The first houses in the under-construction Woodgrange estate, on Claremont Road, were occupied in the late 1870s/ early 1880s. They were large and offered more than simply residential possibilities.
The period coincided with the introduction of the 1880 Education Act, which effectively made full-time education for children under ten years old compulsory in England for the first time. This Act resulted in many middle-class parents seeking private education, away from the working-class "riff-raff" in the newly established Elementary schools.
Private education, however, was
not new to the area. The Victoria County History of Essex notes that a
directory of 1839 listed 27 private schools in the parish of West Ham, of which
12 took boarders. A West Ham School Board report of 1871 revealed the existence
of 121 private schools, with an average of 14 pupils. Most of these, the report
noted, were “Dame schools” or nurseries, providing little education for very
young children.
The majority disappeared
with the establishment of the first Board Elementary schools, following the 1871
Education Act. By 1886, only 38 private schools survived in the area, but
they were likely to have been more educationally focused than the glorified
child-minder service provided by Dame schools.
This article tells the story of four such schools/colleges that were established in Claremont Road at this time, based on a sophisticated newspaper trawl of over 90 million pages from almost 2,500 publications (courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive). As we have previously noted (see here), unfortunately, we have not been able to access most of the records of the area’s principal local newspaper (The Stratford Express) for most of the period. What follows may therefore be an underestimate of educational provision on Claremont Road in the late nineteenth century.
Woodgrange Academy for Young Ladies – 48 Claremont
The earliest-established and longest-running of the institutions was the Woodgrange Academy for Young Ladies, which was located at 48 Claremont Road for most of its life.
Although the school claimed to have been founded in 1876 (see advert below), we can find no press trace of it before the late 1880s.
The 1881 census shows Mrs Elizabeth Folkard, a school mistress, as the head of house at number 48. She lived there with five children and a domestic servant. Ellen Elizabeth was the oldest of her children, described then as a 23-year-old, single, assistant school mistress. It is she who later emerged as the principal of the ”Academy.”
The school had various names. It was called the Woodgrange Academy for Young Ladies in the earliest accessed advert (1887) By the early 1890s it was the Woodgrange Academy for Girls and by the late 1890s, the Woodgrange Academy – Select School for Girls.
The principal was Miss Folkard, just 29 years old at the time of the first advertisement. She offered “Thorough English Education, individual teaching, pianoforte practice one hour daily Prepared for Oxford and Cambridge Local Examinations.” These national examinations had existed since the early 1870s and were a form of national accreditation of standards achieved. They should not be confused with the university entrance exams which later became much more prevalent.
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| Essex Times Oct 1887 |
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Essex Times 1 Jan 1890 |
The Essex Times article was particularly fulsome in its praise for Ellen Folkard and the appreciation the parents showed for her.
By the time of the 1891 census – a little over a year later - five people lived at number 48, which was still hosting the large academy, headed by the still single Ellen Elizabeth Folkard - described as “Principal of a Ladies School”.
Rumours soon spread that Ellen Folkard intended giving up the school in 1892, probably because it was known that she was about to marry. She felt moved to write to the local press to deny these rumours:
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| West Ham and South Essex Mail 17 September 1892 |
Ellen married Thomas Charles Moore – a 34-year old clerk later that year. He had been a “visitor” to the house during the previous year’s census.
Lack of space at number 48 became an issue, and during the 1890s, consequently, the academy rented out additional accommodation, as shown below.
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| West Ham and South Essex Mail... - 29 October 1893 |
The now Mrs Moore mothered three children from 1893-1896. She and her husband moved their home to 90 Claremont Road while keeping the school open at 48.
She continued as principal and made virtue of her well-qualified staff, as she sought to recruit pupils, see below from February 1895
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| Essex Times Apr 1895 |
Motherhood and managing the academy must have become too burdensome. The advert below was the last we could find for the school.
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| Walthamstow Express - 25 February 1899 |
At the time of the 1901 census, a little more than two years later, number 48 had no occupants, and the Moore family was still living at number 90. Ellen Elizabeth had no occupation, and her husband, Thomas, was described as a Commercial Traveller (silk goods). The family was still there a decade later, with Ellen still without occupation, living with her husband (head of household), three children, and an adult sister.
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| 48 Claremont Road, today |
There is no indication of what happened to the academy. There is no trace of it in subsequent press reports.
The Temple school – 84, Claremont Road
Three other houses on Claremont Road provided locations for different schools/colleges in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, and three more houses on the street offered other educational services.
“Temple School” moved to number 84 in 1886. As the advert below shows, the all-boys school moved there that year “in consequence of greatly increased and increasing numbers”. It had relocated to the Claremont address from 29 Hampton Road, where it seems to have been established the previous year.
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| Leytonstone Express... - 07 August 1886 |
Principal Henry Rice described himself as ”of Malborough College”. Adverts for the Hampton Road establishment said the school appealed to “Gentlemen’s sons” and offered education for “Commercial pursuits or learned professions”. “The house is well adapted for its purpose and the school room is large and airy”.
The reference to appealing to “Gentlemen’s sons”, perhaps, addresses the desire of middle-class people not to have their children in the same school class as the newly recruited working-class children attending Board schools.
Rice offered tuition in “Classics, French, Mathematics, Arithmetic, Geography, History, English Grammar and Analysis and Book-keeping.” In language that would not be appropriate today, he promised “particular attention to delicate or backward boys.” There was no school on Saturdays.
The school's advert after it had moved to Claremont Road states that “the Junior Department for little Boys, between the ages of 5 and 8, was under his wife’s “superintendence. “
Fees for “Day boys” under 10 were 21/- per quarter, or £4.4s a year (approx. £500 p.a. in today's terms), approx. £600 p.a. for boys between 10 and 12 and £660 p.a. for boys over 12. School lunches were provided at additional cost, and the establishment offered a facility for boarders.
