EDUCATION.
From 1670 Harborne was entitled to send two boys to the Old Swinford Hospital School (Worcs.); by 1834 it was customary to
choose them alternately from Harborne and Smethwick. (fn. 65) Smethwick was later given three places at the
school and is still entitled to send boys to it. (fn. 66) In
1730 Smethwick children were attending a recently
founded charity school at Harborne. (fn. 67) In 1734 a
charity school was established in Smethwick, (fn. 68) and
by 1819 there were also two Sunday schools. Fiftyfour children then attended the three schools, and
the minister of Smethwick chapel considered that
there was insufficient provision for the education of
the poor. (fn. 69)
Smethwick and Harborne were formed into a
school district under the 1870 Education Act. In
1871 a public meeting rejected proposals for the
establishment of a school board; at the meeting one
of the warmest advocates of a board was Joseph
Chamberlain, then a partner in Nettlefold &
Chamberlain. By then Smethwick had 2,900 school
places, about the number officially judged adequate.
There was, however, an average attendance of only
1,580, and it was generally agreed that three more
free schools were needed; it was claimed that these
could be provided by voluntary effort. (fn. 70) A board
was eventually formed in 1873 on the orders of the
Education Department. It was known as the Harborne School Board and remained in existence until
1891, when Harborne became part of Birmingham
and the school district was broken up. What remained became a new district under a board
originally called the School Board for the ExtraMunicipal Part of the Parish of Harborne and from
1896 the Smethwick School Board. (fn. 71)
Under the terms of the 1902 Education Act
Smethwick became a Part III authority responsible
for elementary education, while Staffordshire county
council, the authority responsible for higher education, delegated to it control of technical instruction
and evening continuation schools. (fn. 72) When
Smethwick became a county borough in 1907 it
automatically assumed responsibility for higher
education.
Between 1932 and 1939 there was an extensive reorganization of the borough's schools as a consequence of the Hadow Report. (fn. 73) In 1946 Smethwick
and West Bromwich published a joint development
plan for education. They had met the Ministry
of Education's proposal in 1944 to create a Joint
Education Board for the two boroughs by pointing
out that they were already considering a complete
merger to form one new borough. Although the
amalgamation did not take place and both boroughs
retained their autonomy in educational matters, the
plan remained the pattern for education. A tripartite system of secondary education was adopted;
in 1970 Smethwick had grammar and secondary
modern schools but had closed its technical school. (fn. 74)
A pupil-teacher centre was opened in 1894. (fn. 75)
Special education for handicapped children also
began in 1894 when, under the 1893 Elementary
Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act, (fn. 76) the
school board first sent a child to a school for the
blind. In 1907 the borough obtained permission to
build Victoria Special School for the educationally
subnormal; (fn. 77) it was replaced in 1959 by Highfield
(now Arden) School. (fn. 78) The Firs Open Air School for
delicate and physically handicapped children was
opened in 1929; the building was completely remodelled in 1964-5. (fn. 79) The Edith Sands Nursery
School, opened in 1938, remained the only nursery
school run by the local authority in 1970. (fn. 80) Since
1928 parties of Smethwick schoolchildren have
been sent during the summer to a school camp site
at Ribbesford (Worcs.), presented to the borough
by Frank Chapman and his wife. (fn. 81)
Smethwick Old Church Church of England School.
Dorothy Parkes (d. 1728), founder of Smethwick
Old Church, bequeathed £200 for the building and
endowment of a charity school on a site on her
estate at Smethwick and made the trustees for building her church responsible for its establishment. The
schoolmistress, a single woman chosen by the
trustees, was to teach reading, sewing, knitting, and
the Catechism, without charge, to poor children
chosen by the minister of the church, who was also
to be responsible for the day-to-day management of
the school. (fn. 82) A house with a schoolroom was completed in 1734 adjoining the east end of the Old
Church graveyard. The first mistress had been appointed by Lady day 1734. (fn. 83) What remained of
Dorothy Parkes's bequest, £136, was invested. (fn. 84) The
school-house was later allowed to fall into disrepair,
and by the early 1780s the school had apparently
been discontinued for several years. A group of
inhabitants then repaired the building with help
from neighbouring parishes and petitioned the
trustees for further action. They asked that a master
to teach writing and accounts should be appointed
as well as a mistress, and that some local people
should be nominated by the trustees to supervise
the school's affairs. No mention was made of the
responsibilities which Dorothy Parkes's will had
laid upon the minister. (fn. 85) The school was revived,
but there is no evidence to suggest that a local committee of management was set up, and in 1823 there
was still only a mistress who taught the original
curriculum to between 12 and 20 poor girls recommended by the trustees. (fn. 86) In 1846-7 the school
was attended by 35 girls; there was also a Sunday
school attended by the girls and 30 boys. Some of
the children were then paying fees, and the school
had received a grant from the National Society. (fn. 87)
In 1855 new schools with a separate house for the
mistress were built on the corner of what are now
Church Road and the Uplands; the former schoolhouse was demolished and the site added to the
graveyard. In 1864 there were on the books 72 feepaying pupils (26 boys, 36 girls, and 10 infants) and
15 children taught free. The school was managed
by the minister of the church. (fn. 88) After the 1902
Education Act the school continued as a nonprovided school with some local authority representation on its committee of managers. In 1904 the
older boys were transferred to Bearwood Road
Council school, leaving departments for girls and
infants. In 1905 there was an average attendance of
about 164. Numbers declined as additional council
schools were built, and the school was closed in
1932. (fn. 89) Part of the building is incorporated in the
church hall built in the early 1950s. (fn. 90)
Hill Street Infants' National School, later Hill Street Board School.
