EDUCATION.
From 1804 until 1826 the governors of Walsall grammar school paid two schoolmistresses to teach children in Walsall Wood to read.
Both taught in Walsall Wood village until 1806, when
one of them apparently moved to Shelfield. (fn. 58) The
vicar of Walsall started a Sunday school at Walsall
Wood in 1825 (fn. 59) and set about establishing a day
school. Land was leased from Lord Bradford at a
nominal rent, and later in 1825 a schoolroom for
50 boys and 50 girls was built. The National Society
made a building grant. The vicar intended that the
children should be taught free and relied for funds
upon subscriptions and help from the governors of
Walsall grammar school. The school did not in fact
open until 1829, when the governors of the grammar
school began to pay the salary of a schoolmaster.
In 1833 68 boys and 68 girls attended on weekdays
and 80 boys and 84 girls on Sundays. The governors
of the grammar school stopped paying the master's
salary in 1841, but in 1844 they joined Lord Bradford in settling the school site in trust; the minister
of St. John's, Walsall Wood, then became manager. (fn. 60)
In 1845 a teacher's house was built with the aid of
grants from government and the National Society.
By 1857, however, the schoolroom was in disrepair
and the school was threatened with the loss of its
annual government grant. In 1859 a larger school
with a teacher's house was opened in Lichfield Road
on a site given by Lord Bradford. The old school
and teacher's house were sold and the money applied
to the new buildings. (fn. 61) An infants' school was added
in 1882. (fn. 62) In 1885 men from the village who attended
Sunday morning classes in reading and writing at
the schools built a new classroom for the 1859
schoolhouse and altered and added to the infants'
school. (fn. 63) The mixed school was again enlarged in
1898. (fn. 64) The schools were reorganized into junior
and infants' schools in 1932 and were merged into a
single school in 1974. (fn. 65)
Walsall Wood did not come under the jurisdiction
of Walsall school board; it was instead one of four
areas grouped together in 1876 under a new Nortonunder-Cannock United District school board. (fn. 66)
Responsibility for education passed in 1903 to the
county council and in 1974 to the metropolitan
borough of Walsall.
Schools opened since 1876.
Castlefort Junior
and Infants' School, Castlefort Road, Walsall Wood,
was opened in 1960 as Holly Lane Junior and
Infants' School. It was renamed in 1961. (fn. 67)
High Heath Church of England School was
opened c. 1886 as a National school in connexion
with the mission church of Christ Church, High
Heath. It was closed in 1932. (fn. 68)
Holy Trinity Church of England Infants' School,
Clayhanger, was opened in 1880 as a National school
for girls and infants. It was housed in a schoolroom
beside Holy Trinity Church. (fn. 69) It later became a
school for infants only. In 1968 it was moved to a
new building on an adjoining site. (fn. 70)
St. Francis Roman Catholic Junior and Infants'
School, formerly St. Peter and St. Paul Roman
Catholic School, was opened in 1893 for boys, girls,
and infants in the Roman Catholic school-chapel on
the corner of Mill Road and Broad Lane, Shelfield. (fn. 71)
In 1938 the school, renamed after the patron saint
of the new church, became a junior and infants'
school only. (fn. 72) New buildings in Mill Road to replace
the old school were opened in three stages between
1961 and 1969. (fn. 73)
Shelfield Infants' School, School Street, Shelfield,
is housed in the premises of the former Shelfield
Board School. The board school was opened in 1878
as a mixed and infants' school and was enlarged in
1885 and 1895. (fn. 74) A new building for the infants was
opened in 1909. (fn. 75) In 1932 senior pupils were transferred to new buildings in Coalheath Lane, Shelfield, and the School Street buildings became a
junior mixed and infants' school. In 1961 the
juniors were also moved to the Coalheath Lane
buildings. (fn. 76)
Shelfield Junior and Infants' School, Coalheath
Lane, Shelfield, was established in 1961 as a junior
mixed school with pupils from School Street. It
became a junior mixed and infants' school in 1964. (fn. 77)
Shelfield School, Mob Lane, High Heath, a comprehensive secondary school, was opened in 1932 in
Coalheath Lane, Shelfield, as Shelfield Senior
School. It became Shelfield Secondary Modern
School in 1945. In 1960 it was moved to new buildings in Mob Lane. It became a comprehensive
school in 1971 and was renamed Shelfield School. (fn. 78)
Shire Oak School, Lichfield Road, Walsall Wood,
a comprehensive secondary school, was formed in
1970 by merging Shire Oak Grammar School,
opened in 1961, with Walsall Wood Secondary
Modern School, which had been moved to new
buildings adjoining those of the grammar school in
1966. (fn. 79)
Walsall Wood Junior and Infants' School, Brown
hills Road, Walsall Wood, was opened in 1903 as the
mixed and infants' Walsall Wood Board School. A
new infants' school was erected in 1906, and the
original building was enlarged in 1912. (fn. 80) In 1932
the school was reorganized to form a senior school
and a mixed and infants' school. The former became
a secondary modern school in 1945, moved to new
buildings in Lichfield Road, Walsall Wood, in 1966,
and merged with Shire Oak Grammar School to
form Shire Oak School in 1970. (fn. 81)
In 1974 there were two special schools in the area:
High Heath, in Green Lane, Shelfield (1965), and
Aldridge (later renamed Oakwood), in Druids Walk,
Walsall Wood (1971). (fn. 82)