Wednesday 2 June 2010

Lanehead Schools



On Monday I walked up to Lanehead and over to Wellhope and Rush to take some photos. The left one shows The school House at the bottom of Lanehead Bank. It was built by Bishop Shute Barrington about 1819 and used as the school. It was used until the larger school on the right was built, at the top of the bank, in 1874. The new mixed and infants school had room for 144 pupils and in 1894, according to Whellan's Directory, was attended by 80 pupils. Some pupils left at 11 years old to attend Wolsingham Grammar School, the others stayed at Lanehead until they left their education. In 1958 Wolsingham became a Secondary School, so all pupils over 11 years old moved schools. The decline in pupil numbers at local schools meant closures, and Lanehead was closed in 1959 and pupils transferred to Wearhead School. The School House was sold in 1908 and the money was used to help build the Cowshill Village Hall, then called the Mission Room.

1 comment:

  1. I am led to believe that Newcastle University used the 'new' school as a field study centre, but I'm struggling to confirm this so far. Do you know if this was the case, and if so the dates that they were associated with it? Many thanks!

    ReplyDelete