Do you remember Knapp Road School?
Bill Hawkins emailed us to ask, if anyone remembered Knapp Road School.
A walk to Knapp Road told me that it is now called The Clara Grant Primary School, and a quick bit of research produced an absolute deluge of fascinating local history.
School Board for London
Visually it looks like one of the many sturdy School Board for London buildings which have lasted so well. High on the wall a plaque reads Devon’s Road School, 1905. The SBL (colloquially LSB) was setup following the 1870 Elementary Education Act. The SBL built 400 schools like this one between 1870 and 1904 – quite an achievement. Then responsibility passed to the London County Council, but there was obvious continuity. The board was elected democratically and from the off in 1870 all ratepayers, including women, could vote in a secret ballot for the board. That 1870 board had three women on it, including Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. Many caring, influential and can-do people served on the School Board for London.
The aim of the SBL was to provide sufficient school places for London’s poorest children. By the late 1880s they were educating 350,000 pupils. The London board had passed a by-law in 1871 compelling all parents to have their children educated from the ages of 5 to13. That didn’t work too well as school attendance wasn’t free until 1891. Additionally poor children were working, either helping their mothers with outwork, such as making matchboxes on the kitchen table, or simply in employment.
Geezer Ted Lewis (1929 – 2017) told me how he came to leave school at 11 during WW2. He was evacuated to a village in Devon that had a church run school which only took infants and juniors. So Ted went to work on a farm, which he enjoyed. He’d previously spent all his boyhood summer holidays hop picking in Kent, and had gained some experience.
Clara Grant
Clara Grant was born in 1867 to a reasonably well-off family in Wiltshire. She trained to become a teacher at Salisbury Diocesan Training College, and her first post was at a small Wiltshire church school in 1888. Motivated by her Christian faith, she became the head of a school in Hoxton in 1890. She set out to help the most deprived children in London. Ten years later she became head of a tin school at Bow Common (All Hallows). When the splendid Devon’s Road School in my photos opened in 1905 she was headmistress of the infants.
Clara was up to speed with the latest ideas on child development. She was influenced by the work of Friedrich Froebel who invented the kindergarten. This considered the whole child – health, physical development, emotional well-being, the environment and other factors as important.
Fern Street Settlement
The Settlement Movement began with the 1884 founding of Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel. This socially reforming movement brought rich and poor together in one place. Wealthy volunteers brought donations, culture, education, and provide daycare, and healthcare to the struggling poor. Clara Grant worked at Toynbee Hall for a while, and this influenced what she did next. In 1907 she opened up her own terraced house in Fern Street, which backed onto Devon’s Road School, as a small settlement. By the 1939 PO Directory (below) you can see that it now occupied 3 houses.
Margaret MacMillan established the first school clinic in London in Devon’s Road School in 1908. Clara organised hot breakfasts for her young pupils, paying for porridge, milk, bread and butter. She also gave them proper clothes and boots. The Settlement provided healthcare, a dentist, a library, and organised a thrift club. Clara Grant is famous for the farthing bundles of toys which the children queued to get. From 1908 a worker and nurse would visit every baby born to families in the area once a month for a year who were connected to Devons Road School.
Clara Grant received an OBE in 1949, and died soon after aged 82.
Does anyone have any memories of going to school in Knapp Road to share with Bill?
Remember the Penn’s think Joyce Penn and if remember she was same age as my sister Ann and Joyce married a chap called Vick and think they lived in corner house in Knapp Road. Do you remember Chopper Night not sure what his real name was and no idea why they called him chopper, he was same age as brother Jimmy I think. Lived opposite Widows Son pub by a barbers called Skinner’s, story had it that the barber bit dogs tails off ha ha ha.
Hello Rose.
Here’s another name that I can chuck at you and Jimmy. Wally Tibbetts ( might have got the spelling wrong ) But he was a good bit older than us, and a bit of a local character. Lived a bit further up Rounton beyond Swaton but when the maisonettes were built opposite us , he moved in on the ground floor.
Oh, and a couple more. === Joan and Bobbie Abbott, sisters, lived Knapp road next to the school gates.— And a family named Penn in the end house almost opposite you in Rounton.
Take care. Stay safe.
Derek
Hello Ann.
No, I haven’t got a sister, but there was another family of Vollers further up Rounton Road, a couple of doors from the corner of Swaton Road that was still an empty ruin. But to the best of my knowledge we were not related in any way.
Best regards and stay safe. That Covid is getting bad again.
Sorry, Ann, David may remember me.
Reply to Derek Voller
My brothers were called James ( Jimmy ) and David .
Ann Williams
Your brother’s name is Derek, I think Hope he is still with us?
Hi Derek, I remember you and some of the names you mentioned, opposite Terry Boyce lived Regie Crane and next door to Terry lived David Winn. I recall lots more names, from the area, Knapp road school, and the senior school we were appointed to, Elizabeth Barret Browning in Southern Grove.
Nice to recall. You take care.
Jimmy Drysdale.
