Listed Building History: Headington Quarry school
Above picture © Connie Coppock
The first part of Headington Quarry National School, designed by J. Brooks of London in the medieval style and built at a cost of £420, was opened by the Bishop of Oxford in September 1864. Jackson’s Oxford Journal for 1 October 1864 (p. 5e) gives full details of the event.
The site was jointly presented by the Master of University College (the Revd Dr Plumptre) and the Provost of Worcester College (the Revd Dr Cotton). The building was funded by the National Society, the Diocesan Board of Education, Magdalen and Brasenose Colleges, and some private contributions. Because it was a church school, it received no government aid, and so “the only assistance received by the Incumbent for the support of the school in this very poor district is an annual grant of £10 from Betton’s Charity”.
In 1882 a second room for 80 children (including a gallery for the under threes or “babies”) was built at a cost of £236, and it was connected to the existing school by a covered passage. Ten years later a third room was built, designed to accommodate 88 infants.
The school is now a First School, but was too small to be viable under the Oxford schools reorganization and closed in summer 2003. It is now used as the premises of Headington Nursery School.
Listed Building reference: 1485/805
