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 the 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. Other leading Creole families in Fernando Po around this time included the Barber family, as well as Davis, Barleycorn, Vivour, Kinson, Dougan, Balboa, Knox, Barber, Coker and Collins,[1] although a link has been suggested with Frank Barber, Samuel Johnson's man-servant.
James Calvert Spence (1892 - 1954), the originator of Social Paediatrics
John Petty
Ben Spoor
R.G.Heys, who later went to Leeds University, and became a member of the York School Board. In January 1892 he returned to Elmfield to become headmaster. (See A.J.Peacock (c.1960, p.95), York 1900-1914 ISBN 0 9519229 0 4.)
Sir Robert Newbald Kay - around 1929 he became a Governor of Elmfield College and was instrumental in closing the college down during the depression. He then bought the college estate. The college weas then demolished, and the estates was sold off as building plots after the necessary permissions had been arranged.

[edit] Headmasters and Governors

Initially the Headmaster was responsible for the teching in the school, while the Governor was responsible for everything else, including the boys' moral welfare.