British Schools Museum (Hitchin)

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The British Schools Museum in Hitchin

The British Schools Museum is an educational museum based in original Edwardian and Victorian school buildings in Hitchin in Hertfordshire. The museum complex is made up of Grade II listed school buildings comprising of infants, girls and boys schools with houses for Master and Mistress. It includes a monitorial schoolroom based on the educational theories of Joseph Lancaster for 300 boys, which opened in 1837, and a rare galleried classroom, dating from 1853.

1 History of the School
2 Recent Years
3 References
4 See Also
5 External links

[edit] History of the School

The first school on the site was a schoolroom for 150 boys which was founded in 1810 by local lawyer William Wilshere in a disused malthouse. This schoolroom was the first monitorial school for the sons of the poor in Hertfordshire. Lancaster's system of monitorial teaching was that large numbers of younger boys could be taught by older boys under the supervision of the teacher.

The school buildings of 1837

By 1835 the school had grown to such an extent that in 1837 a new schoolroom was built that could hold 300 boys. This was completed in 1838, with the original schoolroom in the converted malthouse becoming a school for girls and infants. HM Inspector of Schools Matthew Arnold visited the school in 1853 and he stated in his report that the school would benefit from a new classroom. A new galleried classroom for 110 pupils was completed in 1854.

The 1857 school building with the houses for the Master and Mistress to the left

In 1857 it was decided by the School's Board of Trustees to completely rebuild the Girls' and Infants' School. The new building was completed in 1858 together with adjoining houses for the Master and Mistress. When Matthew Arnold paid a return visit to the school in 1867 he reported that the new buildings were "excellent".

In 1904 additional classrooms were needed because of the growing number of pupils and these were built in 1905, but by 1929 the school was too small and the Boys' and Girls Schools transferred to the new Wilshire Dacre School in the town. The Infants School carried on in the original buildings until 1932 when they also transferred to new buildings. Because of the number of evacuees who were sent to Hitchin at the outbreak of the Second World War the school reopened in May 1940 as a Junior Mixed Infants School. This school continued on the site until 1969, when it closed, and the buildings fell into a state of disrepair and neglect.

[edit] Recent Years

The buildings were listed as Grade II in 1990 for their importance as a site of historic school architecture. The buildings became part of North Hertfordshire College and Mrs Jill Grey. a local educational historian opened the original British Schools Museum in one of the Edwardian classrooms. In July 1990 North Herts College left the site and Hertfordshire County Council put the buildings up for sale. The Hitchin British Schools Trust was formed and in 1994 they were successful in purchasing the buildings. The Trust is in the process of restoring the schoolrooms to their original condition and the Museum is visited by adults and groups of children from all over the country who are interested in seeing how their ancestors were taught.