupied a detached building
formerly used by dissenters in Love's Row, Enfield
Town, in 1873 (fn. 21) but disappeared soon afterwards,
presumably being merged with Gordon Lane
infants' school. (fn. 22)
Maiden's bridge infants' school opened in a small
red-brick building north of Maiden's bridge, Bull's
Cross, in 1848. (fn. 23) It was built and supported by
James Meyer of Forty Hall (fn. 24) and never received a
government grant. It survived in 1897 (fn. 25) but seems
to have disappeared when an infants' department
was added to Forty Hill Church of England school
before 1907. (fn. 26) The building was being used in 1971
as a Scouts' hut.
Forty Hill National school, with separate departments for boys and girls, opened in a red-brick
Italianate building south of Maiden's bridge in
1851. (fn. 27) The school was enlarged in 1868 (fn. 28) and was
attended by 157 children in 1893 and 128 in 1919.
Further additions were made after the Second World
Aiar. In 1974 the school, which was Voluntary
Wded, had 125 infants and juniors.
St. John's National school, Clay Hill, opened in a
wooden schoolroom for juniors and infants in
1858. (fn. 29) The school was rebuilt in 1888 (fn. 30) and
attended by 82 children in 1893 and 40 in 1919. It
was extended in 1968 and had 54 juniors and infants
by 1971. (fn. 31)
St. Michael's Church of England school may have
originated in an infants' school which existed in
Chase Side in 1858. (fn. 32) In 1865 another infants'
school, consisting of one room for c. 50 pupils,
opened in Chase Side south of the Holly Bush inn,
possibly as a replacement of the earlier school. (fn. 33) In
1870 the school, described as St. Michael's, Holly
Bush, school and catering for both infants and
juniors, moved to a larger building. (fn. 34) A new infants'
school was built at the foot of Gordon Hill in 1877,
a school for boys opened at the foot of Brigadier Hill
in 1882, and a girls' school, later St. Michael's
church hall, opened in 1889. The total attendance was 489 in 1893 and 442 in 1919. The three
schools were amalgamated in 1939 and housed in
the boys' school, which was extended in 1959 and
1970. The old infants' school was demolished in
1950. (fn. 35)
St. Andrew's Church of England infants' school,
Gordon Lane, opened with 45 infants in 1872 on
a site given by Trinity College, Cambridge. (fn. 36)
The school seems to have replaced an earlier one
on the western side of Baker Street. (fn. 37) It had attendances of 144 in 1893 and 58 in 1919 and closed in
1923. (fn. 38)
Ordnance Road Church of England infants' school
opened in a schoolroom with accommodation for 80
in 1875. (fn. 39) Attendance had risen to 180 by 1893 but
the school closed between 1899 and 1906, (fn. 40) on the
building of Chesterfield Road board school.
Bush Hill Park National school, Main Avenue,
opened in 1882 in a schoolroom and a classroom
belonging to the trustees of the Bishop of London's
Fund. (fn. 41) There were 259 infants in 1893 and 147
juniors and infants in 1919. The school closed in
1937. (fn. 42)
St. Mary's Roman Catholic school for infants and
juniors opened in Alma Road, Ponders End, in 1888.
It adjoined St. Mary's church and consisted of a
schoolroom and a classroom. (fn. 43) Attendance was 128
in 1893 and 121 in 1919. The school moved to a new
building in Durants Road in 1928. (fn. 44) It was reconstructed after the Second World War and was a
Voluntary Aided school, with 259 infants and
juniors, in 1974.
St. Luke's Church of England infants' school
opened in 1893 in a new building adjacent to St.
Luke's church. (fn. 45) The school, attended by 89 children
in 1906, had closed by 1919. (fn. 46)
Elementary schools founded between 1894 and 1903. (fn. 47)
Botany Bay board school opened as a temporary school in 1895 in temporary accommodation,
which was replaced by a permanent building in
East Lodge Lane in 1914. There were attendances of
31 boys and girls in 1906 and 24 in 1919. The school
roll numbered 60 infants and juniors in 1974.
