1876 - 1916 | 1916 - 1956 | 1956 - 1996 | 1996 - Present Day

HISTORY OF CONWAY ROAD INFANTS

1876 - 1916

Following the introduction of the Education Act of 1870, and to accommodate the increasing number of non-Anglicans in Colwyn Bay, a School Board was established for the Colwyn District.  The Chairman was Whitehall Dodd (1823-1878), owner of the Bryn Euryn Estate (Rhos-On-Sea and the Llanerch Estate near St.Asaph), as well as land at Glan Conwy.  The school was built on land owned by Dod at the Westend of Colwyn Bay to serve rural communities and has some similarities with other work commissioned by Dod.  It is now a listed building, being listed on the 15th of May 2001.

Boys School 1896

On 24th November 1875, the Llandrillo Eirias School Board made an application through the Education Department for a loan o £2,500 to build a school on Conway Road.  It was expected that the completion of this said school was to be in October/November of 1876 the following year.  It was to stand on ½ an acre of land and would comprise 2 schools in one, one for the boys and one for the girls, catering for the ages 3-14 years.  There was expected to be 102 children in each school which was compiled from 72 children at desks and 30 in each classroom.  In each of the schools the children were split into classes which were called ‘Standards’.  There were the Infants, Standards 1 and 2 (ages 7 and 8), and then in the Juniors there were Standards 3 and 4 (ages 9-10 and 10-11).  In the seniors there were Standards 5 and 6 (ages 10+).  There were 2 streams in each of the Standards.  Exams would be held quarterly for all the Standards.  If there was any disobedience, pilfering or excessive tardiness, then the pupils would be caned by the Masters or the Mistresses.

Girls School 1896

Also to be included in the school plan of the building was a parlour, kitchen, bookstore, scullery, pantry, privy and a cap room.  There were to be 2 yards, a boys yard, which was the larger of the 2 and a girls’ yard.  At the top of these yards, there were to be a Mistress’s privy, a girls’ privy, a boys’ privy with urinals and the Masters’ privy with a room each for the Ashes and Coals.

When the old ‘Board School’ was built in 1876 alongside Conway Road, it stood alone and the large fields at the back were used for football and cricket. 

Mr Edwin Griffiths was asked to accept the post of Headmaster at the school and was offered £70 per annum as a wage.  Mrs A M Grindley became the Headmistress for the girls’ school.  She would remain there until 1930 when the school would be amalgamated and the Headmaster of the boys’ school would take over the running of the whole school. 

The plans were drawn up, agreed upon and works were started.  The Board School was completed an opened by the 15th October 1876.

On May 18th 1896, Mr J O Davies, a trained Master, took over from Mr Griffiths who had been Headmaster for 20 years until he retired.  Mr J O Davies was concerned with the lack of attendance by the pupils, which was very low due to a bad epidemic of Measles. 

An Attendance Officer was appointed named Mr Matthews who visited the School regularly to receive a list of absentees which was rather a lot at this time.  His job was to visit the homes of these children to find out why they were not attending school.

On December 1st of 1896 due to another epidemic which was claiming children every day, the School received notice from the Board to close the school by order of the Medical Officer of Health, Dr Frazer.  The attendance had dropped to under 40%. The School re-opened on January 4th 1897.  A year later on January 12th 1898, the School was closed yet again and didn’t re-open again until March 7th 1898.  This happened on a regular basis therein where the school was closed, sometimes even only for a day, but each time it was closed it had to be disinfected and cleaned thoroughly.

This is a typical Object Lesson taken from school records

In August of 1900, there were plans drawn up and submitted for new extensions to be carried out on the Board School.  The extensions would improve the school by a further 3 classrooms, an extra school room for the boys and one for the girls.  Another cloakroom was added as well.  There were 2 covered sheds added to the playgrounds for storage.  These plans to improve the school came about very quickly and within no time at all the building became what it is today.

In 1906 provisions were made for the young ladies in the girls’ school to be taught cookery and laundry lessons.  The cookery class started on October 4th 1906 and was followed soon after by the laundry class.

In October 1907, further extensions and changes were made.  Outside, in the playground, the covered sheds became the cycle sheds and a workshop was installed as it had been noted that there was a keen interest from the boys to do woodwork, and at the time they had to walk to other end of the town which on dark nights was considered too dangerous for the younger boys.  There was to be a woodwork class set up and introduced to all the boys in the hope of adding interest to their schoolwork and therefore combat the ever growing problem of truancy in the school.

Also to be added was a play shed for the infants and new urinals for them, which came out into the middle of the playground, which were to be put in the girl’s playground.  Swing gates were put in to separate the girl’s playground from the boys.

Inside, the girl’s schoolroom became the Dining hall and the Parlour became the new girl’s schoolroom.  There were then 2 senior girl’s classrooms, a large junior girl’s classroom, 2 Infants classrooms, a senior boy’s classroom and 2 Junior boy’s classrooms.

New fireplaces and chimney stacks with flues were installed and new windows fitted with double lime, thus enabling them to open for ventilation.  The Infants were lucky to have new desks with a ‘swing seat’ and ‘dual desk lid’ which lifted up and had space for storage.

Boys School 1912-1918

In 1911, Mr H Lewis took over as Headmaster and had a very good rapport with the pupils and a lot of changes were made.  He also decided try a new way of teaching to improve the scholars’ learning by changing the Teachers for different lessons so they didn’t see the same face or hear the same voice all day.  This was very successful and the results showed this in the next examinations taken.  The boys were also taken out on more outings and visits, one of which was to visit the train station on July 23rd to see the King, Queen and Princess Mary as they were passing through Colwyn Bay from Holyhead.  He stayed on until 1922 after 11 years as Headmaster.

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