The Old School House

3 Horseshoe Lane

The photograph of 'The Old School House' taken in 1971 shows it fronting Gillingstool Hill.  We were puzzled for a long time because locals told us it was accessed from Horseshoe Lane by a little alleyway.  We discovered that older maps of the area such as the 1840 Tithe map and 1881 O.S. map do indeed show that the house had no access to Gillingstool and that the front path seen above was a 'modern' arrangement.

We do not know when the house was built.  According to the 1840 Tithe survey, the house was owned by Joseph Stephens and occupied by Hannah Pride.  However on 13th November 1866 the house was conveyed to the Trustees of the British School.  The indenture confirms that the property had belonged to Hester Mountford who intermarried with Joseph Stephens and died without issue leaving Thomas Smith Child as her heir at law.  It was Thomas who conveyed the house to the British School to act as a schoolmaster's house or to be used to raise money from rent.

As far we know it was never used to house any of the schoolmasters.  It was occupied by a series of families.  Click here to reads about the OCCUPANTS

At some stage it was sold by the education authority and acquired the name of 'Old School House'.  At the time of the re-development of the town centre in the 1960's it was owned by Mr Postlewaite of Southgate, London.  Click on the thumbnails below to see photos of the house's demolition.  The photo on the left was taken 7 days after the photo at the top of this page was taken, and one on the right was taken 2 weeks later.

This page was last updated: 10/07/2008