Bush Hill Park board school opened in 1896 and
was extended in 1908. It was attended by 1,427
juniors and infants in 1906 and by 1,262 in 1919.
There were 453 children enrolled at the junior school
and c. 300 at the infants' in 1974.
Alma Road board school, Ponders End, opened in
1897. It was attended by 1,107 juniors and infants
in 1906 and by 827 in 1919. There were 341 children
enrolled at the junior school and 249 at the infants'
in 1974.
Chesterfield Road board school, Enfield Lock,
also opened in 1897. It was attended by 1,697 juniors
and infants in 1906 and by 1,219 in 1919. There were
620 children enrolled at the junior school and 360 at
the infants' in 1974.
Chase Side board school, Trinity Street, opened
in 1901. It was attended by 1,020 juniors and infants
in 1906 and by 753 in 1919. There were 530 juniors
and infants on the roll in 1974.
St. George's Church of England infants' school,
Enfield Wash, was built by 1906. It contained 164
pupils in 1906 and 77 in 1919. The school was
Voluntary Aided, with 167 infants enrolled, in 1974.
Elementary schools founded between 1903 and 1945. (fn. 48)
St. George's Roman Catholic school, Cecil
Road, opened in 1903 and was rebuilt in 1939. (fn. 49) It
had 45 boys and girls in 1906 and 48 in 1919. The
school was Voluntary Aided, with 394 infants and
juniors on the roll in 1974.
Southbury Road council school opened in Swansea
Road in 1905 and had 966 juniors and infants in
1919. There were 320 enrolled at the junior school,
which also used an annexe in Glyn Road, and 184 at
the infants' in 1974.
Eastfield Road council school opened in 1909 and
had 406 juniors and infants in 1919. There were 439
enrolled at the junior school and 235 at the infants'
in 1974.
Lavender Road council school opened in 1910 and
had 918 juniors and infants in 1919. There were 476
enrolled at the junior school and 345 at the infants'
in 1974.
The George Spicer council school, Southbury
Road, opened in 1912. There were 805 juniors and
infants in 1919 and 460 in 1974.
Suffolks council school, Brick Lane, opened in
1934. (fn. 50) In 1974, when one wing was occupied by
Bishop Stopford's school, there were 270 juniors and
infants enrolled.
Brimsdown council school, East Street, opened in
1939. There were 500 enrolled at the junior school
and 263 at the infants', both in Green Street, in 1974.
Merryhills council school, Bincote Road, opened
in 1940 with accommodation for 280 juniors and
infants. There were more than 600 pupils by 1949,
before the opening of Grange Park school, but
numbers had fallen to 379 by 1971.
Primary schools founded after 1945.
Carterhatch
school, Carterhatch Lane, opened in 1949. In 1974
there was a junior school, with 220 on the roll, and
an infants', with 265.
Prince of Wales school, Salisbury Road, opened in
1950. The junior school had 284 pupils in 1971 and
the infants' school had 195 in 1974.
Grange Park school, World's End Lane, opened
in 1951. In 1971 there was a junior school, with 268
pupils, and an infants', with 228.
Honilands school, Lovell Road, opened in 1953 to
serve the near-by council estate. The junior school
had 240 pupils in 1971 and the infants' 229 in 1974.
Worcesters school, Goat Lane, opened in 1954.
In 1971 the junior school had 240 pupils and the
infants' 200.
Capel Manor school, Bullsmoor Lane, opened in
1958. There were 259 juniors and infants on the roll
in 1974.
Hadley Wood school, Courtleigh Avenue, opened
in 1965. There were c. 175 juniors and infants on the
roll in 1974.
Secondary and senior schools.