An infants' National school
was established in 1836 by James Moilliet of the
Grove and his wife; the initiative may have come
from Mrs. Moilliet, who took an interest in the
education of poor children. (fn. 91) In 1840 there were
80 children. (fn. 92) In 1846-7 there were 43, taught by a
mistress who received a salary of £10 and the
children's pence and was provided with a house. (fn. 93)
Although the incumbent of Holy Trinity stated in
1847 that it was a separate foundation and not part
of his National school, (fn. 94) it was in his parish, its
management was apparently in his hands, and by
1850 it was acting in effect as the infants' department
of Holy Trinity School. It was then stated to be
off Rolfe Street, (fn. 95) presumably in Hill Street, where
it stood in 1860. (fn. 96) When Holy Trinity School built
its own infants' department in 1880, Hill Street
School became once more fully independent as a
Church of England infants' school. In November
1880 there were 143 children on the books, and the
average attendance was 98. It was transferred to
the school board in 1883 and replaced in 1885
by a new board school for infants in Crockett's
Lane. (fn. 97)
Smethwick National School or North Harborne
Parish School, later Holy Trinity Church of England
Schools.
A National school for 400 children was
built in 1840-1 in Trinity Street with the aid of
grants from government and the National Society.
In 1846-7 there were weekday, evening, and Sunday schools with 289 pupils under a master and a
mistress. (fn. 98) The girls' department was put under
government grant c. 1850 and the rest of the school
later. (fn. 99) Classrooms and a master's house were added
in the 1860s. Further extensions in 1880 included
an infants' department. In September 1880, after
the building of the extensions, there were 224 boys,
210 girls, and 76 infants. (fn. 1) The buildings were again
extended and remodelled in the 1890s. (fn. 2) The schools
were finally closed in 1939, and the buildings were
destroyed by enemy action in 1940. Smethwick post
office stands on the site. (fn. 3)
Crockett's Lane British School.
A British school
for boys and girls was opened c. 1840 in newly
built schoolrooms in Crockett's Lane behind the
Congregational chapel. It still existed in 1851. (fn. 4)
Chance's Schools.
In 1845-6 Chance Brothers &
Co. built British schools at its Spon Lane glassworks, with accommodation for 200 boys, 150 girls,
and 100 infants. (fn. 5) The buildings, which included
three schoolrooms, two classrooms, and houses for
the teachers, were designed in a simple Gothic style
and were opened in stages, the boys' school in 1845
and the girls' and infants' schools in 1846. They
were intended primarily for the children of Chance's
workpeople; the firm's decision in 1846 not to employ children under 12 was an attempt to persuade
its workers to send their children to school. Outsiders' children, however, were also admitted, and
the schools gradually became those for the Spon
Lane area in general. The Chances engaged a master, a mistress, and an infants' mistress. (fn. 6) Frederick
Talbot, master from 1845 to 1892, was a notable
teacher and under him the schools gained a high
reputation. The buildings were extensive, and there
was a good supply of books and apparatus. A playground and a gymnasium were provided in 1858.
