School History

The History Zone

St Thomas History

NEW: I was there! Do you have any old school photographs that you wouldn't mind sharing? See if you can spot yourself, let us know. We start with one from 1981, many thanks to Kay for supplying it. I was there.

We have articles on the history of Butts C.E. School, as well as a short history of our town of Leigh.

A much longer article on the original Bedford Church School is now available for downloading and reading offline. It is called ‘The End of an Era’ and was written by Mr Dutton (ex headteacher) in 1985.

You can now view the Document online by following this link. The End of an Era (flipbook)

A Short History of the Church and Parish

On the 12th October, 1940, the Church and Parish of St. Thomas, Bedford, Leigh, celebrated its centenary. To commemorate this important event the Vicar of the Parish, Canon George Willett, wrote a short history. When it was first published it cost one shilling. We have now put extracts of this history onto our website. We hope you find it interesting.

(download the Full Document to read offline HERE)

In 1811 John Battersby opened a school in Chapel Lane (now Chapel Street) for the people of Bedford. The schoolmaster had to be a Protestant and was provided with a house and garden for his own use. The school, which was called Battersby’s School, had a somewhat mixed history with part of it, at one stage, being used as a showroom for a local iron founder.

Sometimes the township held meetings in the school and poor low relief was regularly given out from if. Because of this the school became known locally as the “Towns School”. In 1847 it was the only building standing on the north side of Souther Butts and Mill Lane. In 1864 the Vicar of Bedford, the Reverend Moorhouse James, approached the trustees of the school and offered to rent it from them. So, in 1864, the “Town’s School “ or “Battersby’s School” on Chapel Lane became a Church School.

At this time the school managers were responsible for all the finances of the school. Their money came from three sources. They would first collect ‘pence money” from the children who came to the school. School pence, which in the early days was one penny, eventually rose to four pence each week. They were not abolished in Leigh Schools until 1904. The managers also received grants, based upon the results of tests given to the pupils by the Government Inspector. Four shillings per pupil was paid for those who had attended at least 200 sessions during the year. The remaining eight shillings of grant was based upon the Inspector’s Examination. Children were entered for a maximum of three grades or standards and two shillings and eight pence was paid for a pass in each. Money was also raised by the annual School Sermons. From the money the managers received from all three sources, they had to pay for the repairs to the school and provide the wages for the teachers.

In 1890 it was decided to sell Battersby’s building and land for £250. A site of half an acre was purchased from Mary Ann Farnworth, at a cost of £350. On the newly purchased site, the Jones family, who owned cotton mills in the town, offered to pay for the building of our present school. It was to be known as Butts School. The foundation stone was laid by the two sons and wife of W.C. Jones, the cotton millionaire, on the 2nd August 1890. The building was completed in May 1891. On the 9th July 1891, Mr. & Mrs. Jones visited the new school. The bricks used in building the school were made from clay dug out of the brick fields between Chapel Street and the Canal. They were baked in the brickworks on Holden Road. The lime for the mortar came from the lime pits in Lime Pit Lane, near to the present Wash Lane.

The first Headmaster of Butts Church of England School was Thomas Mercer. In 1924 Bill Shepherd became Headmaster. He left in 1932 to be the first Headteacher of the newly built Manchester Road County Secondary Boys School. The School was used as a Church for many years, before All Saints Church was built in 1937. It was called Butts Mission Church and services were held every Sunday. The land upon which the new Infant building is built was purchased in 1939. It was immediately commandeered by the Government for use as allotments to grow food during the Second World War.

In 1982 the Governors decided to amalgamate Butts C.E. School with Bedford C.E. School. The school at Bedford was to be demolished. The new name chosen for the joint school was Leigh St. Thomas Church of England Primary School. In June 1983, work on modernising the original Butts School was completed. Early in 1985 the building of a new Infants School and Hall was finished. In June 1990, a week of celebrations was held in School to mark the Centenary of the laying of the Foundation stone in 1890.

Memories of Leigh

In 1990 our school, at Butts, now St. Thomas C.E. Primary School, was one hundred years hold. We held a ‘Centenary Week’ of celebrations to mark the event. This article, by Irene Rowland, was originally written for our Centenary Brochure.

It tells us about life in our school just before the last war.

Our teachers in 1931 were: 

Reception Class Miss Berry (Later Mrs Atherton).