Apart from Enfield
grammar (fn. 51) school the first source of public secondary
education was Enfield upper grade school, opened in
1891 as a private school for girls. (fn. 52) It was also
attended by infants and fees were still charged in
1906, although it was then listed among other
schools receiving public support. Attendance was
143 in 1906 and 124 in 1919. The school closed in
1926. (fn. 53)
Enfield county school for girls opened in 1909 in
Holly Walk, sharing a large red-brick building with
a pupil-teachers' centre and a technical institute. An
extension, connected with the older block, was built
after the Second World War. In 1967 the school
combined with Chace girls' secondary school to
form Enfield Chace comprehensive school.
Ponders End junior technical, subsequently
Enfield secondary technical and later Ambrose
Fleming, school opened in High Street, Ponders
End, in 1911. It moved to Enfield technical college, (fn. 54)
Queensway, in 1941 and was renamed in 1944 and
again in 1959. The school moved to Collinwood
Avenue in 1962 and became an all-age comprehensive
school in 1967. It had 1,000 boys and girls in 1971.
George Spicer selective central school opened in
Southbury Road, adjoining the junior school, (fn. 55) and
survived until its replacement by Kingsmead
comprehensive school.
Albany secondary modern schools for boys and
girls opened in 1939 in Bell Lane, in a brick building
designed by Frank Lee. (fn. 56) It later became an all-age
mixed comprehensive school, with 990 pupils in
1974.
Chace secondary modern school for girls had
opened in Rosemary Avenue by 1957. (fn. 57) It was later
absorbed into Enfield Chace comprehensive school.
Chace secondary modern school for boys opened
in Churchbury Lane in 1956. (fn. 58) It became a junior
comprehensive in 1967 and an all-age comprehensive
school in 1970. There were 840 pupils in 1971.
Cardinal Allen Roman Catholic mixed secondary
modern school opened in Enfield Road in 1962. (fn. 59)
It had Voluntary Special Agreement status and
made way for St. Ignatius's college in 1968.
Comprehensive schools founded since 1967. (fn. 60)
Enfield
Chace school was formed in 1967 out of Enfield
county and Chace girls' secondary schools. From
1971 the buildings in Rosemary Avenue housed girls
aged 11-13, while older girls attended Holly Walk.
There was a total of 1,200 pupils in 1974.
Kingsmead school opened in Southbury Road in
1967, replacing George Spicer central, Bush Hill
Park, and Ponders End (girls') schools. A sixth-form
block was added in 1970 and there were c. 950 pupils
in 1971.
Bishop Stopford's school, an Aided comprehensive, was founded in 1967 when premises in Brick
Lane were acquired from Enfield L.B. by the diocese
of London. There were c. 900 boys and girls in 1974.
Holy Family school was founded as a Roman
Catholic Aided comprehensive, whose upper tier
used a former private school run by sisters of the
Holy Family in London Road while the juniors
temporarily used part of Bush Hill Park's premises
in Main Avenue. There were c. 425 girls on the roll
in 1974.
St. Ignatius's college, a Roman Catholic Aided
grammar school, moved from Tottenham (fn. 61) in 1968,
on its conversion into a two-tier comprehensive
school. The upper school occupied new buildings in
Turkey Street, where there were c. 725 boys in 1971,
and the lower, with 420 boys in 1974, took over
the Cardinal Allen school in Enfield Road.
Special school. (fn. 62)
Edmonton and Enfield joint
special school, later Durants school, opened in 1920
under a joint committee of the two councils. It was
a day-school for 90 educationally sub-normal
children and occupied Nassau House, Enfield
Highway, which in 1939 was replaced by a building
designed by Frank Lee as the first of its kind in
southern England. (fn. 63) Accommodation was extended
to take 160 children in 1949, Stapleton House was
afterwards acquired at Potters Bar, and by 1955 the
roll had risen to 220. A new wing was added to
Durants in 1963 and the Stapleton House annexe
was closed on the establishment of Oaktree school,
Edmonton, in 1965.
