17. BRITISH SCHOOLAn advertisement in The Norfolk Chronicle in 1839 read:
BRITISH SCHOOL FAKENHAM Builders desirous of CONTRACTING for the ERECTION of SCHOOL and CLASSROOMS, may see Plans and Specifications from which they are to Estimate, on application to Mr Cates, Solicitor, Fakenham. Fakenham Schools ● The Vicar of Stibbard and the Curate of Shereford ran a school in Fakenham in the early 17th century. ● In 1781 the Market Cross was leased to John Hall, schoolmaster, and the same year was being used as a schoolroom. ● There is a reference to a Quaker school in 1796, presumably in their Meeting Room. A National School was established in 1836 by the Church of England and diary entries refer to a Boarding School in 1874. ● Reverend Legge lived in the old Poorhouse, now Heath View, and set up a Theological College there as well as a Mechanics' institute in Quaker Lane. ● In the second half of the 19th century there were a number of private schools including Cowles Academy and Peacocks (John C Garrood attended both) and Miss Walls in Bridge Street. ● There was a Girls School in Heath House, another in Tunn Street and a boarding school at Prospect House in Norwich Road. Later Miss Turner ran a school in Queens Road and Misses Tuthill & Harrison had a boarding school in Bridge Street. ● In 1839 the National School for Boys was built in Church Lanes at the top of Constitution Hill. ● Nine years later The National School for Girls started on Wells Road at the bottom of the same hill. Both were Church of England establishments. ● The religious Dissenters opened the British School in 1844 for both boys and girls; the boys' part burned down in1886 and was rebuilt. ● In 1862 education up to the age of 11 became compulsory. By 1910 there were about 500 pupils in Fakenham Elementary Schools. These amalgamated when the new Council School for 5 - 14 year olds (now the Junior School) was opened in Queens Road in 1913. Dissenters and Church of England pupils came together for the first time, though boys and girls were still separated. Whereas in the National School Harry Moore remembered writing on slates, at the new school he used paper and ink. ● There were still private schools run by Mrs Miles, Mary Ann Garood (the sister of John Cousins Garrood), Miss Tuthill and the Misses Mahler and Macinally. |
● The School on Highfield Road opened as a Secondary School on September 18th 1923 and in the war, until 1945, had also to accommodate a London school escaping from the Blitz. It became a Grammar School in 1946.
● The Secondary Modern School in Field Lane (now Fakenham Academy) opened in 1959. Between 1946 - 1958 non-grammar school secondary age pupils remained at Queens Road until school leaving age. Later the two senior schools merged and finally became Fakenham Academy on the Field Lane Site. ● An Infant School was opened in Norwich Road and the Primary School in Queens Road became the Junior School. You now should walk a few yards towards the town to the MAP TABLE. The next plaque is on the Town Sign. |