The curriculum included the elements, grammar,
geography, mechanics, and, from 1848, free-hand
drawing. In 1858 a special class for drawing was
organized in connexion with Birmingham School of
Art. An evening school for older boys, teaching the
elements and other subjects, was maintained from
1846. A Sunday school was also held: 30 of the 299
children attending Chance's schools in 1846-7 were
Sunday-school children only. (fn. 7)
In 1887 the schools were transferred to the school
board. Average attendance in May-November 1887
was 352 (185 boys, 170 girls, and 97 infants). (fn. 8) Accommodation for girls was increased in 1900; in
1900-1 there was accommodation for 702 children
and an average attendance of 633. (fn. 9) The schools
were closed in 1914 on the opening of Smethwick
Hall Council School (now Devonshire Road
School). (fn. 10) The buildings were sold back to the firm
and in 1971 were used as a canteen and social
centre.
Cape Hill School, or Henderson's School.
In 1846
John Henderson of the London Works built a day
and Sunday school in the Cape Hill district. It was
apparently rebuilt in 1854. It was still standing in
1857 off what is now Montague Road, but it probably did not long survive Henderson's bankruptcy
in 1856. (fn. 11)
St. Matthew's Church of England Primary School.
A school in connexion with St. Matthew's Church
was established in temporary premises in 1859.
After six months there were 85 pupils on the books.
In 1861 the temporary accommodation was replaced
by a National school for 300 children in Windmill
Lane; three certificated teachers were engaged. In
the early months of 1862 there was an average attendance of 185. (fn. 12) The buildings were extended in
1872. (fn. 13) The older children were transferred to
council schools in 1935. (fn. 14) The school was moved
to new buildings on the site of the former vicarage
in 1966, and in 1971 it was a one-form-entry primary school. (fn. 15)
St. Philip Neri Roman Catholic Primary School.
A Roman Catholic mixed and infants' school was
built in 1860 on the site of the present church hall
in Watt Street. Roman Catholic children had for
some years previously been taught at 'Catten's
School' in Cranford Street, so called from the name
of the woman who ran it. The new school, which
had a schoolroom for boys and girls, another for
infants, and a classroom, was run by two mistresses
on National-school lines. In February-March 1861
there was an average attendance of 103, of whom 38
were infants. Of the children 91 paid fees, while the
others, whose parents were out of work, were taught
free. (fn. 16) From at least 1863 until 1893 the building
was also used as a church. (fn. 17) The school continued
to cater for all Roman Catholic children of school
age until the opening of Cardinal Newman Roman
Catholic Secondary School in Edgbaston (Birmingham) in 1959. This took children from both
Birmingham and Smethwick, and Smethwick corporation contributed towards its cost. The first part
of a new St. Philip's School in Messenger Road was
opened in 1959, and when the second part was
opened in 1965 the old school was demolished. (fn. 18)
Smethwick Wesleyan School, later Rabone Lane Board School.
In 1861 a Wesleyan Methodist day
school was opened in the former chapel in Rabone
Lane under a certificated teacher. There was a schoolroom for boys and girls and three classrooms. After
a month 60 children were attending. (fn. 19) A new school
was built in Rabone Lane in 1866. (fn. 20) It was subsequently enlarged and in 1888 was a mixed and
infants' school with accommodation for 522 and an
average attendance of 410. (fn. 21) It was handed over to
the school board in 1894 and was closed in 1914
on the opening of Smethwick Hall Council School
(now Devonshire Road School). (fn. 22)
Schools opened since 1873.
Abbey Infants' School, Maurice Road, was
opened in 1952. (fn. 23)
Abbey Road Junior School, built in 1909 by Oldbury urban district council and officially opened in
1910, stands in the area added to Smethwick
borough in 1928. It was then a school for boys, girls,
and infants but became a junior and infants' school
in 1932 and a junior school in 1958. (fn. 24)
Albion Junior School, Halford's Lane, was
opened in 1954. Since the 1966 boundary changes
the building has stood in West Bromwich. (fn. 25)
Annie Lennard Infants' School, the Oval, was
opened in 1954. (fn. 26)
Bearwood Road Junior and Infants' School,
opened in 1882 as a board school for boys, girls,
and infants, was considerably extended in the
1880s and 1890s. It became a junior and infants'
school in 1932. (fn. 27)
Brasshouse Lane Infants' School was opened in
1876 as a mixed and infants' board school. In 1878
the mixed department was divided into separate
boys' and girls' departments. The buildings were
later enlarged several times. (fn. 28) From 1923, after
another building had been added, Brasshouse Lane
was a five-department school (senior boys, senior
girls, junior boys, junior girls, and infants). It became a junior mixed and infants' school in 1935 (fn. 29)
and an infants' school in 1962. (fn. 30)
Cape Infants' School, Cape Hill, was opened in
1888 as a board school for boys, girls, and infants
and was enlarged in 1894 and 1901. (fn. 31) It became a
junior and infants' school in 1935 (fn. 32) and was an infants' school by 1950. (fn. 33)
Central Board Schools, see Crockett's Lane
Schools.
