Board/Council School c1900s, Cantilupe Road, Ross on Wye (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, February 27, 2014, 23:54 (3923 days ago) @ Jefff

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