Patterdale C of E Primary School
A loving family in a unique environment
Our School History
Days Gone By...
We know that there has been a school in the dale since around 1645. In 1826 the School was relocated from what is now Patterdale Rectory's Stable block to where the Old School House now stands (currently a B&B!). Patterdale School on its current site was built in 1873, and extended in 1893. Alas our archives don't go back quite as far as that, but we do have various newspaper cuttings from over the last few decades.
Here's a little trip down memory lane with images dating back to 1889 as well as Cumberland & Westmorland Herald articles and pictures from the last thirty years or so, but starting with an excerpt from The Records of Patterdale written in 1903 by the Rev. WP Morris, Rector of Patterdale, providing a fascinating insight into the schools history from the sixteenth to the start of the twentieth century.
Here's a photo of the Old School House, taken around 1900. This was the school prior to it moving to its current site in 1873...
Here's the school diary page for May 1873 showing that on 5th May that year the children moved from the old school house into the new 'school rooms' - and we're still in them after 150 years!
Here is a postcard image of the school taken around the time that the Rev. Morris would have written his book, c.1903. The school looks just like it does now and can be seen to the right of the picture with a tree-covered Keldas behind it.
And here is what the school 'uniform' could have looked like back then. Huge thanks to the good folk at www.patterdale.org for their amazing Local History section - well worth a visit!
Here's a great school photo taken around 1889. Thanks to Rev Morris's book we believe the headmaster shown in the photo was Joseph Beck Philipson, who joined the school is 1884, and was head until 1924. There are 37 children shown in the photo plus 4 adults, whereas currently (March 2022) we have 38 pupils and 6 teaching staff - so not a lot changes!
And here's a photo taken during the 1890s with the same headmaster, Joseph Philipson, taken in front of St Patrick's Church in Patterdale...
Here's a school photo taken in 1937...
Elizabeth A Little wrote Chronicles of Patterdale in 1961, providing a little more information regarding the 20th Century school...
Finally, here is our archive of press cuttings from the last thirty or so years, in no particular order...
