Marshfield House, Parents' National Educational Union (PNEU) Preparatory School in Settle

Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) was a Britsh educator who believed that the education of a child should be based on living ideas, not just utilitarian ones. A series of lectures were published as Home Education in 1886, explaining how to apply her principles to children up to the age of 9 years. From this beginning the Parents’ Educational Union was formed, to become the Parents’ National Educational Union - PNEU - by 1892.

The PNEU established a private primary school in Settle probably just before 1943. It was set up on the Settle Cricket Club field and some time later moved to Marshfield House. H.M. Inspectors visited the school in 1967 and issued a report with the following comments. There were at that time 32 children aged 4 to 11, costing 33 guineas per term plus cost of meals. There were three classes. The youngest were looked after by an unqualified but experienced teacher who had been there for ten years. The class of 6 to 8 year old pupils had a qualified teacher who started in 1967. The qualified head-mistress who came in 1964 taught the eldest children. There were also part-time teachers in the afternoons for music, ballet and art. The three main rooms used in Marshfield House were not naturally well-lit but strip lighting was gradually being installed. Electric night storage heaters were supplemented with electric oil-filled radiators. One cloakroom was damp; two indoor WCs and three wash-hand basins were provided. A small play area with a climbing frame and sand-pit sat outside and the adjoining cricket field could be used. The furniture was tolerable! Audio-visual aids comprised a tape-recorder, radio, television and film-strip projector. The book collection was growing and apparatus for practical work in mathematics was being acquired.

Progress in reading was excellent but writing could be more creative and prolific, mainly due to preparation for the Common Entrance and 11+ Examinations. More postive help and guidance is needed in mathematics for the youngest children. Much that is done is unrealistic. If well thought-out schemes were prepared, more progression might be seen in history, geography and science. French is taught by the head-teacher, the accent and degree of understanding are good.

There are further rather critical comments made by the inspector but there was a real concern for the welfare of the boys and girls and a genuine desire to give them a happy time. So much for the inspector’s report. What about personal memories?

Michael Southworth

The school took pupils for 4 years (4/5 year olds to 8/9 years old). The head-mistress from the beginning was Miss Smith (wearing a black dress in the photo) and she had two or three other staff to help. There were generally about 20 pupils in the school, boys and girls. When I went there the school was in a wooden hut (the Tin Hut), which was the pavilion of the Settle Cricket Club, located by the Settle - Carlisle railway line, looking down on the cricket ground. You can just see the gable end of the hut in the photograph, behind a big tree. (See pictures in Mitchell, 1989).

It was all fairly primitive by modern standards, but we received a very good basic education dominated by the three Rs. I believe that every pupil passing through the school would leave well equipped with reading, writing and arithmetic. In addition I recall learning French which was taught, on a part-time basis, by the wife (Wendy Hyslop) of one of the doctors in Settle.

I remember that it was freezing cold on winter mornings and the milk delivered to the doorstep was frozen solid. The smell of paraffin stoves, to this day, still brings back memories of that wooden shed! Later the school moved to Marshfield House (in the background of the photo), but it was after I left and I don’t know which year.

Only a few of the people on Miss Smith’s group photo can be identified. They are :
Back Row : 2nd from left, me, 4th from left my sister Brenda, 6th from left Rosemary Cooper (who lived in Long Preston), 7th from left David Gomersall (who lived in Coniston Cold)
Middle Row : Joanna Hyslop (daughter of David Hyslop), 5th from left Miss Smith, 8th from left Kelly Hyslop (son of Tony Hyslop)
Front Row : Sally Hyslop (daughter of David Hyslop), 2nd from left ?Helen Brassington, 6th from left James Hyslop (son of David Hyslop)
Back Row: 1st on left Angela Marshall, 3rd on left Annabel Miles-Sharp, 8th on left Miss (don’t know Christian name) Woods
Middle Row : 2nd on left Nicky Miles-Sharp, 7th on left Judy Whinray
Front Row : 3rd on left Sandra Woods, 7th on left Michael Harrison

Christopher Weston

Originally I was meant to stay two years but I was sent off to boarding school at the age of seven. Eventually I moved to Cappleside from Ilkley. My parents probably thought that in the interim period before being sent away to a boarding school, a private school would be better than the Rathmell local primary school. I enjoyed being at the school.

Sue Amphlett

Christmas Party-time, 1963

Settle P.N.E.U. School Prize Day and Sports Marshfield P.N.E.U. School, Settle, held the annual prize day and sports last week, in fine weather, and in the presence of a large gathering of parents.

Mrs. Harrington, Marshfield House, presented the prizes to the children, and Miss U. Smith, principal, thanked all those who had helped, and announced the names of the winners, as follows: Form IIA - Sally Burniston; Form Upper IA - Gillian Burniston; Form Lower IA - Richard painter and Julia Fawcett; Form IB - Giles Bowring; Form IC - Gillian Robinson; writing - Jennifer Dugdale; art - Sally Burniston and Gillian Burniston; weekly arithmetic tests - Helen Austin and Ellen Roberts; nature - Peter Stockdale; Needlework - Susan Braithwaite-Exley and Jane Ellis. Sports were held on Settle cricket field under the supervision of Mrs. D. Soames.

The results of the sports events were then listed, being those for Flat races, High jump, Potato race, Long jump, Sack race, Egg and spoon race, Three-legged race, Visitors’ race, Wheelbarrow race and the Obstacle race.

David Parry

Maypole dancing in Settle, 1953

Giles Bowring

My mother was less satisfied when Miss (Una) Smith left after I left and my sister Elizabeth was still there and felt that standards and the teaching had gone down. Miss Smith retired to live in Morningside, Edinburgh and I remember writing to her to tell her what we had been doing.

I remember lots of playing in the garden during break and lunchtimes with the Dean brothers, whose father John Dean was the first housemaster of Morrison House when it was built at Giggleswick School, Timothy Russell, John Dugdale, Marcus Braithwaite-Exley, Chris Weston, the Morgan brothers whose father David taught at Giggleswick School, Ian Fawcett and Ian Roberts and girls including Helen Austin, Julie Fawcett, Lynnette Pattzelt, Jennifer Dugdale, Sally Fletcher, the Ellis sisters Liz and Jane, the Burnistons whose family I think had The Traddock at the time.

I have some of my exercise books and school reports somewhere!

I remember the quarry blasts when they were dynamiting at Giggleswick quarry.

I liked all the teachers - Mrs Parry and Mrs Allen who was the Vicar’s wife as Chris Weston says, and Mrs Gilchrist.

Other photographs

Acknowledgement

Sources

• The National Archives TNA ED 172/448, 1967. There are three booklets, one of which is for Marshfield House (Part 3). The reports are copyright TNA who will only supply copies of all three reports for personal research at great expense.
• Mitchell, W.R., 1989. How they lived in Old Settle, Castleberg Publication, Giggleswick.