Our first school was the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School which dates from the 13th century.
It was positioned just south of the church, now called Church Lane. The building was demolished and rebuilt in 1788 and still stands. This was followed by Watsons Infant School in West Street, National and British schools and a Wesleyan school.
Banovallum School
In July 1934, the Horncastle Wesleyan Day School was purchased by Lindsey County Council and became known as Cagthorpe Council School. However, this school was closed as part of a re-organisation in 1937 and was later re-opened as Horncastle Cagthorpe Senior Council School. Around 1946, this soon became known as the Horncastle Secondary Modern School.
In the early 1960s, a new school was built on the Boston Road and the name was changed to Horncastle Banovallum School by 1997. It was officially opened on Wednesday, 20th November 1963, at 2:45 pm.
In 2008, a new block was opened at the rear of the school. It was also during this year that the County Council opened a £400,000 Children’s Centre based at the school.
As of December 2014, Banovallum converted to Academy status and is now independent of local authority control but the school does continue to coordinate with the Lincolnshire County Council for admissions.
Currently the school remains a co-educational school, teaching from the ages of 11 to 16. Whilst there are three houses in the school now, named after the RAF planes Hurricane, Lancaster and Spitfire, there used to be four in the 1970s and 80s. These were named after famous Lincolnshire figures from history: Franklin, Hereward, Newton, and Tennyson.
Cagthorpe School
The original Wesleyan School was founded in 1859. However due to its great success, they soon became the victim of overcrowding, with numbers of pupils consistently rising. Complaints started to come in so much so that they grew too loud for the Government to ignore, leaving them with the decision to withdraw their grant to the school in 1903, which would have bankrupted the school.
To face this threat, the Wesleyans hurried to raise funds so that they could build a new and more spacious school, the foundation stone for it being laid on the 22nd of June 1904 on a site at Cagthorpe which overlooked the River Waring. Soon a red brick building was erected, possessing ornate turrets and gables that put other 18th century built schools to shame.
This school was the first in town to introduce uniform, with cap badges introduced in 1903. By 1925, the girls had worn navy caps with two turned-up flaps edged with green and gold braids with a gold letter ‘W’ and the boys wore navy caps which bore the green shield and the gold letter ‘W’.
It was in 1933 where the school’s links to the Wesleyan Methodists ended because they were forced to sell the school to the Lindsey County Council. This was due to the Council’s decision to bring all the children in care in the county to Horncastle, which required investment to create over 150 places. It was in 1937 when the Council reorganised Horncastle’s schools, with Cagthorpe becoming the Senior Council School. After World War 2 Cagthorpe became a Secondary Modern School, with teaching split between the old building and prefabs on the site which would later become Banovallum.
Horncastle Community Primary School
In September 1991, with the amalgamation of Stanhope Road Infant School and the Bowl Alley Junior School, a new school was opened. The Junior part of the school had been built sometime in the 1950s, whereas the Stanhope Road Infant School was opened on September 10th 1974. A nursery class had been introduced in 1984 and an extension was completed after the opening of the new school, in 1994.
The main school premises, prior to moving to Bowl Alley, were in Manor House Road, which was old and had little playground space. Almost 400 children had attended the primary school in 1951, with around 20 percent of pupils coming from the Homeleigh Children’s Homes. The pupils that were 7-11 years old were housed in these buildings and the 5-7 year olds were accommodated somewhere different. In the Church House, the original Grammar School, there were two classes, with one in the ‘tin hut’ on Spilsby Road and the other on the former Technical School in Queen Street.
Land was brought in Bowl Alley Lane and the Junior School was built for £59,500 and opened on the 15th of September 1952, with 246 children on the register. The official opening was later on in 1953, February 18th.
Maypole House School
The Maypole House School originated in 1880 and by 1884 it was known as a private school for girls and boys. It was located at Raithby Cottage, on 44 East Street and the fees for it was £2 for each year. It was originally ran by Miss Constance Williams, who eventually retired in 1909.
Miss Jessie Bell take over from Miss Williams and by 1919, it was run by Miss Minnie Evison. It was believed that classes were held in her rooms before moving to a building in East Street near the Holy Trinity Church, which was known as the ‘Tin Tabernacle’. Whilst the school was listed as a preparatory school during the years 1937 to 1940, it was also known as Miss Rippin’s School, who taught for Miss Evison and eventually took over the school.
During World War Two there was a school building in Watsons Yard that Rippin thought would be more sufficient for them. She rented the building and moved her students there to continue learning.
