Preston Grammar School and The Park School
A fascinating deposit has arrived at the Archives involving a large number of items from Preston Grammar School and The Park School. The former was for boys and the latter for girls – both provided a grammar school education and both schools were based on Moor Park Avenue in Preston.
Most exciting was an old school satchel containing exercise books belonging to a former pupil at Preston Grammar School. He had been a member of form U4A, 5A and 6SM1, and the books covered subjects from physics, maths, chemistry and geometry to English literature and religious instruction. There was also a logarithmic table textbook of ‘Mathematical Tables for the use of Practical Men’ – clearly this book was not intended for female pupils or impractical men! The dates in the exercise books relate to classwork and homework completed by the former pupil between 1946-1948.
Also within the collection was a floor plan of Thomas Miller’s house at 5 Winckley Square, where the Junior Park School was based. It was found amongst a small bundle of research by Kathleen M. Reynolds who, in 1957, produced ‘A Short History of The Park School 1931-1954, as a follow on from Miss A.M. Stoneman’s ‘History of the Park School 1907-1930’. This book was also part of the collection, alongside a quote for a print run of 2,000 copies. Kathleen’s research notes focused on the history of 5 Winckley Square, stating it was built in 1855, with the interior tiles the same as those used in the entrance to the Law Society building near Cross Street. She also notes that although the Miller family left the house, moving to Singleton Hall, they retained used of the cellars until 1939, when they were used as air raid shelters.
Other items in the collection
All of the items could not be listed here, but a small section includes:
- photographs of school teams
- copies of speeches
- details of pupil prizes/certificates
- schemes of work
- sixth-form courses
- details on wartime arrangements in 1939
- Miss Stoneman’s address on the opening and early history of The Park School
- George VI’s message to schoolchildren in 1946
- the Mayor’s procession in 1933
- Preston and District Council for Refugee Children minutes
- annual prize distributions lists and books handed out as prizes to pupils, including a book by William T. Arnold, ‘The Poetical Works of John Keats’, awarded to a pupil in form U3B in 1922 for being 4th in exams out of 72 boys.
- a large number of handwritten department and pupil timetables
The full list of items can be found on the Archives catalogue: SMPR/66/ACC133656 for Preston Grammar School and SMPR/67/ACC133656 for The Park School.
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Fascinating article, thank you. Winckley Square is a beautiful part of Preston – it must have been such a busy place with all those schools. ‘Mathematical Tables for the use of Practical Men’ sounds interesting – alas, I was never practical with maths, so presumably I would have had to make do without.
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