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Pittville schools 1850-1950
This project was conducted by Mitchell Brown, with credit to Sandy Marshall and John Simpson, Pittville History Works.
Jump to: Pittville Preparatory School | Ravenhurst Nursery | Pittville School of Dancing
Background information
Volunteering with Pittville History Works provided the basis for conducting research into schools that operated in the Pittville area from the mid 1800s to 1950. Pittville was host to a number of different schools during these years, but many were short lived and saw little success; only a few were successful. Research focused on seven main schools:
- Pittville Preparatory School
- Ravenhurst Nursery
- Pittville School of Dancing
- Gapton House
- Phyllis Christie College
- Miss Humplebly’s Preparatory School
- Godwynhurst School
Sources
Most of the research was conducted using the online British Newspaper Archive and the material already available in the Pittville History Works database.
Newspaper reports allowed for the construction of a brief time scale for when these schools were in operation, and provided information relating to other aspects of the schools and their staff, revealing some further points of interest.
The Pittville History Works database contains information about who ran the schools and when they were in existence.
Map of schools in Pittville
Pittville Preparatory School
Pittville Preparatory School offered day care and boarding for boys between the ages of 7 and 14 at Cranley House in Wellington Square. It provided education to local children and children of parents who served in India (The Sons of Parents in India’). The school appears to have been short-lived. The only existing records for the school date from 1854 to 1858.
A number of newspaper articles detail how Rev SC Sharpe, MA, of Christ’s College, Cambridge, took over management of the school in 1854. He lived at the school until 1858, but there are no subsequent records of him at Cranley House, and there is no further information about the school.
Like several other schools in the area, Pittville Preparatory School had a very short history.
Another school also named Pittville Preparatory School, based in Southend House, was established in 1870. Gapton House School was also based here from 1870 to 1895.
There is no evidence to suggest that the two Pittville Preparatory Schools were linked in terms of owners or the type of education. Pittville Preparatory School in Southend House was a day care nursery. It is likely that this Pittville Preparatory School took the name of a school that had previously been established in the area.
Ravenhurst nursery
The most interesting and certainly the most problematic school was Ravenhurst Nursery. Ravenhurst operated from around 1939 to 1945 at 93 Pittville Lawn (currently a B&B).
Ravenhurst Nursery was a private school providing childcare both for children whose parents served aboard and for local children. The Nursery appears to have experienced problems in keeping its domestic staff. There were numerous postings in local newspapers advertising jobs for cooks and cleaners.
An article in the Gloucestershire Echo detailed claims of neglect at Ravenhurst Nursery: a five-year-old girl fell ill with chicken pox and was sent downstairs to play away from the other children. She fell down the entry steps to the Nursey and fractured her elbow.
On this evidence, a case was lodged against Diana Burmester (resident owner of the nursery), but it failed in court.
Ravenhurst Nursery was only open for a few years around the time of the Second World War, and was very short-lived compared to other schools in the area. The Nursery experienced problems in staff retention, but it is not known if this contributed to its closure.
A short notice in the Gloucestershire Echo (shown above), reports that the owner of the Nursery, Diana Burmester, received a fine of £2 for displaying a light during hours of darkness during the war.
Pittville School of Dancing
The Pittville School of Dancing was located at Montagu Villa (now 6 Pittville Lawn). The school was different from other schools in the Pittville area because it taught both children and adults. The School opened around 1939 and ran until the late 1980s.
Montagu Villa was the residence of the dance school’s Principals: Frank and Janet Lister, and Margarette Marsh (an expert in fencing).
Frank Richard Lister, a butcher by training, was well- known locally as a shop manager. Before he took over running the dance school full-time in 1946, he ran a shop from which a turkey was stolen!
Records show that Lister was active in the Gloucestershire District Committee of the South- Western Regional Board of Industry in 1947.
Pittville School of Dancing offered lessons in many different types of dancing. In addition to tap and ballroom dancing, students could also learn the ‘art of fencing’.
The school was also involved with helping local institutions such as hospitals and the police. This was done by holding charity dance competitions. There are many articles of these charity dance in Gloucestershire newspapers alongside numerous advertisements for the school.
