Elmfield College

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Elmfield College, York was a Primitive Methodist institution in Heworth, York which existed from 1864 to 1932, when it merged with Ashville College.

The college was on the outskirts of Heworth, near Monk Stray, where MatheMagic was later based. All that is left of the college now is numbers 1 and 9 Straylands Grove, next to Monk Stray. However, the area now covered by numbers 3, 5 and 7, along with a lot of the surrounding land was once built upon by the college, which was an educational pioneer in many ways. No. 1 pre-dated the college and No. 9 was built in the 1920's as the headmaster's house. (The owners have recently renamed the house to reflect this fact.)

The house was originally built c.1832. People who lived in the house prior to teh foundation of the College included the musician Frederick Hill. Since closure of the College, the house has been an art gallery and a family home.

[edit] People associated with Elmfield College

• Thomas Johnson (1863-1954), botanist - studied at Elmfield College
• Edward Thaddeus Barleycorn Barber was a student from Santa Isabel/Maribo in Equatorial Guinea who went to Elmfield College c.1886/87 before going to Edinburgh University. He was one of the first black people in York and is presumably linked with William Barleycorn, the Primitive Methodist missionary who went to Fernando Po a few years earlier.
• James Calvert Spence (1892 - 1954), the originator of Social Paediatrics
• John Petty
• Ben Spoor