History is all around us, the past leaves footprints everywhere.
The Elementary Education Act of 1870 set up elected School Boards in towns and cities. These boards could build new schools wherever church schools (National or British) were not enough. Through the first half of the nineteenth century, Kettering had no shortage of schools; some of the buildings are gone, some are now something else.
But in the latter half of the nineteenth century, something changed in Kettering. The footwear industry which by then had already been prominent, really accelerated from the late 1850s through the 1870s.
Kettering’s own School Board was finally formed in 1890. Workers attracted to Kettering around 1865 to 1880 would have established households, had children, and those children would be putting substantial and increasing pressure on the town’s school provision during the 1870s to 1890s.
Kettering’s School Board didn’t want their schools to be bland and utilitarian, like other Board Schools across the county. They wanted the schools to be beautiful, and hired architects to design their schools.
Stamford Road School
1892 to 1983.
This school was built by Alfred Barlow, to the designs of John Alfred Gotch.
Originally a Mixed Junior School, it later became a Boys’ Secondary School.
It merged with Kettering Boys’ School in 1976, serving as its “lower school”, teaching the first two years of secondary.
Stamford Road School closed in 1983.
The building is now used as an alternative education centre. There was an adjacent Infant School, which was demolished and replaced by a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Hawthorn Road Primary School
1895 to Present
The longest-serving school in Kettering.
Built by George Valentine Henson to designs by Gotch and Saunders.
Rockingham Road School
1894 to 1980.
Originally a Mixed Primary School, it later became a Girls’ School.
It merged with Southfields Girls’ School to in 1976. One year group moved over to the Lewis Road campus each year. The school closed when the last pupils left in 1980.
Part of the same complex was an Infant School. This was demolished, and its area is now a car park.
Park Road Mixed School.
1898 to Present
Built in 1897 by Gotch and Saunders, opened in 1898.
Park Road Infant School
1899 to Present
Education Act 1902 (Balfour Act)
This Act abolished the elected School Boards created under the 1870 Education Act and transferred their schools and responsibilities to Local Education Authorities (LEAs), generally county and county borough councils.
Most schools built after this point were what we generally call Local Authority Schools.
See Also:
● The Lost Schools of Old Kettering ● The Former Schools of Old Kettering ● The Sunday Schools of Old Kettering ●
● My Books ● More Local History ●
Sources
Ballinger, J. (1999) Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Kettering (Industrial)
Forebears (2022) Kettering Genealogical Records
Jack Preston 