Corbett Street Infants' School, opened in 1879
as a board school for boys, girls, and infants, became a junior and infants' school in 1935 and an
infants' school in 1965. (fn. 34)
Crockett's Lane Junior and Infants' Schools are
the sole remnants of the former Central Board
Schools, opened in stages on adjoining sites. An
infants' school and a higher grade school for boys
and girls were opened in 1885, an infants' school
for boys was built in 1892, and a separate girls'
school was added in 1898. The higher grade school
took almost all the standard VI and standard VII
children transferred from other schools, and subjects taught included chemistry and mechanics. (fn. 35) In
1935 the boys' school became a senior boys' school,
the girls' school a senior girls' school, the infant
boys' school a junior mixed school, and the infant
girls' school a mixed infants' school. (fn. 36) In 1947 the
senior girls' school became Park Secondary School
for Girls and the senior boys' school was closed, its
premises being taken over by James Watt Technical
School. (fn. 37) Park School closed in 1957; Crockett's
Lane Junior School moved into the vacated building, and James Watt School took over what had
been the premises of the junior school as additional
accommodation. (fn. 38)
Devonshire Road Junior and Infants' School was
opened in 1914 as Smethwick Hall School, taking
the pupils from Chance's and Rabone Lane schools
and many pupils from Oldbury Road School. When
Smethwick Hall Senior Schools were opened in 1939
the existing school became a junior and infants'
school and was renamed. (fn. 39)
George Betts Junior and Infants' School, West
End Avenue, was opened in 1954 as a junior school.
It was extended in 1970 and has since taken infants
also. (fn. 40)
Holly Lodge Grammar Schools, Holly Lane,
originated in 1922, when a high school for girls was
opened in Holly Lodge, formerly the home of the
Downing family. It moved to a new building near by
in 1927, and a boys' high school was then opened
in Holly Lodge, moving in its turn in 1932 to a new
building adjoining that of the girls' high school. (fn. 41) The
schools became the borough's two grammar schools
in the reorganization after 1944. After the boys' grammar school had absorbed James Watt Technical
School in 1967 its buildings were extended. (fn. 42)
James Watt Technical School, Crockett's Lane,
was established in 1914 as Smethwick Junior Technical School. It took boys aged between 12 and 15
and was housed in the buildings of the Municipal
Technical School. Until the Second World War
girls were admitted also. In 1947 the age of entrance
was lowered to 11, no more girls were admitted, and
the school, renamed, moved to the premises formerly occupied by Crockett's Lane Senior Boys'
School. In 1967 it was absorbed by Holly Lodge
Boys' Grammar School. (fn. 43)
Merry Hill Infants' School, Foundry Lane, was
opened in 1969. (fn. 44)
Oldbury Road Infants' School was opened in
1875 as a mixed and infants' board school, sometimes
known as West Smethwick Board School. The
mixed department was divided into separate boys'
and girls' departments in 1878, and the school was
subsequently extended several times. (fn. 45) It became
a junior and infants' school in 1939 and an infants'
school in 1959. (fn. 46)
Park Secondary School, see Crockett's Lane
Schools.
St. Gregory's Roman Catholic Primary School,
off Park Road, was opened in 1968. It has an annexe
for infants, attached to the near-by Abbey Infants'
School. (fn. 47)
Sandwell Schools, Halford's Lane, were opened
in 1957. They are separate boys' and girls' secondary
schools in a single building, which has always stood
in West Bromwich. (fn. 48) They had been preceded during the school year 1956-7 by Sandwell 'Nucleus'
School, which consisted of children moving up from
Albion Junior School and was held in part of the
Brasshouse Lane Junior School building. (fn. 49)
Shireland Secondary Schools, see Waterloo Road
School.
Slough Lane School was opened in 1875 as a mixed
and infants' board school. It was originally housed in
the Congregational chapel but moved to new buildings in the same road in 1882. It was closed in 1937. (fn. 50)
Smethwick Hall Schools, Stony Lane, consisting
of separate secondary schools for boys and girls,
were opened in 1939 as senior schools and became
secondary schools in the reorganization after 1944. (fn. 51)
See also Devonshire Road School.
Smethwick Junior Technical School, see James
Watt Technical School.
