Labour Of Love
Historic Lane Ends School House, which was built 150 years ago, is undergoing a total renovation, which has been an ongoing labour of love for the owners
Originally from Grindleton, John Fielding has had a varied career having started off in engineering and going on to run his own building business.
“My dream was to one day build a house of my own,” he recalls. “But the plots in the areas I was looking were far too expensive.”
As the years went by his search continued until 10 years ago, in a twist of fate, he heard about a property coming up for sale in the hills above Bolton-by-Bowland. The building was the 150-year-old Lane Ends School House which was owned by Grindleton Consolidated Charities, as John explains: “It was up for sale with the agent asking for blind bids. There was only a couple of days left until the deadline ran out.”
John immediately contacted the acting estate agent, who abandoned his holiday in order to show John around the property.
“It was more or less derelict,” he says. “The school had closed its doors in the mid 1970s and although it was subsequently used as a polling station and community centre, it had been standing empty for many years.”
Having submitted his bid for the property, which was built in 1874, John and his wife Jackie, were thrilled to be told they had been successful – but there was a lot of hard work ahead of them. The two-storey schoolhouse had many original features that the couple were keen to retain, so a decade ago John began work on what has become a fascinating insight into the history of the school.
“I have always felt very blessed to have a building that is so rich in local history,” says John.
One of the first things the couple were able to do was build a small extension to the side of the building using original stone from the gable end. They lived in the tiny extension for two years, while John worked on the main area of the old schoolroom.
All the windows in the schoolroom were replaced with wooden ones, but had to be kept at the same unusual height: “They are a lot higher than normal,” says John. “They let in a lot of natural light but I also wonder whether they were designed that way so that the children didn’t get distracted!”
Under the old floorboards, which have been re-used, John discovered many artefacts including slate pencils, coins, rings, clog irons and a small home-made cricket bat.
While John and Jackie have kept many original features of the schoolroom, they have been able to incorporate 21st century energy-saving technology including under floor heating, a heat recovery and ventilation system, an air source heat pump and a system to recycle rainwater.
In the basement where the old school boiler room was housed, the hatches where the coal was delivered by horse and cart, can still be seen.
A history book of the schoolroom has recently been compiled featuring contributions by villagers who attended the school, their memories and references to items that can still be seen in John and Jackie’s home today.
A former pupil and school caretaker recalls: “I would go in into the school at 8am and light the coal fire and stoke the coke boiler which ran the pipes to heat up the two rooms.”
The fireplace housing the coal fire that is referred to, still remains in the main vaulted living room that was the classroom as does the basement boiler room where it is recalled, ‘Some of the older boys often volunteered to shovel coal and coke down the shutes into the cellar.’
The book also contains reports of lessons and itineraries – one from 1899 features a day by day account of school lessons on ‘Milk and Cheese’, ‘Putty’, ‘the Mole’ and ‘Table Salt’.
On 6th February 1899 the school records recall ‘an awful snowstorm: only 11 children present’ while in May of the same year, ‘King Wilkinson Esq called and left 35 sixpences, one to be given to each child.’
The following year, 1900, the school appears to have been subject to what would be similar to a present-day OFTSED, visit which reports, ‘Buildings very good. This is a beautifully clean, neat and comfortable school, well supplied with apparatus.’
In winter of the same year, another insert says, ‘Frost intense. Marching taken during the morning, owing to their feet being so cold.’
Some years later in 1915 the records show outbreaks of mumps and whooping cough with attendances very low accompanied by severe weather, ‘wild and wet, the teachers wet through having to walk from Grindleton over a pass 1100 feet high.’
While during wartime years, the records recall, ‘a German bomber, being chased by two British fighters, dropped its bombs … just a quarter of a mile from the school … fourteen bombs made a line of craters.’
Celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, John plans to open up his home so that local villagers, many of whom have connections to the former school, can visit and reminisce: “The locals have shown a lot of interest in the work I’ve done over the years so we’re giving them the opportunity to re-visit the schoolroom.”
The event is on 24th August from 1pm to 4pm and will feature a display of items found during the renovation of the school, keepsakes made by John, refreshments and ‘old-school’ puddings, along with entertainment by saxophone quartet Perfect Fourth.