2nd Class Mrs Carr

Top Infants Miss Whitehead (Headteacher of Infants)

Earliest memories are of us gathering for hymns and prayers and Christmas and Harvest-festivals, which were joyful occasions. There was always a huge Christmas tree in the Top classroom around which we sang : ‘Away in a manger’ and ‘Santa Clause is coming to Town’. We made our own paper decorations including crayoned lanterns and tissue paper balls.

We learned to read from thick, tiny cards with a picture at the top. Occasionally, till Class 2, we used slates, but not after 1932. We modelled clay on clay boards and took the boards home to be scrubbed.

With our morning milk, which cost two and half old pennies weekly, we could buy biscuits - one arrowroot and one Lincoln cream. Some mothers used to bring hot drinks to the gate, at playtime, on cold days.

The Junior School

In Standard 1 and Standard 11 there were fireplaces tended by Mr. Hayes. These were lovely and warm. On cold days we used to warm our bottles of milk on the pipes as very often the milk was frozen.

In class we did a lot of Arithmetic - Mental, Mechanical and Problems. Great emphasis was laid on hand writing, which was called Transcription. English lessons were deemed very important along with History and Geography. One memory is of the class chanting "Aberdeen is the Granite City". I didn’t know then that I would marry a boy from Aberdeen.

We had lessons in embroidery and knitting for the girls and there were paper crafts and painting. We had books supplied by OXO and Colgate’s Toothpaste with pictures for us to paint.

When we went from writing in pencil to writing in ink the result was often very messy. The Ink Monitor’s job was to mix the ink and replenish the inkwells.

We did P.E more in the form of a drill. There were games lessons and Country Dancing. Games played were football, handball and rounders. Our own games in the schoolyard were seasonal in turn like hopscotch and skipping ropes. We played ball games like "Queenie" and "Donkey". There was also whip and top and chalking a brightly coloured top was very popular.

Singing lessons were quite enjoyable, and often quite noisy, especially a rendering of "Jolly Waggoners" and "Sly Reynard the Fox". We enjoyed singing carols at Christmas time and learned all the old familiar ones like ‘Good King Wenceslas’. A popular one was "Hark, Hark, What News the Angels Bring". This was known, years ago, as "The Owd Ark" and called "The old Leigh carol".

Drama formed part of our time-table. The Christmas of 1934 saw the pupils of Standard 11, under Miss Peters, giving a concert, which consisted of a Minstrel Show, a play called ‘The Princess who would not Smile,’ and two of the boys reciting and acting, "You are old Father William".

We had our daily hymn and prayers. One favourite was "Come and sing with Holy Gladness". The boys would sing the verse applicable to them and the girls doing likewise. There was the piano and also a harmonium.

On Friday afternoons we could take our own books and sometimes board games. Also, on Fridays, most of us got our weekly half-penny which was spent on sweets, often taking ages to choose whichever one to get the most of.

During these years Annual Flower Services was held in church. Children took flowers to school on the Friday and later some of us took them to Miss Whitehead’s home, where they were placed in the bath, and then taken to church on the Sunday afternoon. They were sorted out and we took them to the altar. Afterwards they were taken to the Infirmary.

If we were naughty we got our hands slapped but anyone using bad language could get their mouths washed out with soap and water.

Mr. Hayes, the caretaker, was very kind to us and used to let us get warm near the cellar on cold, frosty mornings.

Some of us attended Sunday School from a very early age. We used to have a stamp album and each Sunday we attended we were given a stamp.

School trips were held annually and I can recall two clearly. The first was to Liverpool to visit the zoo and to go on board the Liner ‘SAMARIA’. The other trip was to the Lake District where after lunch, at Windermere, we sailed to Ambleside and went to Grasmere to visit Wordsworth’s cottage.

A local outing was in the spring of 1938 to see their Majesties, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, on their visit to Leigh. It was raining but we didn’t mind as we got a lovely wave from the Queen, who was dressed in blue as she passed us in Market Street.

The Church

We were very close with the church, having regular visits from the clergy. Many of us were in the ‘9am Choir’ and most of us attended Sunday School.

Walking Day, which in the early days were held on Saturdays, before being changed to Whit Sunday, were wonderful occasions. We walked either with our class, or with the Rose Queen, or with the Scouts (there being no Guides for a time), or on the banners. Walking Days were followed by Field Days held near the bottom of Mill Lane. There were Sunday School trips and choir trips, nearly always to Southport and Christmas parties held in Bedford Church School.

