LATYMER AND GODOLPHIN SCHOOLS
LATYMER SCHOOL, EDMONTON
Edward Latymer (1557 or 1558-1627), an
official of the Court of Wards, by his will dated 1624
left property in the Hammersmith area to provide,
amongst other things, clothing and education for
eight poor boys of Edmonton and eight of Fulham,
which then included Hammersmith. The clothing,
which incorporated a red cross on the left sleeve, was
to be distributed twice a year on Ascension Day
and All Saints Day, and the boys were to learn
reading in English and 'God's true religion' at
existing petty schools, where they were to remain
until the age of thirteen. Separate groups of trustees
administered the property on behalf of the boys in
the two parishes. Latymer died in 1627 and the
property was conveyed to the Edmonton trustees
in 1628. (fn. 25)
Other educational bequests for the benefit of
Edmonton boys were made by John Wild (1662),
who founded a scholarship to Cambridge, and
Thomas Style (1679), who left £20 a year for the
teaching of grammar and Latin to twenty poor boys
aged between five and seventeen. In 1724 Thomas
Hare, the parish clerk, was appointed Latymer
schoolmaster by the vestry, while the Revd. John
Button taught the Style boys. In 1737 Zachariah
Hare succeeded his father; two years later the
various charities were amalgamated and land and a
school-house were purchased, Zachariah becoming
the first headmaster under the new scheme. (fn. 26) In
1781 John Adams (fn. 27) was appointed headmaster. His
friend, J. T. Smith, related that plates of Hogarth's
Industry and Idleness hung in the schoolroom; once
a month Adams read a lecture on these examples
and then rewarded the industrious boys and caned
the idle. (fn. 28) He was succeeded in 1802 by his son,
John Adams junior, clerk to the vestry and an able
and efficient teacher. Nine years later a legacy of
£500 from Mrs. Ann Wyatt, an eccentric widow who
lived in circumstances suggesting great poverty,
made possible the building of a new and larger
schoolroom. (fn. 29) Adams numbered the 106 boys in
the school according to their seniority. Each number
was on a leather medal which, together with eight
other medals recording school position in particular
subjects including Latin, mathematics, and behaviour, was strung on a cord worn by the pupil.
The numbers were registered from time to time
and prizes were presented by the trustees to boys
who had excelled. (fn. 30)
Charles Henry Adams succeeded his father in
1821 but failed to maintain the standards of the
school. A vestry inquiry in 1848 found that the
system of education was unsatisfactory; Latin was
no longer being taught and many of the pupils were
not receiving clothing. (fn. 31) Nevertheless he was still in
charge of the school with his son, as usher, a member
of the fourth generation of the family to teach in the
school, when it was inspected in 1865. There were
89 boys on the books, of whom 65 were present
in the morning but only 29 returned after lunch.
Latin teaching was confined to reading aloud from a
grammar and the standards in elementary subjects
were very low; the income of the Cambridge scholarship was used for church repairs. (fn. 32) In 1868 Adams
agreed to retire on a pension. The Revd. C. V.
Dolbe was appointed headmaster, and under a new
scheme £210 of foundation income was diverted to
elementary schools attached to St. Paul's Winchmore Hill, Christ Church, Southgate, and St. James,
Upper Edmonton. The residue was to provide two
Latymer schools: an upper for foundationers and
fee-payers in the existing buildings, and a lower or
elementary school. (fn. 33) In 1897 W. A. Shearer, the
new headmaster of the upper school, found not only
that the buildings were inadequate and defective,
but also that R. S. Gregory, Vicar of Edmonton,
wanted to close the school and use the funds for the
Church of England elementary school, a proposal
which aroused much opposition, especially from the
Edmonton Urban District Council. In 1901 the
lower school was accommodated in new buildings
in Maldon Road, and a site in Hazelbury Road was
acquired for a new upper school, but in 1908, before
building began, Shearer was killed in an accident.
The upper school was temporarily closed, but in
1910 it reopened as a co-educational grammar school
with 25 pupils and R. Ashworth as headmaster.
Numbers increased rapidly and the school was enlarged in 1924 and 1928. Soon after this Ashworth
died while still in office, leaving a flourishing school
of over 700 pupils. (fn. 34) V. S. E. Davis, who became the
next headmaster, was a young man and guided the
school with great skill through one of its most
difficult periods. The school was granted voluntary
aided status in 1951. Davis retired in 1957 and was
succeeded by Dr. Trefor Jones. In 1964 there were
nearly 1,100 pupils.
