Schools of Exeter - A to St James'

Bishop Blackall Girls' Grammar School, 1878 to 1983

During the reign of Queen Anne, Bishop Offspring Blackall (Bishop 1708-1716), was responsible for the founding of several charitable schools in the city through the Episcopal Charity Trust. The Episcopal Charity Schools were founded in 1709, funded by voluntary subscription and collections made at the Cathedral and churches of Exeter. The single building was divided into separate schools for boys and  girls.

In 1817, a new building was constructed for the two schools, allowing an increase to 250 pupils from the original 200. Girls were admitted at the age of 8 and left at 13, at an annual subscription of 21s. By 1850 the role had increased to 310. All denominations could attend, but they had to attend Church of England services on Sundays.

Over the years various donations were made to the school by wealthy citizens of Exeter including six houses and 13 acres of land, at Hillscourt, given by Samuel Daniel, in 1738.

In 1870 a special court was set up for the funding of the school, mostly through the endowment of property. In October 1872, a site in Queen Street, near the old post office, was leased at a cost of £110 per annum. The school was named the Episcopal Middle School for Girls. By 1878 it had become the Middle Class School for Girls, still based in Queen Street, under the headmistress, Miss A A Bray.

The Move to Hillscourt

In 1882, the then head mistress decided that another move, this time to the site in Pennsylvania Road at Hillscourt would take place. In 1887 the foundation stone was laid and the Queen's Street school moved into the James Jerman designed building when it was complete.

During the First World War the school moved to Rougemont House and the building was taken over and became Hospital Unit No. 9 and run by the Red Cross to nurse soldiers from the front. At the end of the war in 1919, the school moved back to Hill's Court.

Bishop Blackall School

In 1920 the school was renamed the Exeter Episcopal Modern School and then in 1934 it was finally named Bishop Blackall School for Girls in honour of its 19th century founder Henry Blackall and his ancestor, Bishop Blackall. The school was damaged in the bombing during the Second World War. After the war, the school enrolled girls who had passed their Eleven Plus exam. Then in 1972, it became a comprehensive school, along with all other state high schools in Exeter. A fire badly damaged the school in 1979. Only four years later another re-organisations in Exeter saw the school merge with Hele's Grammar School and become St Peter's Church of England High School. The Hill's Court site was taken over by Exeter College and is now used for further education courses.

Exeter School, Victoria Park Road

The medieval St John the Baptist Hospital buildings became in 1633 the Free Grammar School, a charitable foundation started by Exeter Corporation. The school remained on the St John's Hospital site for two centuries, until 1880, when Bishop Temple and a new board of governors instigated a move to a new school. Initially, it was to move to a site in Denmark Road, but for some reason it was turned down and the site used for Maynard's School.

The school for 'what was essentially a school for tradesmen and the better class of working men', in fact moved to a new, purpose built, 25 acre site, in Heavitree adjacent to Victoria Park Road. It was designed by the High Victorian architect, William Butterfield, who was responsible for Keble College, Oxford. The main building is L-shaped, with a five story corner block. The land had cost the governors £7,600 and the building £16,750. The whole building is dominated by the tower which was originally intended to house staff rooms.

Butterfield added a 'modest and efficient building' as a chapel in 1885. The tombstone of the first headmaster who died in 1642 can be found in the chapel.

Further additions, including the Andrew's Library, were made in the 1930's. Exeter School is now an independent co-educational school of a thousand pupils, some being borders.

Hele's Grammar School For Boys, Hele Road

Elize Hele who died in 1635 left money in a trust for founding a school in Exeter. For two hundred years, his request was ignored by a succession of trustees until in 1837, the Lord Chancellor ordered that the funds be released for grants to existing schools, and then for founding new schools. The Charity Trustees funded a new school from the Elize Hele's Charity, at a site in St Davids, near Bury Meadow. A purpose built school was constructed at a cost of £1,000. With a capacity for 88 boys, the Victorian Gothic building opened in 1849. The boys received instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, mathematics, English grammar and history. Those under 10 years old paid 21s, and those over 42s per year.

Additions designed by architect C E Ware and Son were added to the school in 1908. In 1931, a new building with a front loggia and a sundial over the entrance, was added, designed by the City Architect.

During the May 1942 blitz, the school was used as an Emergency Feeding Centre as well as the HQ for an Information Centre.

In 1959, the school moved to a new site at Southam Farm, next to Quarry Lane, Heavitree and the Hele Road site was taken over by Exeter College. In 1983 Hele's was renamed St Peter's School.

During the summer of 2005, the old Hele's Building at Exeter College were demolished and new facilities are in the process of construction.

Isca College of Media Arts - formerly Priory High School

A new school on an ancient site

Priory High School was opened in 1952, as a secondary modern school, for 450 girls from Bradley Rowe School in Burnthouse Lane. A site of 20 acres between the Topsham Road and River Exe was chosen. The priory of St James de Marisco, was founded by Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon in 1141 and 'one Stephen of St Leonard granted six acres of land to the Cluniac monks of the newly-founded Priory of St James, opposite Salmon pool, for the repose of his own soul and those of his parents'. It was a cell (attached) of the abbey of St Martin des Champs at Tours.

The priory housed only four monks and a prior and consisted of a quadrangle of buildings with a stone-built cloister. The priory was located on a leat, north of the school, that was tapped off the Exe at St James Weir, just up river. The priory was devastated about 1350 by flooding, and suppressed by Henry VI and given to King's College, Cambridge. The barn and part of the manor house were still standing in 1735. It was finally demolished by Richard Duke in 1760. The site is now covered by Old Abbey Close and lends its name to Priory School.