The school seemed to be short-lived. There is no newspaper trace of it before 1886 or after 1887, although the 1891 census shows Rice aged 63 and described as a schoolmaster, living at the address with his 62-year-old wife, who had no stated occupation. They were the only two occupants of the house, so perhaps some form of schooling may have continued to be undertaken within it then.
A decade later, number 84 had seven occupants, including three schoolmistress step-daughters (Margaret Davies (aged 24), and her sisters Katherine (20) and Charlotte (19). There is no indication that any school/college or academy-related activities took place at the residence.
Curiously, it became the home of yet another private school principal (Martha Ingold – see below)- a decade later.
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| 84 Claremont Road, today |
Forest Gate Commercial and Civil Service College for Boys – 26 Claremont Road
The next, short-lived Claremont Road Educational establishment was “The Forest Gate Commercial and Civil Service College for Boys”, which operated from 26 Claremont Road for a few years in the early 1890s.
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| West Ham and South Essex Mail.. - 02 February 1895 |
Its principal/proprietor was almost as interesting as the institution. H(orace) Leonard Humphreys was born in Wimbledon in 1866 and by 1891 was an assistant schoolmaster in Guernsey. Within three years (December 1893), aged only 27, he had set up his college in Claremont Road, from his new home there.
He soon advertised for a “gentlemanly youth,” “disciplinarian” student teacher support at £15 per year (£1,650 pa, today), and a “visiting French Master”—see below.
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| West Ham and South Essex Mail.. - 17 August 1895 |
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| West Ham and South Essex Mail.. - 18 April 1896 |
Humphreys was ambitious and in a hurry. By January 1896, he had moved the college to presumably larger premises on Woodgrange Road, next to the railway station. It was still an all-boys institution. Three years later, he announced the extension of its scope to include a girls’ department.
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| 26 Claremont Road, today |
Meanwhile, he moved his residence to 101 Windsor Road. He established the renamed “Forest Gate High Schools and Commercial and Civil Service College”, which he relocated to Earlham Grove as a mixed-sex institution. He once again relocated his home to the new college premises and described himself as a “school principal/proprietor.”
Humphreys switched career tracks fairly rapidly. In 1905, he became the first paid secretary of the recently established West Ham Distress Committee and registered himself as a “secretary” in the 1911 census. We have found no further newspaper reports or adverts relating to his former educational institution—whether it collapsed, merged or was sold on is not clear.
After, by his standards, a lengthy period as secretary of the Distress Committee, he changed his career path fairly dramatically, and as a 48-year-old, took up a more lucrative position with the Canadian Pacific Railways and emigrated.
Claremont Ladies School – 73 Claremont Road
The first newspaper trace of this school is dated December 1889, in the West Ham and South Essex Mail when the school seemed to be based at 69 Claremont Road – see below.
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West Ham and Essex Mail 28 Dec 1889 |
By the time of the 1891 census, “the Misses Ingold”, described above as the principals, lived two doors down at 73 Claremont. The older, Martha Ingold, aged 34, was described as a schoolmistress. Their brother and sister-in-law were also living in the house, both Salvation Army captains.
They would appear to have constructed an iron classroom in the back garden of the house, in order to accommodate all of their pupils, and an early version of planning enforcement officers stepped in to object, as indicated by this report from the Leytonstone Express and Independent.:
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| Leytonstone Express and Independent - 29 November 1890 |
They duly complied with the order to stop using the iron shed as a classroom, and put it up for sale:
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| West Ham and South Essex Mail 25 March 1893 |
Within a couple of years, the school was rebranded as Claremont Ladies School and Kindergarten and would appear to have additionally occupied 111 Hampton Road, to compensate for the lack of the iron classroom. The fees were from £2.40 per year (£270 at today’s prices).
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| West Ham and South Essex Mail 5 Jan 1895 |
A couple of years later, “The Misses Ingold” took larger display adverts for their school, as shown below. According to press reports, they also appeared to be prominent in local Temperance and Methodist church activities.
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| West Ham and South Essex Mail... - 14 August 1897 |
Presumably, the school was thriving, as within three years, it was
advertising for a governess.
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| West Ham and South Essex Mail- 29 December 1900 |
At the census, the following year, the only two occupants of the dwelling were Martha and Catherine Ingold, aged 44 and 31 respectively. They were both single and described as private school mistresses.
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| 73 Claremont Road, today |
Adverts for the school seem to have dried up, but by the 1911 census, Martha Ingold had moved to 84 Claremont Road, where, aged 54, she was the sole occupant and described herself as “Principal—Ladies School and Head of a scholastic institution.”
Number 84 had
been the location of Henry Rice’s Temple School, two decades earlier – see
above.
Newspaper notices from Augusts 1916 and 1917 suggested that she was at least offering music lessons from the house, which she had renamed Claremont College:
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| Leytonstone Express and Independent - 18 August 1917 |
Martha was the sole occupant of number 84, aged 68 at the time of the 1921 census, when she was described as "Head of a scholastic institution (school) Principal."
We have been unable to find any other press references to Claremont College on Claremont Road, although the Victoria County History of Essex, referred to above, states that the college was still in existence in 1926.
Ester died aged 84, unmarried, in East Ham in 1938.
Other educational ventures on the road
The occupants of three other houses on Claremont Road also offered more limited educational services in the 1890s – see below. The street ceased to host educational provision from the turn of the century, if newspaper adverts are to record the story. There is no obvious reason why.
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| West Ham and South Essex Mail - 12 Mar 1892 |
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West Ham and South Essex Mail - 23 Oct 1897
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