Extract from diary notes of Ebenezer Knight: “New Room” - Corner stone laid by the Bishop of Peterborough 1870 October 11th. This would be Bishop Magee who made a speech at the ‘New Room’, (which was the ‘National School’) at the re-opening of the Parish Church after the Great Restoration on Tuesday, February 2nd, 1875. A beautiful day, when the Bishop said that Rushden was the blackest spot in the Diocese before Canon Barker came.
South End School was built in 1871 on a plot of land given by Mr F U Sartoris of Rushden Hall.
It was a Church of England School, and was later known
as a National School.
The building cost £1100 to erect, and could take 250 pupils.
The school in 1963.
The building had changed little; the brook was now culverted, and the playground fenced.
1900 Map of the school, on the corner of High Street South and Wymington Road.
Next door was Lewis' blacksmiths yard, house and smithy. The Sydney brook
flowed along in front of both and then meandered behind the Conservative Club
and into Rushden Hall grounds. A bridge gave access into the school playground.
On the river at the Festival of Britain in 1951
Click here to read about the Newton Road School Trip to the exhibition
Aerial view - South End school left and Townsend's extensive property right
Note the entrances to the air raid shelters set in the bank behind the school
