THE ORIGIN OF THE BUILDING – 1866

Transcription of a Deed showing the purchase of the plot of land on which the house was built, by Philip Ellis.

John ELLIS, Philip ELLIS, Eli ELLIS of Ossett, Cloth Manufacturers the 1st Pt, John and Eli ELLIS 2nd Pt, Philip ELLIS 3rd Pt and Edmund TEALE of Ossett, Bookkeeper 4th Pt. Of & concerning Plots of land, Mansion house* dwelling house, hereditaments etc comprising the 1st of 2 schedules. Firstly plot of land at Ossett 3a 2r 2and 1 third p. Bounded NW by Storrs Hill Rd W by Ossett Green S & E by other hereditaments of J, P & E ELLIS. Secondly that other plot of land cont. 3a 1r 21 and 1 third p. Bounded NW by Storrs hill Rd W & S ????? partly by hereditaments belonging to John BRIGGS devisees & partly by other hereditaments belonging to J, P & E ELLIS on the SE by land & hereditaments described in the 2nd schedule & NE by land & hereditaments described in 2nd schedule and also that messuage/dwellinghouse with outbuildings upon the lastly described plot & now in the occupation of George HARRISON and John BEAUMONT all delineated on Plan (NO PLAN). Second Schedule plot of land cont 3a 1r 32p NW partly by hereditaments secondly described in First Schedule & partly by plot described on SW by other hereditaments to J, P & E ELLIS, SE side thereof by public footway and NE by land & hereditaments recently purchased by Philip ELLIS and also that MANSION HOUSE & outbuildings now in the course of erection (( “PARK HOUSE” ?)) on the said plot. Secondly, all that other plot of land in Ossett cont. 1r 14 and 1third p NW by Storrs hill Rd SW by land & hereditaments secondly described in the first schedule on the SE by part of land & hereditaments lastly thereon before described & NE partly by land & property of David ELLIS & partly by land & hereditaments recently purchased by Philip ELLIS (Ref: 1866 ZH 95 109)

* Is this the house named ‘Sowood House’ marked on the old map, also known as the ‘Manor House’?? 

PARK HOUSE 1866

                 Park House became Ossett Grammar School in September 1906                                                                                         

MATERIAL CONNECTED TO THE OSSETT GRAMMAR SCHOOL

VARIOUS EXCERPTS FROM GOVERNORS MEETINGS 1910

West Yorks Archive Service at the West Yorks History Centre, Wakefield (Ref: WMT/OS)

HEADMASTER MR FRANKLAND & STAFF

(dates not known)

OSSETT GRAMMAR SCHOOL STAFF 1952

Back Row L-R: Miss Patten; Miss Hemingway; Mr North; Mr Rablen; Mr Banks; Mr Hughes; Mr Lucas; Mr Atkinson; Mr Moore; Mr Yates; Mr Cathcart ; Mr Salter; Miss Longley & Miss Waddington

Front Row L-R: Mr Bailey; Miss Linley; Mr Parsons; Miss Mann; Mr Axford; Mr Akehurst; Miss A Robertson; Mr Van Der Veen; Mr Clark

CLASS UPPER III IN 1949 – THE FORM MISTRESS IS MISS JACKSON 

Back Row L to R: Gerald Flintoff; Brian Deighton; Arnold Rose; Ian Joseph Wilson; John Thewlis; Brian Crook; David Moore; Geoff Dodgson; Barry Watson; Brian Whittell.

Middle Row L to R: Christine Lee; Joan Worth; Jeryl Boothroyd; Mary Dunn; Avril Summers; Shirley Gomersall; Mary Parish; Kaynita Dixon; Pat Milner.

Front Row L to R: Brenda West; Doreen Walshaw; Daphne Cragg; Shirley Cairns; Anne Green; Mary Hutchinson; Una Radley; Barbara Schofield; Eileen Walmsley; Betty Brearley.

JOAN P SMITH 

This is the old stables block at Park House which were being used in 1909 as laboratories in the recently moved grammar school. (Information and images supplied by Neville Ashby). – AMF 2022

Click on the images for a better view. 

In 1895 the Royal Commission of Education instructed a number of Assistant Commissioners to report on the condition of secondary schools around the country. The report on Ossett Grammar School wasn’t particularly favourable …

Ossett was described as ‘a small manufacturing town devoted to the sorting and preparation of rags for the making of mungo’. It was said to be a ‘mean looking town‘ with no large mills but many small factories.

Mr AP Lowrie, the assistant commissioner, described the Grammar School as a small building consisting of a house for the headmaster – that would be Mr Frankland – that had the ‘look of a regular workman’s house’, and one dirty, dilapidated classroom. The fees were £3 a year for boys under 12 and £4 a year for those over 12. There were no girls in the school.¹

When Hannah Pickard died in 1891 she left the Grammar School provision for two scholarships, totalling £4,200 (around £344,607 today), for the education of boys from Ossett.² I wonder how many boys, who otherwise would have been denied an education, attended the school on a Pickard scholarship. How many of you, your parents or grandparents attended the later Grammar School on a Pickard scholarship?

For an extra fee the boys could learn Latin, Greek, German, chemistry, algebra and trigonometry. The assistant commissioner found that this was the only school in the West Riding to charge an extra fee for Latin and Greek. The headteacher, Mr Frankland, had to take all these lessons himself, as well as the ordinary school work. There were four boys taking Latin, one taking Greek and five taking chemistry. Mr Frankland must have had his work cut out for him!

Mr Lowrie reported that the ‘stuffy, dilapidated, filthy room with old benches and inferior equipment’ was enough to see the building condemned and that ‘it was far better that this school should cease to exist’ and the boys be sent to Wakefield or Dewsbury. The school was demolished in 1905 and for a while it was housed in the Central Baptist schoolroom in old Church Street. In 1906 it relocated to Park House on Storrs Hill. This is still a part of the school today.

Did You Know … this was the first school in the West Riding to accept both boys and girls!

First published on Ossett Through The Ages

Anne-Marie Fawcett