New Headington Infant School
The above architect’s drawing of New Headington Infant School
appeared in the Headington Parish Magazine of May 1873.
The building in Perrin Street looks much the same today.
From 1852 to 1873, New Headington infants had no option but to attend Old Headington Infant School in North Place. But by 1873 New Headington village had grown enormously and was already nearly as big as Old Headington, and the old school could no longer accommodate all the infants of Headington and Barton.
Appeals were made in the Headington Parish magazine to raise money for a separate church infant school for New Headington, and by May 1873 contributions ranging from six shillings from "Nesta" to £10 from Miss Watson Taylor of the Manor House totalled £52 12s. By July the building fund had risen to £134 10s. 10d., including £50 from "A Friend in Oxford" and £20 from Magdalen College (then the principal landowner in Headington). By the end of October 1873, contributions had reached £206 13s. 9d.
On All Saints Day (1 November) 1873, New Headington Infant School was opened by the Bishop of Oxford. Following a morning service at 11am in St Andrew’s Church the Bishop (John Fielder Mackarness), the Clergy, and the Choir walked in procession over to the school in New Headington, where another short service was held, and then the Bishop opened the school "to the glory of God, and for the education of the young of this part of this Parish in his Faith and Fear". They then processed back to Bury Knowle House for luncheon with Mrs Ballachey.
A notice in the parish magazine for November 1873 stated "Children resident in New Headington, who have not completed their seventh year, will be admitted to this School on Monday the 10th, at 9 o'clock. The charge for each child will be one penny weekly." Jackson’s Oxford Journal was rather behind with the news: nearly a year later, on 24 October 1874 (p. 7c) it reported as follows:
A new infant school has recently been built at Headington by Messrs. Castle, Cowley-road, from designs prepared by the late Ald. Castle. The building is 37 feet long by 17 feet wide, and, together with a house for the teacher, cost 350l.
Alderman Joseph Castle (Mayor of Oxford in 1868/9) had made his name as a builder when he built Headington Hill Hall between 1856 and 1858, and by the time of the 1871 census his firm was very large and he employed 127 men.
The school was designed for 100 children aged between three and six . After their sixth birthday the children who attended this school moved up to Headington National School (now St Andrew’s Primary School) on the London Road.
The Mistress of the Infant School lived in the adjoining school house, which faces on to Windsor Street: the right-hand side of the house can be seen on the left of the above engraving and photograph, and the front is shown below.
The parish magazine reported at the end of the month that New Headington School
has begun well. Children were first admitted on Monday, 10th, and since that day there has been an attendance of between 60 and 70 infants. It is proposed to open, as soon as the New Year begins, a Sunday School for the children resident in New Headington, and in connection with it a Sunday Lending Library".
The log books of Headington National School, however, indicate that the academic standard of the new infant school did not match the fine new building: for instance the Mistress of the girls' section wrote in 1883:
Admitted twenty-five children from the Infant Schools on Monday and Tuesday – three for Standard II, the remaining twenty-two for Standard I. The children from Old Headington are well up in their work – those from New Headington are behind.
After only 35 years, the school closed in 1908 when Headington’s first council school opened in Margaret Road, and its Mistress Mrs Price (formerly Miss Atherton) transferred with the children. The old building was then used for many years by Headington’s Guides and Brownies, and then by various commercial firms into the twenty-first century.
In September 2006 the following joint planning application for the school (now numbered 6 Perrin Street) and the teacher’s house (now numbered 18 Windsor Street) was submitted:
Demolition of existing garage fronting Perrin Street. Extension to and conversion of part of existing vacant office accommodation at 6 Perrin Street to form 2-bedroom flat. Extension of 18 Windsor Street into part of vacant office accommodation to form enlarged house. Provision of 2 car parking spaces accessed off Perrin Street.
A class at New Headington Infant School in about 1907