Discussion of School Layout

     I've done some more wandering around the outside of the school, and enclose copies of a few photographs taken to supplement a more detailed measuring exercise. My original pacing out left much to the imagination so, with precise dimensions, and other data, I've re~drawn the plans. (See adjacent image for first cut plan)

    You'll see it's unfortunate the windows have been sealed up. It's limited my ability to see much of the inside and there are still grey areas. However, the shot of the front was taken some time ago to finish off a film. Probably that's of most interest.

    After your own observations, with advice from contemporaries and Senc Boul, the teacher, it was obvious some aspects were incorrect. I was desperate to be more precise this time, but getting some of the required information proved to be difficult. I've come up to a brick wall when trying to access the inside. The developer is not Gleesons, as you thought, but trades under the name of Corniche Homes Ltd.

    However, I have managed to locate some of the original drawings in the Sheffield Archives collection. There are still unresolved doubts, though. The plans available were drawn in 1902 as an early design scheme. Some details were altered when final drawings were completed, more alterations occurred when the workhouse offices became a school in 1927, but the main envelope appears to be compatible with other information I've taken. I'm still guessing in parts.

    I've drawn the plans as I remember them, they are near to the layout of my day as current advice allows. There may be differences in detail from the school you can recall, but the main outline and flavour will be the same.

   Senc Boul, who was there from 1952, is firm in his belief that the staffroom was at 1st floor level, to the left of the stair landing. A profusion of waste pipes, outside, show toilets are located at this upper level, but I'm definitely convinced the staffroom was below when I was there. When the school became Brincliffe Grammar co-ed, there'd be more female teachers on staff. Perhaps the ladies used the original facility and men were relocated upstairs, in what was the caretaker's flat in the scheme of 1902.

    Contemporaries confirm your thoughts that the headmaster's office was beside the secretary's room, to the right of the main entrance. As proof, one said Claude Raines was always in a panic because of this proximity when he taught in the Geography Room, at the end of the corridor. Having found a room on the archive details, between Staffroom and stair, l'm 90% certain that's where I was favoured with an interview which preceded a whacking. This room is still there, maybe it was an office for the assistant head.     It's agreed there was a second entrance to the Hall, beside the music room. I couldn't see this from the outside, as it has been obscured with the more recent toilet block addition. We must have had washbasins somewhere, even though our WCs were outside. I have a vague feeling these could have been to the right of the pupils' entrance, where you think there might have been a cleaner's store. I could see the head of a window of a room above the new toilet block. There's certainly something there, I've gone along with your store theory.

    You remember a classroom entered from the corridor to the ground floor staffroom. It was.... we are both right. I was able to get a look inside, through the shutters, to see two entrance doors. We went in from the hall, you probably accessed from the corridor.

    The small store beside the Geography room was a strongroom on the 1902 plans. Another strongroom was proposed between the Music Room and classroom in the top right hand corner. This gave me some problems, but further checks on site, and advice from Peter Spinks, confirm it was, either, demolished when the the premises became a school, or, more likely, never built.     I'm still uncertain where the library fitted in. I'm sure I entered it once from the Geography Room, but the space behind the three small windows seems big enough to be another classroom. I don't remember one. I've guessed the strongroom became the Stationery Store, where we queued in the corrridor for new exercise books. Or, maybe, the area I've called the Library was split into two rooms. It isn't now, and from the view I could get through the shutters it seems unlikely. Peter Spinks thought the strongroom had been a mortuary!

    I never realised a caretaker's apartment was at 1st floor level. And above too, in a small two-bed area in the roof space. There was no bathroom, but there is a hoist to lift goods from the staff entrance area. Peter Spinks tells that the caretaker lived in the house by the entrance gate. I thought that, too. Maybe the disused flat was storage before being converted to a male staffroom.

   The latest drawing is certainly more accurate than my first guess. Allowing for the fact that changes could have been made later, when others were at school, I'm reasonably satisfied it's pretty close to the layout I knew from 1941 to 1947. If anything else turns up, especially any interior shots I might be able to get before too long, I'll send them over.

    To paraphrase the advice, from Peter Spinks:

    The area I've called a Library was a classroom, later. The library was moved, into the into the old, ground floor Staff Room when teachers took over the Caretaker's Flat above. I've not changed it, I remember it like it's drawn!

    The Head was beside the Secretary's Office, Peter doesn't think the Assistant Head, had an office.. The small room off my Staffroom was probably a quiet area used for marking etc.

    The old strongroom was the Stationery Store, Peter remembers wash basins in the room by the entrance. It's possible it doubled as a store for the caretaker even before the new, internal toilet block was added. It's a washroom on the drawing, ignore my previous, conciliatory remark in previous pages!

    The 1st Floor layout is agreed, but the two classrooms above Head's Office were only divided by a movable partition. I'm told it was noisy when C & D forms used them. We had no D Form from memory.

    There was another air-raid shelter, outside the Geography Room end-. I can't remember it at all, but it must have been partly underground. Two classrooms were added above this shelter, you can just see them on the photo of the front elevation. The shelter-has been added, the classrooms haven't as I'm sure they never existed in 1945.

   31 July 02

Finally I've been able to get inside the school. Although I managed to contact the builder less than a week after work cemmenced, you'll see from the enclosed photographs they wasted no time in stripping out. This is a pity, for most areas were obscured by demolition debris and remnants left aver by the Education Committee when they handed the buildings over. On a lighter note, my camera had the electrician scurrying down when he thought a major problem was responsible for the intermittent flashes below his ladder!

Inevitably, there have been changes. Two, open topped dining areas are built in the old Hall, both the small Sixth Form rooms entering off it were changed into a toilet facility and, what I guess, was a kitchen. The stair to first floor remains pretty much as it was, though later regulations dictated that fire doors were needed to compartment off the corridors.

A good proportion of the film was of little import, so you only have that which might be of interest. I've numbered each shot on the back and enclose a brief description to tell what they show.

I was able to check my drawing, there are still inaccuracies. Peter Spinks' memory was at fault when he told that the two, front, first floor classrooms were divided by a folding partition. There's a good, solid wall with fireplaces between them, the partition was between the two opposite rows, in the rear, right hand corner. I should have known, for I recall my Form 1A was in the centre one, and I sat with my back to the screen during the first year. However, I can't recall the high, elaborately plastered ceiling and panelled dado. I-think-it was amanagement committee room originally. The rest of the spaces are senewhat less-ornata, - though the lower ceilings in the adjoining - class- - rooms indicate, they too, had an original function more suited to top brass than anyone who knocked on the front door for assistance.

I've got doubts again about the washroom/cleaners' store. The area I thought to be all cloakroom is divided in two with a wall which seems to match up with data on the 1902 plans I consulted. It was a bread distribution store, but as the interior was altered on final plans, I believed it was never built or more likely, it was altered when the Poor law Offices became a 1927 school. Possibly the smaller portion, accessed from the entrance corridor, was where the basins were, and the remaining area of,about, 16ft x 18ft was considered adequate provision for the hanging of 500 blue raincoats. Thankfully, the rest is pretty much as I drew it. At the risk of causing you further irritation over what you may have already included on your website, an amended layout is enclosed. There will be no more changes, I promise!