I have a postcard sent to my grandmother (from her mother) in (I think) 1911. It is addressed to what looks like Eler House School Wilkinson Street Sheffield. Is there anything known about this school?

Chris, have you tried looking for your grandmother in the 1911 census. Was she on or near Wilkinson Street?
Dave

Hi Chris, if you Google Elrs School Sheffield there are photos etc there. Regards Barry Green

Dave,
Thanks for your response. My grandmother came from Chesterfield wj=hih is where her family lived. As she would have been about 20 in 1911 I think she must have been on the staff at this school
Chris

Barry,
Thanks for your help with this. At least now I have the spelling of the school and confirmation that it existed. I've googled Elrs School Sheffield as you suggest but with no result for a school in Sheffield. There are photos of buildings on Wilkinson Street but no concrete indication if any of them were the school. I'm really interested to learn what this school is as it's name is so unusual

Chris

Is there a house number? Could be Eton House School, 69 Wilkinson St, which certainly existed in 1911. The building is still there.

Hugh

Hugh,
Thanks for this. It makes sense. I guess my great grandmother would not have dreamed that someone who have the postcard she sent nor that they would be trying to decipher her handwriting more than a century later!
I've googled the school but there is no website for it. Any suggestions as to how to make contact?
Chris

The building is there but the school is long gone, no sign of school staff or students in the 1939 Register.

The building looks to be multiple-occupancy now, judging by the vast numbers of bins visible on Google Street View.

I think this school was probably a small private school that may have left little trace in records.

Do you have access to the 1911 census? There are 7 girls boarding aged 10-14, several servants and 6 teachers, including the Principal Alice BOTTOM and her sister Ada. No-one in the household on census night was born in Derbyshire.

Hugh

A 1902 advert describes it as a 'boarding and day school'.

Its address was in fact 69-71 Wilkinson St so the building was already divided into two, as I think it is today.

On the 1890 Town Plan it appears to be one house undivided.

Hugh

Hi Chris , sorry it should have been Elrs School Wilkinson St Sheffield. Sorry about that. Barry Green

Hi Chris et al,
I believe there was another school on Wilkinson Street #33 ref:Our Broomhall and described as a day school. However on the 1881 Census it was described as a Lady's School.

It was run by the Close family. Charlotte E. Close was a school mistress and her sister Agnes also. Charlotte's widowed mother, Olivia, was of independent means.

On the 1891 census they have a servant with them named Louisa Bamford age 18 (B: about1873) her birthplace was given as Derbyshire, Moore.

Sorry I do not know the name of the school but may be some other sleuth can help you out.

HAPPY HUNTING:sleuth_or_spy:

The Close sisters' school was called Shrewsbury House. It was still there in 1909 when it was a 'Boys Prepatory school'

These houses were re-numbered in 1890.

In 1881 the Close school is no. 7. In 1891 it is no. 33
In 1881 Eton House is 29 & 31. In 1891 it is 69 & 71

In 1881 there is another school, at 33 & 35, run by a Miss Jane Brown. This was called Holmesfield Villas - a name you can still read on it today. That house was being advertised to let in 1888.

Hugh

Many thanks, everyone, for your great assistance in tracking down the address on my postcard. I've decided that it is Eton House School in Wilkinson Street. In 1911 my grandmother is listed in the cesus as "Student" and resident in Derbyshire so I think she was probably still living at her mother's home in Chesterfield. I have no idea why the postcard was sent to her on Coronation Day 1911 at the Wilkinson Street school.

If anyone knows anything about Eton House School, run by the Misses Bottom in 1911, I'd be grateful to hear about it

Regards,
Chris

Chris, what was her exact address in 1911, and was she 20 as you earlier indicated?
Dave

She lived in Chesterfield at 117 Newbold Street. She was born in 1891 so would have been 19/20 in 1911

Chris,
According to the National Arcives, In 1911 the education system was such that new teachers were trained on the job, ie sort of apprenticeship, perhaps STUDENT teachers, in secondary schools, starting at age 16.
I suggest your grandmother may have been one of these, and Newbold Ave in Chesterfield is very close to St Helena school(Google it). So in April 1911 at the census she was just completing her student ship and by June, coronation day, she was in her new school as a teacher in Sheffield.
I suggest you look for her in the registers for St Helena in 1905 to 1911. I think they are available on FMP, but they are certainly at National Archives at Kew.

Today St Helena is a central part of the university of Chesterfield and its speciality is training NHS nurses
Dave

Thanks Dave.

In her younger years she certainly attended the school now known as St Helena's. It used to be the Chesterfield High School and she was there for all her schooling including a short period in 1910 when she was working with the kindergarten classes. However I have no idea why she would have been in Sheffield at Eton House School as there are unfortunately no records for the school and she does not apepar on the 1911 census in Sheffield. She is classified as Student on the 1911 census

Hi Chris

Found this snippet taken from a book on James Stuart Blackton, and American-English film producer who grew up in Sheffield and went to Eton House School: