A lesson in school history

IN the early part of the 19th century education, where it existed, was in the hands of private schools such as Dotheboys Hall described by Charles Dickens in Nicholas Nickleby, or provided by the church. This, of course, would have been the Church of England.

With the development of the textile industry, Skipton had a strong non-conformist element of employers and to them this domination by the Church of England was unacceptable. The religious aspect was a serious obstacle to the development of any state system of education. Non-conformists increasingly supported voluntary arrangements and the Anglicans in the words of one commentator preferred “the perpetuation of ignorance to giving up their control of education”.

It was against this background that local moves were made and a temporary building was obtained on Newmarket Street in 1844. By 1845 John Dewhurst, a local mill owner and strong supporter of the Congregational Church, had built at his own expense, a new school. This was supported by the British and Foreign School Society for the Education of the Labouring and Manufacturing Classes of Society of Every Religious Persuasion.

This was an obvious mouthful and soon became the British Society and the schools were known as British Schools in opposition to the Church of England’s National Schools. Both groups of schools provided elementary education and most children soon started work although moves were afoot to restrict the employment of children in the new factories. The first Master of the British School was Samuel Farey whose descendent, Katherine Farey, much later became a local councillor and Mayor of Skipton in 1981.

In 1875, the British School was enlarged and in 1889 a room had to be borrowed from the Congregational Church. It was in this year that plans were drawn up for a new Congregational Sunday School which when it opened in 1892 was also used by the British School.

The debate about education raged across the country. The Conservative candidate for parliament, FS Powell, thought the establishment of a school board to take over the provision of education would be costly and add to the rates whereas, Isaac Holden, who fought the local seat for the Liberals, argued for the establishment of a School Board. The Craven Herald was against a school board as it was felt that such a body would undermine the established church by restricting the power of the clergy over teaching and school organisation.

In the event Skipton never had a school board and, in 1902, Balfour’s Education Act abolished any school boards that had been created and established new local education authorities.

Foster, in his book on elementary education in Skipton, concluded: “The Anglican-Catholic defence of voluntary schools had triumphed in Skipton over non-conformist advocacy of a school board.” The voluntary schools could relinquish their status and become fully funded by the State. The British School had been very successful and, with the support of the Dewhursts and other local businessmen, had grown. Nevertheless most schools were in poor financial state and, along with many others, the British School was transferred to the local authority.

The building on Otley Street, now Ellesmere Press, closed in 1909 when the school transferred to new premises on Brougham Street. On May 9, 1907, the West Riding County Council purchased a plot of land on Brougham Street from the Right Honourable Henry James Tufton, Baron Hothfield. The 67,210 square yards plot was for the erection of a school and ancillary buildings. The Brougham Street Council School emerged from the former British School.

The new school followed a pattern that had been developed across the country. The style had been created by Edward Robert Robson. His plans usually featured a central hall and separate playgrounds and entrances for boys and girls. These can still be seen in the Brougham Street building. A school speech day programme records that the school opened on April 1, 1909, with 205 pupils on roll. By 1923 this had grown to 422.

The school experimented with a new style of education called the Dalton Plan that originated in the High school at Dalton, Massachusetts. The head, Arthur Townsend, noted in the School Log in 1924 that much steadier progress had been made with the Dalton Plan which encouraged pupils to carry out their own research.

In 1932, Mr Gardner took over as headmaster and in the school log he records the high standards and how many pupils were able to continue to secondary education. He listed 15 pupils on June 18, 1937, who would transfer to either Ermysted's or the Girls’ High School. Amongst them were Ronald Cleaver, Cedric Holden, Rita Boothman and Audrey Swale. The new head received some excellent comments from visiting HMI.

In 1944, a new Education Act established a pattern for education that has continued in Skipton to the present day, although it has been modified in much of the rest of the country. There were to be primary schools for pupils to the age of 11 and secondary schools for those over 11 and under 15. Those pupils who passed an examination at 11 would transfer to grammar schools and those that did not would go to secondary modern schools. The Brougham Street building became Brougham Street Secondary Modern School. Numbers of pupils rose dramatically after the war and the school had to hold classes in the science and art school on the High Street and in huts on The Bailey where Skipton Building Society now stands.

This was far from ideal and school records note the amount of movement of pupils across town for lessons. This must have been very disruptive and allowed some pupils to "disappear".

Aireville Hall had been acquired by the West Riding and after it had been cleared of military equipment that had been used there during the war it was decided that it would form the basis of a new school building. The move was not straightforward and there were long delays and endless discussions. It was not until April 26, 1958, that the opening ceremony could be held and the new buildings opened by the Right Honourable Iain Macleod MP. Iain Macleod was Minister of Labour and National service and a local man from Gargrave.

The school now became Aireville Secondary Modern School and later Aireville County Secondary School.

The move resulted in new buildings and considerable remodelling and refurbishment of Aireville Hall. New building has continued even into recent years. Many of the considerations will be familiar to today’s pupils and parents today. In 1963, there were letters in the Craven Herald about the school’s ban on pupils wearing jeans in school.

Arthur Merritt, a well known local businessman whose son attended Aireville, wrote in support of the school saying that whilst many of the pupils of other schools would leave Skipton and go on to colleges elsewhere and may not return, the majority of the pupils at Aireville chose to stay in the town to raise their families, make their living and set up their own businesses. However later the Craven Herald reported that: “Mr GE Holroyd who has sprung a surprise by resigning as headmaster of Aireville County Secondary School, Skipton, told the Craven Herald and Pioneer it had nothing to do with the recent controversy over the banning of jeans and black stockings at the school.”

The school developed against a background of clamour to change the 11+ system of selecting pupils for secondary education. There were endless discussions and many proposals to create comprehensive schools in Skipton. These discussions were sometimes acrimonious but eventually it was decided that there would be a system of junior high schools based on the Leicestershire system although Brian Davies, the new headmaster at Aireville, suggested there should be one 11-18 school serving Skipton.

Eventually closure notices were issued for all the Skipton secondary schools and it was planned that Aireville would become the site of a new 11-16 girls’ comprehensive school, Ermysted's site would be a new 11-16 boys’ comprehensive and the High School would become a joint sixth form. This reorganisation was scuppered in 1979 by the election of the Thatcher government and Aireville continued as a secondary modern school. Gradually this name was changed to the simpler and less divisive, Aireville School.

The school educated many local young people and developed well within the local setting. It had always had an experimental streak and showed an ability to be at the front of developments from school visits in the 1930s, through keeping animals in the 1960s and the development of the CSE and later GCSE examination systems. The school, under Brian Davies and later David Rogerson, was a pioneer of the new examination system that was later adopted across the country.

Aireville also developed a high reputation for music with a first rate brass band under music teacher Douglas Shearer and was well known for many highly successful drama productions developed by Patrick Dowman. These included an amazing performance at the National Theatre as part of the National Festival of Youth Drama.

There had always been co-operation with the local FE College since the days of the Science and Arts School. At one stage, it was even suggested that Aireville and the college should merge to form an 11 to 18+ institution but imagination and creativity were not attributes of local politicians and this was not to be.

After several successful Ofsted inspections, it became clear that the school would not match the changed demands of government ministers and after a number of difficult inspections the school went through very troubled times.

In September 2014 the school, still on the site of Aireville Hall, underwent another change. As part of the government plans to remove schools from local authority control the school became an Academy and changed its name yet again to become the Skipton Academy. Ironically this created much closer ties with Craven College and removed the school from being controlled by North Yorkshire County Council.

The wheel had almost come full circle; what started as a voluntary school with local donors and supporters the school is again outside local authority control and organised by a local trust.

Mr Tomlinson is trying collect old photos of the school for an exhibition. Copies can be emailed to airevillehistory@hotmail.com

The pictures have come from various sources including Craven Museum and Gallery and the Rowley Collection.