In 1935 and 1937 we attended the Lenten Missions that were held and at the end we were presented with a certificate.

Over the years there was a Kings Messenger Group which many of us joined. We had a badge and a certificate.

On Good Friday evenings there were always a Magic Lantern show, with slides of Jesus and his disciples. We always sang " There is a Green Hill". Admission was one penny.

School Sermons were held annually for which we practised hard. Everyone tried to wear a white dress and the boys a shirt and tie.

Weekly subscriptions were collected every Monday morning. This was usually from one penny to six pence and the proceeds went to the church.

May Day was always a happy day. We used to see all the horses dressed up and it was the start, for us, of the May Queens held throughout May.

In 1933 the Rose Queen was from Butts Sunday School and all who acted as Flower Girls and Trainbearers were from Butts School, the Maids of Honour being from Bedford. Mrs Cruickshank, from Hall House, the wife of a local doctor, crowned the Queen.

The Silver Jubilee

In 1935 we had a party and a holiday to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary. We all received commemorative mugs. About 1932 or 1933 a lot of us went with school to see the King and Queen drive by on the newly opened East Lancashire Road.

To commemorate the Silver Jubilee trees were planted by local school children on Holden Road. Butts School, represented by Gerald Dunne and Marian Carrington, planted two.

Empire Day, on the 24th May, was always celebrated. We sang "Land of Hope and Glory", "Today is Empire Day," and marched out under the Union Jack. This was usually held by a Cub or a Scout. Some of us dressed to represent countries of the Empire and we made daisy chains to represent the sun never setting on the Empire. We then had a half-day's holiday.

In 1937 a huge Bazaar was held at Bedford Church. Butts School had a Toy stall amongst which there was a beautifully polished wooden pencil box, all fitted out, for 2/6d.

During these years one of our favourite occupations was going to the Cinemas. We nearly all went to Saturday matinees and all had our favourite film stars. Shirley Temple and Judy Garland were favourites of many of the girls.

Times were hard, for many, in the 1930’s. Some children had to go for free dinners and free clogs. A lot of fathers were out of work and consequently a lot of children were poorly dressed and in fact sometimes couldn’t come to school.

One time that stands out very clearly is the Diphtheria epidemic of 1938. The school was closed for a time as many children were ill. In the summer a lot went to Prestatyn Open Air School.

We were looked after, heath-wise, with visits from the doctor, dentist, nurse etc. We were encouraged to clean our teeth by completing a card for each day, morning and night. When this was full we were given a small tin of Colgate’s solid pink toothpaste. Toothbrushes were sold with plain wooden handles.

The year 1938 brought the shadow of war and then a temporary peace. However we saw air-raid shelters being built, some near where our new Infant School stands, in what was the Alder mill yard. We tried on gas masks, which was an awful experience at first. We found the perspex eye-piece steamed up and it was difficult working while wearing them. We generally wondered what it was all about. We saw our teachers become very solemn, some days, when the news was bad and as I came to the end of my time at Butts, in July 1939, war was declared in September. A number of the boys who had been in their last year, in 1938, found themselves soldiers later in the war, most of them being in the Royal Army Service Corps.



It was the end of an era.

There was no school uniform in our day. Some girls wore gym slips, or kilts in winter, if they were lucky. Some boys wore jumpers with matching woollen ties. A lot of children wore clogs.

A lot of the "big boys" we had known went into the forces and served in all theatres of the war. Sadly some didn’t come back, amongst them two cousins, both in the Royal Air Force, Sergeant Alfred Boydell and Flight Sergeant Thomas Horrocks, from South Avenue, who flew with the Dambusters Squadron.

We were all called upon to put up with unpleasant things during the war, but I am sure the Empire Day traditions, instilled in us, and all the wonderful teaching we had, stood us in good stead.

Irene Rankin (nee Rowland) (1990)

Church and Parish

In November, 1922, the late Vicar wrote in the Parish Sheet of his intention, if possible, of writing a short history of Bedford Parish. Mr. Lawton was then in his 67th year, and this fact, added to the charge of a large parish, prevented him from carrying out his wishes.

The duty has fallen on his successor, the present Vicar, who has done his best at what has been a difficult but very happy task.

The old Parish Sheets, written by the late Vicar, and dating back to 1894, have been a mine of information, and in addition, I have been fortunate in having easy access to the old Deeds of the Parish, the old Registers, old Minute Books, and other similar sources.

