Miss Steff’s School, Headington
Left This corrugated iron hut that was still standing beside 41 St Andrew’s Road at the end of the 1990s was the premises of Miss Steff’s School from c.1885 to c.1939
The Steffs
William Steff of Suffolk married Sarah Hinton of Ducklington, and their daughter Sarah H. Steff was born in 1857, followed by Elizabeth Ann. The Steffs then moved to Headington, where William became a butler at the Rookery for the Revd John W. A. Taylor and his family. (Sarah's sister Rachel had married Charles "Puggler" Taylor of the Swan Inn in 1854, and this probably encouraged the Steffs to move to Headington.) William and Sarah Steff had four more children, all baptised at St Andrew's Church: Harry in 1863, Kate in 1865, Edwin in 1867, and Alice in 1869. The family lived at what is now 41 St Andrew's Road.
In 1873, at the age of 14, Elizabeth Ann Steff, their second daughter, was already a monitor at the Headington National School, and by the time of the 1891 census she was a self-employed schoolmistress, teaching in this corrugated iron hut beside the house. About forty children were taught in this hut by one teacher.
In 1891, the time was ripe for a Headington kindergarten: children over four were well catered for, as school fees were abolished that year at Old and New Headington Infant Schools; but these schools were constantly being castigated by the School Inspector for admitting children under the age of three. A high proportion of Headington mothers with young children worked as laundresses in the 1890s, and must have been glad to be able to send their youngest children out of the way to school.
Miss Steff’s mother died in 1897, and her father in 1908, but it is unclear whether she then used the house as well for the school. Some children (from families who could afford to pay) stayed at Miss Steff’s School until they were seven and then went straight to the National School on the London Road, avoiding infant school altogether.
Miss Steff retired at the age of 72 in 1931, and continued to live in the house while first Mrs E. C. Steenbuck and then Mrs Ward ran the school in the hut. In February 1939 Miss Steff died, and the school closed.
Was there a school at this house before the 1890s?
Mrs Connie Coppock of New Zealand, great-great-granddaughter of William Taylor and Elizabeth Russell of Begbroke Hill Farm, believes that there was a school at this house much earlier. William and Elizabeth's daughters Elizabeth and Hannah were teachers in Headington, and Mrs Russell had inherited a house (thought to be 41 St Andrew's Road) from her brother Samuel in 1807. (They were the aunts of Charles "Puggler" Taylor who married Miss Steff's aunt, Miss Rachel Hinton.)