Hyde Park Junior School - History

History

Hyde Park School is built on the site where, in the 1590s, Thornhill House stood, which was occupied by Sir Francis Drake. Drake's Leat also ran past nearby.

The school building was designed by Henry John Snell (1843–1924), who was responsible for a number of Plymouth's 19th century buildings including Salisbury Road School, in the suburb of Mount Gould. Hyde Park was the last school designed and built by the Plymouth School Board before the local authority took over responsibility for education in 1903, and it was officially opened by the Mayor of Plymouth on 27 May 1904. Upon opening the school had the capacity for 512 infants on the ground floor, 480 girls on the first floor and 430 boys on the third floor as well as two classrooms in the basement and a large playground with covered sheds. By 1908, there were 1548 children registered at the school: 475 boys, 465 girls and 608 infants.

During World War I, Hyde Park along with Salisbury Road School, was used as a hospital and convalescent home. In the 1920s and 1930s, the school continued to run as three separate schools and it was common for there to be 50 children in a class. The three schools were the infant school, the junior school and the high school.

On 20 March 1941, during the Plymouth Blitz, the school was severely damaged by enemy action. Accounts vary as to the cause of the damage: it may have been incendiary bombs, though an eyewitness account reported that a landmine carried by a parachute landed on the roof. The pitched roof was destroyed and has never been replaced: the building now has a flat roof. Salisbury Road School gives an idea of its original appearance.

After the incident the children continued lessons in local church halls and also shared half day sessions with other schools - the boys with Montpelier and the girls with Laira Green. Some children were evacuated with their teachers to Cornwall. In 1942, some returned to Hyde Park and a Nissen hut was erected in the front playground, it was used as a British Restaurant and then later as accommodation for the school. It was eventually dismantled in 1959. According to a short news item in The Times, the school was re-opened after the air raid damage by the Duke of Kent on 14 February 1942 as a social centre, the funds for which had been supplied by the British War Relief Society of America. Beneath the school is a World War II air raid shelter which since the 1990s has been featured on local television and has been used to teach the children about the war.

In 1948, the school was visited by the Down Your Way radio program to interview the pupils about their "Paper for Salvage" scheme. By the early 1950s, the rebuilding of the school was complete. An inspection report from 1954 noted that there were nearly 1,250 on roll in the Junior and Infant school, and that the building was shared by the two schools.