When Bedford Church was consecrated 100 years ago, Bedford was in the Diocese of Chester, and remained so till September, 1847, when the new Diocese of Manchester was formed under Bishop James Prince Lee....

The first Sunday Services to be held in the Church were on October 18th, 1840, the first Sunday after the Consecration, and Sermons were then preached in aid of the Building Fund. The preacher in the morning at 10-30 a.m. was the Rev. William Rigg, Chaplain of the Domestic Chapel of Lord Francis Egerton, Ellenbrook, Worsley; and in the afternoon at 3-0 p.m. by the Rev. Joseph Jones, Incumbent of Newchurch. There was no Evening Service on Sundays in those days, Evensong being held on the Sunday afternoons. Pictures of the old Church, exterior and interior, are included in this short history of the Church, and many people of Bedford will remember the old building.

Now we must pass on to the present building which stands on the site of the old one. The rebuilding of Bedford Church was made possible very largely by the contributions of weekly subscribers of small sums. Throughout the twenty-four years previous to 1910, some of the weekly subscribers hopefully paid on, and a number of people in this way subscribed large amounts...

The plan of building was to build the Chancel first, using the old Nave until sufficient money was forthcoming to rebuild that also. The Foundation Stone was laid by Mrs. William Charles Jones on Saturday, May 31st, 1902, on which day was ended the South African War. There was such a generous response to the appeal then made, that the Committee decided to build two bays of the Nave in addition to the Chancel. ..

The bui1ding of the remaining portion of the Church, the three western bays of the Nave and the Tower, was begun shortly after Easter, 1909, and this portion cost something approaching £6,000. The Dedication of the completed building by the Lord Bishop of’ Manchester, Dr. Knox, took place at 7-0 p.m. on Wednesday, October 12th, 1910, the Seventieth Anniversary of the Consecration of the old Church...

In addition to the East Window, which is a Memorial to those who fell in the Great War, there is a Memorial at the West End of the Church which takes the form of carved oak panelling. The central panel bears the following inscription: 

“To the Glory of God and in Memory of the Men from this Parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918, the East Window and this Memorial are erected.”

On each side of the central panel are panels containing 88 names beneath a wreath. On either side of the Memorial are carved figures, one of St. Michael and the other of St. George. In the cresting at the top is the Lancashire Rose, and over the centre are shields depicting the Cross of St. George and the Arms of the Sees of York and Manchester...

In 1908, largely through the generosity of Mr. Ralph Flecther and Mr. Alderman W. J. Smith, the Rev. J.T. Lawton acquired the plot of land, measuring 7,273 sq yards, which borders on Manchester Road and Kenwood Avenue, for £673. More money was raised for the purchase of the land than was required, and the surplus was invested, with the result that in 1937 there was about £1,300 available towards building a Mission Church on the land. By this time, owing to the number of houses which had been built at the Manchester Road end of the Parish, the need of a Mission Church in that district was urgent. Sunday Evening Services had been held in Butts School since about the time when the present Butts School was opened, and so "Butts Mission," as it was called, had gone on for something approaching 50 years, and a number of Bedford Church people had grown very attached to it...

The cost of All Saints' Church, including such furnishings as Pews, Choir Stalls, etc., but excluding many generous gifts, was about £2,500. The architect was Mr. F. Crossely, and the builder was Mr. J. H. Clarke, both of Leigh.

IN the year 1843, the Rev. Moorhouse James obtained a Faculty from Dr. J. B. Sumner, Lord Bishop of Chester, to set apart the Crypt under the old Church as a Day and Sunday School. For this purpose, Mr. James obtained a grant of £200 from the Education Committee of the Privy Council, and also a grant from the National Society...

In the year 1859 Mr. James began to take steps towards building the present Bedford Church School. At this time there were three other schools in Bedford.

THERE are many who can remember the Old School at the corner of Chapel Street and Clarence Street, or rather I ought to say Chapel Street and Brook Street, as Clarence Street was called Brook Street in those days. According to some notes which we have reproduced, written by the late Mr. T. Mercer, Headmaster of the Old School for many years, the School was built by public subscription in 1811. Of course, in those days the School had nothing to do with the Church; Bedford Church did not exist in those days. From what I can gather, the School was known as “The Town’s School,” ‘‘Bedford School,” and ‘‘Bedford Old School.”...