The school was designed in May 1948 by H B Rowe FRIBA, the City Architect of Exeter City Council. The original buildings consisted of a two story building composed of an assembly hall, gymnasium, kitchen and dining rooms, and of course, classrooms. It was designed as an elongated block with a corridor that led to the classroom wings. The corridor became known as the silence corridor with pupils walking on the left, in each direction, leaving the centre for teachers.

The staff and pupils probably don't realise it, but the buildings were orientated to make the best of natural daylight. Brick was used for the construction with a copper roof.

From Secondary Modern to Comprehensive

The curriculum of the school was very practical with the pupils divided into three streams according to ability. The A stream were able to study French, while all three streams studied such subjects as domestic science and dressmaking. There was 'the flat', a recreation of a domestic kitchen, in which final year pupils took turns to practise their cooking skills. They also offered Geography, History, Religious Studies, Games, and Music. During Needlework, the girls even had to make their own knickers for PE.

During 1971 to 1972, six new classrooms were added to allow for the raising of the school leaving age. Maths, Modern Languages and Guidance are currently taught in the new classrooms. In 1973, it became a mixed comprehensive for 12 to 16 year olds and was incorporated into the new city wide comprehensive system which unusually, was based on a middle school system.

Priory becomes the ISCA College

During 1974 and 1975 a new sports hall and two new labs were added to the existing buildings. In September 2005 the school will change once again when it will open as the ISCA College of Media Arts, an 11-16 school of approximately 700 pupils, in an exciting and innovative new building that is currently being built behind the old school. Exeter middle schools are also reverting to a more conventional 5-11 primary system.

On 15 August 2005, the new sports hall was badly damaged in a fire. Crews from eight fire stations were called to the blaze which may have been caused by welding equipment. This delayed the opening of the new school in October 2005.

Maynards School, Spicer Road

An independent school for girls, Maynard's was founded in 1658, when according to the wishes of Elize Hele's will, £1,500 was directed to be used to build a hospital school for girls. The first premises were given by Robert Vilvayne on Exe Island. Various donations were made to maintain the school principally £100, given by John Mayne, £200 by Gilbert Keate, in 1656, and £100 by Edmund Prideaux, as well as various benefactions of smaller amounts. The Exe Island property was lost to the school in 1801 when it was let on a 99 year lease. There appears from the records, that some rather poor financial decisions were made.

Premises with a large garden in St Mary Arches Street were acquired, on a site that is now the open car park to the rear of the Gaumont. Although funds were available for more, only four girls between the ages of 7 and 10 years attended the school, to leave at the age of 14, when they were placed as servants in respectable families or bound as apprentices. The schoolmistress was paid £10 for teaching the four Blue Girls, and could take in lodgers and lay scholars to supplement her income.

The lawyer and politician, Sir John Maynard (Mayne?) 1602-1690, was involved in the early school and was unusual at the time in believing that education would be of benefit for girls. The coat of arms of Elize Hele and Sir John Maynard, are displayed in a window in the school hall, in their memory.

High School for Girls

The Blue Maids' School lasted until the 1870's. In the meantime, in the 1860's, the Endowed Schools Commission recommended two new girls schools be founded. One would became Middle School for Girls (Bishop Blackall), and one would become the High School for Girls. Building for the new school, in Spicer Road, commenced in 1878 and was completed by 1882. In the gap, before the new buildings were completed, the school moved into temporary accommodation at Larkbeare, the greystone house that was used as a judges residence, in St Leonards. At this time, the annual fee per pupil was £15.

In 1893 the headmistress was Miss Caroline Turner and in 1906, Miss Florence M Purdie.#It was in 1912, that the school was renamed The Maynard School under Miss E L Trenerry, the headmistress. Apart from academic subjects and domestic science, the girls were offered a range of sports including hockey, lacrosse, tennis and cricket.

Wartime Damage

Maynard's was hit by three bombs, that fell at 02:17, during the blitz of the 4th May 1942. Two hit the tennis courts - one bomb demolished a wall and caused blast damage to windows and the roof. The second severely damaged the boarding house and kitchen garden. The third bomb fell in the front of the main building causing severe blast to the school and damaging houses on Barnfield Hill.#The school after 350 years goes from strength to strength, and now has approximately 110 girls in the Junior Department and 360 in the Senior School.

St James' School  - Beacon Heath

This school is situated no where near its original starting point. In 1844, a National School was established at the back of Exeter's, St James Church. In 1871, a school for 150 infants was built at the front of the National School for the cost of £1,218 - in 1874, the infants became a Board School and existed in this form until 1906. October 1907, saw a new school built for 300 infants and 260 girls on the site of the demolished infant school. The National School for Boys was closed in 1929.

In 1927 the school became St James School, a senior school for girls, followed in April 1945 by a name change to the Girls' Secondary Modern School. The school remained on the old National School site until 1961, and was then transferred to a new, greenfield site in Beacon Lane.

Meanwhile, the Ladysmith Secondary School for Boys was closed in 1973, and amalgamated with the Girls' Secondary Modern School at the Beacon Heath site. Thus, the St James High School came into being as a comprehensive school. In common with all the other secondary schools in Exeter, St James' is having a new school built on its site (2004/5) under the PFI scheme, and will become part of a new 11 to 16 system, specialising in maths and computing. It was formally renamed St James in 2005, and the new school opened in March 2006.

The catchment area of the modern school includes Beacon Heath, Whipton, Stoke Hill, Mincinglake and, bizarrely, in a time of concern about travel and the environment, Exwick.