Our History

National School No. 1

1870? to 1896 : see National School (Infants) No. 2, below

35 Theobald Street Boreham Wood

This school appears to be the first in Boreham Wood.  This building is shown on the OS map of 1866 but not identified.  The OS map of 1872 clearly shows it as a school converted from a religious meeting house probably as a result of the Education Act of 1870. 

The land on which it stands was owned by the church and this is confirmed by Mary Hanson, who went to Sion School, and by Rob Payne whose father bought the smithy and some of the land from the church in 1923 for £750.  He later sold half of his land to Mr Tompkins, shopkeeper, for about £450.  There is no written evidence of this as a school, both before it became a school and when it was used as a school.  The only identification of its existence as a school is on OS map 1872.  After then, OS map 1898, it is shown as a mission hall.  As a new purpose built school was established a few yards away in 1896 it can be assumed that the children were moved there, and it reverted to a mission hall again. 

The building is still there today and is now Boreham Wood Social Club,

First census 1801 : population of Elstree parish was 292. Census of 1861 it was 402, and in 1901 it was 1569.
 

National School (Infants) No. 2

1896 to 1917

27A Theobald Street Boreham Wood.

 

         The building today

This was purpose built to provide education for the infants of Boreham Wood.  Prior to this the children of all ages had been taught in the mission hall a few yards away.  The new school took up to sixty-six infants while children over seven years went to the newly built school in Elstree, Elstree Mixed and Infants (1884).

Built on spare ground, possibly an orchard belonging to the Church, it shared the same grounds as the smithy and was also known as the Church of England School. 

One of the pupils was William Brooks who became a local historian.  He reported that there were two classes, a first and a second year which had about twenty-five children in each.  There was just one room with a screen in the middle acting as a divider to the classes and there was also an open fire.  Lessons consisted of arithmetic, reading and writing.  William moved on to Medburn School after two years.

Kelly’s Directory 1898 states that average attendance was fifty-one and the mistress was Miss E. Knight.  In 1908 the mistress was Mrs Emma Downing (nee Knight?) and Miss W. Watson - assistant mistress.  However the entry for 1912 states that it was Public Elementary School built for fifty-nine infants, average attendance was now forty-three. 

1908

Miss Mary Finlay was the mistress in 1914 but she transferred (swapped with Miss Tant) to Boreham Wood County Council School in Furzehill Road in October 1914.  Miss Louisa Elizabeth Brettel was a mistress in 1915 and she also transferred to Boreham Wood CC.  In the 1917 directory Miss M E Tant was mistress, she had previously taught at Boreham Wood CC School in Furzehill Road from September 1913 to September 1914.  She was possibly the last teacher in the infants school.

As the population grew rapidly it could not accommodate all the infants and it ceased to be a school in 1917 when all the remaining children were transferred to Furzehill County Mixed School or Elstree C E school.

The building is still there but dilapidated through misuse as a garage when an external wall had large garage doors inserted.  Small extensions were also added at various times and it is now owned by the Little Bicks Gan Yisrael nursery on the same site.

In 2010 our local councillors assembled to recreate their predecessors from 100 years before when the Elstree Parish Council was photographed :