Settle Girls’ High School

When writing the chapter on Education in my recent book on the history of Settle (1), I was well aware that I could not be definitive about the origins of the present Settle College. I had an inkling that the original school was within the bounds of Settle but no conclusive proof; the College website gives 1907 as the year of foundation as Settle Girl’s High School but there was some doubt in my mind. Because of Covid restrictions it was not possible to travel to the County Record Office in 2020 to check records held there, but an email from local resident Maureen Batty drew my attention to photographs she has in her possession. Two of these are of Undercliffe on Duke Street and one of them – a postcard – bears the caption ‘Girls Secondary School, Settle’. In May 2021 I was finally able to access the Record Office.

There are two relevant documents. One is the programme for the formal opening of ‘Settle Girls’ High School And Technical School’ by County Councillor Talbot on 16 September 1913 (2). This was the obviously-old building within the Settle College complex (Fig. 1). This, however, was not the original Girls’ School. The postcard (Fig. 2) confirms my suspicion that Undercliffe was the original school building, founded in 1907 and transferred across the Ribble in 1913.

The other document was a printed, generic list of regulations for the school’s governors (3). Given the date of 1909, it is not known if this applied to the existing school or to the then-proposed new school. Fifteen governors were to be appointed: six by Settle Rural District Council, three by Settle Parish Council, two by Giggleswick Parish Council, three by the West Riding County Council and one each by Langcliffe Parish Council and Leeds University. Tellingly, the hand-written entry for Settle Parish Council added in parentheses ‘1 a woman’. With our twentieth-century mores this is shocking for the governance of a girl’s school; a century ago it was clearly considered normal. That it was both a High and a Technical School, on the other hand, displays a more acceptable attitude.

References

1. Johnson, D.S. 2020. Settle. A Historic Market Town. Settle: North Craven Heritage Trust.
2. NYCRO. S/LAC 6/2/1, Settle Girls’High School And Technical School. Formal Opening, 16th September 1913.
3. NYCRO. PR/BNL 10/3/1, Regulations for the Administration of... Settle Girls (sic) High School, 1909.