Hi Derek ,
Do you have a sister or relative whose name is Valerie , because l was at Devons Road school in the fifties and a girl in my class was called Valerie Voller
Ann Williams ( nee Horncastle )
Hi Derek. Think that was our mangy dog Bob in your picture. Strange how it all comes back to you when you see old photos, well done. X
Hi my name was Josephine Forbes when I went here from 1968 to 1974 and when it was still known as Devons Road School. Mr Gordon was the head teacher and he always looked out for me. He saw that I was good at maths and helped me to get better at it (I have had a career in bookkeeping for over 35 years now). I have very fond memories of this school. My most favourite teacher was Miss Jackson in my final year. She left at the same time I did as she was getting married and moving away. I went back there when I turned 16 and Mr Gordon was still there but about to retire. I remember thinking how small everything looked but as a child the school seemed so big. We had one teacher who was over 6ft tall and he had to duck in the stairwells as the ceiling wasn’t high enough neither were the doorways. I used to love school dinners here on most days. They don’t make them like that anymore. Most of the time it was the only proper cooked meal I had each day as my mother had to work 2 jobs to keep a roof over our heads and my sister only ever knew how to do beans or spaghetti on toast or a sandwich for tea. Even so, we were happy. I also remember the Fern Street Settlement, they used to organise holidays for children under 12 for the poorer families. It cost my mum £2 to send me away for 10 days and we would be sent to people who offered up their homes to us. Some had families of their own and some were older with no children. To me life was much simpler then and I was always happy. I was sad to leave Devons Road School as it was a great place to be every day.
Hi Rose.
Yes, I do remember that my Aunt Vi had a sewing machine that she was quite proud of, and it wouldn’t surprise me to find that she made clothes for others. She was a very kind and gentle lady. They moved out to Harold Hill when the houses came down.
Here are a few more names that may spark your memory.
Frankie Barber, about my and Jimmy’s age, lived opposite us, in the last house but one on the right.
Hazel Shaw, tall attractive blonde, older than me , lived middle of the houses opposite. ( I bet Jimmy remembers her )
Terry Boyce, again my age. lived round the corner to the left in Knapp Road.
Take care. Keep well
Derek
Hi Derek
Fantastic pictures! Thank you for sharing.
The shot of grandad’s shop really takes me back. Amazing.
All the best,
John
To Derek Voller.
Hi Derek, I just wished my memory was as good as yours, although having read all this I must say it’s improving. Our family had six children, Wally being the eldest then Annie, Jean, Jimmy, Brenda and myself Rose. Sadly all three older sibling died quite young but glad to say myself Brenda and Jimmy are still around. Also I do remember Violet. Can you remember if Violet used to have a machine and make clothes for people or was it a few houses a bit further down .
Hello John
I agree. He was a great man.
If I can find a way of uploading a photograph on here, i’ll include a picture taken from our old front room window with the shop showing. circa mid sixties. …………………… Nope ! Can’t find a way of doing it .. Best I can do is provide links to a couple of my shots on Flickr. Hope that will do.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/deevee40/50094091716/in/album-
72157629782704852/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/deevee40/10721783285/in/album-72157629782704852/
Regards Derek
Hello James,
I too remember going under the little wooden arch in Furn Street and we were given a bundle of cards and something else . Remember “ Enter those who are small, none can come who are too tall .l think it went something like that . We were a poor family and my mum used to go to it for adults as it was called “ bundles “ where she could buy second hand clothes . We had lovely parents who worked hard and did their best for me and my two brothers David and Jimmy . I was happy at Devons road school , and at 76 years of age still remember it fondly , Ann Williams .
I remember the Horncastle’s, I was at Devons Road at the same time. Mr Islip was my favorite teacher also. We lived in Rounton Road opposite the school. Before that, as an infant, I remember running out of the school when the curtains were pulled in the afternoon and we were required to sleep on army bunks, often discovered hiding up the tree outside our house number 70. Poor but a happy child. Does anyone remember going under Clara Grant’s arch in Fern Street?
To Rose Knowlden
Hello Rose,
Following on from my previous comment. I think you also had an older sister called Jean.. I remember my older brother Leslie fetching her round one evening.
Oh. and something else. next door but one to you in Rounton at downstairs in number 66, was my Aunt Vi and Uncle Harry Johnson, with their son Colin
Hi Derek
You have a wonderful memory. Spot on with everything. Grandad was known as Dick Harvey. He had two sons, Frank and Dick jnr – my uncles. I used to go out with Frank during the school holidays when he delivered tarpaulin around London, Essex and Kent. I loved the smell of tarpaulin!
Harvey’s shop was a massive part of my life growing up. I used to spend a lot of time in there when my mum Olive was working. Grandad spent many years in the army and won the DSM fighting the Turks during WW1. He was good to me and I was very upset when he died. A decent man.
To John Curle
Hello John. I seem to remember that the owner of the shop was known as Dick Harvey, and also transported goods in his lorry. He once said he was going to deliver something in Epping and asked my mum if I’d like to go along for the ride. I was over the moon. That must have been about 1949 or 50. I also remember that a Frank Harvey used to knock on Saturdays to collect the money for the week’s papers. I think he also had a lorry. And was there a Dick Harvey Jnr with yet another lorry. They used to park them in a yard opposite our house where the houses were bombed and the site cleared.
Later, when I was a teenager, I remember Olive and Rose serving me chocolates every Friday for my mum. ( I was a good boy, I was.)
Do my memories fit in at all with reality ?
Hi John, good memory it was number 70 and I remember that either side was Mrs Pratt and Mrs Richardson. Mrs Pratt used to spend all her time on a chair looking through her front window, I don’t think we were the best of neighbors as we were a big family I was the youngest. Take care everyone that’s still with us.