SCHOOLS.
By the gift of John and Frances West
in 1720, Twickenham shared with Reading and
Newbury the right to send as many children to
Christ's Hospital as the endowment would support.
Most were to be boys, and a preference was given to
founders' kin. During the 19th century the founders'
kin gave considerable trouble to the vestry, who
made the elections. The West's Charity boys were
said in 1840 to be perhaps the lowest class admitted
to the school, though the governors refused to take
those whose parents were actually on relief. When
they left, the boys were apprenticed, usually in their
own parishes, to rather inferior trades. The property
of the charity was in London, and as it rose in value
Twickenham's share increased. By 1840 the parish
had seven places at Christ's Hospital and from 1911
to 1951 there were eighteen. (fn. 26) Since 1951 the number has been reduced, and in 1958 there were 7 boys
and 3 girls from Twickenham on the foundation. (fn. 27)
In 1648 the vestry appointed a schoolmaster and
repaired part of the church house to be used as a
school. (fn. 28) The 'maids' school', which was repaired in
the same year, (fn. 29) may have been separate, so that the
school in the church house may have been for boys
only. It seems to have been discontinued by 1669,
but was to be resumed in the old schoolroom in the
house in 1683. In 1686 a schoolmaster was appointed
and was to take three poor boys free, presumably in
addition to his private pupils. He was given notice to
find other accommodation in 1699, (fn. 30) and nothing
more is heard of the boys' school until the mid-18th
century, except that some bequests were made to
the free or charity school of Twickenham in the intervening period. (fn. 31) In 1749 the school, which had been
much neglected, was revived, and a schoolmaster was
appointed who was forbidden to take private pupils.
There were 20 boys in the school until 1785 when
the number was raised to 30. Various houses were
used, and from 1750 ten of the pupils were boarded.
All were given clothes. They did a good deal of
industrial work-picking oakum, making nets and
pins, and so forth-of which the master received the
profits. Parents sometimes objected to the boys
being apprenticed when they left, but the trustees
insisted on this as they considered that it was one
of the chief ends of the charity. (fn. 32)
The first reference to a school for girls after 1648
occurs in 1717, when its account books begin. (fn. 33) Most
of the income came from subscriptions, but later
there were also a few small endowments from
legacies. The girls were given clothes, and in 1776
there were 24 of them, learning to read and write and
being trained as 'common servants'. One woman
seems to have served as schoolmistress from 1727 to
1789. In 1796 the girls' school was brought under
the same management as the boys', and in 1809 both
schools were replaced by new schools on Bell's
system for both boys and girls. (fn. 34) The endowments
were supplemented by a legacy of 1789 to the Sunday
school, which was now also absorbed in the new
school. (fn. 35) A new building was erected in the same year
on the east side of School Alley, near its upper end. (fn. 36)
About 1822 the school had an income of £135, and
there were 110 boys and 70 girls, of whom 30 boys
and 24 girls received free clothes. (fn. 37) In 1824 a fund
was started to give prizes to children for good
conduct as servants after they left: this was still
being applied in the same way in 1897. (fn. 38) By 1860 the
number of boys in the school had dropped to 80, and
some pupils were still given free clothes, though the
clothes were described as ridiculous and the schools
as a disgrace to the parish. (fn. 39) Already, however,
following the arrival of G. S. Master as vicar in 1859,
the 'demoralizing system of gratuitous instruction' (fn. 40)
had been replaced by 2d. fees, and the schools had
begun to receive government grants. In 1862 new
buildings for boys, girls, and infants were opened in
Arragon Road. (fn. 41)
By 1819 there were also twenty schools in the
parish chiefly supported by charity and containing
some 260 children. (fn. 42) In 1833 there were several
schools, including an infant school on Samuel Wilderspin's plan which had been started in 1830 and is
probably identifiable with Lady Shaw's infant school.
Lady Shaw also supported the Congregational church
in First Cross Road until 1849, and the school may
have met from 1844 in the Sunday school there. (fn. 43)
About 1862 a British school for boys was opened
in the Baptist schoolroom across the Green and a
few months later a girls' department opened in the
Congregational schoolroom. (fn. 44) The school received a
government grant for a while before it closed about
1872, apparently for lack of subscriptions and
pupils. (fn. 45)
In the meantime the schools of Holy Trinity
Church in Vicarage Road had been built in 1842 as a
memorial to Archdeacon G. O. Cambridge, (fn. 46) whose
name they have since borne, and whose widow left
them a small endowment. Like the church, they were
designed by G. Basevi. In 1862 an infant school in
connexion with Holy Trinity was opened in Colne
Road, and this later ranked as part of Archdeacon
Cambridge's schools. (fn. 47) At Whitton the Education
Department used Kneller Hall from 1847 to 1856 for
the training of masters for pauper and criminal
children, (fn. 48) and the village school seems to have been
opened under their auspices about 1850. (fn. 49) After
1856 it was an ordinary National school, though it
was called an industrial school for some years. (fn. 50) The
Montpelier chapel school, whose building still (1958)
stands on the west side of Orleans Road, was built in
1856 for about 50 children and had to be enlarged
before 1870. (fn. 51) By that date all the Church schools
and the British school had about 700 pupils. (fn. 52) No
school board was formed, and instead the voluntary schools were extended. (fn. 53) The first part of
St. Stephen's school in Turk's Lane (now Winchester
Road) was opened in 1876 under government inspection. A rented room across Orleans Road added
to the accommodation at the Montpelier school from
1879, but the main building was later condemned
by the Education Department, and the school was
closed in 1896, when a second building of St.