In 1946, Rippin had heard of another building that was up for sale, which was Maypole House. She soon bought it but continued to keep Watson’s Yard for younger children, which would cause it to become known as ‘the Little School’, whilst the older ones attended Maypole House. From here it became known as the Maypole House Preparatory School.
On November 1st, 1955, Miss Phyllis A.I. Daddy took over the school, which at the time had 136 pupils, a majority of them being from outside Horncastle, such as Woodhall Spa, Wragby and others.
In 1958 a Senior Section had been formed and a year later in 1959, the playground was wired for tennis courts. Furthermore, in 1961, the Great Northern Hotel was bought as a addition to the school.
Miss Daddy retired in 1964, and was succeeded by Major CR Day. It was actually John Day JP who originally built Maypole House in 1877 and it was he who lived there until around 1924. It was 1972-1978 when the School was run by B Newcombe.
The school offered education for children from the ages of 3 to 16, and provided ‘O’ level courses in 14 different subjects. They had graduate staff, small classes, a laboratory and computer facilities. They had daily private transport from the Skegness, Chapel St. Leonards, Spilsby, Boston and N. Lincs areas.
The school offered a variety of subjects, which included: Scripture, Grammar, Literature, Composition, Recitation, Dictation, Reading and Spelling, History, Geography, Arithmetic, Algebra, French, Writing, Drawing, Needlework, Nature Study, Physical Exercise, and Music.
National School
In 1813 the Methodists had joined with other nonconformists in Horncastle to establish the British School which was built on the Wong. These events startled the Anglicans into action, and within a few days there was a meeting in St Mary’s vestry room to discuss the establishment of a National School, educating the poor children of the town and neighbourhood in the principles of the established Church.
From this a subscription list was opened, with the vicar Dr. Madely deliberated fiercely, so much so that within only eight days, £242 12s 6d was raised. Not only this but land was given to them by Sir Joseph Banks, which was in Manor House Road, alongside 24 ash trees, five elms, one maple and one beech. Soon the building was rapidly built on this land, attempting to quickly compete with the more ambitious nonconformist school. For the building, Simon Paddon charged £247 3s 9d for the brickwork and Harrison and Jiggs £176 for the woodwork.
Opened in April 1814, the school had one classroom for all children, with Henry Reeve as their teacher, who was joined two years later by Mary Boulton who was to teach the girls needlework. The expenditure of the school included various items such as slates £2 14s 4d, three blackboards 12s 6d, a cane 2d, and cleaning the privy 1s 6d.
It was in 1822 when Robert Riches took over (who continued up until 1841) and he was a popular teacher, as seen from the average attendances rising from 101 in 1826 to 148 in 1830. In 1823 the first pupil teacher was taken on and in 1827 Riches salary was raised from £60 to £70.
School times were from 9 to 12 and 2 to 5 during the summer (and the afternoon 1:30 to 4 in winter). Parents were required to send their children to school clean, with their hair combed and clothes neat. From 1837, school fees varied from 1d for labourers’ children to 6d for those who were children of tradesmen, until places became free in 1891. Despite illnesses and epidemics, the school continued to flourish, with absenteeism being mainly calls for child labour, the attractions of fairs and funerals.
Soon after a separate girl’s school and house for the head and boys’ teacher were added on the east side and was officially opened in 1863. It was not until nine years later in 1872 when a boy’s wing was built on the west side. A couple of years after, in 1876, the infants were also separated out.
The head of the National School was John George Southwell who served the establishment for 37 years (1888 to 1925), only missing two days because of illness. During his time at the school, scholarships to the Grammar School had become feasible.
In 1903, the school was taken over by Lindsey County Council and it later became a single mixed school in 1922.
Some other key figures who dedicated their time to the school were long serving teachers such as Miss Margaret Jane Whitehurst (who was the girls’ head from 1891 to 1920), and Miss Alice Whitehead (who was the infants’ head from 1894 to 1921). There was also a man called Charles Frederick Kay who introduced the school’s first parents’ day in 1928 and the first school sports in 1929.
In 1934, the school became Manor House Road Council School, which was the same year when the County Council bought the Oaks Meadow for the use of all Horncastle schools, excluding the Grammar School. Under the 1937 reorganisation, the National School ended being a separate institution when it became Manor House Road Infants, with the seniors of the school moving to the Cagthorpe School. The seniors later moved to the County Junior School in Bowl Alley Lane in 1952, followed by the infants who moved to an adjacent site in 1974.
Horncastle History & Heritage Society