LATYMER FOUNDATION AND LATYMER UPPER SCHOOLS, HAMMERSMITH
At Fulham, as at Edmonton (fn. 35) the Latymer bequest
did not at first result in a Latymer school, but by the
end of the 19th century three Hammersmith schools
bore that name. From 1628 to 1648, with one short
interval, the Latymer boys attended the school in
Fulham churchyard erected partly at the expense
of Dr. Thomas Edwards (d. c. 1618), but in 1648
the boys were transferred to another school lately
erected in Hammersmith by Mr. Palmer and Mr.
Bull. About 1657 a parochial charity school was
established, and it was there that the Latymer boys
attended for the next hundred years. (fn. 36) A girls' school
came into existence at some time before 1689, and
it is possible that the three schools were conducted
under the same roof but with separate finances. By
1755 the existing building had become dilapidated,
and it was replaced by one of two storeys to accommodate 25 girls on the ground floor and 20 boys
above. The cost, however, proved a serious drain on
the income of the charity and the numbers were
reduced to 15 boys and 15 girls. In 1819 two rooms
were added and the numbers increased to 80 boys
and 50 girls, who were educated on the 'National'
system. Later the income of the girls' charity decreased and it was absorbed into the St. Paul's parochial school, but the Latymer boys' school flourished,
having 100 boys but no room for extension. In 1863
a new building for 125 boys was erected in Great
Church Lane (Hammersmith Road). Sixteen years
later a new scheme was drawn up which diverted the
bulk of the income to a new Upper School to provide
secondary education for 150 boys; clothing was not
provided and fees were to be charged. The existing
school was to be conducted as an elementary school
to be known as the Latymer Lower School. (fn. 37) Under
the name in fact of the Latymer Foundation School
this became an L.C.C. school with a roll in 1960 of
over 300 boys aged between nine and seventeen.
The 'silver pens', a representation of two quills
arranged in saltire, was instituted in 1820 as an
award for an outstanding boy, (fn. 38) and there were
silver medals given in 1842 for arithmetic and orthography. In 1961 the governors decided that a
modern education could not be given in the existing
building, that it was impossible to rebuild, and that
they must therefore close the school. (fn. 39) It closed in
July 1963.
New buildings for the Upper School, erected
between King Street and the river, were opened by
the Bishop of London in 1895. In less than two years
the numbers reached 300 and in 1901 accommodation was increased to admit 450 by the addition of
five classrooms, laboratories, and a workshop.
In 1930 the main block was extended southward
and in 1934 further additions were made by the
acquisition of existing buildings at the corner of
King Street and Weltje Road. These were altered for
school use, a biology laboratory was added, and a
room on the top floor was converted into a chapel,
consecrated in 1938. In 1951 the governors bought
Rivercourt House on the river bank, and this made
it possible to increase the number of boys to over a
thousand. Between 1957 and 1961 new physics
laboratories were built, largely as a result of a grant
from the Industrial Fund for the Advancement of
Science in Schools. The total number of boys in
the school in 1964 was approximately 1,150.
In 1945 the school was placed on the direct grant
list, and F. Wilkinson, headmaster 1937-57, was
invited to join the Headmasters' Conference.
GODOLPHIN SCHOOL AND GODOLPHIN AND LATYMER SCHOOL, HAMMERSMITH
Sir William Godolphin (1634-96), Charles
II's ambassador to Madrid, left a fortune and three
different wills. The first and third were combined
by Act of Parliament to make Sir William's nephew
Francis and niece Elizabeth heirs on condition that
£1,520 was devoted to charity. In 1703 Elizabeth
and her husband, the Hon. Charles Godolphin,
purchased land to the west of St. James's, Piccadilly,
to establish a fund for educating and apprenticing
children, relieving decayed gentlefolk, and for other
charitable purposes. (fn. 40) In 1852 the whole trust was
devoted to education and in 1856 the Godolphin
School for boys was opened in Great Church Lane,
Hammersmith. Initially it was very successful and
moved into new premises in Iffley Road, where there
were soon 150 fee-payers, including 40 boarders,
and 30 free pupils, all receiving a decidedly classical
education. (fn. 41) Later the school was unable to meet the
competition of St. Paul's (from 1884) and Latymer
Upper School, and in 1900 it closed. A new scheme
was drawn up which created the Godolphin and
Latymer School for Girls, with the assistance of a
grant of £8,000 and £500 a year from the Latymer
Foundation. At the same time £4,000 was transferred
to the Godolphin School, Salisbury, which Elizabeth
Godolphin had founded from her own resources in
1707. (fn. 42) The school opened in temporary premises
in 1905, and in January 1906 some 200 girls moved
into the converted boys' school which was formally
opened by the Duke of Leeds, a descendant of
William Godolphin. (fn. 43) It later became a voluntary
aided grammar school of 650 girls, 180 of whom are
in the Sixth forms. The buildings were considerably
extended, particularly by the addition of a large
science block, a second library, and enlarged music
and art rooms.