Enfield college of technology. (fn. 64)
In 1901 Sir Joseph
Wilson Swan bought a house in the High Street,
Ponders End, which, as the Ediswan institute, was
used for evening classes and social activities by
workers at the Ediswan factory. The building was
purchased by the county council in 1905 and
replaced in 1911 by the technical institute, which
also housed the newly-founded Ponders End junior
technical school (fn. 65) and where evening classes
continued. The institute was extended in 1924 and
larger buildings on a 39-acre site in Queensway were
begun in 1938. Classes began in the uncompleted
new building, known as Enfield technical college, in
1941, after the older premises had been damaged by
bombs. In 1959 the college gained recognition from
London University for courses leading to external
degrees in engineering and in 1962 it took over the
entire building in Queensway on the technical
school's move to Collinwood Avenue. The college
was reorganized in 1967 into faculties of arts and
technology. In 1971, when there were 1,300 students
on full-time or sandwich courses and 900 part-time
students, a new tutorial block was opened and Capel
Manor, Bull's Cross, acquired as a management
centre. The old technical institute in Ponders End
High Street was rebuilt after the Second World War
and in 1971 housed the science block of the technical
college. The college has been designated as one of
the constituents of a new polytechnic, to include
Hendon technical college and Hornsey school of art.
Trent Park college.
A residential emergency
teachers' training college for men opened in 1949 in
Trent Place (fn. 66) and became a permanent training
college for men and women specializing in art,
music, and drama in 1950. (fn. 67) Ludgrove Hall,
Cockfosters, (fn. 68) was later acquired as a hostel.
Private schools.
Some London merchants were
sending their children to be 'nursed and put to
school' at Enfield c. 1636. (fn. 69) John Chishul (d. 1672),
an ejected Congregationalist minister, kept a school
thereafter the Restoration (fn. 70) and Dr. Robert Uvedale,
master of the grammar school, opened a private
boarding school in Enfield manor-house c. 1670. (fn. 71)
Later known as the Palace school, it was attended by
the chemist George Fownes (1815-49) (fn. 72) and closed
in 1896. (fn. 73) There was a flourishing academy for
Presbyterians at Forty Hill in the 18th century, run
by the Revd. Andrew Kinross (fn. 74) and numbering
some aristocratic pupils. (fn. 75) Another nonconformist,
the Revd. John Ryland, opened a school in the late
18th-century house in Nags Head Road, Enfield
Town, which later became the first Enfield Town
railway station; John Keats, the poet, was educated
there under Ryland's successor, John Clarke, (fn. 76) as
were his friends the writers Charles Cowden Clarke
(1787-1877) and Edward Holmes (1797-1859). (fn. 77)
Isaac D'Israeli was said to have attended a school at
Ponders End run by a Scotsman named Morison. (fn. 78)
The mathematician Charles Babbage (1792-1871)
and the novelist Captain Frederick Marryat (1792-
1848) attended a school run by the Revd. Stephen
Freeman in a house in Baker Street later known as
Holmwood. (fn. 79)
In 1832 Enfield had 12 boarding schools, five
private day-schools, and one preparatory school; (fn. 80)
in 1858, apart from the Palace school, there were
two old-established schools for girls at Chase Side
and Ponders End and boys' schools at Enfield
Highway, in Silver Street, and in Gothic Hall, Baker
Street. (fn. 81) An independent school for girls was opened
in St. Ronan's, Hadley Wood, in 1897 and closed in
1939. (fn. 82) The number of private schools in the parish
fell during the 20th century. Survivors in 1970
included Clark's grammar school, Bycullah Road,
and Enfield preparatory school, London Road. (fn. 83)
A gaunt brick school building at the top of
Holtwhite's Hill was erected in 1885 by the Revd.
R. H. Wix. (fn. 84) It was taken over as an orphanage by
the Roman Catholic sisters of Charity in 1890 and
later extended. In 1971 the building, which was run
by the Crusade of Rescue together with the sisters,
served as a hostel for families. (fn. 85) The sisters of the
Holy Family of Nazareth established a private school
adjoining their convent in London Road soon after
moving there in 1907. The school became part of a
new comprehensive school under the reorganization
of secondary education in 1967. (fn. 86)