Schools

The population of New Hinksey was rising rapidly, and the parish was poor, so appeals were launched throughout the city to help provide new accommodation for the growing number of children. In 1887 an infant school was built on School Place to provide 100 extra places, and in 1892 a new school building was erected on Vicarage Lane (see below). The original chapel-school was demolished in 1905, a new church of St John the Evangelist having been built nearby in 1900.

New Hinksey School was built in 1892 on a site fronting Vicarage Lane, just to the west of the existing school buildings (described above). Thereafter (and to this day) the school occupied the new school building, the infant school of 1887, and the classroom building (School House) built in 1872. North Oxford ladies took an active interest in supporting New Hinksey school, and held fundraising sales of work on its behalf from the mid 1890s onwards. By 1900 the average daily attendance at the school was 360.

• For old photographs of New Hinksey School see Carole Newbigging, The Changing Faces of South Oxford and South Hinksey, Book 1, p.45 and pp.74-82; Book 2, pp.69-74; Book 3, pp.66-68 (Robert Boyd Publications, 1998-2003).

St Matthew's Infants School opened in 1894. It was on the south-eastern corner of Marlborough Road and Whitehouse Road, on a site given by Brasenose College. Jackson's Oxford Journal reported the laying of the foundation stone by the Duke of Marlborough in December 1893.

The school became the infant school for the whole of St Aldates parish (of which St Matthew's was part). Children who had previously been at St Aldates infants school (which had been founded in 1866) were transferred there, despite objections about them having to walk over Folly Bridge to get to St Matthew's. Here is a picture of children at the school in 1922/23. The school closed in 1959 and a block of flats called Olney Court now occupies the site.

• For old photographs of St Matthew's School see Carole Newbigging, The Changing Faces of South Oxford and South Hinksey, Book 1, pp. 31-33 and Book 2, pp.21-22 (Robert Boyd Publications, 1998-1999).

South Oxford School was a non-denominational council school which opened in 1910 on Thames Street. The site had formerly been that of a Day Industrial School, founded in 1879 to educate and reform children who persistently played truant from jobs in industry. By 1905 more enlightened standards for the employment of children made the industrial school unnecessary and it closed.

At South Oxford School girls were accomodated on the top floor, and entered through the Girls' entrances at either side of the front of the building. The boys' classrooms and facilities were on the ground floor, with entrances at the sides of the building. The school could be reached from St Aldate's, through a passageway in 60 St Aldate's (a building which no longer exists). The infant school was a separate building, behind the main school, with an entrance on Luther Street and its own playground.

In 1948 South Oxford School became a secondary modern with a junior mixed school. It was threatened with closure for many years and was reprieved several times before finally closing in 1981. The main building has since been converted into flats and the infant school was for some time used as a homeless shelter.

• For old photographs of South Oxford School see Carole Newbigging, The Changing Faces of South Oxford and South Hinksey, Book 1, pp.9-15; Book 2, pp. 74-77; Book 3, pp.69-72 (Robert Boyd Publications, 1998-2003).

It seems that in around 1900 there were plans to build a large new municipal secondary school fronting on to the Abingdon Road and between Whitehouse and Western Roads, just to the north of the White House pub. This was on a plot of land owned by Brasenose College. However, for reasons unknown, the school was never built; South Oxford School on Thames Street was perhaps built instead (in 1910).

Grandpont Nursery originally occupied a single-storey pre-fabricated building on the north-eastern corner of Marlborough Road and Whitehouse Road, in the corner of the Whitehouse football ground. This had been built during the Second World War as a day care centre for children whose parents were occupied in war work. It was taken over by the City Council as a nursery in April 1949. The nursery remained there until 1995, when it moved into its present building further west along Whitehouse Road, following the closure of the football ground and the redevelopment of the site as Hodges Court and Pegasus Grange. Since 1949 the nursery has had only seven head teachers - Hilary Chapman (1949-1977), Joan Maples, Sarah Mowett, Leslie Grundy (1986-1992), Elaine Smith (1992-2012), Anna Gillespie (2012-2017), and the present head Lisa Fern.

• For old photographs of Grandpont Nursery see Carole Newbigging, The Changing Faces of South Oxford and South Hinksey, Book 3, pp.62-65 (Robert Boyd Publications, 2003).

St Ebbe's Primary School moved to Whitehouse Road in 1975. The original St Ebbe's school was an Anglican girls' school built in 1856 in Paradise Square (just to the west of where the Westgate shopping centre now is). With the development of the original Westgate shopping centre, much of St Ebbe's was cleared and the school was moved across the river into Grandpont (and hence out of the parish of St Ebbe's, though it retained the name). The original school building on Paradise Square was later the home of the Caribbean Club but has now been demolished.

• For old photographs of St Ebbe's School see Carole Newbigging, The Changing Faces of South Oxford and South Hinksey, Book 3, p.73 (Robert Boyd Publications, 2003).

For further general information on the history of schools and education in Oxford see:

• A list of former schools on Stephanie Jenkins's Oxford History website.
• A brief history of schools in Oxfordshire, since the 1870 Elementary Education Act on the Oxfordshire History Centre's website.
• The Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, vol 4, pp.442-461.
• Malcolm Graham The Suburbs of Victorian Oxford: Growth in a Pre-Industrial City, 'Schools', pp.411-424 (DPhil dissertation, University of Leicester, 1985).