Uplands Secondary, Junior, and Infants' Schools,
Thompson and Addenbrooke Roads, were opened
in 1932 with senior boys', senior girls', junior, and
infants' departments. The senior departments became boys' and girls' secondary schools in the reorganization after 1944. The secondary school for
girls was closed in 1962, the premises being taken
over by the boys' secondary school. (fn. 52)
Waterloo Road School was opened in 1907 (the
boys' and girls' departments) and 1908 (the infants'
department). In 1932 the boys' and girls' departments became senior departments. In the reorganization after 1944 they became Shireland Secondary
School for Boys and Shireland Secondary School
for Girls, the rest of the school becoming Waterloo
Road Junior and Infants' School. The boys' school
was closed in 1960, the girls' school taking over its
premises. (fn. 53)
West Smethwick Board School, see Oldbury
Road School.
Further education.
Evening classes in science
and art were established in 1846 by the Chance
family at the schools attached to their Spon Lane
glass-works. An institute formed at the works in
1852 flourished for almost twenty years. (fn. 54) John
Henderson of the London Works formed a library
and reading room in the Cape Hill district and was
patron of an institute which met there in the mid
1850s, (fn. 55) while a few years later Joseph Chamberlain
was fostering adult education at Nettlefold &
Chamberlain's Smethwick works. (fn. 56) St. Matthew's
Church had some 140 pupils at an evening school in
1870, (fn. 57) and Holy Trinity Church organized evening
classes about the same date. (fn. 58) Smethwick Institute,
formed in 1887, met at the higher grade school in
Crockett's Lane. For a few years after its foundation
its activities included evening classes. It closed in
the later 1920s. (fn. 59) Another institute was meeting at
Bearwood in the 1880s. (fn. 60)
The school board constituted itself a local committee of the Science and Art Department in 1885
and organized evening classes in science and art at
the higher grade school in Crockett's Lane. (fn. 61) In
1892 a technical instruction committee was set up
consisting of members of the local board and the
school board. It took over the management of the
science and art classes, forming them into a municipal technical school. (fn. 62) The school board members
withdrew from the committee in 1898, and from
1899 the whole committee was appointed by the
town council. (fn. 63)
The technical school continued to meet in the
evenings in the higher grade school until 1910,
when a technical school building was opened in
Crockett's Lane. (fn. 64) By 1913 there was an attendance
of nearly 4,000. (fn. 65) From 1914 until 1947 (fn. 66) the buildings also housed a secondary technical school, and
pupils from it continued to use classrooms and
laboratories until 1956. Evening classes were still
the most important part of the institution's work
in the late 1920s, although after the 1918 Education
Act the first day-release students were enrolled, with
originally five firms sending workers. The school
became Smethwick Municipal College in 1927 and
was renamed Chance Technical College in 1945.
A block of engineering and building workshops was
opened in 1950. Between 1952 and 1966 major extensions were built on an adjoining site in Crockett's
Lane; they enabled the college to accommodate
some 3,500 students by 1966, two-thirds of whom
attended courses during the day. In 1968 the college was merged with Oldbury College of Further
Education to form Warley College of Technology,
with the buildings in Crockett's Lane (Chance
Building) housing the main administrative centre
of the new college and six of its eight departments. (fn. 67)
The original building, extensively renovated, is of
brick with grey terracotta dressings, and was designed in a 'free Renaissance style' by F. J. Gill. (fn. 68)
The extensions of 1952-66, designed by W. W.
Atkinson and Partners, consist of five main blocks
faced with Portland stone and coloured brick. They
house workshops, classrooms, laboratories, assembly and recreation halls, and administrative offices.
Private schools.
Smethwick never maintained
many private schools, and only a few are known to
have survived for any length of time. Directories
listed three private academies in 1835 and nine in
1872. (fn. 69) Both lists are evidently incomplete, but it is
difficult to assess how many schools were omitted.
In 1875 there were 30 private schools in Harborne
School Board district, most of them dame schools;
according to a census taken by the board in that
year only some 38 per cent of the pupils were being
efficiently taught. (fn. 70) Shireland Hall housed a succession of schools for middle-class children: a girls'
school in 1818, a school for the sons of clergy of all
denominations from the earlier 1850s until at least
1865, and another girls' school from later in the
1860s until the mid 1870s. (fn. 71) Smethwick Hall off
Stony Lane was used as a school from at least 1872
until c. 1885. (fn. 72) A favoured area for genteel private
schools was that around South Street (later South
Road), where a number of such schools flourished
between at least 1851 and the early 20th century. (fn. 73)