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From: "Caroline" <>
Subject: Re: [Ess] Re: CHRISTIE - 1861 Boarding school, Harlow
Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2005 13:09:02 +0100
References: <000601c57dbb$56aecda0$13700650@Vaio> <003c01c57e23$bcdd1dd0$8201a8c0@Mumsie> <002701c57e62$e356ab90$13700650@Vaio> <004001c57fb6$8263a130$8201a8c0@Mumsie> <004b01c57fc5$b06f82b0$13700650@Vaio>


Colleen

It seems to have changed it's name between 1929 and 1937, as it is St.
Mary's in Kelly's 1929 and Harlow College in the 1937 edition. Both state
that it was founded in 1840.

I got 'The Way We Worked' from Joyce Jones bookstall at an opening of the
Harlowbury Chapel some years ago. Would you like to borrow it ?

Caroline

----- Original Message -----
From: "Colleen" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2005 12:52 PM
Subject: [Ess] Re: CHRISTIE - 1861 Boarding school, Harlow


> Thanks for this, Caroline, its very interesting. I think this is the St
> Mary's college I posted about when I first replied to this query. I first
> thought that it was located near the other colleges in Old Harlow, i.e.
> near St John's Church and Station Road, but then thought I must have got
> it wrong as St Mary's school was in Churchgate Street. It now seems there
> were two St Mary's educational establishments, one near Station Road and
> the other in Churchgate Street. No wonder I was confused.
>
> That's not the end of the confusion either. Wasn't this St Mary's also the
> old Harlow College which used to stand on the hill along side Station
> Road, Old Harlow? That was certainly the college which was demolished to
> make way for the Jocelyns housing estate. Perhaps it was known by two
> names, St Mary's, its official name, and Harlow College, its popular
> name??
>
> I had a look around inside Harlow College in the 60s -one of my ex
> husbands was a day boy there then and gave me a guided tour, he certainly
> knew it as Harlow College. The college was a lovely old red brick building
> with ancient ivy climbing up and smothering its walls. The Greyfriars
> look. Inside, it was an oddly incongruous place, classrooms with high
> ceilings and long Victorian windows which hadn't changed since it was
> built, thick cream and green paintwork which looked as though it had been
> endlessly repainted, capacious, period bathrooms, with Victorian style,
> black and white marble and ceramic tiles on the floor and walls and free
> standing, rolled top baths with ball feet and ancient brass taps which
> shuddered and spat when you used them. There were old fasioned studies too
> with overstuffed armchairs and bleak dormitories - no mod cons
> whatsoever, it must have been freezing there in winter. In other words, a
> typical English minor public school - which was anything but public, since
> only the sons of the well off were educated there.
>
> The data on it Opening in 1862 is helpful, as it seems to rule out this St
> Mary's as the college where Janice's Christie ancestors would have been
> boarding in 1850s and 60s.
>
> I don't have the 'Way we Worked' book did you get it at the museum?
>
> Colleen
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Caroline" <>
>>
>> I have just found a snippet of information - but how accurate it is I
>> don't know (it is from the booklet 'The Way We Worked' from the Old
>> Harlow Memories Group - do you have it ?). It says -
>>
>> 'St. Mary's College was opened in 1862 as a boarding school for boys,
>> although it did also take day pupiles later on. It was closed in 1964 and
>> the building demolished in 1965. The site is now occupied by Jocelyns'.
>>
>> The woman who wrote this worked in the kitchens there in the 1930's.
>>
>> Caroline
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Colleen" <>
>> To: "Caroline" <>; <>
>> Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 6:32 PM
>> Subject: Re: CHRISTIE - 1861 Boarding school, Harlow
>>
>>
>>> Just seen this, well done for realising the school isn't old enough
>>> before I did, Caroline. I was thrown by the building, which is much
>>> older than the school, and my assumption that the school had been in
>>> that location for centuries. That'll teach me to make assumptions!
>>>
>>> Re: not having boarders, I think it may have had them in the past, I
>>> used to live opposite the former head master some years ago and I'm sure
>>> he mentioned going in at weekends to sort out the boarders - though he
>>> may have meant flower 'borders' I suppose :-)
>>>
>>> Colleen
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Caroline" <>
>>>
>>>> I might be wrong !! - but I don't think that St. Nicholas' has been
>>>> around that long - certainly not in it's current location. It isn't a
>>>> boarding school, just a private day school.
>>>>
>>>> Caroline
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: "Colleen" <>
>>>> To: <>
>>>> Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 10:33 PM
>>>> Subject: [Ess] CHRISTIE - 1861 Boarding school, Harlow
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>I think you're In luck, Janice. All of my Harlow censuses are out on
>>>>>loan at present, so I tried a search on Ancestry 's 1861 census for
>>>>>Harlow and up popped your Edward TH Christie, born in Woolwich, still
>>>>>at school in Harlow aged 17. What a coincidence too, since this school
>>>>>is in Churchgate Street (the original, very old part of Harlow) and I
>>>>>live less than a minute's walk from there. There are two old schools on
>>>>>Churchgate Street of the period you're looking for - which I negelcted
>>>>>to mention in my previous posting - can you believe I forgot to tell
>>>>>you about schools so close to my cottage!
>>>>>
>>>>> These are: Churchgate School - St Mary's now I remember where it
>>>>> was! - and St Nicholas's. Here a bit of confusion sets in because I
>>>>> don't believe that St Mary's was ever a boarding school yet St
>>>>> Nicholas's was - and still is one. However, the location of the school
>>>>> where your Edward Christie is a pupil in in 1861 appears to have been
>>>>> the location of St Mary's, not St Nicholas's. I could really do with
>>>>> my printed censuses for this as looking at the census for village as a
>>>>> whole on Ancestry is awkward.
>>>>>
>>>>> Anyway, it appears that the enumerator walks along Churchgate Street
>>>>> (past the church on his left - lovely St Mary and St Hugh's, where
>>>>> your ancestors would have worshipped) to the vicarage and Vicarage
>>>>> Villas (still there) then on to St Mary's school which is next door -
>>>>> a beautiful stone building with a great, high vaulted ceiling and
>>>>> stunning arched windows carved from stone, just like those in the
>>>>> church. If the enumerator went to St Nich's after Vicarage Villas, he
>>>>> would have had gone in the opposite direction, I'm sure, and after the
>>>>> villas would have enumerated several cottages and St Nicholas's Lodge
>>>>> before reaching St Nich's school. Unless, that is, he walked past the
>>>>> cottages in between to focus on St Nich's school. St Nicholas's was
>>>>> and is a large school which includes a lot of accomodation, so its
>>>>> possible the enumerator would have needed quite a bit of time there.
>>>>>
>>>>> I imagine you'd like photos of both schools to be on the safe side? I
>>>>> have some old ones of St Mary's and will take some current ones. Its
>>>>> dark now and I have to sort out my things for a wedding I'm going to
>>>>> tomorrow, so will contact you with photos after that.
>>>>>
>>>>> Colleen
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>


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