Bramham the Village in Times Past

Bramham National School was rebuilt by subscription in the 1830's, possibly on the site of an earlier school, for the 1821 census lists William Little as "national" schoolmaster, and church records mention Theophilus Wilde as schoolmaster in 1788. The rival "free" school was probably housed in the Primitive Methodist Chapel, with Joseph Wormald its schoolmaster in both 1821 and 1841. This latter census showed John Rhodes had taken over the "national" school, to be followed in 1861 by Mr and Mrs Aspin. No mention is made of the "free" school by that time. Records show that the two Methodist Chapels in the village were built in 1822 and 1826, though the remaining Chapel in Low Way commemorates its original date as 1817 over its doorway. The creation in 1870 of primary state education funded by the Treasury finally established the position of the "national" school, under parish church control. Nonconformists, thus forced to send their children to church schools, were often bitterly disappointed. In 1901 Mr Walker was the school's headmaster, with Miss Ada Drake and Miss Annie Wormald as his assistants. Under the 1944 Education Act Bramham School came under the local authority control of the West Riding County Council. When a new building on the outskirts of the village was opened in September 1966, the old school, closed that July, was demolished and replaced by a private house.

Mr Walker was the headmaster from 1890‑1932. He was succeeded by Mr Hargreaves and later by Mr Banks. This picture was taken in the mid‑1920's. In those days children could stay at the school until they were 14.

The wagonette was taking the children from the School to Bramham Park for their annual picnic outing. When you reached the age of seven you walked. The children were given tea on the front lawn where Lord Bingley used to join them and chat with the teachers. When Mr Hargreaves was the Headmaster he used to organise a game of cricket for the boys on the cricket pitch in the Park, while Miss Boswell and Mrs Brown, the other teachers, took the rest of the children in pairs, crocodile style, round the Park though not the gardens. Each child was given a rock bun to take home.

Taken from a newspaper clipping in 1983, the pupils in 1933 were: (back row, left to right): John Dykes, Jeff Dickinson, Arthur Thornton, Ernest Hatfield, Norman Eastwood; (second row from back, standing Arthur Simpson, Elsie Goddard, Ellen Outtern, Betty Tate, Helen Dickinson, Laura Stockdale, Olive Tindall, Walter Chambers, Mr Hargreaves the headmaster; (sitting Kathleen Sanderson, Betty Cass, Josephine Alcock, Elsie Abbott, Grace Nicholson; (in front) William Brown, Eric Moorhouse

Two classes of children taken in the 1960's