Stephen's was opened. This was the present school
in the Chertsey Road, which then faced the older
building (now demolished) across Winchester Road. (fn. 54)
At about the same time both Archdeacon Cambridge's and Whitton schools were enlarged, (fn. 55) while
a Roman Catholic school had been started in 1893.
This was St. James's in Grosvenor Road, and
its building may have stood on the site of the first
St. James's chapel, which had been replaced some
years before. (fn. 56)
By 1902, when the urban district council became
the local education authority, the four Church of
England schools and one Roman Catholic school
together contained about 2,400 children. (fn. 57) The first
council school was Trafalgar, in Third Cross Road.
Temporary buildings were opened in 1904 and permanent ones, for 1,150 pupils, in 1906. (fn. 58) The
Orleans Council School, off Richmond Road, had
temporary buildings in 1910, and permanent ones
were opened in 1911 and 1914. The Nelson School,
Nelson Road, remained in its temporary accommodation from 1911 until 1928, and there was also a
temporary council school in an Anglican mission
room in Gould Road from 1919 to 1927. (fn. 59) The
Heathfield School in Powder Mill Lane was opened
in 1931, and, as Whitton filled up, received a succession of new classrooms in huts. (fn. 60) A voluntary school,
the Bishop Perrin Memorial C. of E. School, was
opened in 1936 to cater for the same new district. (fn. 61)
Of the older Church schools, St. Mary's, the original
parish school, was rebuilt in 1931, and St. Stephen's
lost its older building when the Chertsey Road was
constructed. (fn. 62)
All these were elementary schools. Until 1909 the
nearest secondary schools were at Isleworth and
Hampton. In that year the county and urban district
councils jointly opened the girls' secondary school
in Clifden Road for 220 pupils. At the same time the
Hampton Grammar School for boys was enlarged,
and 76 of its 221 pupils came in 1912 from Twickenham. (fn. 63) The girls' school was enlarged in 1936. (fn. 64) The
building also housed a technical institute which was
replaced in 1937 when the technical college in Egerton Road was opened. (fn. 65) Another secondary school,
the Thames Valley County School for boys and girls,
was opened in 1928. (fn. 66) In the meantime, the elementary schools, except for St. James's, which continued
to take all ages, had been reorganized in the early
1930's so that all but Orleans took only primary
pupils. Orleans took infants as well as seniors, and
another school, the Kneller Council School, Meadway, was opened in 1935 for seniors. (fn. 67)
In 1937, when the borough was enlarged, it handed
over its educational responsibilities to the county
council. (fn. 68) Since then, the county council have opened
two primary schools: these are an infant school
in Cobbett Lane, opened in 1951 to supplement the
existing Heathfield School, which was then restricted
to juniors, and Chase Bridge Primary School, Kneller Road, opened in 1954. (fn. 69) In 1937 St. James's
Roman Catholic School was rebuilt and in 1938
St. Edmunds's R.C. Infant School in Nelson Road,
Whitton, was opened. (fn. 70) In 1958 the county primary
schools had some 2,150 pupils between them, and
the county secondary modern schools 1,870. The
Thames Valley County Grammar School had 585
pupils, the Twickenham County Grammar School
851 (all girls), and the secondary technical school
in Egerton Road 633. Of the Church of England
schools, St. Mary's Parochial School had 287 juniors
and infants, Archdeacon Cambridge's had 247
juniors at Vicarage Road and 114 infants at Briar
Road, St. Stephen's had 348 juniors, Whitton had 54
junior boys, and Bishop Perrin Memorial School had
289 juniors and infants. The two Roman Catholic
schools were St. James's, with 325 pupils, and St.
Edmund's, with 191 infants. (fn. 71)
The police orphanage and Fortescue House boys'
home, the second of which is still in existence, both
had schools. The Royal Military School of Music
succeeded the training college at Kneller Hall in
1856 and there has been a Roman Catholic training
college at Strawberry Hill since about 1926. (fn. 72) A good
many private schools are known to have been kept in
the parish since the 17th century. William Fuller
(1608-75), afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, had a
school there during the Interregnum, and there was
a 'fanatic schoolmaster' in the parish in 1685. (fn. 73)
Ironside mentioned 'three capital boarding schools'
near London Road among those existing in the late
18th century. Saville House, Twickenham House,
Wellesley House, Arragon House, Grosvenor House,
Holly House, Fortescue House, Bath House, and
Brook House were all used as schools at different
times in the 18th and 19th centuries. (fn. 74) In 1833 there
were three boarding schools for boys, two for girls,
and five private day schools, besides the probably
humbler private schools at which there were some
charity pupils. (fn. 75) In 1902 ten schools were entered in
Kelly's Directory, and in 1957 there were seven
private schools, most of which took both boys and
girls. (fn. 76)