Behind the gate of British School Yard in Darlington

Hundreds of plants were last week discovered growing in the former St Mary’s Association Club, in Raby Terrace, which has been derelict for several years and is now awaiting demolition.

Police outside the last remains of the British & Foreign School in Raby TerraceThe old club is the last remaining part of an early school – indeed, when planning permission was granted to demolish it in 2021, Historic England suggested that “it was probably built as a Lancasterian school in 1819”.

The gate leading to British School Yard. It is probably quite a recent addition to the streetscapeThis school was accessed through one of the finest gates in town: in gold letters, the gate on Skinnergate still proclaims that it is the entrance to British School Yard.

This takes us back to the days before state education when most elementary schools were run by two voluntary groups that competed with each other to capture the souls of their pupils.

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In one corner was the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church in England and Wales. It drummed the wonders of the Church of England into the heads of its pupils, and in Darlington, its first school was set up early in the 19th Century in an old house in St Cuthbert’s churchyard – the large stone from over its front door was saved when it was demolished and remains in a wall in the churchyard.

The National School in the Leadyard beside St Cuthbert's Churchyard. The stone says this school building was erected in 1824. It was demolished in the 1940s, although the datestone is now incorporated into the churchyard wall. Picture courtesy of the Darlington Centre for Local StudiesIn the other corner was the British and Foreign School Society for the Education of the Labouring and Manufacturing Classes of Society of Every Religious Persuasion, which was founded in 1808 by nonconformists – Quakers, Methodists etc – who didn’t want Anglican views rammed down their children’s throats.

In Darlington, a British School was formed in the 1810s and by 1819, it had collected enough money – mainly through donations from the Quakers – to build Darlington’s first school building in British School Yard.

It was run on the monitorial system which had been devised by Joseph Lancaster: there was one headteacher who taught the oldest children who then disseminated the lessons to the younger children. This meant there was no need for other expensive teachers.

And it was popular. For a few pennies a week, working class children could get an education, and by 1833, in Skinnergate, there were 178 boys on the books.

A 1970s picture looking down British School Yard with the British School building (most recently a cannabis farm) behind. Picture courtesy of the Darlington Centre for Local StudiesSo it was crowded. “The room is only suited for 156 commodiously,” moaned the headteacher. Yet as the attendance grew – in 1843, 40 girls had joined the school to go with 182 boys – the moans about overcrowding were not repeated so it seems that over the course of the 19th Century, with wealthy backers like the Peases and Backhouses, the school was enlarged as required.

The old school building in Raby TerraceThe cannabis farm building, therefore, may be one of the later enlargements, but it is marked on the 1855 Ordnance Survey map of the town.

Part of the school’s popularity was due to headteacher George William Bartlett, who arrived from Battersea in 1836 and stayed until 1867.

One of his successors was George Byers who was walking to the school one day up Post House Wynd when he was bitten on the cheek by George Walker’s unmuzzled horse. Mr Walker had to pay £1 damages as the unfortunate headteacher was ill for a month.

In 1870, Liberal MP WE Forster – a Quaker from Dorset who had spent several years as an apprentice in Peases’ Mill in Darlington to gain experience of the wider world – introduced the Elementary Education Act, which created state education for children aged five to 12. Towns like Darlington had to elect a Schools Board to run the schools, and the board took over the British and National schools from the religious voluntary groups.

Beaumont Street School was Darlington's first purpose-built state school when it replaced the Skinnergate British School in 1886. It closed in 1966 when most of its pupils transferred to the new Skerne Park school. The multi-storey car park in Feethams now covers much of its site

In 1883, the premises in Skinnergate were condemned and in 1886, the pupils were moved to the brand new Beaumont Street School behind the Dolphin Centre. It had places for a 1,000 infants and juniors and was Darlington’s first purpose-built state school.

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The Skinnergate premises weren’t demolished. They became a cookery school, then the Royal British Legion Club followed by the Catholic St Mary’s Association Club and, most recently, have been used to grow illicit plants. How times change – back in the 19th Century at harvest time, the British School was almost empty as children had to work on the farm; in the 21st Century, their old school building is being used as a cannabis farm.

Wildsmith's grocery in Skinnergate when it closed in 1979 have served the upper end of the market since 1867Wildsmith's on the left of this 1950s picture of SkinnergateIn 2021, Darlington council brought forward an impressive-looking scheme to restore the fire-ravaged former Wildsmith’s shop on Skinnergate – from 1867 to 1979, Wildsmith’s was the town’s high class grocer – and to demolish the out-buildings behind it onto Raby Terrace. The old school building is to go, too.

They are to be replaced by six three bedroom houses, six two bedroom flats and three retail units facing onto Skinnergate with three more flats above.

The entrance to British School Yard on the left, next to Wildsmith's, which is covered in tarpaulin after the 2018 blazeHow the run of shops in Skinnergate will look once the redevelopment scheme is completeHistoric England and the Council for British Archaeology were very disappointed by the loss of the old school, and encouraged the council to find ways to save it, but they welcomed the rest of the scheme, especially the rescuing of the mid-18th Century Wildsmith’s.

An “intimate public plaza” is to be created near where the school stood with interpretation saying what was once there.

Earlier this week, Darlington council told The Northern Echo that although the scheme had been delayed, it intends to complete it.

Skinnergate in the mid-1960s with a vacant lot beside Wildsmith's on the right. The shop that was built on the lot is now due to come down as the redevelopment takes place

SUCH was the rivalry between the Anglicans of the National Society and the nonconformists of the British & Foreign Society, that whenever a new area of town was developed, they vied with each other to open the first school there. When the School Board took over in 1870, there were four National schools in Darlington and seven British schools. Darlington was well-schooled in comparison to most towns – Middlesbrough, for example, only had one National school – and this was because the wealthy Quakers funded the British Society which, in turn, encouraged the National Society to build more schools to get its messages across.

• With many thanks to Mandy Fay in the Darlington Centre for Local Studies

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