Can any member tell me if I can find the attendence records for the school at Ross from about 1908.
Also records of baptisms at the Baptist church in Ross from 1903.
My mother Amy Badham (born 13/4/1903) attended the school and I believe was baptised at the Baptist Church.
Thank you

Hi,
If this is the same Baptist Church as you mean then there's quite a good history on their website. http://rossbaptist.org/about-us/history/
I suggest contact the Church re attendance records etc, and maybe the Civic Society/Museum as links below.

Judging from this list of transcribed records on this FoD site I don't think it includes Ross Baptist Church, I guess not as I'm sure you've searched here ? Entering Ross gives various Churches but not Baptist I think.
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/cgi-bin/transcripts/transcripts_2.cgi

----------------------

Do you know which Schools she attended in Ross ?.
The Ross Civic Society site may help you, probably worth contacting them too.
http://www.ross-on-wye.com/index.php?page=ross_160-Schools

Ditto the Ross Heritage Museum at the Market House, assuming it's still there, I do hope so.
??.
By happy coincidence we had a Ross-related post just yesterday, this has the Museum links etc.
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=43238

Hope this helps, and that someone else has more definitive info too.

Thank you Jeff for the information I will follow up some of those leads.
All I know about the school is that it was small with only one or two classrooms.
I don't think the building survives.
This was the primary school as she said that she passed for the grammar school but they hadn't the means for her to go there, she was also told that her 7 sisters hadn't gone so she couldn't.
Yes I looked for the Baptist church records but they aren't on this site.
I don't really know why she attended the Baptist church, probably it was nearest to where they lived, I know she went twice on Sunday, and said that she was baptised there, although I only knew her attending C of E.
Thanks for the help
Jane

The Primary School you are looking for might have been the one that was at the end of Old Maids walk,now a house, I don't know the name of it right now but will find out. My Mother went there, she was born in 1916. The was also another Schoool Walter Scott, in Old Gloucester Road, but I think that may have been a bigger School, as the building is big, it could have opened later.
Petrina

Thank you Petrina, I think that it must be the school that your mother attended, she told me she had the job of ringing the bell to call the children into school.
When my mother was alive I hadn't any thoughts of doing research into my family, she would have been a mine of information.
I did visit Ross some years ago and spoke to a local lady who told me the school was no longer there.
My mother left Ross around 1916.
I would be grateful for anything you can find out, thank you.

Hi Petrina,
When you say the end of Old Maid's Walk, do you mean the end furthest east from the Church & River, where the Walk meets Copse Cross Street ?
I ask as the Old Maps site for Ross doesn't show any Schools marked along Old Maid's Walk. However, upto & including the 1938 Map it does shows Webbs Almshouses north of the Walk, opposite the bowling green, if this was a council-run community "resource" then perhaps it had/was a schoolroom at some point ?? Later maps suggest this area is now the site of the Health Centre & Police Station.

OR MAYBE ?

Where Old Maid's Walk meets Copse Cross Street is opposite what used to be the large area apparently occupied by the Poor Law Institution (c1938) aka old Workhouse buildings, which were accessed from Alton Street. This became the Dean Hill Hospital by time of the 1968 map, now the new Community Hospital.
As with the Almshouses, it seems likely to me that any government-funded school in the locality could be associated with, if not part of, such buildings. The Workhouses site does say "A children's playground and single-storey school-room also stood to the west of the main block", ie nearer to Cross Copse Street hence Old Maid's Lane, whether this is purely for the inmates' use I don't know ?.
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Ross/

??

Does any of this fit in with your recollections/knowledge, you know this part of Ross far better than I do, I can only go by what I see on the maps.
http://www.old-maps.co.uk/index.html

Hi ladies,
regarding my above post abt Old Maid's Lane, I must say that I would have expected any Schools to be marked on the highly detailed Ordnance Survey maps, yet they are not....

??

I have just read the Ross pages of the 1913 Herefordshire Trade Directory, knowing this will mention the main schools particularly those run by the local council which I guess are most relevant to us ?. This highly-detailed town Directory can be found on this excellent free website.
I cannot give a direct link, but look for the Herefordshire home page, then the 1913 Kelly's Directory.
http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/findbylocation.asp

When it's opened, search the word "conveyance" - sounds odd but it works very well! It will give just three hits, the second of which is highlighted on Page 177 of the Directory, immediately under the Schools section for Ross.
Sadly, the site's search engine can be "difficult", eg won't find 177 for the page number = however it's a very usefull free site so I just grin and bear it, sometimes go thro umpteen hits til I find the page I want. Once you've found the relevant Directory page, you can save that page to your pc as a pdf file, very good quality and still free of charge. Jan, if you have problems, I've saved the relevant page and will happily email you the pdf file.

The Ross Directory describes various Schools including the "Public Elementary School" in Cantilupe Road, opened 1873 and averaging abt 700 pupils including 256 infants by 1913. This would be the school I would have thought most likely for your Grandmother to attend, what do you think Jan ?.

The school is clearly marked on all the various large scale 1:2500 maps on the great Old Maps site. Looking from the main Gloster Road the school was halfway down Cantilupe Road on the lefthand side, just past the old Baptist Hall and opposite the Cottage Hospital. By the 1968 Map it's labelled Ross County Primary School. It was demolished soon after 1968, the site is now occupied by residential flats and the town library.

