The British School and Chase Side Schools, Enfield

This article by Stephen Gilburt was first published by The Enfield Society in newsletter 228, Winter 2022.

In the 1830s Nonconformists, including members of the Zion Chapel, the adjacent Chase Side Chapel and the Baker Street Meeting House raised £350 to build a non-denominational school in Chase Side. It was founded by Alderman Challis and Revd. Davis, minister of Chase Side Chapel and sponsored by the British and Foreign Schools Society. The balance of £250 was met from a Government grant and the British School opened in November 1838. It was maintained by voluntary subscriptions, small payments by pupils and grants made annually by the Government through the Treasury totalling £700.

The school had two classrooms, one for boys and one for girls, each measuring 40ft by 30ft, but no playground. Children of different ages were taught together in the same room. Leaflets advertising the school were circulated and on the first day 80 boys and 30 girls were admitted, with no restrictions being made on account of their religious denominations. The school soon became very popular, with children walking from as far as Winchmore Hill and Enfield Lock. They were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, history, geography, scripture, musical notation and singing. In addition the boys were taught mental arithmetic. The girls were taught sewing and knitting and after buying wool at 3d (1p) an ounce would knit the black stockings they wore in class, although the teacher would turn the heel. These skills would be useful for those girls who later went into domestic service. Each year the children’s copy books were subjected to outside inspection and the children went out for an annual treat of roast beef and plum pudding.

The first headmaster and boys teacher from 1838 was Henry Wakely who was also a deacon and Sunday School Super-intendent at Zion Chapel and later at Christ Church Congre-gational Church (see newsletters 224/5 Winter 2021/Spring 2022). He lived in a house adjacent to the school and died in 1895. In 1888 he was succeeded as headmaster by Harry Douglas Vincent, who had previously been a teacher at the school. In the 1890s the girls were taught by Miss Mavor. All the teachers used the cane on any latecomers to the school and to keep control and punish any miscreants in their classes.

From 1866 to 1894 Revd. Henry Storer Toms, the minister at Chase Side Chapel and later at Christ Church and Revd. Samuel Joseph Smith, minister at the Baker Street Meeting House, were co-secretaries of the British School.

Under the 1870 Public Education Act, locally elected school boards could be established where a need could be demonstrated. They would be able to build schools from public funds where children aged between 5 and 13 would be taught non-denominational religious education along with other subjects. With the population of Enfield rising from 19,104 in 1881 to 31,356 in 1891, the provision of school places at the mainly Anglican voluntary schools was inadequate. The was despite efforts led by Revd. George Hodson, vicar of St Andrew’s Church from 1870 to 1904, to increase the number of places available at the National Church of England schools and to open new schools. However Nonconformists did not want their children to have to attend National Schools where they would be given Anglican religious instruction. George Spicer, deacon and treasurer at Christ Church and the Revd. Henry Storer Toms were leaders in a campaign to establish a school board for Enfield.

Despite Revd. Hodson’s efforts to prevent the setting up of a school board, the Board of Education, convinced that the provision of school places in Enfield was inadequate, issued an order for the establishment of a school board in 1894. The British School became one of the first board schools but was overcrowded with places for 345 children but 401 on its books.

In 1901 Christ Church bought the British School building for use by the Sunday School and other youth organisations including the Boys Brigade. A new room for the Beginners department of the Sunday School was added in 1928. Christ Church sold what was then called the British Hall for £3,600 in 1938 to raise funds for a new church hall which was built in 1939. The British Hall became a milk distribution depot for United Dairies but is now the Moon Under Water public house and restaurant.

George Spicer, Storer Toms and George Hodson were all elected to the Enfield School Board in 1894 and Revd. Hodson became its first chairman. George Spicer was the leader of the Progressives (i.e. Liberals) on the Board from 1894 and became chairman in 1897. He was chairman of its successor Enfield Education Committee from 1903 until his retirement in 1907. Following George Spicer’s death in 1911, a new Council School in Southbury Road was named after him in 1912. Between 1896 and 1914 nine new Board and Council elementary schools were built in Enfield, all to high standards, by G.E.T. Lawrence.

In 1901 children were transferred from the former British School to the newly built Chase Side School in Trinity Street. The children were split into three departments with places for 400 boys, 400 girls and 300 infants. The layout of the school with separate entrances, staircases and playgrounds ensured that the boys and girls were carefully segregated. There was a large central hall, a separate cookery room for the girls, a craft room for the boys, toilets on the far sides of the playgrounds and a caretaker’s house.

The headmaster up to 1925 was Harry Douglas Vincent. He was also the Sunday School Superintendent, organist and choirmaster at Christ Church. He died in 1950. His wife was the boys choir trainer. Subsequent headmasters were Mr Hird (1926–1944) and R.W. Taylor (1945–1967). Many of the children were also in the choir, Sunday School, Boys Brigade or Guides at Christ Church.

In the 1920s and 1930s pauper children at Chase Farm Schools were transferred for their education to outside schools including Chase Side School. In 1940 an air-raid shelter was completed for the pupils.

In 1949 the secondary school girls on the first floor were transferred to Lavender Road School (in 1962 they moved to the newly built Chace Girls Secondary Modern School in Rosemary Avenue). From 1949 the former girls department of Chase Side School was occupied by Chase Side County Junior School for boys and girls aged between 7 and 11. The headmaster was Mr Casson and the school had a reputation for sending large numbers of children on to grammar schools after they had taken the 11+ examination. Miss Farr was the headmistress of the Infants School.

The Junior School crest (above) worn on blazers and caps had symbols of Enfield Chase—two oak trees and a deer with wavy blue lines between for the New River which flowed near the school. Below the crest was the school motto God Grant Grace which has since been dropped.

By 1955 the overcrowded Junior School had 460 children divided into classes of between 40 and 50 according to age and academic ability. For example, Class 2A (year 4) had 16 boys and 28 girls. The pupils were not taught science or foreign languages and did not have homework, except for projects of their own choosing. From 1955 a school magazine was printed. This gave details of many of the school events including sporting activities, singing competitions, outings and performances of plays and pantomimes. Many of the children wrote about their interests or pets and composed stories and poems. They also wrote about what they would do if they were in charge of the school, including (from a girl) putting all the rough boys together in one class, (from a boy) equal punishments for boys and girls and pulling down the school, selling the bricks and sending all the children on holiday!

After Easter 1956 the secondary school boys on the ground floor moved to the newly built Chace Boys Secondary Modern School in Churchbury Lane. This allowed the Junior School boys and girls to have separate playgrounds and the additional rooms provided more space for craftwork and other activities.

Following local government re-organisation in London in 1964, responsibility for schools was transferred to the London Borough of Enfield and Chase Side Infants and Junior Schools were combined to form Chase Side Primary School.

By the later 20th century children no longer normally walked to and from school on their own, but were taken and collected, often by car, by an adult. Corporal punishment was abolished, class sizes were considerably reduced and pupils were no longer allocated to classes according to academic ability or took the 11+ examination. With the availability of fountain, cartridge, ball-point and felt-tipped pens, children did not need to write with pen and ink using inkwells. Modern technology transformed the way subjects were taught.

In 2001 Chase Side School celebrated its centenary. For a week children had opportunities to sample life at the beginning of the 20th century, ending with a picnic where they dressed in clothes similar to those worn in 1901. A concert was performed by the children and a guided tour of the school for parents and some former pupils brought back many memories.