Many readers will have attended Priory Road School, now known as Hamilton Academy, and we look forward to sharing their reminiscences in future Nostalgia pages. 

We will begin first however with a look at the history of the school and some of the teachers who have served there.
Priory Road is one of the oldest non-denominational schools in Wycombe.

It was opened in 1875, following the enactment by the Government of the 1870 Education Act. This Act established the foundations of elementary education in England, which initially was not compulsory. 

The Act empowered the ratepayers of each Poor Law Union or Borough to petition the Board of Education to investigate the provision of education in their area.

This was done by comparing the results of a census of existing school places with the number of children of school age recorded in the National Census taken in 1871. 

If there was a substantial shortfall, a school board would be created, to provide elementary education for children aged 5–12 (inclusive).

The Wycombe Parish School Board was established in 1873 and their first meeting was held on August 28 in the Guildhall.

This considered a report of an investigation carried out into the number of children requiring elementary education in the parish, which included outlying villages such a Loudwater and Flackwell Heath. 

In Wycombe Borough (that is the town itself) the existing provision was stated to be 235, at the National School in White Hart Street. 

From the 1871 National Census it had been established that there were 400 children in the town who were aged five to 12, making a shortfall of 165 children requiring school places. Priory Road School was built as the direct result of this investigation.

One of the early Headmasters at the school was Mr Allan H Plowman, who was a native of Tipton, a town in the so-called “Black Country” in Staffordshire, born there in 1847. 

He was appointed to Priory Road Boys School c.1887 and some of his experiences at the school are interesting in the context of the educational system at that time.

In March 1891 he wrote a long letter to the Parish School Board complaining that the number of staff at the Central Schools (that is both the Boys and Girls schools) was insufficient. 

The complaint was rejected. The following year Mr Plowman had to inform the board that two assistant teachers, Mr Denn and Mr Rowland, had left the school before the expiry of their one month notice period, placing him in a difficult position as replacements had not yet been appointed. 

It is known that at that time Mr Plowman had appointed his son Arthur as an Assistant Teacher, who was then only 14. 
It was common practice at the time to appoint bright children as so-called Pupil Teachers.

Arthur went on to train at Westminster College and became headmaster at a different school. In 1902 he married Mary Goodearl, whose father Richard had been mayor of High Wycombe in 1894-5.

In September 1892 Priory Road School had a brush with the law, when an assistant teacher Charles Harper was accused by Elizabeth Darby of assaulting her son Henry aged nine. 

The case was heard at the Borough Petty Sessions on Saturday Sept 3, with the Mayor in the Chair. Mr Harper pleaded not guilty.

Mrs Darby testified that on August 24 her son came home from school with his back, shoulders and left leg covered with wheals, having been thrashed by Mr Harper. 

She had gone back to the school with Henry and asked Mr Harper why he had thrashed him. His reply was that “the lad was impudent and answered him back”. 

Several prominent residents of the town, including Police Spt. Sparling and Dr Wheeler, confirmed that the boy was badly bruised.

Henry Darby testified that he had been thrashed with a pointer, having been taken to a shed. It was the second time he had been thrashed. 

Mr Harper testified that the boy had been insolent, raising his fist when first punished, so that he (Harper) took the boy across his knee and gave him “several stripes with a stick”. 

This was confirmed by another boy Frederick Bahus who was present at the time and said that the blows were not excessive.

Mr Plowman the Headmaster also appeared in the court and said that he did not consider “the punishment too great for the offence”.

But this he contradicted when Mrs Darby showed the boy’s bruises to him, Mr Plowman expressing the opinion “that the blows had been rather too heavy”, and he expressed regret. 

When questioned by the Mayor he confirmed that “Mr Harper had not received authority from him to thrash boys”.

In pronouncing judgement the Mayor said that “too severe a chastisement had been inflicted, and the Bench must convict, but it should be understood that this would not lessen the power of punishment in the schools of the town”.

The wisdom of Solomon perhaps? 

A nominal fine of one shilling was imposed, plus 15s.6d costs. Mr Harper remained a teacher at the school for at least another 12 years.

In January 1904 the school received a very praiseworthy report from a Senior Inspector of Schools. This included “The Boys’ Department keeps forging its way to the front. 

The percentage of passes is better and the style of work is better. The general condition of the school is still good. A good deal of the work in the elementary subjects is very satisfactory and the answering in class is creditable. 

The department has, this year, come out very well in examinations, both the elementary and class subjects having been well done, the former showing a pass rate of 91 per cent”.

As befits the headmaster of the local school Allan Plowman made a substantial contribution to the social life of the town. 

He was a talented violinist, as testified by this report in the Bucks Free Press of a concert in 1894, given at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Priory Rd. “Mr A.H.Plowman, who needs no introduction as a violinist, gave an exquisite rendition of Barcarolle”.

I am grateful to Alistair Plowman for bringing the work of his great-great-grandfather Allan H. Plowman to my attention.

Alistair lives in Edinburgh and inherited his GGGF’s violin. He has told me: “It is a very modest one but it is still played regularly and has now passed to my daughter who played it in her university orchestra.”