Former Strode school, Street

Strode school was built in 1913 to a design by S. T. Clothier for William Clark in Leigh Road. It opened in the small and plain building with 17 fee-paying pupils as a co-educational secondary school. Numbers rose to 55 in 1920. Bursaries were given and Mr. Clark met the shortfall in costs. In 1919 his son Roger bought Elmhurst house, built in the 1830s by Cyrus Clark, and in 1920 the County Secondary school opened on the premises, mainly with children transferred from Strode school.

A woodwork class for 13 boys at the technical school begun in 1913 was the start of Street, later Strode, day continuation school formed in 1914 in Leigh Road. After 1920 it moved to the vacated Strode school. Most of the pupils came from Clarks’ factory and spent 22 hours a week studying woodwork, dressmaking, and housewifery as well as vocational subjects. There were separate boys’ and girls’ schools under one roof with two head teachers. In 1925 a large new block incorporating a boys’ classroom, a domestic subjects room, and a two-storeyed house for the headmistress were built between the existing school and the corner of Leigh and Vestry roads. In addition to teaching between 70 and 100 pupils aged from 14 to 16 the school also provided technical classes for senior pupils from other Street schools. After 1947 day continuation pupils had to be between the ages of 15 and 17 and were only entitled to 8 hours a week. In 1962 the schools closed and pupils transferred to the new Street Technical College.