It's known as the Board School on the aforementioned Ross website, which states
"The Board School was purpose built in 1874 and then further extended in 1889. After the extension, infants were taught here and this led to the closure of the infants school in Old Gloucester Road.
In 1889 the school had a regular attendance of 202 boys, 190 girls and 186 infants.
The schooling was affordable and had a broad curriculum covering among many other subjects reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, book-keeping, physiology, drawing, science and music, it covered most of the things that are on the current curriculum but without the levels of detail...."

See the excellent
http://www.ross-on-wye.com/index.php?page=ross_160-Schools
And of course the highly recommended
http://www.old-maps.co.uk/index.html

Hoping this helps you,
atb J

Hi Jeff, The little School I am talking about was where old maids walk meets Copse Cross Street on the cross roads you would have to cross Corpse Cross Street to get to the Work housewhich was in Alton Road, now Ross hospital. My Mother once told me that the School she went to, was a all Girls High School. The person I want to see to find out the name of it is away on hoilday for a few weeks but I'm working on it. I'm going to over the week end, go & see what the house is now called could be a clue there. Just wish I had asked more questions when I was young when people were still alive that would know, think a lot of us are all in the same boat on that one.
Petrina

Hi Petrina, thanks for clarifying things. As you say we all wish we'd asked more questions or took more notice when we had the chance, I certainly do. That said clearly you have a very good memory of what you were told, unlike my empty head !. I only know Ross as an occasional visitor since a boy in the early 70s, I can find the shops, cricket ground, pool and the old Roxy, and thats my lot, especially since the bypass was built, so of course your local expertise is far better than my map-reading ! As the school in Old Maids Walk was a High School, does that infer it was for older children, I was thinking more of an infant/primary school for Jan's enquiry ? Also, do you think it was a private school ie paid subscription rather than state supported ?. Looking forward very much to your findings.
Maybe the town library can help with this enquiry, it's a shame such a nice and important town as Ross doesn't seem to be very served by the various online references such as the British Victoria library website which covers most of the Forest so well.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/Default.aspx
I'll have another look at the Ross Trade Directories re the Girls High School but not too optimistic.
Thanks & happy hunting, Jeff.

Hi Jeff, I don't think the school at Old Maids walk was for older children as my Mother also went to Ross Grammer School. Another person who could have helped was Mum's youngest sister but she has been very ill in hospital for about 5 weeks & died last night. I'l keep plodding on.
Petrina

Hi Petrina,
so very sorry to hear about your mum's sister, sympathies to you all. As you say a time for plodding along...
I've had a look thro some 1890s Ross Directories, the other schools they mention are an Infant's School and the Blue Coats/Walter Scott school both in Arthur's Lane, now called Old Gloucester Road, so not where you're thinking of.#
No doubt your enquiries will give better results, you can't beat being on the spot !
Best wishes, Jeff.

# as before for these schools see http://www.ross-on-wye.com/index.php?page=ross_160-Schools

Hi Jeff, Not yet had chance to go to Ross to see if I can find out the name of School but have been talking to a cousin, her husband also knows about the School on the end of Old Maids Walk.He said the evacuees were sent there, when they came to Ross. Also he knows a Chap who went thereto School & he thinks may still alive & will see if he can find anything out.They must have changed it to a mixed School.My cousin's husband also says the name of the house he thinks is what the School was called.Will go there over the weekend.
Petrina

Hi Sorry for being so long in getting back to you, been busy with family things. I went today to see if there is a name on the house at the end of Old Maids Walk, where the School was. The house is called Clairville, the sign was on the wall by the gate,out onto the pavement. I don't know if that's the name the School was called or not,the name may have been changed.
Petrina

just thought I would google Clairville School Ross on Wye & up popped the following.
Clairville House was the home of a private School, which initally started out as a boys private boarding & day school, & later on it also accepted girls. Adverts from around the end of the 19th century imply it was still a boys school at that time. Also a photo of the building also came up.
Petrina

Well done Petrina !
Just goes to show that there's Google and there's google, if you get what I mean. I also searched Clairville but using a different search engine and found nowt, even tried Clareville etc too ! A little annoying for me (blooming electrickery again!) but goes to show persistence pays off and of course it's only right & proper you should find "your" school.

I now see the school is actually mentioned on the Ross site we kept visiting earlier, at least my "guesses" regarding it being near the old Workhouse wern't too many miles off the mark !. It's interesting to read about how the street name became more "pc friendly" with time, just as the old O/S maps showed when I was reading them; I wonder if the locals moaned about "nanny state" etc as they might nowadays ;-)

Thanks for your good work on this interesting quest,
take care, J.

http://www.ross-on-wye.com/index.php?page=ross_510-Copse_Cross_Street

Hello all
I am sorry that I haven't given any contribution since posting my query, unfortunately I haven't been well, also major computer problems.
I am trying to get to grips with a new one, but would give anything to get my old steam powered one back!
I have been trying to digest the replies.
I do not know Ross at all, I have only visited once and that was quite a few years ago.
It would not have been the private school as my mother came from a large family, and there certainly wouldn't have been money for school fees.
I do know she could have attended the grammar school but was unable to because of the cost.
What did strike a cord was when bookkeeping was mentioned as a subject at the larger school, as that was my mothers employment right up until she retired.
All books kept by hand, no calculators or adding machines!
My mother died 27 years ago and my recollections of what she told me may be a bit distorted.
I would be pleased to receive any information by email, thank you.
Jane